George Pemba’s art has often been categorised as “Township Art”, connoting art by Black artists, but his work was ultimately recognised for its great variety of scenes of South African life and culture. Young Woman (1947) is an oil painting of a girl on the cusp of womanhood. Clothed in traditional dress, the figure is adorned with jewellery and a headpiece of wrapped fabric; she looks out at the viewer with a shy glance. In addition to his mastery of watercolour, Pemba used oil paints to highlight the vibrancy of colour and landscapes of South Africa. Although dissuaded by his peers, Pemba moved away from watercolours to oil painting because of the higher value placed on the medium by potential buyers, particularly white collectors. Pemba’s dedication to both watercolour and oil painting resulted in some of the most successful visual documentation and dedication to capturing both traditional and cultural aspects of South African life by any painter of that era.
This is the first time the work of George Pemba is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Heba Elkayal
