Strauss & co - 15 February 2020, Cape Town

95  SAM NHLENGETHWA SOUTH AFRICAN 1955– The Beauty of an African signed, dated ‘03, and inscribed with the title on the reverse oil and collage on canvas 58,5 by 43cm R60 000 – 80 000 “As an artist (SamNhlengethwa) has held onto an Africanity that is genuinely inclusive. Whether addressing township life, the South African art canon, or the music world, he has not allowed himself to become a voyeur. Rather, by absorbing the world about him, whether immediately lived or filtered through various media, Nhlengethwa has consistently produced a record which captures the world about him in ways that are intrinsically personal. His is a world both thickly descriptive-and-flat; a world strikingly freed from the maudlin, tragic, or hopeless, as it is freed from the ideological, declamatory, or prescriptive. Nhlengethwa’s works insinuate themselves into our imaginations with a sedate and unaffected ease, the ease and wisdomwhich, in the heart of a struggle, has always held onto a positive and heart-warming realm reasonable after resistance.” 1 1. Ashraf Jamal (2017) In the World: Essays on Contemporary South African Art , Milan: Skira. Pages 239 to 240. 113