Political theorist Lwazi Lushaba calls for new ways of understanding artist Blessing Ngobeni’s multi-layered art practice

The political scientist and academic said this at the opening of Ngobeni’s exhibition at the Standard Bank Gallery on Thursday, August 3, 2023.

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
Blessing Ngobeni’s multi-layered art practice and art works often pose a challenge to their understanding within the framework of Western normative art criticism, and therefore for African art to get a fair chance of how it is looked at and critiqued, there is a need to develop a new theoretical frame work specifically for such art and art practices.

These are the views of respected political scientist and theorist Lwazi Lushaba Lushaba who is an academic and holds a doctorate in Political Science from the University of the Witwatersrand and who opened Ngobeni’s exhibition solo exhibition Ntsumi Ya Vutomi, at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg CBD on Thursday, 3 August 2023.

His views on the role of art and artist in society, as well as his misgivings about how art produced by artists such as Ngobeni, often steeped in both the metaphysical, spiritual world and in the modern politics is critiqued and presented to the public, elicited both endorsement and misgivings from the packed space. His talk was heavy in theory to the extent that it could be mistaken for a philosophy class at university.

But Lushaba was not deterred as he continued to speak strongly about the need for academics to develop a new language, a new vocabulary suitable for critiquing nuanced, layered and sophisticated artistic output by especially African artists working within the African tradition of cultural production. This is because African artists in the main work in the tradition of combing the metaphysical and modernity in their art practice, and therefore critiquing such works within the Western tradition of art criticism with its Western developed ways of critiquing art does not work when it comes to African artistic output, Lushaba reasoned.

“Ngobeni’s art works are multi-layered and are embedded with a multiplicity of meanings – combining both the metaphysical and the modern politics without any contradictionand with no regards to time. This has resulted in critics coming from the Western tradition of normative protocols of art criticism to describe such works as disruptive. I would like to propose that there is a need for a new theory that will problematize the Western normative tradition of art criticism that is often applied when it comes to multi-layered works by African artists, such as that produced by Ngobeni,”Lushaba proposed.
His talk was well appreciated by the crowd that is often used to art openings whose speakers keep it light and do not delve into the depth of art criticism such as that demonstrated by Lushaba.
Not everyone was happy though, as some felt like they were taken back to a philosophy class at university instead of an opening of an exhibition.

“I just feel that such kind of speech is not suitable for this occasion. It belongs to a written page,” one well known Joburg based curator told CITYLIFE/ARTS. We will keep her name anonymous as I did not ask whether she would want to be quoted on the record about this comment.

But generally, Lushaba’s reflections on Ngobeni’s work as well as his call for a new vocabulary to give light to complex art works produced by artists who embed both the metaphysical and modern Western art traditions in creating art, was well received, even celebrated in the room as an intellectual disruption to the norm of exhibition openings with keynote speakers keeping it light.

The art works on display are quite poignant in reflecting Ngobeni’s growth as an artist as one can be able to see hints of his growth from the very beginning of his career to where he is at by noticing the confidence that is traceable in the art works –from a hesitant hand at the beginning to a much firmer and confident brush stroke as he developed in his art practice to be where he is at. Ngobeni has eventually found his visual voice, as his signature works can be identified even from a distance by even a casual art follower.

Ngobeni’s works and art practice are a comical but serious commentary on society and the greed that has crept into a daily consumer culture –the love of expensive designer clothes and expensive cars. But he does it in such a way that looking at his paintings, it is simply too easy to conclude that he in fact endorses this culture. In fact the opposite is true. It is just that he critiques it in a subtle way, a comical way. He is like a comedian who directs punch lines to you and yet you laugh.

Except that Ngobeni is still young in his art practice, but this exhibition gives one a feeling of being a retrospective exhibition. This is because there is so much influence of his early practice in these works that are clearly works he created in his later years. In these works, you can therefore see a much younger Ngobeni trying to find his visual voice to a mature artists now comfortable and settled on a particular style. In all reality though, Ngobeni can no longer be regarded as an emerging artist, a term that in the South African contest is applied to artists yet to find their visual voice and vocabulary.

Ngobeni has achieved both or at the very least he is at the intersection of emerging and established artist if you like. His articulation of his subject matter is consistent and his increasing number of collectors have recognised this and his works now appear regularly at the secondary market one way of judging how an artist has reached the threshold of established artist.

The exhibition followed his being honoured with the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art in 2019, after which he had an online exhibition during the National Arts Festival in 2020 due to the fact that holding a physical exhibition was rendered impossible by the then raging Covid-19 pandemic. The disease precipitated a lock down and social distancing.

Now that we have put the issue of Covid-19 behind us, Standard Bank Gallery has made a good decision to follow that up by mounting a physical exhibition open to the public. Going by the big crowd that came on Thursday, it is clear that this decision is the right one.

The exhibition is co-curated by Nkuli Nhleko from Everard Read Gallery that represents the artist and academic Professor Thembinkosi Goniwe of Rhodes University. The exhibition comprises of both sculptural works and paintings. It is an exhibition that is highly recommended for those who collect Ngobeni’s works as well as those who would like to know more about Ngobeni’s art practice.

.Ntsumi Ya Vutomi is currently on at the Standard Bank Gallery, Corner Frederick and, Simmonds St, Marshalltown, Johannesburg, 2001 till 16 September 2023.