Dumile Feni-Mhlaba, (Zwelidumile Mxgazi) (South African, 1942-1991)

Hector Pieterson

Hector Pieterson
signed and dated 'Dumile 8719 (1987)' (lower right)
pen, ink and wash
226 x 127.4cm (89 x 50 3/16in).

Provenance
Dr Cyril Khanyile of New York City;
A private collection.

Dumile arrived in New York in the early 1980s and in 1983 submitted twenty sculptures and drawings to an exhibition for the International Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa. He explained that the intention of exhibiting was:

"To keep the conscience of the world alive to the issues at stake. It is dedicated to the achievement of free democratic, non racial societies throughout Southern Africa".

In 1987 Dumile executed a triptych of major drawings for the American Committee on Africa's Unlock Apartheid's Jails campaign and in 1988 he held a show entitled Statements at La Galleria in New York.

The killing of Hector Pieterson by the South African police on 16th June 1976 was recorded by the photographer Sam Nzima. This iconic image was published around the world and brought the struggle against apartheid in South Africa to international attention. It is further discussed in the footnote to lot 8 in this sale.

The subject of Hector Pieterson's death was in the foremost of the artist's mind at this time. In 1988 he produced the drawing 'South Africa If You Could Talk' and in that work lists Hector Pieterson as one of the martyrs to apartheid.

Dr Khanyile was a South African doctor living in Manhattan who housed the artist between 1985 and 1987 in his apartment at 1274 Fifth Avenue whilst he struggled to find permanent abode. Dumile then moved to stay with the jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela.