/ 11 March 2011

Durban art pick: March 11 2011

A little-known South African great gets his own retrospective this weekend.

A Vigil of Departure: Louis Kehla Maqhubela — A Restrospective 1960 – 2010 is the seminal exhibition which assesses Maqhubela’s place in and contribution to South African art and seeks to rescue a great artist from obscurity. When he won the Artist of Fame and Promise Award in 1966, Maqhubela became arguably the first artist to cross the divide between black and white: through an intensely personal and highly abstracted iconography he hinted at a path to a new world through a discourse beyond the familiar. The exhibition is curated by Marilyn Martin and is accompanied by a fine catalogue featuring essays by Martin, David Kolohane and John McLean.

Durban Art Gallery. Tel: 031 311 2264/9