Iziko Museums of South Africa has announced that a retrospective of one of South Africa’s best-known artists, Dr Esther Mahlangu, has graced the Iziko South African National Gallery with its bold, large-scale contemporary presence until August 2024.
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The exhibition entitled ‘Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting: Esther Mahlungu, A Retrospective’ and curated by Nontobeko Ntombela highlights Mahlungu’s meteoric rise and illustrious career spanning over 50 years, emphasising her global acclaim as a contemporary artist.
The monumental retrospective will open to the public on 18 February and run until 11 August before embarking on its global tour with a stop at the Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg and then moving to the United States in early 2026.
The formidable task of implementing the retrospective exhibition was handed to the Melrose Gallery, Mahlungu’s global representative, and what a stellar job they did.
Through the language of colour and form, the exhibition charts Mahlungu’s profound contributions to contemporary art for close to seven decades.
Over 100 artworks have been loaned from international collections, carefully curated alongside historic photographs and a short film.
Included in the exhibition is Mahlungu’s BMW 525i Art Car, which makes its historic return to South Africa for the first time in more than 30 years. Mahlungu became the first woman and first African to be invited to participate in the prestigious BMW Art Car Collection in 1991.
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‘This diverse collection from Mahlungu’s expansive oeuvre, which features in ‘Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting: Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective’, will offer a comprehensive yet intimate insight into her vast and vibrant career.’
‘Mahlangu’s journey is a testament to passion, innovation and resilience,’ said Curator Nontobeko Ntombela.
‘The retrospective pays homage to Esther Mahlangu’s unique approach to art, which intersects African cultures with modernity and the contemporary. The exhibition celebrates Mahlangu’s voice, agency and pioneering spirit, symbolising her self-enunciation, self-determination and creativity.’
Recounting how her artistic journey began as a young girl of just ten years old, Mhalangu often tells the story of being trained by her grandmother and mother in the early 1940s, saying, ‘I would continue to paint on the house when they left for a break.’
‘When they came back, they would say, “What have you done, child? Never do that again!” After that, I started drawing on the back of the house, and slowly my drawings got better and better until they finally asked me to come back to the front of the house. Then I knew I was good at painting.’
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Picture: The Melrose Gallery / Facebook
