Senegal and Paris by Gerard Sekoto (1913-1993) 29” x 34”

SN1060. Oil on canvas board, signed and dated by Gerard Sekoto.  1973.  Sekoto is considered to be one of the greatest African painters of  20th century.  
Artist Biography
The tradition of black artists in South Africa has, until recently, been neglected. However, in the last ten years a new art history has developed from a growing awareness of the omissions of the past. At the forefront of this reassessment is the work of Gerard Sekoto.
Born on 9 December 1913 at Botshabelo, a German Lutheran Mission Station in the then Easten Transvaal, (now Bophuthatswane).
When Sekoto was five years old, his father was posted by the Lutheran Church to their mission school on the farm Wonderhoek, also in the Middelburg District. Here Sekoto spent his most formative years. He nurtured the memories of his rural childhood for the rest of his life, and in many of his letters he dwells at great length on the experiences of his youth and early family life. The love and security he was shown as a child were a source of solace and strength during the difficult years of his exile.
Sekoto started drawing early but did not have access to colour pencils until he was a teenager. The introduction to colour revolutionized his work. Periods of residence in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, District Six, Cape Town, and Eastwood, Pretoria produced vibrant and powerful pieces evoking both the colourful cultural activity and the tensions of the townships. The paintings from this time are historical records of a now extinct way of life. All three areas were bulldozed in the fifties and sixties. In 1947 Sekoto made the momentous decision to leave the country of birth and travel to Paris - like many voluntary and involuntary exiles, he was never to return to South Africa. France brought new inspiration and Sekoto re-worked many subjects and explored different themes, al characterized by a deep sense of humanity.
Towards the end of his life, Sekoto's art increasingly gained recognition mainly through the pioneering work of Barbara Lindop. Her research brought to life many paintings thought to have been lost, and, through her correspondence with Sekoto, she was able to confirm details of his life before his death in 1993. In this book, Lindop introduces the extraordinary life story of Gerard Sekoto accompanied by full colour plates of his most powerful, stirring works of art.
Artist CV
Artist Photo
1913: Born 9 December at Lutheran Mission School at Botshabelo near Middelburg, Transvaal.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2013: Gerard Sekoto: Song for Sekoto, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg
1999: Drawings by Gerard Sekoto from the Sowetan Collection - Solo exhibition, Standard Bank Gallery (January)
1989:
Retrospective Exhibition, Johannesburg Art Gallery
Gertrude Posel Exhibition, Johannesburg
Rheinhold Cassirer Gallery, Cassirer Fine Art Gallery, Johannesburg (February)
Paris and South African Artists 1850 – 1965, South African National Gallery, Cape Town
1988:
Cassirer Fine Art Gallery, Johannesburg
South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Johannesburg Art Gallery
1987: Johannesburg Art Gallery
1986:
Young South African Artists, Academy Gallery, Paris
Participated in "Voices in Exile" a touring Exhibition of South African Artists in exile: Washington DC, USA
1984: South African National Gallery
1980:
Maison de I' Afrique, Paris
Johannesburg Art Gallery
Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg
1978: Galerie Art Premier, Paris
1975: Atlantic Gallery, Burg Street, Cape Town
1973:
Gallerie du Marais, Bourges, Paris (exhibition with Wilson Tiberio)
Pretoria Art Museum
1970:
Galleri BB, Denmark
Gallery Randers, Stockholm
1969: Christiane Colin Galerie, Île de Saint Louis, Paris
1968:
South African Association of Arts, Pretoria (opened by J le Grand, Delegue Generale de l’Alliance Francaise)
Senegalese Embassy, Paris
Galerie Marthe Nochy, Paris
1967: Théâtre Daniel Sorano, Dakar, Senegal (exhibition with Wilson Tiberio)
1966:
First International Festival of Negro Arts in Senegal
Republic Festival Exhibition, Pretoria
Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
1965: Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
1964:
Exhibition of African paintings at Nemours, France.
Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
1963:
Durban Art Gallery
Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
1962: Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
1961:
Galleria Santo Stefano, Venice
Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
1960:
Salon d'Automne, Paris
Lawrence Adler Gallery, Johannesburg
1958 - 1959: Lawrence Adler Gallery, Johannesburg
1956: Galerie Art Premier, Paris
1955
Petit Palais, Paris
Lawrence Adler Gallery, Johannesburg
Seventh Arts Festival, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Galerie Reflets de Paris, Vichy
1954: lD Bookseller's Gallery, Church Square, Cape Town
1953:
Galerie Saint Placide, Paris
Bulawayo, Rhodesia
1952:
Galerie Heyrene with Michel-Marie Puolin and Phillipe Marie Picard
One-man exhibition at the Galerie Saint Placide
Van Riebeeck Exhibition, Cape Town
1951: Exhibited in Stockholm, Sweden at Galerie Rålambshof with five other artists.
1950: One-man exhibition at the Vincent Gallery (Christies Gallery), Pretoria
1949: One-man exhibition at Galerie Else-Clausen, Paris
1948 – 1950:
Participated in the South African Touring Exhibition that opened at the Tate Gallery, London. (travelled from London to Belgium, France, Canada, USA, Netherlands – 1948/50)
United States of America, South African National Gallery, Paris
1948:
One-man exhibition of 25 paintings at the French Colonial House, opened by W.C. Parminter, Minister of the South African Legation in Paris. Two paintings sold.
Gainsborough Gallery, Johannesburg Exhibited: Overseas Exhibition of South African Art travels to the Musée Galerie in Paris
1947:
One-man Exhibition at Vincent Gallery (The Christies Gallery), Pretoria
One-man Exhibition at the Gainsborough Gallery, Johannesburg
1946: Gainsborough Gallery, Johannesburg
1945: Joint exhibition with the sculptor, Louis Maurice at the Jerome Gallery, Cape Town
1944:
New Group Exhibition at the Argus Gallery, Cape Town
Gainsborough Gallery, Johannesburg
1943:
Fifth Anniversary Exhibition of the New Group at the Gainsborough Gallery, Johannesburg
Salisbury
1942: South African Academy of Art, Duncan Hall, Johannesburg
1941: South African Academy of Art, Selborne Hall, Johannesburg
1940:
South African Academy of Art, Selborne Hall, Johannesburg
Gainsborough Gallery, Johannesburg
1939:
20th Exhibition of the South African Art Academy (two works), Selborne Hall, Johannesburg
Gainsborough Gallery, Johannesburg - along with some of Brother Roger’s students. Various works sold.
AWARDS & ACHIEVEMENTS
1928: Won first prize for designing a badge for the school blazer - rewarded with a bible and five shillings.
1937: Won second prize in the 'May Esther Bedford Art Competition', organized by Fort Hare University College. First prize went to George Pemba.
1948: Sekoto’s painting used on poster for the Exhibition of South African Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture held at the Tate Gallery, London, UK etc.
1959: Sekoto’s poster chosen for the Second Congress of Negro Writers and Artists in Rome
1964: Awarded a prize at the Exhibition of African Art, Nemours, France
1968: Awarded XIXe Grand Prix International de Peinture de Deauville
1989: Honorary Doctorate awarded by the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
1989: Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres
2003: Awarded the Order of the Ikhamanga (A South African Honour usually awarded by the President of South Africa for achievements in arts, culture, literature, music, journalism, and sports)
BOOKS PUBLISHED ON SEKOTO
Barbara Lindop, Gerard Sekoto, Randburg: Dictum Publishing, 1988
Barbara Lindop, Sekoto : The Art of Gerard Sekoto, Pavilion, London, 1995, ISBN 978-1-85793-461-8
N. Chabani Manganyi, A Black Man Called Sekoto, Witwatersrand University Press, January 1996, ISBN 978-1-86814-291-0
Spiro, Lesley, Gerard Sekoto: Unsev