FINE ART: Suzy Bell
IT was love letters that sparked his affair with art. Glorious love letters, whose envelopes were so highly beautified he could only just squeeze in the name and address of his lover. Some of these original envelopes – from bygone days when stamps cost two cents each – are on show now in Tito Zungu’s retrospective exhibition on at the Durban Art Gallery (DAG). Jill Addleson, curator of collections at DAG said: “It is Zungu’s artistic sensibility that has transformed the humdrum envelope into an exquisite work of art.”
Zungu sold his first envelope to a collector from London in 1960. He has a passion for fine detail, from delicate flowers to aeroplanes, ships and even some striking buildings. He says the high-rise buildings come from pictures taken in his mind when he visits Durban. And the ships? He’s seen them out at sea.
But it’s only at home in his Zulu beehive hut in the Mapumulo district of KwaZulu- Natal that he produces beautiful art. He hopes to build a double-storey studio on the farm, just like the ones in his drawings. Zungu’s days are spent running the farm, so he has yet to indulge in a daily routine of simply creating art. But he’s quite content with this slow rhythm as it’s obvious he prefers to takes three months to complete one artwork, because, as he explains: “I don’t really find the time to draw. Maybe a little in the early morning or over the weekend.”
In the 1970s and 1980s Zungu spent nearly 14 years as a chef, feeding more than a 100 nuns at Walsingham girls’ hostel in Durban. That was where he learnt to read and write. He jokes that then he was more famous for his tasty macaroni and cheese than for his art. But that has changed, with encouragement from master sculptor Andries Botha and artist Jo Thorpe.
So although Zungu chooses to plough all day, the next seven highly decorative artworks he produces have already been sold, thanks to his natural talent and his guide and mentor Thorpe, to whom this exhibition is dedicated. There are galleries in London that have back-orders for his work, and they’re very interested in exhibiting Zungu’s pieces.
It has taken two years to collect 10 drawings for this current exhibition, because for Zungu art seems to be a meditative process. He certainly doesn’t want to rush or aim for crass mass production. “I’m happy 1 000, 1 000 over,” he says. “My art has changed my life, because art has been my education. It’s very special to me. Before I draw I switch off the radio and I close my eyes, so I’m not disturbed. I put my hands together and I pray. I pray for vision and the power to create new designs. I then wait for about one hour, until I’m very quiet inside, then I know I’m ready to draw.”
For his earlier decorated envelopes and drawings Zungu used non-archival papers and unstable media like ballpoint pen and felt pen. It was Botha who suggested Zungu use only the finest quality papers, pens and inks for his drawings.
The magical realism and contained quality of his work reflects Zungu’s character. A dignified man who laughs a lot, he takes immense pride in his work and is sensitive to the spiritual nature of his mission. Colin Richards, of the department of fine arts at Wits, says: “His work lies somewhere between an open communication and a gift; an offering and a form of communion.”
A retrospective exhibition of Tito Zungu’s work is on show at the Durban Art Gallery until March 23