ink on paper

Signature details: printed with the artist's name, title, medium and dimensions on Gallery MOMO labels on the reverse
Exhibited: Durban Art Gallery, Durban, 'Dumile Feni: A Retrospective Exhibition', 15 February to 26 March 2006.
South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 'Dumile Feni Retrospective', 13 August to 4 November 2005.
Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, 'Dumile Feni Retrospective', 17 May to 17 June 2005.
Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, 'Dumile Feni Retrospective', 31 January to to 10 April 2005.

Literature: Dube, P. M. (2006). 'Dumile Feni Retrospective'. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery and Wits University Press, illustrated on p.206.

(1)

75 x 56 cm; framed size: 91 x 72 x 3 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

Gallery MOMO, Cape Town.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Born in Worcester, Zwelidumile Geelboi Mgxaji Mslaba “Dumile” Feni would take his first steps, and make his first marks, in South Africa. Those around him would notice his artistic brilliance from a young age, and he would further develop his art practice in the country, working with revered artists such as Ephraim Ngatane, Cecil Skotnes and Bill Ainslie. The artist would be forced into exile by the Apartheid government and would live and make art in London from 1968. In 1979 he became the artists in residence at the Institute of African Humanities, University of California, Los Angeles until 1980, after which he started teaching at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, completing a graduate degree in film and television programming and settling in Manhattan, New York.

Feni would come to know and love Nina Bergman during his time in the United States of America. Bergman was a curator based in the United States, and the Nina series is a form of dedication from Feni to her where the artist would depict them in various states of togetherness. Feni drew on his memories and observations of their intimate and influential relationship for this series, and in Nina Series #1 there is a light-hearted, erotic nature to this moment in their interrelated lives. It is a window into his memories, and simultaneously his erotic works are an “intellectual accomplishment… [they] display joy, pleasure and excitement, as well as peace, gentleness, a sharing of spirits, feelings and moods, and the simultaneous giving and receiving of pleasure” [1]. Bergan would be by Feni’s side at his passing, when he collapsed inside Tower Records at 66^th Street in New York in 1991, she would reflect upon that day to say that Feni is “Lost in the City. Forever in my heart and Soul.” [2]

Carina Jansen

^{[1] Dube, P. M. (2006). Dumile Feni Retrospective. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery and Wits University Press, p.200.}

^{[2] ibid}

COLLECTOR'S NOTES

• Dumile Feni features in Foreigners Everywhere, the main exhibition at this year’s 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia.
• Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Gallery MOMO and signed by Monna Mokoena.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Johannesburg Art Gallery; De Beers Centenary Art Gallery, Alice; University of Fort Hare, Alice; Durban Art Gallery and the Ann Bryant Art Gallery, East London.