Zwelethu Mthethwa, New Works @Shainman

JTF (just the facts): A total of 18 large scale color photographs, framed in white and unmatted, and hung against white walls in the entry, the divided main gallery space, and the two smaller side rooms. All of the works are digital c-prints, made in 2010 or 2012. There are three projects represented in the show: The Brave Ones, Hope Chest, and The End of An Era, and each of the images in each series comes in a large and small size, as follows - The Brave Ones (54x72 in an edition of 1+1AP and 27x36 in an edition of 3+1AP), Hope Chest (60x80 in an edition of 1+1AP and 24x33 in an edition of 3+1AP) and The End of an Era (49x67 in an edition of 1+1AP and 24x33 in an edition of 3+1AP). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Zwelethu Mthethwa's newest show of portraits certainly ranks among the best work he has produced in his already successful career. In three separate projects, the South African photographer probes the subtleties and depths of personal identity, via the unlikely costumes of members of the Nazareth Baptist Church, the battered hope chests of elderly women, and the hostel room furnishings of anonymous migrant workers. The pictures tell rich stories of the past, the present, and an aspirational future, consistently bursting with thick, astonishing color.

Making the choice to reject your traditional Zulu heritage and join an insurgent Christian church is likely a hard one for any young man. But to do so and then proudly wear the hybrid British/Scottish garb of kilts and bow ties, knee socks and puffy yarn head pieces is enough to test anyone's resolve, especially in a culture with such strong definitions of masculinity. No wonder Mthethwa called these sitters The Brave Ones. Posing in the verdant green of the bush under solitary shade trees, young men stand with languorous defiance, in pith helmets and green ribbons or sporting red checked skirts and starched white shirts. It's a smart inversion of the stereotypical tribal pose, capturing an unexpected willingness (or need) to break from the crowd.

Mthethwa's portraits of women with their hope chests are even more confident and powerful. Weathered women who have seen it all pose with their chests, often resting on them or guarding them with reverent attention. The wooden boxes are heavy and solid, filled with treasures and possessions reaching back to the hopeful time before the woman was married. Many miles have clearly passed since then for all of the subjects, but even though times have changed, the chests have lost none of their traditional importance. One woman in a shiny orange and black dress sits atop her chest flanked by her matching tractor, while another wearing a bright red hat with silver rivets waits primly alongside hers under a blue umbrella. The dusty red earth tries to swallow up one woman's padlocked chest, and a jumbled pile of luggage and blankets threatens that of another. Interior wall colors throb with bold intensity, the sparse painted rooms often organized with the chests as their centerpiece furnishing. The simple image of a woman in a pink headscarf sitting in a green plastic chair before her chest, drenched in a flood of peach light, is at once penetratingly poignant and quietly breathtaking.

Mthethwa's third project, The End of an Era, reprises his earlier images of empty interiors, allowing the details of a tidy room to tell its inhabitant's story. Here one room is covered edge to edge in World Cup team shots and soccer cutouts from newspapers, while another is a study in the contrasting patterns of a blanket, a wooden divider, and a painted wall. Others focus down on specific objects: the orderliness of a set of combs and toiletries (the soap delicately paced and a shard of mirror carefully centered on the table) or the solitary candle on a makeshift bedside table. The pictures are clear evidence that even in the humblest of conditions, people find ways to make a place personal, leaving behind traces of themselves.

More generally, I think this show cements Mthethwa's position as one of the important innovators in contemporary photographic portraiture. He has a brilliant sense for how clothing, objects and environments are representative of a sitter's most strongly held beliefs, and how the subtle interaction between them can reveal something that would otherwise be hidden.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced based on size and series. Prints from The Brave Ones are either $26000 or $18000, those from Hope Chest are either $28000 or $18000, and the ones from The End of an Era are either $26000 or $18000. Mthethwa's work has become more available in the secondary markets in recent years, with prices ranging from roughly $5000 to $28000.

 

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist Facebook page (here)
• Features/Reviews: NY Times T magazine blog (here), Cool Hunting (here)

Zwelethu Mthethwa, New Works

Through February 23rd

Jack Shainman Gallery

513 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011

Zwelethu Mthethwa, Inner Views @Studio Museum in Harlem

JTF (just the facts): A total of 17 color photographs, hung in the main gallery space on the ground floor and in an adjoining side gallery. All of the works are chromogenic prints, either mounted on plexi and not framed or framed in blond wood; many are printed in large, object quality proportions. The exhibit was organized by Associate Curator Naomi Beckwith. The Studio Museum in Harlem does not allow photography in the galleries, so unfortunately, there are no installation shots for this show; the images that accompany this post were taken from the museum website. The recent Aperture monograph (here) is on sale in the museum shop. (Untitled from Interiors, 1997, at right.)

The exhibit includes work from three different series. These projects are listed below, with the number of photographs on view in parentheses:

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Interiors (11, from 1997-2003)

Empty Beds (3, from 2003)

Common Ground (3, from 2008)

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A supporting exhibit entitled Inside the Collection: Interiors from the Studio Museum shares the smaller side gallery with the Mthethwa show. It includes photographic works by Adia Millet, Carrie Mae Weems, Mickalene Thomas, Frank Stewart, James VanDerZee, and Malick Sidibé.

Comments/Context: South African photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa has been doing a splendid job of building awareness for his work here in New York in the past 18 months or so. Starting with a solid show of new images at Jack Shainman last spring (review here), he has followed that up with the events and book signings surrounding the release of his terrific Aperture monograph earlier this year (review here), and with a solo museum show at the Studio Museum in Harlem this summer. It has been a well orchestrated effort in building momentum and name recognition. (Untitled from Empty Beds series, 2002, at right.)

The Studio Museum exhibition is in many ways a perfect foil for the Shainman gallery show. It covers three photographic projects that focus on interior scenes, while the more recent work was all taken outside - there is no overlap of images on display, so the combination of the two shows provides a decently comprehensive view of Mthethwa's career (except for the excellent but missing Sugar Cane series). At the simplest level, the pictures in this show can be thought of as a contemporary form of social documentary photography. Following in the footsteps of Riis, Evans, Lange and others, Mthethwa has made images of the domestic lives of migrant workers, capturing the unexpected personalization of their single room spaces. He has also documented the aftermath of natural disaster, homes ravaged by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans or the wild fires of Cape Town, making the destruction interchangeable and universal.

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Mthethwa's private spaces are dense with details, low ceilings bearing down on sparse, makeshift furnishings, often cobbled together and scavenged from found materials. In Interiors, the inhabitants pose amidst their surroundings, actively participating in the creation of their portraits, almost as if they were in a formal studio. Simple items (a tricycle, a group of ceramic dogs, a large watch, matching plaid jackets) give us glimpses of individuality and clues to personality, each a tiny narrative of self. In Empty Beds, the rooms are quiet and solemn, the beds neatly made, the washcloths draped over wire hangers, evidence of inhabitants who are trying to make their austere rooms livable. In Common Ground, while the interiors are also empty, they are the opposite of the carefully controlled bedrooms; instead they are filled with wreckage and disorder, lost in mud spackled walls and taped windows.

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What makes these pictures explode off the wall is their dramatic use of vibrant, saturated color. Wallpapers made from newspaper advertising supplements, wine labels, or patterned plastic sheeting are layered in chaotic, overlapping combinations. Each setting has its own color highlights and experiments: bright blue paint, green linoleum, red shoes, yellow walls. The painterly color fills the frame with crackling energy and life, in images that might otherwise be sullen or gloomy. In some works, the thickness of the color nearly drowns out the content, making the images almost abstract; in others, the color merely turns up the volume, transforming a simple scene into something more inspiring. When printed at mural sized scale (as a few of the images are), the interiors shimmer with visual stimulation.

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All in, even if you saw the earlier Shainman gallery show or have pored over the monograph, this exhibit provides an overdue summary of some of Mthethwa's best projects, shown off the way they were meant to be seen: in large, dynamic, up close color.

Collector's POV: Zwelethu Mthethwa is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York (here). His photographs have just begun to enter the secondary markets in the past few years, with a small handful of lots selling between $8000 and $14000. (Untitled from Common Ground series, 2008, at right.)

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Reviews: NY Times (here), New Yorker (here), Village Voice (here, scroll down)
• Interview with Larissa Leclair (here)

Zwelethu Mthethwa, Inner Views

Through October 24th

The Studio Museum in Harlem
144 West 125th Street

New York, NY 10027

Auction Results: AFRICA, May 15, 2010 @Phillips

The results for the photographs in the AFRICA themed sale at Phillips last week fell solidly into the estimate range, led by works by Malick Sidibé and Zwelethu Mthethwa. Overall however, the total photo proceeds were significantly less than the BRIC and SEX themed sales earlier in the year.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 75

Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $386300

Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $554700

Total Lots Sold: 53

Total Lots Bought In: 22

Buy In %: 29.33%

Total Sale Proceeds: $477250

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 62

Low Sold: 41

Low Bought In: 21

Buy In %: 33.87%

Total Low Estimate: $272700

Total Low Sold: $205500

Mid Total Lots: 12

Mid Sold: 11

Mid Bought In: 1

Buy In %: 8.33%

Total Mid Estimate: $202000

Total Mid Sold: $191250

High Total Lots: 1

High Sold: 1

High Bought In: 0

Buy In %: 0.00%

Total High Estimate: $80000

Total High Sold: $80500

The top lot by High estimate was lot 61, Yinka Shonibare, Un Ballo in Maschera (I-X), 2004-2005, at $60000-80000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $80500.
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90.57% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 5 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

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Lot 1, Malick Sidibé, Nuit de Noel (Happy-Club), 1963/Later, at $9375

Lot 3, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Untitled from Sugar Cane Series, 2003, at $13750 (image at right, top, via Phillips)

Lot 33, Malick Sidibé, Regardez-Moi!, 1962, 2000, at $12500 (image at right, via Phillips)

Lot 169, George Rodger, The Champion of a Korongo Nuba Wrestling Match is Carried Shoulder High, Kordofan, Southern Sudan, 1949/1999, at $8750

Lot 185, Malick Sidibé, Les nouveaux circoni, 1983/1995, at $7500
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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company

450 West 15th Street

New York, NY 10011

Book: Zwelethu Mthethwa

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2010 by Aperture (here). 120 pages, with 69 color and 9 black and white images. Includes an interview by Isolde Brielmaier, an essay by Okwui Enwezor, and a short biography. (Cover shot at right, via Amazon.)

This monograph contains images from the following photographic projects/series:

Interiors (1995-2005)
Empty Beds (2002)
Sugar Cane (2003)
Churches (2006)
Gold Miners (2006)
Mozambique/The River (2007)
Quartz Miners (2007-2008)
Brick Workers (2008)
Coal Miners (2008)
Contemporary Gladiators (2008)
Common Ground (2008)

Comments/Context: After seeing South African photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa's show last year (linked below), as we often do, we went looking for more information to gain a better understanding of his entire body of work. Unfortunately, at the time, there were few good web resources on him, only a handful of broader surveys of African contemporary photography, and no decent monographs that we could easily consult. Happily, this situation has recently been resolved by the release of this fine collection of Mthethwa's work from the past decade.

What I find exciting and original about Mthethwa's approach to capturing the post-apartheid world of South Africa is that unlike David Goldblatt's superlative images that are indelibly rooted in the nuanced history of the land, Mthethwa's pictures contemplate the realities of the immediate present, in a manner that forgoes a heavy-handed anthropological or documentary dissection, and instead employs a more intimate and humanist touch. All of the pictures in this book are portraits (even when they depict empty spaces); they tell stories of specific individual lives, wrapped in immense daily challenges, all in the context of larger forces that are often beyond their control.

I think the two strongest bodies of work in this book are the early Interiors and the workers from Sugar Cane, but all of the images included find that delicate balance of pride and humility in the face of a wide range of difficult circumstances. Whether the people are digging in the red dust of a quartz mine, pounding on the rubble of bricks, posing against a mountainous wall of coal sacks, scavenging on rubbish heaps, or chopping down sugar cane with machetes, when they stop for a moment to face the camera, we see the complex mix of defiance, weariness, and strength of spirit that drives them to get by using whatever means necessary. The Sugar Cane portraits are the most successful of these worker images because they combine the inherent contrast of the verdant green hills, the texture of the rough stalks, and the vastness of the manual labor required to bring in the crop, with the alternating determination and indifference on the faces of the machete wielding subjects. The tension is what makes the pictures resonate.

The interior images of worker settlements, shantytowns, and hostels on the outskirts of the big cities use the creation of personal space as a metaphor for the defense of human dignity. Regardless of the cardboard walls, corrugated tin roofs, or compacted dirt floors, these cramped spaces have been transformed into representations of the personalities of their inhabitants. In some rooms, newspapers and magazines cover ever inch of the wall space, creating chaotic clashing patterns of color. In others, the setting is more spare, with only a few pieces of improvised furniture or personal belongings, set against walls painted a uniform color, the bed neatly made. And yet when photographed within their own environments, the subjects seem to find themselves, and tell their proud stories of life in the present, opening up their vulnerabilities and sacrifices, and looking ahead with remarkable optimism.

Part of the power of these pictures comes from their deft use of color (as is ably pointed out in the excellent essay by Okwui Enwezor). The contrasts of bright color bring life and personality to these images; were they to be executed in black and white, the same scenes would likely seem quite a bit more negative or depressing (especially given the predominance of deadpan expressions). Somehow, the colors seem thicker and more lush than usual: the rich pink of a floral linoleum, the soft light blue of a painted wall, the electric green of a patterned wall paper, the bright red of a dirty work shirt, or the neon orange of a pair of rubber gloves. Taken together, they plant us firmly in the present, settled into the rhythms of modern South African life.

Aperture has got the timing of this book just right - Mthethwa has developed a strong and deep portfolio of work in the past decade, and this monograph has come along at precisely the right moment to expose it (with appropriate scholarship and editing) to a much wider audience.

Collector’s POV: Zwelethu Mthethwa is represented by Jack Shainman Gallery in New York (here); a show of recent work was on view in the spring of 2009 (DLK COLLECTION review here). In general, his work has just begun to enter the secondary markets, with a small handful of lots selling between $8000 and $11000 in the past few years.

Transit Hub:

• Event: Zwelethu Mthethwa and Okwui Enwezor in conversation, March 2, 2010 (here)

Zwelethu Mthethwa, New Works @Shainman

JTF (just the facts): A total of large scale 18 chromogenic prints, framed in blond wood with no mat, hung in the entry, the main gallery, and two smaller side rooms. The prints come in two sizes, 59x76 (in an edition of 1) and 32x41 (in an edition of 3), and were made between 2006 and 2008. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: South African photographer Zwelethu Mthethwa's show of new work now on view at Jack Shainman continues an approach seen in his earlier images: powerful documentary portraits made out in the real world of his native country (and neighboring lands), rather than in the sterilized confines of the commercial studio.

There are three sets of work in this show, all with evocative and memorable settings: ragged children with found treasures atop seemingly endless trash heaps (Contemporary Gladiator), young men amidst huge stacks of lumpy white bags of coal at the market (Coal Miner), and workers digging in crumbled and dry red earth (Quartz Miner). All of the subjects stare directly (almost defiantly) into the camera, posing with a sense of pride, regardless of the wretched environments and harsh working conditions that surround them.
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The Coal Miner portraits are the most successful of the three series, as the stacked bags create both unusual visual patterns and small rooms and spaces where the workers are posed. Beneath the baseball caps and grubby t-shirts are men who are trying to make a life out of tasks the world has generally forgotten; there are plenty of parallels with Sebastiao Salgado's humanist pictures of workers, but with a particular African look and feel, full of thick, warm color.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced at $14000 and $22000 depending on the size. A handful of images by the artist have appeared at auction in the past few years, selling between $8000 and $11000. Since we are not portrait collectors, Mthethwa's images aren't a fit for our particular collection, but I certainly came away impressed with the expressive nature of these large well crafted works.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Upcoming Aperture monograph (here)
• Additional monographs from 1999, 2000 (here)

Zwelethu Mthethwa, New Works
Through May 23rd

Jack Shainman Gallery

513 West 20th Street

New York, NY 10011