Esther Mahlangu: Cultural standard-bearer, self-fashioned artist

Decades after her international debut, Esther Mahlangu’s art continues to garner interest and redefine the frameworks in which it is understood. The 89-year-old painter from Mpumalanga has transfigured the Wits Art Museum with her expansive retrospective exhibition. After a successful run at Iziko SA National Gallery, the body of work titled Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting, curated by Nontobeko Ntombela, considers Mahlangu’s art through multiple lenses.

While she is often positioned as a guardian of Ndebele tradition, this showcase places her within the modernist canon via a distinct timeline.

Starting in the 1980s, curator Ntombela placed research as a focus where one can marvel at the splendour of colour and pattern, immersing oneself in the artist’shistory of focused practice.

Ntombela was also deliberate in allowing Mahlangu’s voice to lead the curation. For example, the exhibition’s title  comes from a story Mahlangu shares about umgwalo (Ndebele wall painting) as a young girl. She was discouraged by her family but continued painting the back of her home’s outer wall. Eventually her family noticed her skill and began to encourage her. “Then I knew I was good at painting,” she proclaimed.

The artist’s earlier professional work can be traced to the Botshabelo Museum, a cultural village displaying Ndebele culture.

“The exhibition does signal a particular moment in the 1980s where Mahlangu works at Botshabelo ... we only get to engage in her public work in the time she is working at Botshabelo,” said Ntombela.

The exhibition debunks the common assumption that Mahlangu’s presence starts with the invitation to participate in Magiciens de la Terre (1989) at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Mahlangu was invited to travel to Paris to paint a replica of her home, which generated much media and international exposure.

Mahlangu’s artistry extends beyond the canvas and homestead walls. From collaborations with luxury brands such as BMW, painted mannequins and a beaded rifle, her adaptability reveals a mastery of form, colour, and innovation.

The inclusion of her BMW Art Car — a historic collaboration that transformed the vehicle into a moving canvas — underscores her role as a boundary-pushing artist whose work transcends geography and medium.

What distinguishes Mahlangu’s oeuvre is her process. Eschewing rulers or stencils, she paints freehand, using chicken feathers as brushes to apply vibrant acrylics. Each line, curve, and shape is drawn from memory and tradition, requiring immense precision and concentration. This meticulous approach not only honours her Ndebele heritage but also elevates it, positioning her as an artist whose methods are as modern as they are rooted in tradition.

Despite her global recognition, discussions about Mahlangu often circle back to her origin story, emphasising cultural specificity rather than artistic innovation. Western abstract painters are lauded for their universal appeal, while artists like Mahlangu are framed as representatives of their heritage. The Wits Art Museum retrospective seeks to shift this narrative, asking audiences to engage with her work as culturally significant and formally innovative.

Critic Rasheed Araeen has previously pointed out the biases that influence curators and exhibition organisers when including artists such as Mahlangu, saying that there is a “[search] for the ‘authentic’, bypassing anything truly modern in Third World cultures.”

In this exhibition, Mahlangu’s work is situated within the broader framework of modernism and the retrospective challenges audiences to rethink what — and who — belongs in the history of modern art.

The need to redress modernism from the Global South remains an impossible task for a single artist to shoulder, yet the exhibition celebrates her legacy as a cultural standard-bearer, a self-fashioned artist, and a trailblazer whose work continues to resonate globally.

Mahlangu’s artistry is deeply personal and profoundly communal. Her use of traditional Ndebele motifs honours generations of women who came before her, embedding their contributions into her work. Yet her reimagining of these forms demonstrates an insatiable curiosity and a distinctly modern sensibility. Her paintings are not just artefacts of cultural preservation; they are dynamic interventions in the discourse of contemporary art.

“The exhibition does not try to package an entire career and we would need a couple of buildings to show all of Mam’ Esther’s works. But it is trying to show different examples of what is significant about her practice,” said Ntombela.

The retrospective brings together more than 100 works from international collections and collectors, spanning painted mannequins, tapestries, and collaborative prints with Nelson Mandela.

As critics and curators grapple with the politics of representation, Mahlangu’s work remains an undeniable force, reshaping the boundaries of art and identity with every brushstroke.

Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting is on at Wits Art Museum until April 17 2025. It is supported by BMW, The National Arts Council and The Melrose Gallery.