The Drama of Color: Zweletha Mthetwa Portraits

Godby, Michael

doi:10.1215/10757163-10-1-46

Cited by 19 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In a 1999 issue of this journal, Michael Godby described Mthethwa's sensitive, near-medicinal use of color and the collective process involved in creating a circa 1996 series of shantytown interiors: "By photographing each individual or family group within their own spaces, his aim is to allow his subjects to project a sense of dignity." 9 Godby's descriptions of Mthethwa's photographs and methods are as valid for this incarnation of New Works as they were in 1999, speaking both to the intense cohesiveness of Mthethwa's body of work and to its position on the border between harmony and monotony. In the more than ten years between Godby's article and 2013's New Works at the Shainman Gallery, the uniform elements of Mthethwa's works remain brilliant colors, intense patterns, the intimate artist-subject relationship, single or doubled portraits, and still lifes.…”

mentioning

confidence: 95%

Zwelethu Mthethwa: New Works

Windmuller-Luna

2013

Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Now approaching his second decade of fine arts practice, Zwelethu Mthethwa continues to use color photography and artist-subject collaborations to restore the dignity of his sitters. New Works at the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City, consisting of seventeen digital C-prints from The End of an Era (2010), The Brave Ones (2010), and Hope Chest (2012), represents the work of an artist whose images have become iconic in both postapartheid South Africa and the international art world. The End of an Era’s still lifes attest to the grooming habits, romances, and interests of Zimbabwean and Mozambican migrants who trek between hostels seeking better-paying jobs in South Africa. Hope Chest continues the concept of an absent presence by capturing the relationships women form with the chests and goods given to them as brides. In The Brave Ones Mthethwa uses his signature portraiture to consider the Iscotch, youthful followers of the Shembe religion identifiable by their mix of European and Zulu sartorial traditions.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 95%