The late, great Cape-based artist Peter Clarke prophetically said: “Esther Mahlangu’s colourful exploration and defining of space and spaces has taken her name a great distance.” He was right about that.
The year 2024 has undoubtedly been a milestone for the 89-year-old artist. Mahlangu’s comprehensive retrospective, Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting, debuted in Cape Town at IZIKO in the Company Gardens and travelled to Joburg, where it recently opened at Wits Art Museum in Braam. In October, London’s prestigious Serpentine Galleries unveiled the artist’s first public mural in the United Kingdom, a large scale 9m x 5m mural titled ‘Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’ which translates to ‘I am because you are’. Painted over 16 wooden panels in her unique bird’s feather brush style ‘I am because you are’ made a splash at this year’s Frieze Art Fair.
Whether on art collectors’ walls in Ibiza or locally at Nirox Sculpture Park, Mahlangu’s neo-pop abstractions engage and delight. Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting showcases Mahlangu’s signature bold, graphic abstractions allowing visitors from Tshwane, Mpumalanga, and surrounding areas the opportunity to engage with Mahlangu’s art via a world-class museum experience.
Head of Department and Postgraduate Coordinator, Curatorial, Public and Visual Cultures at Wits School of Arts Nontobeko Ntombela Akoi-Jackson is the exhibition’s curator and elaborates:
YLA: Tell us about the artist’s range of mediums
Nontobeko: With so many art commissions of mixed-media works spanning over five generations. It’s hard to tell. Recently, I met a collector who has an electric guitar painted by the artists. They are all important.
YLA: Would you agree that Mahlangu ‘pioneered the artistic transference of Ndebele designs onto canvas?
Nontobeko: Depends on what we mean by canvas. Painting on cloth and cardboard, besides the wall, was already happening in Botshabelo before canvas in the formal sense was introduced to Esther.
YLA: The 1990s were formative for the artist. Tell us why.
Nontobeko: Between 1980 and 1991 she worked at Botshabelo Cultural Village. In 1990 Mahlangu painted a caravan for Les Arts au Solei: La Caravane des Caravanes. Around 30 caravans were transformed into works of art by renowned artists as part of a French Ministry of Culture initiative. Mahlangu’s caravan was painted in Bordeaux, France and travelled across the southern coast of France, along the route La Teste de Buch, during the summer of 1990.
‘This is one of the few works, if not the only, she co-signs with her late son Elias. The sentimentality of it as a reminder of their long history of working together and loss – makes it profoundly important’.
Choosing traditional and non-traditional mediums the artist manages to be both an iconoclast and a traditionalist. She is an artist who adapted her art to meet new market trends and audiences. Along the main road into Mabhoko, in Mpumalanga’s KwaMahlangu district and now on display at WAM, a brightly painted billboard that captivated global attention declares: “Esther is here (also translated into French). The 1st woman who visited overseas,” with the bold, capitalised inscription, “ART WOMAN”.
Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting: Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective is on view at Wits Art Museum until 17 April 2025. The exhibition features works on loan from regional and international collections and is generously supported by the BMW Group, Wits Art Museum, and the National Arts Council. The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm, with free admission.
