A painting depicting Nelson Mandela as a corpse undergoing dissection has provoked disgust and been compared to witchcraft by the African National Congress.
The artwork is a parody of Rembrandt’s 17th-century masterpiece The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp. It shows Mandela lying in a loincloth while Nkosi Johnson, an Aids activist who died aged 12, points to his arm stripped of flesh. The spectators include archbishop Desmond Tutu and politicians FW de Klerk, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.
The artist, Yiull Damaso, argues South Africa must confront a subject that remains almost taboo: the future death of Mandela. Now frail and in retirement, the country’s first black president turns 92 later this month. The painting has the same name as Rembrandt’s and has been on display for two days at the Orpheo Twins store in Johannesburg’s Hyde Park shopping centre. Its reproduction on the front page of this newspaper’s edition on Friday provoked a furious response from the ruling party.
“The ANC is appalled and strongly condemns in the strongest possible terms the dead Mandela painting by Yiull Damaso,” said Jackson Mthembu, a party spokesperson. “It is in bad taste, disrespectful, and it is an insult and an affront to values of our society.
“In African society it is a foreign act of ubuthakathi [bewitch] to kill a living person and this so-called work of art … is also racist. It goes further by violating Tat’ uMandela’s dignity by stripping him naked in the glare of curious onlookers, some of whom have seen their apartheid ideals die before them.”
Mthembu added that Mandela was an international icon who should be cherished and respected. “That is why we are more shocked and disgusted this so called art that depicts a dead Madiba.
“Why would anyone dream of a dead Madiba? Why would newspapers including the Mail and Guardian put to prominence this work of rubbish in their publication? Why would a respected public space and business site, Hyde Park, be a home for the creation of such insulting work to our icon, our leaders and all of us?”
But Damaso (41) from Johannesburg, is unrepentant, insisting that he is using the image to convey a political argument.
“The idea just popped up in my head,” he said. “We have Nelson Mandela, one of the great leaders of our time, and the politicians around him are trying to find out what makes him a great man. Nkosi Johnson, the only one in the painting who’s no longer alive, is trying to show them that Mandela is just a man. So they should stop searching and get on with building the country.”
Damaso — who caused controversy a decade ago by depicting Mandela with dreadlocks — said he had received a phone call from a friend of the family claiming one of Mandela’s daughters was distraught after seeing the image. But he insisted: “I knew the family would not be happy but I hope they will listen to my side of the story and my huge admiration for Nelson Mandela. I’m trying to convey a message to politicians.” Damaso, whose own grandmother died two weeks ago, added: “The death of Nelson Mandela is something we’re going to have to face, not only as a family but all of us as individuals and as a nation.”
The Nelson Mandela Foundation declined to comment.
‘Despicable’
The Congress of South African Trade Unions also expressed outrage.
“It is despicable that the artist, and the Mail & Guardian who published it, should exploit our icon’s image to produce a painting which he must have known would provoke an angry reaction and thus increase its profitability in the sale room,” said spokesperson Patrick Craven in a statement.
Cosatu called for it to be removed from public view.
The mall’s marketing manager Nicola van Kan said while they felt the painting was controversial, they supported the freedom of expression and art.
“He [Damaso] explained the piece and we were happy with that.”
M&G deputy editor Rapule Tabane said the artist was grappling with the state of the country’s current politics, and the meaning of Mandela in that context.
“You might say that it asks the question ‘what killed the special spirit that Madiba brought to our national life?’,” he wrote in an SMS to the South African Press Association.
“It should not be seen as a reflection on or anticipation of the literal death of Madiba as a person, but as a inquiry into the state of the nation and its iconography.
“That is the kind of work artists do all the time. We draw no conclusions as to whether this painting is good art or not, but we believed there was a story to report, and that to do so without reproducing the image made no sense under the circumstances.” – guardian.co.uk