Sekoto, Gerard (1913 – 1993)

Gerard Sekoto was born at the Lutheran Mission Station in Botshabelo near Middelburg in the Eastern

Transvaal. Being the son of a missionary he was introduced to music at a young age. He studied at

the Diocesan Teachers Training College in Pietersburg and on graduating taught at Khaiso Secondary

School for 4 years. During this time he entered an art competition organized by Fort Hare University in

which he came second, George Pemba won the competition.

In 1938 he moved to Johannesburg to pursue a career as an artist. He held his first solo exhibition in

1939. In 1940 Johannesburg Art Gallery purchased one of his works, it was the first painting by a black

artist to enter a museum collection. In 1942 he moved to District 6 in Cape Town and then in 1945 he

moved to Pretoria.

In 1947 he left for Paris under a self-imposed exile. At first it was hard and he was employed as a pianist

for a nightclub. Between 1956-1960 he composed 29 songs recalling the loneliness of exile. In 1966

he visited Senegal for a year. In the 1970’s Gerard Sekoto’s works became politically motivated due to

the apartheid in South Africa. In 1989 the Johannesburg Art Gallery honored him with a retrospective

exhibition and the University of Witwatersrand with an honorary doctorate.

He died on 20 March 1993 at a retirement home outside Paris.

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Gerard Sekoto
Born: 1913 Botshabelo Lutheran Mission Station, Middelburg, Transvaal.

Died: 20 March 1993, Paris, France.

Jan Gerard Sekoto was born on 9 September 1913 in Botshabelo. Botshabelo was a mission station established by the German missionaries amongst the Pedi community in the Middelburg district of the Transvaal.

His father, Andreas Sekoto, was a leading member of the new Christian converts, and his uncles visited Germany to undertake the translation of the bible into Northern Sotho. Sekoto attended a school at Wonderhoek, which was established by his father, who was priest and teacher.

In 1930, he attended the Grace Dieu institute run by the church of the province of South Africa. Here he completed his Standard Six (Grade Eight), and went on to study to become a teacher at the Diocesan Training College near Pietersburg. The writer Peter Abrahims, and artists and political activists such as Ernest Mancoba, also had attended the school. Like Sekoto, both later choose to go into exile.

From 1934 to 1938, Sekoto taught at Khaiso Secondary School near Pietersburg. At Khaiso he became close to Louis Makenna, Nimrod Ndelele and Ernest Mancoba, who had graduated at Fort Hare University. This highly gifted and creative foursome enriched each other’s lives, and the intellectual and artistic life of the school. Sekoto’s interest in art was encouraged by Mancoba.

In 1938, Sekoto won second prize in a national art competition organised by Ester Bedford at the University of Fort Hare. This encouraged him to leave teaching and move to Sophiatown, where in 1939 he began painting full-time. During this time he received encouragement from John Mohl and Brother Roger Castle of St Peter's Secondary School in Rosettenville.

Sekoto befriended artists Alexis Preller and Judit Glukman, who taught him to work in oil. Within a short time he started exhibiting his work and had build up a reputation in the Johannesburg art scene. However, Sekoto was restless, and unhappy in the racial and claustrophobic work of Johannesburg. Therefore in 1942, he decided to visit Cape Town.

In Cape Town he lived in District Six. That period was one of his most productive and saw the development of his distinctive style. He befriended trade unionist Max Gordon, artists Solly Disner, Louis Maurice, Lippy Lipschitz and Paul Kosten, who become a life long friend. Here he participated in the new group exhibition.

In 1945, Sekoto moved back to the Transvaal, to the black township of Eastwood in Pretoria. In 1946 and 1947 he held a number of successful exhibitions and began to make plans to move abroad. It was in 1947, just before the Afrikaner Nationalist party came to power, when Gerard Sekoto left South Africa for Paris. His exile was heavily influenced by his perception of the lack of potential freedom and growth as an artist in South Africa. The social, economic, and cultural context at the time did not supply a fertile ground which would allow him to enrich his experience, and properly establish himself as an artist.

When he arrived in Paris, Sekoto faced the hardships of adapting to another culture. He was confronted with the reality of a world where black and white people could coexist indifferently of each other’s race. With this began his realization that South Africa was a country conditioned by colonial racism. He began to take drawing lessons at de la Grande Chaumière, and soon enough, he made the acquaintance of other foreign workers and students. These included those who lived in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, where he moved in early 1948.

Sekoto is renowned and respected in South Africa for his two-dimensional art. A lesser known fact is that he could play several musical instruments. As the son of a missionary, music was a part of his life, and he was introduced to the family harmonium at an early age. Further, he composed his own musical works. In Saint-Germain, his musical abilities were what earned him a living, and he was employed as a pianist purely by chance at L’echelle de Jacob (Jacob’s ladder), a trendy nightclub/bar reopened for business after the war. Later, Sekoto recounted how this came about while walking with a Jamaican photographer friend:

I was in a good mood. We saw people going in and out, carrying guitars. I suggested we have a beer. We went inside and saw a young girl there and I wanted to know what was happening. She told me that there was an audition in progress and if I was a musician, why did I not take a try. I told her that I was a pianist. … She suggested I ask the patron for an audition. The patron was just in the area then and she told him that I played the piano. He suggested I play for him. I did. Remember, I was in a good mood. I do not know if I would have been able to have done it otherwise. I strummed and chanted and groaned and shouted.

In his own words, he “improvised”, and was offered the job immediately. At Jacob’s Ladder he played jazz and sang ‘Negro Spirituals’, popular French songs of the period and Harry Belafonte. Therefore, music became the way that he could pay his living and art school expenses. In music as in visual art, Sekoto found a way to combine socializing with serious creative work, a habit he kept throughout his life.

Between 1956 and 1960, several of Sekoto’s compositions were published by Les Editions Musicales, and Sekoto played piano and sang on several records. He composed 29 songs, mostly excessively poignant, recalling the loneliness of exile yet displaying the inordinate courage of someone battling to survive in a foreign cultural environment.

Sekoto’s international acceptance began when he joined the Overseas Exhibition of South African Art at the Tate Gallery in London, along 53 white South African artists. Unfortunately, acclaim of the exhibition and his work in London, Belgium, Holland, and Paris, were not enough to secure Sekoto’s reputation.

Sekoto’s situation changed around 1953, where his acquaintance with local supporters such as Raymond de Cardonne and Jean Castel enabled him to join the art scene in the Rue des Grands Augustins. He held several exhibitions in Paris, some more successful than others.

During the 1960’s he occupied himself full-time with preparation for exhibitions in the United States and Europe. In 1961, his work was exhibited at the Harmon Foundation of New York, and was selected for a UNESCO exhibition in the near future. That year he also exhibited his work at the conference on Africa and Contemporary Civilization in Venice.

1963 was a year of successful exhibitions in South Africa. His work was shown at the Gallery-XPO in the Polley Arcade in Pretoria and at the South African institute of Race Relations in Durban. In 1966, he visited Venice, Rome, London and Dakar, which connected him with public and international issues. Impassioned by his return to Africa after 17 years, Sekoto stayed in Senegal for a year, working with fellow artist and friend Wilson Tiberio. He returned to Paris only after learning of the injury of his friend and lover Madame Martha Baillon.

In Senegal Sekoto re-established his emotional and cultural links with Africa, and strengthened his identity. It was during his time in Senegal that the increasingly radical South African government revoked his passport, making his exile mandatory.

In 1968, he was awarded a diploma by the jury of the ‘XIX Grand Prix International de Peinture de Deauville’, and in 1978, he was acclaimed as “our first great African Impressionist” for his Homage to Steve Biko. His life condition declined after the death of Martha Baillon, his companion and landowner. After her death, Sekoto struggled financially, and suffered from poor health.

He continued exhibiting his work periodically, and on 13 December 1989 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand. Sekoto passed away on 20 March 1993.

Exhibitions
1939
Selborne Hall, (South African Academy), Johannesburg
Gainsborough Galleries, Johannesburg
First Solo-Exhibition, Marlborough Gallery, Johannesburg
1940
Selborne Hall, (South African Academy), Johannesburg
Gainsborough Galleries, Johannesburg
1941
Selborne Hall, (South African Academy), Johannesburg
1942
Duncan Hall, (South African Academy), Johannesburg
1943
Gainsborough Galleries, (New Group), Johannesburg
Salisbury, Zimbabwe
1944
Argus Gallery, (New Group), Cape Town
Gainsborough Galleries, (Contemporary Art), Johannesburg
Jerome Gallery, Cape Town
1945
Cape Town
1946
Gainsborough Galleries, (Contemporary Art), Johannesburg
1947
Solo-Exhibition, Gainsborough Galleries, Johannesburg
Solo-Exhibition, Christie's Pretoria
1948
Solo-Exhibition, French Overseas Colonial House, Paris
Gainsborough Galleries, (New Group), Johannesburg
1948/50
Tate Gallery, London, Belgium, France, Canada,USA, Netherlands
South African National Gallery, Cape Town
1949
Solo-Exhibition, Galerie Else-Clausen, Paris
1950
Solo-Exhibition, Galerie Vincent, Pretoria
1951
Stockholm, Sweden
1952
Van Riebeeck Exhibition, Cape Town
1953
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
1954
I.D. Booksellers Gallery, Cape Town
1955
Petit Palais, Paris
Lawrence Adler Gallery, Johannesburg
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Galerie Reflets de Paris, Hôtel du Parc, Paris
1956
Galerie Art Primier, Paris
1958
Lawrence Adler Gallery, Johannesburg
1959
Lawrence Adler Gallery, Johannesburg
1960
Solo-Exhibition, Galerie Saint-Placide, Paris
Salon d'Automme, Paris
Lawrence Adler Gallery, Johannesburg
1961
Galleria Santo Stefano, Venice, Italy
Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
1962
Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
1963
Morgenster Art dealers
Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
Durban Art Gallery
1964
Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
France
1965
Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
Piccadilly Gallery, London
1966
Théâtre Daniel Sorano, Senegal
Pretoria Art Museum
Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg
1967
Théâtre Daniel Sorano, Senegal
1968
South African Association of Arts, Pretoria
Solo-Exhibition, Senegalese Embassy, Paris
Solo-Exhibition, Galerie Marthe Nochy, Paris
1969
Solo-Exhibition, Galerie Christiane, Paris
1970
Galleri BB, Denmark
Gallery Randers, Stockholm, Sweden
1973
Galerie du Maraias, Bourges, France
Pretoria Art Museum
1975
Solo-Exhibition, Atlantic Art Gallery, Cape Town
1978
Solo-Exhibition, Galerie Art Premier, Paris
1980
Maison de l'Afrique, Paris
Johannesburg Art Gallery
Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg
1981
Johannesburg Art Gallery
1984
South African National Gallery, Cape Town
1986
Academy Gallery, Paris
Washington, DC., USA
Alliance Française, Pretoria
1986/87
Johannesburg Art Gallery
1988
Solo-Exhibition, Cassirer Fine Art, Johannesburg
South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Natalie Knight Gallery, Johannesburg
Johannesburg Art Gallery
1989
Johannesburg Art Gallery
University of the Witwatersrand
Standard Bank Arts Festival, Grahamstown
Honours and Awards:
1924
Prize for design of Botshabelo Training college badge
1937
Second prize May Esther Bedford Art Competition
1948
Sekoto's painting used on poster for exhibition of South African Art at the Tate Gallery, London
1959
Sekoto's poster for second Congress of Negro writers and artists in Rome.
1964
Exhibition of African Art, Nemours, France
1968
XIXe Grand Prix International de Peinture de Deauville
1989
Honorary Doctorate by University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Collections
His work is represented in numerous collections world wide including:
Johannesburg Art Gallery
South African National Art Gallery, Cape Town
University of Fort Hare Collection
University of South Africa Collection, Pretoria
University of the Witwatersrand
Sowetan Newspaper Collection, Johannesburg
William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley
Municipal Collection of the City of Paris