Sam Nhlengethwa Tribute To David Koloane, 2008 Lithograph 49.5 x 69 cm
Sam Nhlengethwa has developed a signature collage and painting aesthetic over the past four decades. Nhlengethwa’s practice has largely evolved alongside the city of Johannesburg, with its heroes and villains, skylines and townships, and especially its jazz populating his interpretations of the former mining town turned black metropolis. Over the years Nhlengethwa has also assembled and paid tribute to a pantheon of his influences: artists from around the world who have inspired him.
Each artist’s oeuvre is exhibited in a suggestive milieu – an imagined space devoid of people where the work-as-tribute is the primary figurative suggestion. Nhlengethwa wants us to see these great works through his eyes. He has spoken of endeavouring to understand the “mental space” of these iconic artists through placing their works in environments composed in his distinctive style.
“In doing these tributes and in doing the interiors I am taken down memory lane to a time when I was a set designer in broadcasting,” Nhlengethwa says. “Because, there we were dealing with space – vacated space. So the tributes are just like that empty space, but they get some sense of vibrancy with the hanging paintings of these specific individuals.”
