Context (CMS Context)
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 (2013.266- 283) from The Artists' Press (The Artists' Press, Waterboard Farm, White River, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa).

Frank Ledimo, a contemporary of David Koloane's, has been an important figure in South African printmaking for decades, through his involvement with Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg and other printmaking initiatives. He depicts nightlife and sexual squalor, implying a wider social world pervaded by depravity, cruelty and exploitation.

The artist notes “I create work that is based on the urban landscape in which I live. I have been fascinated by the representation of the figure to relay messages of urban squalor, citylife, survivors and victims of urbanisation. I am interested in how the city offers an array of aspects of life - exploitation, forced migration, various encounters and passing scenes as if from a film storyboard.

The medium of scratch lithography has allowed me to use fresh, expressive lines & work spontaneously with each line building the image and each line being important expressive mark. On the other hand experimenting and pushing the boundaries of traditional lithography & am fascinated by accidents that one discovers through this new medium."
Moleleki Frank Ledimo 2003.

In this print, Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi is recast in the South African context. The themes of despotism, greed, self-gratification, dishonesty, and exploitation and needless to say highly resonant in the Apartheid and African contexts.

Event Date 7/3/2014
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Single coloured lithograph by Frank Ledimo, signed and inscribed by the artist, titled 'King Ubu Encounter', 2002. Edition 4/40. Condition: excellent
Event Date 7/3/2014
Author: maa

Context (CMS Context)
Exhibited: The Power of Paper, Li Ka Shing Gallery, MAA, 14 February - 6 December 2015. Reproduced in the exhibition catalogue.
Event Date 20/2/2015
Author: Eleanor Wilkinson