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).

Nhlanhla Xaba was a hugely important figure in the printmaking in post-Apartheid South Africa. He co-founded Artists Proof Studio with Kim Berman who had left the country to live in Boston and worked with Artist Proof studio there. Responding to Nelson Mandela's call for expatriate South Africans to return and help build the nation, she came back to Johannesburg. Xaba, a black consciousness figure who was initially uncertain about collaborating with a white woman. Yet the partnership was a success: Berman focussed on fundraising and administration while Xaba ran the studio, which soon gained a focus on collaboration and training; a whole cohort of younger printmakers have since emerged through its work. Tragically, however, in 2003 the studio's President Street premises were destroyed by a fire that also killed Xaba.

This set of two works (2013.281-2) were editioned posthumously and exemplify his distinctive vision. 'Children of a forgotten dream' incorporates imagery of African art in something like a museum store, a slumbering set of inspirations for pan-Africanist, or African renaissance ideals; above which a younger group, anonymous and generic, are engaged in play. Dusk and Dawn features the iconic cattle of the eastern Cape and KwaZulu Natal and is typically subtle. Xaba's interest were in the struggles and complexities of life, that he wanted to reveal as complex and layered, as social and political and biographic and psychological. e political and historical, and rich in personal insight.

Event Date 7/3/2014
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Four colour lithograph by Nhlanhla Xaba, titled 'Children of a forgotten dream', 2002. Edition 33/40. This set of two works, 2013.281- 2, comprise the Nhlanhla Xaba portfolio, and were editioned posthumously. Condition: excellent
Event Date 7/3/2014
Author: maa

Context (Amendments / updates)
2013.281.1 and 2013.282 are in a folder titled 'Nhlanhla Xaba two lithographs 2002'. Accompanied by printed notes by Nhlanhla about the images, subsequently printed by Mark Attwood, the artists' press, February 2004. edition number 33/40.

Folder and notes were subsequently accessioned as 2013.281.2-3.
Event Date 12/9/2022
Author: Flo Sutton