Muzuzile Mduduzi Xakaza b.1965 Maphumulo KwaZulu-Natal studied for his PhD at the University of the Western Cape and presently holds the position of Director of the Durban Art Gallery. Influenced by the work and philosophy of 19thc artist Caspar David Friedrich, Xakaza paints uninhabited visions of the mountainous regions in KwaZulu-Natal.
Historically, landscape painting in South Africa was perceived, incorrectly, to only be recorded by white artists and their experience of the land. Contemporary art history recognises the contribution made by black artists in their documentation of landscape within their own appreciation and understanding.
Xakaza interprets the KwaZulu landscape from his own traditional Zulu cosmological perspective. Through his meditative and introspective views, often based on the verbal history of these areas, the mountainous scenery is portrayed as a mystical and magical environment.
The envisaged proximity of ancestral spirits and their influence on humanity’s good fortune is tangible. Xakaza applies layers of oil paint finishing with glazes, building colour and form to recreate the intangible and atmospheric spiritually existing within the vast swathes of uninhabited land. His work is held in numerous South African Museum and private and corporate collections.
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