Context (CMS Context)
(Bio) 'Daniel Sefudi (Dan) Rakgoathe (1937-2004) was born on 25 February 1937 in Randfontein, Transvaal. From Standard VI, Rakgoathe was taught art by Mr Maseko, one of the first black handicrafts teachers in South Africa. Rakgoathe completed his junior certificate and in 1959 completed a two-year primary teachers training program at Botshabelo Training Institute. In I960, with the help of the Reverend Henneck Seloane, Rakgoathe was able to attend Ndaleni Art Teacher's Training College. When he completed the course he taught at a primary school in Moroka, Soweto, in 1961. The following year he taught at the Normal College at Botshabelo Training Institute.
In 1963 he taught at a primary school in Pretoria and in 1964 was a school board secretary at Dennilton near Robertsdale for a short time. He returned to teaching at a high school in Dennilton and remained there until 1967 when he enroll as a fine arts student at UNISA. To satisfy the practical requirements for the degree, Rakgoathe decided to move to Rorke's Drift where he was the first full-time student in the fine arts section. In 1969, when he completed the course at Rorke's Drift, Rakgoathe was appointed cultural officer in the Johannesburg City Council and took over Ezrom Legae's position at the Jubilee An Centre. When Jubilee closed down, in the early 1970s he continued teaching at Mofolo Ans Centre until 1976 when he enrolled in the Fine Arts course at the UFH. Rakgoathe received credit for first year courses completed at UNISA and in 1978 he was awarded a BA(FA) degree. The following year he was awarded a BA (FA) (Hons) degree and then enrolled for a Master's Degree.
However, he returned to his former post at the Mofolo Art Centre and did not complete the course. In 1981 Rakgoathe was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and in 1983 completed an MA degree in African Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. On his return to South Africa in 1984 Rakgoathe took up a post at the Bophuthatswana College of Education. He left there in 1986 and returned to live in Orlando, Soweto. Rakgoathe passed away in 2004. ' [From http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/daniel-sefudi-rakgoathe]. Also featured in Hobbs and Rankin: 'Rorke's Drift Empowering Prints', 2003, p.222-223.
Event Date 12/8/2014
Author: Remke van der Velden

Context (CMS Context)
Acquired by Hobbs from Otto Lundbohm a former Rorke's Drift teacher, in Hamburgsund, Sweden, 2006. Purchased by Lundbohm in 1980 on a visit to Rorke's Drift. he paid about ZAR 40. From an unpublished internal document, 'Comments on valuations of Rorke's Drift works in the Hobbs collection', by P. Hobbs, undated [2013]. Published in Donve Langhan’s The Unfolding Man: The Life and Art of Dan Rakgoathe. A copy is in the ABN Amro bank collection. From an unpublished internal document, 'PH Comments on artworks', by P. Hobbs, undated [2013].
Event Date 12/8/2014
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 12/8/2014
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Linocut by Daniel (Dan) Sefudi Rakgoathe titled 'Meditation for universal peace', 1975 (elsewhere dated 1973). Edition: unnumbered. Signed, dated and inscribed: '1975 Meditation for universal peace Dan Rakgoathe'. Condition: Fair. Piece is quite fragile and needs cleaning and de-acidifying. Small tears near the top, base and left. Light damage around edges next to old crease from frame. Ink marks on edges.
Event Date 12/8/2014
Author: maa