pen and ink on paper

Artwork date: 1960
Signature details: signed and dated bottom right
Exhibited: 'Dumile Feni: A Retrospective', Durban Art Gallery, Durban, (15 February to 26 March 2006); South African National Gallery, Cape Town, (13 August to 4 November 2005); Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, (17 May to 17 June 2005), Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, (31 January to to 10 April 2005).
Literature: Dube, P. M. (2006). 'Dumile Feni Retrospective'. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery and Wits University Press, illustrated in colour on p.16.

(1)

102.5 x 73 cm; framed size: 129 x 99 x 2 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Celebrated as one of the country’s most influential visual storytellers, Dumile Feni’s name holds a significant place in the history of South African art. While Feni worked in various disciplines, including painting and sculpture, drawing remained his most impactful and enduring form of artistic expression. He began to draw at the age of six, and the activity quickly became part of his daily routine and artistic practice.

This collection of drawings, dated from 1960 to 1966, highlights Feni’s ability to immortalise ordinary, everyday scenes by simply drawing the world around him. Works such as Monday is Washday, Mother Chopping Wood, and Two Ladies with Children in Arms offer intimate glimpses into the daily lives of South Africans, especially Black communities, and women during apartheid.

Dumile Feni explaining one of his larger drawings at the Durban Art Gallery, 1966 (© A. Moosa Badsha)

During the early 1960s Feni began to move beyond the informal sketches that had dominated his early years and started to view art as a career. His first solo show at Gallery 101 in Johannesburg, in January 1966 was described in the Johannesburg Star as an “instant success” with the reviewer hailing the artist as, “the first African to emerge who captures – with a visionary touch – the essential sadness underlying the life of his people.” [1]

Feni continued to exhibit in Johannesburg and by the second half of the 60s, had carved a place for himself amongst leading South African artists. An established cultural force, newspaper headlines even dubbed the artist, the "Goya of the Townships" as early as 1966.[2] These critics recognised his powerful portrayal of the hardships and injustices faced by South Africans during apartheid, however, Feni's approach was more introspective and less overtly political than that of Francisco Goya. His pieces not only reflected the environment in which he lived, but also conveyed the inner turmoil that shaped much of his life, often depicted through figures of women nurturing and working.

Having lost his mother at a young age, Feni’s depiction of the maternal figure was deeply personal. His mother’s absence profoundly affected him, and the way in which he portrayed women in his works often embodied both strength and vulnerability. In Two Women with Children in Arms, for instance, the physical strain of carrying children may not only reflect the burden of motherhood but also the weight of life under apartheid. The drawing shows two women seemingly engaged in a tense conversation, each holding a child. One woman stands barefoot, holding her child close, while the other carries a child loosely with one hand on her back, gesturing sharply towards the other. This moment of interaction speaks to the emotional and physical strain of their existence, both as mothers and as individuals navigating the harsh realities of their time.

This theme continues in Monday is Washday, where the women’s postures and expressions convey exhaustion and relentless effort. Each figure is focused on her task ­– whether scrubbing clothes or ironing – emphasising the repetitive, labour-intensive nature of these chores. Feni captures this tiring, often overlooked aspect of women’s roles, underlining both the physical toll and the quiet resilience it demands.

By 1968 Feni would leave South Africa in voluntary exile to London (and later New York). These scenes, captured during the artist’s last decade in his home country, connect the personal burdens of everyday life with the broader social struggles of apartheid. Masterfully showing how individual experiences are shaped by and reflect the greater forces at play in society, Dumile Feni offers a sensitive portrayal of the everyday struggles of ordinary people – and particularly women – revealing the depth of his empathy and understanding of human endurance.

Mtha Poni

^{[1] Manganyi, C. (2012). The Beauty of the Line: Life and Times of Dumile Feni. Johannesburg: KMM Review Publishing Company (Pty) Ltd, p.8.}

^{[2] South African History Online [available: https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/dumile-feni ]}

^COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably Johannesburg Art Gallery; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Javett Art Centre, Pretoria; Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and the South African Department of Arts and Culture.