Context (CMS Context)
(bio) 'Gordon Mbatha was born in 1948 an trained as a potter in the Ceramic Workshop at the ELC Art and Craft Centre, together with Ephraim Ziqubu, Joel Sibisi and L. Mabaso. These potters all had a similar approach to decoration, but each retained individuality of form. Mbatha often chose the bowl form to decorate with figures and animals. His work shown on the 1970 exhibition entitled ELC Art and Craft Centre, Rorke’s Drift held at the Durban Art Gallery. It was acquired off that exhibition for the permanent collection of that Gallery. He is represented in art museum collections in SA and abroad.' [From http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/gordon-mbatha]. Also featured in Hobbs and Rankin: 'Rorke's Drift Empowering Prints', 2003, p.218.
Event Date 16/7/2014
Author: Remke van der Velden

Context (CMS Context)
Acquired by Hobbs from Otto Lundbohm, in Hamburgsund, Sweden, 2006. Acquired by Lundbohm at Rorke's Drift 1969- 1975. Another copy was gifted earlier. 'Comments on valuations of Rorke's Drift works in the Hobbs collection', 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 Gordon Mbatha titled 'Design with central animal feature', 1970. Edition: unnumbered. Signed and dated: 'Gordon Mbatha 1970'. Marks at edge of paper and near top right rim of paper. Lower right edge creased. Condition: Fair.
Event Date 16/7/2014
Author: maa