Context (Other owners)
'Mmapula Mmakgoba Helen Sebidi was born in Marapyane, near Hammanskraal, in 1943. She developed a life-long love for the designs of traditional arts and craft as a young girl, thanks to her grandmother, who was a traditional wall and floor painter.
Sebidi was from a humble family, and with limited means of obtaining formal education, circumstances forced Sebidi to seek work as a domestic worker in Johannesburg. In private, and in her own time, she pursued her emerging sense of creativity. One day her work was discovered by her employer, who was astonished by her talent, and encouraged her to paint.
Sebidi soon realized that she needed to receive formal lessons in the art of painting. She therefore enrolled at the remarkable White Studio in Sophiatown from 1970 to 1973, which was established by the pioneering black painter John Keonakeefe Mohl.
Sebidi therefore acquired a firm grounding in the fundamentals of painting technique and composition, which resulted in her art taking a qualitative leap. She broadened the scope of her medium and her work began to be noticed within the art world, therefore she was soon asked to exhibit.
The Johannesburg Artists under the Sun exhibitions in the early 1980s represented a commercial breakthrough for her, enabling her to make a decent living from her art for the first time. Sebidi had experienced the difficulty of pursuing art as a career, so was concerned with the development of art appreciation and education.
In 1985, she took up a teaching position at the Katlehong Art Centre near Germiston. Between 1986 and 1988 she worked for the Johannesburg Art Foundation while teaching at the Alexandra Art Centre. She also participated in numerous art projects with community organisations such as the Funda Art Centre, and the Thupelo Art Workshop.
Sebidi draws her inspiration from the happenings and experiences of daily township life. The suffering and disruption inflicted by apartheid, especially on women, are common themes which are often executed with complementary techniques. In the celebrated collage pieces Tear of Africa and Where is My Home? The artist renders her subject matter in broad jagged brush or crayon strokes, playing with contrasting light and dark tones to emphasise the idea of rupture.
Sebidi was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to the USA and exhibit at the Worldwide Economic Contemporary Artists Fund Exhibition. In 1989, she was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award.
Helen Sebidi, as she is known professionally, has become a recognized artist in South Africa and internationally. Her work is exhibited regularly in major galleries across the country and abroad and routinely included in standard reference books on South African art. ...
The South African Government bestowed Mmapula Mmakgoba Helen Sebidi with the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver at the National Orders awards on 19 October 2004 for her excellent contribution to the field of visual and traditional arts and craft.' Taken from http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/mmapula-mmakgoba-helen-sebidi
Event Date 14/2/2014
Author: Rachel Hand

Context (Amendments / updates)
Presented by The Art Fund and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. An acquisition project to build a collection of modern and contemporary work on paper from Australia, Canada and South Africa was undertaken over 2011-13 with the support of a grant under The Art Fund's RENEW programme. The collection was developed with the expert advice and generous assistance of Annie Coombes and Norman Vorano in relation to South African and Inuit artists respectively. Khadija Carroll, Anita Herle and Diana Wood Conroy also contributed to the selection process. Obtained as part of a larger group of prints 2013.221- 263 from Caversham Press. (The Caversham Press, P.O. Box 87, Balgowan 3275, South Africa.) The prints arrived at MAA in September 2013.
The Caversham Press was founded in 1985 in the Caversham Valley of KwaZulu-Natal to afford South African artists access to a professional collaborative printmaking studio for the production of traditional limited edition prints. The Press was the first comprehensive facility of its kind in Southern Africa and has become highly regarded not only for the range of processes it offers and the expertise of founder and print-master, Malcolm Christian, but also for its reputation as an accessible and collaborative art centre.
With '00259/f' written in pencil on the rear.
Event Date 14/2/2014
Author: maa

Description (Physical description)
Print by Mmapula Mmakgoba Helen Sebidi, titled 'Carrying it for hope', 1996. Edition 15/45. A confused mass of humanity and animality are 'carrying it for hope'
Event Date 14/2/2014
Author: maa

Loan (Exhibition)
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 11/05/2020 to 26/10/2020, The Human Touch: Making Art, Leaving Traces
Event Date 11/5/2020
Author: Katrina Dring