Dumile Feni: Untitled (Nude with crossed arms) - SOLD
Dumile Feni (1942 - 1991)
Untitled (Nude with crossed arms) - 1985
Pen and ink on paper
61 x 45,5 cm
Signed and dated bottom right
Sold - 2012
Dr Windsor Leroke, in his essay ‘Autri, tragedy and the aesthetics in Dumile’s art’ , states: The power of art lies in its ability to make us reflect on our present social conditions without making us prisoners of these. This, for me, is the force and significance of Dumile’s art for us in South Africa .
In an interview with Eva Cockcroft for Art and Artists in 1983, titled I Come From a Long Tradition , Dumile claimed that the most important influence in his artistic development was his childhood visits to the Bushman caves with his mother, where he saw the paintings of his ancestors. He showed a great passion for drawing and carving from an early age, even forcing his parents to leave pencils and paper out to occupy his expressive urges in the morning. He would later declare: I am amazed by one thing that I’m glad never left me – that is the beauty of the lines, the fine lines .
Dumile internalised his experiences of life on the margins of society, and of the dark side of humanity, expressing their contemplated shapes through his use of line and obsessive scribbles. Kwezi Gule noted of the artist: an astute observer of form, both human and animal, his drawings bear evidence of history and the human condition . His works became pictorial pleas for the pain and suffering of his people during the Apartheid struggle, earning him the title of ‘Goya of the townships’
Dumile had a very distinct style, drawing not only from life, but also from memory and experience. From the late 1960’s he mostly worked in pen on paper, building up his drawings with structural lines, while leaving their internal workings exposed and more vulnerable to the viewer’s dissecting eye. The strong use of line in his drawings creates an atmosphere of devastating intensity . The figures seem to evolve from his hand as scientific observations, reminiscent of androids with robotic limbs mechanically attached, their constructed hands clasping rather than touching - not willing to let go in fear of losing.
In ‘Untitled (Nude with crossed arms)’ the model stands assertive, with her arms folded, and head turned, gazing proudly into the distance. An Amazon warrior demanding respect, she stands in stark contrast with traditional studies of female nudes which are usually voluptuously placid and entangled in drapes. Her body’s contours are constructed rather than rendered, emphasized by repeated pen lines. Her hips, bony and accentuated, carry her torso with pride, showing the artist’s skilful ability to re-interpret the human form.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Prince Mbusi Dube, Dumile Feni Retrospective, Johannesburg, 2006, pp 42, 105 and 181
Bruce Smith, Artist in Exile, Johannesburg, 2004, p 12