Context (CMS Context)
Unsure if artist's first name is Ferciano (as signed by artist and found online in biography http://www.bushman-art.de/cms-en/cgi-bin/anzeigen4.pl?rubrik=22)) or Freciano (as provided by gallery).
Event Date 2/6/2014
Author: Remke van der Velden

Context (CMS Context)
Ferciano Ndala was born in Quando / Angola in 1947. His father taught him how to hunt as well as the traditional art of making a bow and arrow. He worked on a coffee plantation for a couple of years but returned to his previous lifestyle as a hunter. He joined the Portuguese Army but fled soon after with his wife Dominga to Omega in Namibia and joined the SA army. In 1998 he finally left the army altogether and made a living through making bows and arrows. He ended up in Schmidtsdrift in SA in 1990 where he worked on farms as a tracker of jackals and wild cats. As early as 1993 he became involved in the Art Project. He has a bold drawing style and prefers darker colours. His motives are mystical animals including; Eland, Antelope, Geckos and Tortoises as well as masked faces.
Old legends and myths are of great interest to him and these can be clearly seen in
his works.
(Taken from http://www.bushman-art.de/cms-en/cgi-bin/anzeigen4.pl?rubrik=22).
Event Date 2/6/2014
Author: Remke van der Velden

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. !Xun and Khwe Art Project Lithographs.
The !Xun and Khwe Art Project was started in 1993 by Catharina Meyer. Meyer started the Kuru Art Project in D’Kar in 1989 and based on her success with Kuru decided to work with the !Xun and Khwe community at Schmidtsdrift. The community, originally from northern Namibia and southern Angola decided to come to South Africa when the South African Defence Force withdrew from Namibia when it became independent. During the liberation war in Namibia the !Xun and Khwe were recruited into the SADF. Fearing reprisals, the community were granted South African citizenship. Schmidtsdrift was a military tent town on a farm outside Kimberley. A semi-desert landscape with bitterly cold winters, in a country that the community had no real links to, Schmidtsdrift had the quality of a refugee/concentration camp. In 2003 the community moved to Platfontein, a farm that was bought on their behalf, also near Kimberly. Many of the social problems resulting from dislocation, lack of resources and unemployment followed the community to Platfontein. The art project has struggled with continuity and funding and support and sadly many of the original artists have died.
The artists were given the opportunity to express their thoughts, their ideas, their stories, their myths and their customs using modern media such as oil or acrylic painting as well as various print techniques. The art project enabled the artists to make a living and provide for their families and to overcome the trauma of war and deprivation. What is poignant about these prints is the equal treatment given to plants, animals, rosaries, guns, alcohol, identity, birds and landmines.
In 1994 Tamar Mason initiated a tinwork project with women at Schmidtsdrift. The craft project produced decorative household items from recycled and waste tin sheeting. Having coordinated the first lithographs produced with the Kuru Art Project she then assisted Mark Attwood to get funding from The Foundation For Creative Arts for a lithography workshop and to edition a suite of prints. These are the prints that resulted from the project. They were not published by The Artists’ Press but were the property of the artists and were sold under the auspices of the art project.
Event Date 2/6/2014
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Single colour handprinted lithograph by Freciano Ndala titled 'Two Soldiers', or in Afrikaans, 'Twee Soldate', 1995. Edition: 1/12. Signed by the artist with 'Ferciano'. Inscribed on reverse with 'BAT 95-1' and a sun stamp. A blindstamp of The Artists Press logo and one with an M-shaped design are visible in the bottom left corner. 'Arches France' blindstamp with infinity sign visible in bottom right corner. Condition: Good, smudged in various places.
Event Date 2/6/2014
Author: maa