A Meeting of Minds - Louis Maqhubela and Douglas Portway

4 The beginnings and early unfolding of the lives of Douglas Portway (1922–1993) and Louis Maqhubela (b. 1939) could not have been more different, but in art and in a search for meaning they came together in extraordinary ways. Born in Johannesburg, Portway studied art at the Witwatersrand Technical College and taught painting at the University of the Witwatersrand, holding his first solo show in 1945. Maqhubela was born in Durban. His parents moved to Johannesburg in 1949 while he and his sisters were sent to live with their aunt in Matatiele, Eastern Cape, until they joined their parents three years later. Maqhubela was a member of Durant Sihlali’s weekend artists group (1955–1957) and studied under the direction of Cecil Skotnes and Sydney Kumalo at the Polly Street Art Centre in Johannesburg (1957–1959) while still at school in Soweto. Maqhubela started work as a commercial artist but from 1960 he was commissioned to create paintings and mosaics in hospitals, schools, halls and bar lounges in and around Soweto. Skotnes facilitated a commission to create four large-scale oil paintings for public buildings; the only extant one being Township Scene (1961). It demonstrates a vitality, rigorous draughtsmanship and the use of strong non- descriptive colour and expressionistic paint application that distinguishes it from the more stereotyped impressions of township life popular at the time. Both artists had success early in their careers. In 1952 Portway was awarded a travel grant to represent South Africa in the United States on the International Arts Programme sponsored by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. Inspired by his direct experience of the international art world, he founded the Contemporary Art Society on his return and embarked on a journey of experimentation. Mapogga Women (1953) reflects his interest in stylisation and African motifs at this time, as well as the influence of Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo. In spite of working in a hostile apartheid environment, Maqhubela excelled and won first prize at the Adler Fielding Gallery’s annual ‘Artists of Fame and Promise’ exhibition in 1966 with a monumental conté drawing, Peter’s Denial . Stanley Pinker was the runner-up and Maqhubela became the first to cross the divide between black and white South African artists. His work was much in demand. The stars were aligned for two great artists to meet. Both decided to leave the country of their birth. Dissatisfied with the artistic milieu in Johannesburg, Portway settled in Ibiza in Spain in 1959, and moved to Cornwall eight years later. He painted within the ambit of Abstract Expressionism and exhibited regularly in South Africa and abroad, Louis Maqhubela and Douglas Portway Marilyn Martin Louis Maqhubela  Composition  (detail) 1972 oil on paper 52 by 59 cm johannesburg art gallery