Context (CMS Context)
(bio) 'Azaria Mbatha was born in 1941. Azaria was educated at a mission school for eight years. In 1961 he left Ceza Secondary School and began working as a clerk in Vryheid. In 1962 Mbatha met Peder Gowenius and 'asked if he could attend' the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) Art and Craft Centre, which at that time was attended mainly by female students. Gowenius agreed and so, first at Umpumulo (later known as Mapumulo) and then at the Centre's permanent home at Rorke's Drift, Mbatha was introduced to art and supplied with materials. Mbatha became interested in drawing although it was not considered a 'useful' technique and therefore was not encouraged at the Centre. Mbatha was awarded a scholarship and studied art at Konst Fack Art School in Stockholm between 1965 and 1967. It was here that he began working with the etching technique.
He also worked on murals and designed tapestries using lino- and woodcut techniques. In 1968, he returned to South Africa and introduced screen print textile printing at Rorke's Drift during a brief teaching spell there. In 1970 Mbatha returned with his family to Sweden, where he still lives. Beginning in 1973 he studied for the Student Examination (matric equivalent) which he passed in 1976. Mbatha studied Fine Arts at the University of Lund from 1977 to 1979. On completion of this degree he continued studying social sciences at the same university.' [from http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/azaria-mbatha].
Event Date 16/7/2014
Author: Remke van der Velden

Context (CMS Context)
This print was acquired by Hobbs from Otto Lundbohm, in Hamburgsund, Sweden, 2006. Acquired by Lundbohm at Rorke's Drift 1969- 1975. Lundbohm was a Rorke's Drift teacher. Lundbohm acquired it directly from the artist. The print dates from the period at Ceza Hospital and almost as rare as 2014.172. Both these prints are probably the oldest work in the collection. This work is printed in brown (when the black ink ran out and there were no funds to replace it) and represents a series of weeks subsequent to the silhouette style when Mbatha was developing a decorated approach. 'PH Comments on artworks', by P. Hobbs, undated [2013].
Event Date 16/7/2014
Author: Remke van der Velden

Context (CMS Context)
The Hobbs' Rorke's Drift Collection was purchased from the collector, South African printmaker and art historian Philippa Anne Hobbs, with money from the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, The Art Fund and private donations. The collection included items received through a combination of gift and purchase.

From the early 1960s, one of the most important centres for new practice in southern Africa was the Evangelical Lutheran Art and Craft Centre, situated at the battlefield site of Rorke's Drift in what is now KwaZulu Natal. The project was led by teachers, Peder and Ulla Gowenius, graduates of the Konstfackskolan, a Bauhaus style modernist institute. They worked with patients recuperating from tuberculosis at the Ceza Hospital and saw crafts such as weaving essentially as therapeutic, but economic empowerment was also an aim, hence work was sold locally and through exhibitions in Sweden, a training programme was developed, and printmaking was introduced early in 1962. From the beginning, linocuts made by Azaria Mbatha (1941-) and Muziweyixhwala Tabethe were highly impressive; they embraced Biblical subjects, indigenous belief, and historical scenes related to Zulu identity.

In 1963 the ELC relocated to Rorke's Drift and expanded its activities. The Centre was virtually alone in providing a place during the Apartheid period in which black artists could train and produce work. In 1968 Otto and Malin Lundbohm arrived, bringing new expertise in textile screenprinting; Otto Lundbohm became principal in 1969 and led the school until 1975. Students who became major practitioners included Dan Rakgoathe (1937-), Vuminkosi Zulu (1948-1996), Charles Nkosi (1949), Tony Nkotsi (1955-), and Sam Nhlengethwa (1955-).

From the mid-1990s Philippa Hobbs collaborated with Elizabeth Rankin towards what is now the standard monograph, Rorke's Drift: Empowering Prints (2003). To facilitate her research she assembled a collection, purchasing some works from artists, and a substantial group from former principal, Otto Lundbohm, who had himself bought the prints directly from the artists. A total of 61 works fully represent the development of printmaking at Rorke's Drift. The collection includes the key early works by Mbatha and Tabete, dating from 1962, and prints by all the other significant Rorke's Drift artists .These are complemented by a further 22 prints made by Rorke's Drift artists after the centre closed in 1982; this group includes Joel Sibisi's 1994 print, Voting at Rorke's Drift, bringing the story into the post-Apartheid period. The Hobbs collection is the strongest of any private collection representing the ELC and these artists and incorporates the personal collection of a key figure, centre principal Otto Lundbohm.

The collection represents what is not only a chapter of foundational importance in South African art history, but a vital movement that exemplifies the emergence of local modernisms worldwide. With the encouragement of outside teachers, these Zulu and other artists embraced new techniques and styles and produced art that imagined a changing world and their place within it. This was an art that gave voice to visions of liberation as well as to customary belief, the local vision of history and the environment, and to the Christian theology that became and remains fundamental and empowering for many Africans today.
Event Date 16/7/2014
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Linocut by Azaria Mbatha titled 'Keep my commandments', 1962. Edition: unnumbered. Signed and inscribed: 'Azaria Mbatha'. Foxing along the edges and creased on the right hand side. Unevenly printed on pane. Condition: Good.
Event Date 16/7/2014
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