giclée print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta

Artwork date: 2022
Edition: number 1 from an edition of 8

(1)

sheet size: 43 x 69 cm; framed size: 46 x 72 x 5 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Johannesburg.

Acquired directly from the artist.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Mazwe I was produced when Zanele Muholi’s was visiting Reykjavik in Iceland for an exhibition which took place at The National Museum of Iceland between October 2022 and February 2023. The exhibition was organized by the esteemed Tate Modern, London in collaboration with Bildemuseet at Umeå University and Kunstforeningen GL Strand, Copenhagen and was a major survey of more than 100 of Muholi’s works across different iconic series including Faces and Phases (2006 – ongoing), Brave Beauties (2014 – ongoing), Being (2006 – ongoing), Only Half the Picture (2002 – 2006) and, Somnyama Ngomyama (2012 – ongoing) – the series in which Mazwe I is included.

In isiZulu, Mazwe translates to ‘countries’. The title of the artwork thus alludes to an interesting reflection on travelling, as the artist has created images in the Somnyama Ngomyama (Hail The Dark Lioness) series all around the world. This series is one in which the artist, as a visual activist, uses their own body to address critical politics of race, representation, gendered identities and human rights in relation to the Black body – through photography. In these powerful, highly stylised black-and-white self-portraits, Muholi (playfully) employs the conventions of classical painting, fashion photography and the familiar tropes of ethnographic imagery to rearticulate discourses of contemporary identity politics.

Mazwe I shows the artist within a fur hood that alludes to the common hooded fur coats seen throughout Iceland, along with what appears to be a pen, gripped in Muholi’s mouth in a manner that reminds one of a cigar. What is also notable is the rare addition of glasses to the self-portrait. Although the work obscures the eyes, Muholi has masterfully played with light to allow the gaze to pierce through just enough to remind the viewer that they too, are being looked at, whilst still showcasing the characteristic high contrast that is essential to the Somnyama Ngomyama series.

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• Photographs from the Somnyama Ngonyama series are highly sought-after. The highest price achieved at auction for one of these was £35,000 in 2020 for the sale of Zodwa, Paris (2014) in London. In 2022, Aspire Art sold Thuthuka I (2022) for a record-breaking R477,960.

• Listed at no 48 on the 2023 Art Review Power 100 list of the most influential people in art, Zanele Muholi was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from The University of Liège in Belgium.

• Major solo museum exhibitions were presented in 2023 at the Kunstmuseum Luzern, SFMOMA in San Francisco; Muholi: A Visual Activist at the Museo delle Culture Photo in Milan and the MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) in Paris which was the first review exhibition of the artist’s photographs in France.

• This year, the Tate Modern will be showing a major survey of the artist’s works – based on Muholi’s 2020/21 Tate exhibition including new works produced since then.

• The Fondation Louis Vuitton exhibited From South Africa: Zanele Muholi and David Goldblatt in 2022 which showcased the two photographers’ work together. That same year, Muholi was an honouree at the International Centre for Photography’s (ICP) 11th Annual Spotlights Benefit in New York.

• The artist presented further solo exhibitions at the National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland and GL Strand, Copenhagen, Denmark as well as the acclaimed show Being Muholi: Portraits as Resistance, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, USA.

• Muholi exhibited images from the Somnyama Ngonyama series in May You Live in Interesting Times at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019.

• The artist produced Masihambisane, a project on Visual Activism for Performa 17, New York in 2017.

• In 2019, Muholi received the Best Photography Book Award from the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation for Somnyama Ngonyama: Hail, The Dark Lioness.

• Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Cincinnati Art Museum; Fondation Blachère, Apt; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Huis Marseille Museum for Photography, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Museum of Modern Art of Arnhem, Netherlands; National Gallery of Art, Ottawa; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Princeton Museum of Art; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Tate Modern, London; The Art Institute of Chicago; Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCCA), Cape Town.