Durban — Reclusive artist Nukain Mabuza serves as the inspiration for the latest exhibition by Lamontville artist Thami Jali.
Jali says he delved into surrealism for his new body of work, titled Mphendla Ndlela, which opened at the KZNSA Art Gallery. He said Mabuza and jazz inspired him as he prepared for the show; one of the paintings is titled Rhapsody for Nukain and others, Jazz 1 and Jazz 2.
Jali, a ceramicist, painter and printmaker first read an article about Mabuza, an outsider artist, in a farming magazine many years ago while working in the Valley of 1000 Hills.
Later, while teaching tile-making in Barberton, Mpumalanga, he had the chance to see Mabuza’s famous stone garden on a farm in the nearby area of Revolver Creek.
“People thought Nukain was mad, but he was a genius,” said Jali.
He said Mabuza was “deeply introverted” and was called a “witch” because he “was a guy who dared to be different”. Like many other artists Jali was inspired by Mabuza’s work. Playwright Athol Fugard wrote a play about his life called The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek which was performed in South Africa and New York.
Jali said Mabuza worked on Esperado, a sugar cane farm where he had a special relationship with the Spanish owner, Guido Fortunato, cementing the widely-held beliefs that he used witchcraft because relationships across the colour line were unheard of during the apartheid era.
He said Mabuza was believed to be of Mozambican descent and because he knew Portuguese it probably made communication with the Spanish-speaking Fortunato easier.
“Nukain asked Guido for a piece of land that he would be able to use, non-arable land, and Guido gave it to him.”
Jali said that was another reason for other labourers to be suspicious. Mabuza then turned his house and all the boulders on a nearby koppie into a work of art, creating a magical stone garden during the 1960s and 1970s.
“People in South Africa don’t know him that well but River Creek is close to the Kruger National Park and a lot of foreigners took pictures of Nukain and his art,” said Jali.
He said because Mabuza spent all his money on paint, a local admirer of his work, Rene Lion-Cachet, asked Plascon to donate “reject paint” to him. While he could have charged those who wanted to view his work and take photographs, Mabuza did not. Jali added that Mabuza faced constant harassment and abuse by one particular person who also defaced his art, so he left the area for several months.
Fortunato went looking for Mabuza and found him working on another farm and took him back home.
Mabuza eventually committed suicide in the 1980s by hanging himself outside the house of the man who continuously threatened him.
Jali learnt a lot about the history of Mabuza through artist and photographer John (JFC) Clarke who wrote a book about the artist, The Painted Stone Garden of Nukain Mabuza.
Jali said while growing up he enjoyed art but had no role models and didn’t know he could pursue it professionally.
He enrolled for a law degree at university but dropped out and went on to study art at Rorke’s Drift Arts Centre for two years before going to Natal Technikon for another two years – much to the disappointment of his family.
He has used fabric and boulders for the exhibition to show the various sides of Nukain Mabuza.
The KZNSA gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday every week.
Independent on Saturday