A Meeting of Minds - Louis Maqhubela and Douglas Portway

25 It is not easy to put into words an account of the Louis Maqhubela’s paintings. When I asked him about one of the works for the present show, he said it was to do the effects of light on many different surfaces; and light evidently matters in particular ways in all Maqhubela’s art. Picton, John. In Clare Cooper and Benjamin Rhodes (eds) Louis Maqhubela: Fifteen Years . London: Art First, 2005, p. 8 ‘Even abstract art by a black practitioner was a declaration of war against being stereotyped, bearing in mind that abstraction has, for centuries, always been Africa’s premier form of expression. Why would our ancestral form of expression suddenly be deemed ‘foreign’ to the black man of the 20th century?’ The artist, quoted in Martin, Marilyn. A Vigil of Departure – Louis Khehla Maqhubela: A Retrospective 1960–2010. Johannesburg: Standard Bank Gallery, p. 16.