Maggie Laubser (1886-1973) – Table Mountain (1924), oil on canvas: Laubser's approach to landscape revealed her belief in the spiritual unity of all created things. Her rural childhood and her experience of the seasons and cycles of farm life permeate much of her art. Following her exposure to modern painting during her studies in Germany, she returned to South Africa in 1924 painting in a style where bold forms and colours were used towards emotional and expressive ends.
Walter Battiss (1906-1982) – Fishermen Drawing Nets (1955), oil on canvas: He believed passionately that the genesis of a truly South African art should be based upon the traditional art forms of the San people. This animated painting uses human figures derived from San sources, combined here with elements taken from the traditions of modernist Western painting; the use of bright arbitrary colours, and the overlapping of rhythmical, flattened forms to create a sense of shallow space.
Erik Laubscher (born 1927) – Boland Winter (1957), oil on board: The variety of simple abstract forms underlying the structures of the South African landscape has been a life-long concern of Laubscher. In Boland Winter, the drama of light and shadow, as well as colour and form are orchestrated to convey a sense of the cold season of the inland regions of the Western Cape.
John Kramer (born 1946) – Kontantwinkel, Riebeeck-Wes (1976), acrylic on board: Typical vernacular structures in the small towns and open spaces of South Africa are John Kramer's main preoccupation in his work. He seeks to render the peculiarities of each of his chosen motifs, avoiding at all times any representation of the human figure. The silence and stasis of his paintings imbue them with a nostalgic sense of a vanishing rural past.
Gladys Mgudlandlu (1925-1979) – Houses in the Hills, 1971 gouache on paper: Gladys Mgudlandlu was named, prohetically, Nomfanekiso, or "picture". Although many of her paintings were of childhood memories of rural life and depictions of traditional Xhosa stories, she also, commented incisively on bleak township life as in House in the Hills.
Trevor Makhoba (1956-2003) – Azibuye Emasisweni, 1991 oil on paper: In Azibuye Emasisweni Trevor has imbued a rural scene with symbolic references to the transitional political situation in South Africa at the time.
Lallitha Jawahirilal (born 1955) – Oh South Africa, you've turned my world completely upside down, 1996 oil on canvas: Lallitha has developed a unique painting style in which she draws on the exquisite colours, patterns and textures of her Indian heritage while remaining sensitive to the suffering and deprivation around her.
Lucky Sibiya (born 1942) – Untitled, Undated (c 1970s), Oil pastel, beads, thread and acrylic on canvas on board: This work demonstrates a unique and innovative approach to the use of beads. In his use of bright colours, beading techniques and simplified forms Sibiya demonstrates a sophisticated understanding and interpretation of African culture and Modernist influences.
Usha Seejarim (born 1974) – Sequence City, 2004, silk, griplocks, thread: On a delicate blue sari Usha has constructed the skyline of Johannesburg out of the small plastic clips used to seal bags of bread. These banal objects refer to the humblest of food and the daily rituals developed around eating. They also attest to a deep respect for the environment through the recycling of materials. The sari, reminiscent of those worn by her mother, draws both on her Indian heritage and on her identity as a married woman.
Sophie Maziza (born 1948) – Untitled, 1994, acrylic on board: Sophie's painting depicts a house in the graphic style and bold colours characteristic of contemporary Ndebele house painting. It represents the homestead, a symbol of stability in a changing world and the locus of family interaction and relations with the world of the ancestors.
