Zamansele Nsele: Gladys Mgudlandlu Painted Land(e)scapes the Bent the Genre to her Will; Twentieth Annual Festival of the Arts Art History Symposium and Artist Lecture: Towards a Multiple Worldview; Remapping Paradigms of Modern and Contemporary Art
April 19, 2024
Art History Speaker:
Art History Speaker:
Zamansele Nsele, Assistant Professor in Modern & Contemporary African and African diasporic Art, University of California, Berkeley. introduced by student Lena Sakkab
“Gladys Mgudlandlu Painted Land(e)scapes that Bent the Genre to her Will”
Sponsored by the Department of Art, University Galleries, Center for Teaching and Learning, and the College of Arts and Letters. In honor of Dr. Elaine O'Brien.
Art History Speaker Zamansele Nsele was introduced by student Lena Sakkab.
Her presentation, “Gladys Mgudlandlu Painted Land(e)scapes that Bent the Genre to her Will”, talked about the artist's seemingly apolitical landscapes, the escapism found in them, and how they take on new meaning when discussed in a modernist framework. Gladys Nomfanekiso (meaning a picture of a person) Mgudlanldu believed in a preordained occupation for herself of making art because of her namesake. She held ancestral and indigenous knowledge that was passed down to her by her grandmother. This knowledge was inclusive of landscapes and art materials that would not be acknowledged in Western art styles such as specific sharpened stones, sourced natural clays, and yellow wood from a tree whose bark could also be used for crochet needles.
Nsele gave background knowledge of the political state of South Africa in the 60s. For White South Africans pre-Apartheid, Mgudlandlu's landscapes, which consisted of the African reserves, didn't mean much. Nsele talks about Mgudlandlu's success in her life, her exploration of her experiences, and her representation of Black bodies cohabitation in nature which wasn't allowed amongst White people at the time. Mgudlandlu’s African view of location was that of Animated places with intrinsic presence and not as absent space awaiting occupation and development. Location as the subject matter could take on many views, especially through the duration of time and progression of land development and "ownership". Her work received a remarkably positive reception and was commercially successful. Despite this success, both sides of the apartheid divide were critical of her work, usually regarding the lack of formal training, and the artist died penniless buried at an unmonumental, unkept gravesite.
When concluding her presentation, Nsele took two questions:
1.) How and when did you first come across Gladyss Mgudlandlu?
Nsele first heard of Glady’s work in a 2016 exhibition curated by a PhD student in Johannesburg which featured the artist. Nsele unfortunately never got to see the exhibition, but in 2021 NYMoMA commissioned Nsele to write about the artist which gave her the opportunity to research her work. Mgudlandlu is not in the teaching curriculum in South Africa that Nsele knows of, in doing research she found criticism of the artist's artwork and found it generative to see how she navigated the circumstances. Nsele then noted that audiences are never quite able to read landscapes in the political climate of the time. “Gladys only paints at night...” she worked during the day and didn't have time, due to the sociopolitical order of Apartheid Africa of the time. Nsele encouraged the audience to think of Mgudlandlu-- and other artists'-- work in relation to political readings. Lastly, Nsele noted that Mgudlandlu is mentioned in Elaine O’Brien's book, Modern Art in Africa, Asia and Latin America: An Introduction to Global Modernisms.
2.) For those using the self-taught artist label in regard to Mgudlandlu, would you suggest avoiding using that term?
"I would say that artists such as Gladys are not self-taught. It's passed down, just not institutionalized, or its knowledge that has been erased." Despite the artistic practice being practical knowledge, like material usage, there is ancestral knowledge as well. "Ancestors seems like a distant term, but they are closer than that. Colonialism makes these terms tenuous and fragile with these terminology and migrant systems." Creating objects that sometimes show up in art museums and gallery spaces is not new and not self-taught. 'Kinship over chronology': They are two oppositional things, kinship creates connection through parts of oneself and is not separated by time (which is connected to concepts discussed in Skerritt’s talk as well).
It was a pleasure to hear Nsele's talk and her observations of Gladyss Mgudlandu's life and artistic career.
“Gladys Mgudlandlu Painted Land(e)scapes that Bent the Genre to her Will”
Sponsored by the Department of Art, University Galleries, Center for Teaching and Learning, and the College of Arts and Letters. In honor of Dr. Elaine O'Brien.
Her presentation, “Gladys Mgudlandlu Painted Land(e)scapes that Bent the Genre to her Will”, talked about the artist's seemingly apolitical landscapes, the escapism found in them, and how they take on new meaning when discussed in a modernist framework. Gladys Nomfanekiso (meaning a picture of a person) Mgudlanldu believed in a preordained occupation for herself of making art because of her namesake. She held ancestral and indigenous knowledge that was passed down to her by her grandmother. This knowledge was inclusive of landscapes and art materials that would not be acknowledged in Western art styles such as specific sharpened stones, sourced natural clays, and yellow wood from a tree whose bark could also be used for crochet needles.
Nsele gave background knowledge of the political state of South Africa in the 60s. For White South Africans pre-Apartheid, Mgudlandlu's landscapes, which consisted of the African reserves, didn't mean much. Nsele talks about Mgudlandlu's success in her life, her exploration of her experiences, and her representation of Black bodies cohabitation in nature which wasn't allowed amongst White people at the time. Mgudlandlu’s African view of location was that of Animated places with intrinsic presence and not as absent space awaiting occupation and development. Location as the subject matter could take on many views, especially through the duration of time and progression of land development and "ownership". Her work received a remarkably positive reception and was commercially successful. Despite this success, both sides of the apartheid divide were critical of her work, usually regarding the lack of formal training, and the artist died penniless buried at an unmonumental, unkept gravesite.
When concluding her presentation, Nsele took two questions:
1.) How and when did you first come across Gladyss Mgudlandlu?
Nsele first heard of Glady’s work in a 2016 exhibition curated by a PhD student in Johannesburg which featured the artist. Nsele unfortunately never got to see the exhibition, but in 2021 NYMoMA commissioned Nsele to write about the artist which gave her the opportunity to research her work. Mgudlandlu is not in the teaching curriculum in South Africa that Nsele knows of, in doing research she found criticism of the artist's artwork and found it generative to see how she navigated the circumstances. Nsele then noted that audiences are never quite able to read landscapes in the political climate of the time. “Gladys only paints at night...” she worked during the day and didn't have time, due to the sociopolitical order of Apartheid Africa of the time. Nsele encouraged the audience to think of Mgudlandlu-- and other artists'-- work in relation to political readings. Lastly, Nsele noted that Mgudlandlu is mentioned in Elaine O’Brien's book, Modern Art in Africa, Asia and Latin America: An Introduction to Global Modernisms.
2.) For those using the self-taught artist label in regard to Mgudlandlu, would you suggest avoiding using that term?
"I would say that artists such as Gladys are not self-taught. It's passed down, just not institutionalized, or its knowledge that has been erased." Despite the artistic practice being practical knowledge, like material usage, there is ancestral knowledge as well. "Ancestors seems like a distant term, but they are closer than that. Colonialism makes these terms tenuous and fragile with these terminology and migrant systems." Creating objects that sometimes show up in art museums and gallery spaces is not new and not self-taught. 'Kinship over chronology': They are two oppositional things, kinship creates connection through parts of oneself and is not separated by time (which is connected to concepts discussed in Skerritt’s talk as well).
It was a pleasure to hear Nsele's talk and her observations of Gladyss Mgudlandu's life and artistic career.
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