ink on paper

Artwork date: 1966
Signature details: signed and dated bottom left
Exhibited: 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.74.
Location: Cape Town

(1)

34 x 18 cm; framed size: 47.5 x 31 x 1 cm

Provenance:

The Dennis Fisher Private collection, Cape Town.

DUMILE FENI'S PASSION FOR DRAWING

Although Dumile Feni worked in different disciplines including painting and sculpture, drawing was the artistic talent he engaged in for the longest time. The artist began creating drawings from the age of 6 and it was to become a most fundamental and well-loved part of his practice.

Feni was constantly drawing throughout his formative years and it was part of his daily routine into adulthood. As a young boy, he would sketch before he did anything else in the morning be it talking or eating. This was an unusual habit that intrigued his parents who eventually made sure that he had paper and a pen before they went to bed.

Drawing the world and the people around him continued to play a pivotal yet informal role throughout Feni’s life until his early 20s when he began to see art as a career rather than a habit. In 1963 the artist suffered from Tuberculosis which saw him being admitted to the Charles Hurwitz South African National Tuberculosis Association (SANTA) Hospital in Johannesburg. During his time as a patient, Feni received art materials which he used to paint murals in the hospital with fellow artist Ephraim Ngatane. It was around this time when he met other artists such as Louis Maqhubela and Cecil Skotnes who further nurtured his artistic career and essentially motivated him to become an artist.

While he was beginning to build a thriving career in South Africa, Feni was also deeply affected by the oppressive apartheid regime in South Africa and during the 1960s his drawings began to depict the harsh realities of black South Africans. Fearing harassment from the apartheid forces, he made the difficult decision to go into exile in London.

Desmond Fisher, an entrepreneur with a great interest in South African art who was a patron of modernists such a Sydney Kumalo, Cecil Skotnes and Ezrom Legae also developed a deep respect for Feni’s work. In 1968 before Dumile Feni left South Africa, Fisher bought a small suitcase with several drawings which aided Feni when he left South Africa. Many of these drawings featured in the Dumile Feni exhibition at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Makanda 1991 co-curated by Fisher and his friend and advisor Linda Goodman of the Goodman Gallery.

Mtha Poni