Azaria Mbatha: His artwork was his escape

The recent death of Azaria Mbatha (77), who came from humble beginnings, to stamp his signature on the South African art scene through the world-famous Rorke’s Drift Art Centre, has left a hole few will be able to fill.
Born in Mhlabatini in Zululand, he was the first student of the Lutheran Arts and Craft School when it was first based at Mapumulo.
He studied further at the Rorke’s Drift Art Centre, from 1962-1964, which was run by the Swedish Lutheran Church.
His story is intimately linked with the foundation of the school. In 1965 he was awarded a two-year scholarship to travel to Sweden where he studied mural and enamel painting.

“He also exhibited his artworks in Germany and some of his art was even bought and donated to churches.”

He returned to teach at Rorke’s Drift from 1967 to 1968.
However, he left South Africa to live in Lund, Sweden from 1969. From 1977 to 1980, he studied social sciences at the University of Lund. In 1965, Mr Mbatha was the first black South African artist to win the prestigious Cambridge Shirt Award for his linocut on paper entitled ‘Revelation of St John’.
He again was a trendsetter in April 1967, when two of his linocuts were accepted to the Museum of Modern Art collection in New York, making him the first black African artist to have work accepted by this international institution.
“Mr Mbatha held exhibitions in South Africa and quite often worked closely with Jo Thorpe at the Institution of Race Relations,” said Miss Tyler, an employee at Rorke’s Drift.
“He also exhibited his artworks in Germany and some of his art was even bought and donated to churches.”
Strong Christian influence
Between 1982 and 1992, Mr Mbatha was an assistant secretary at the County Council office at Skane in Sweden. In 1993, he enrolled at the University of Lund in Sweden, to complete a doctorate of philosophy in African historical symbolism. He returned to South Africa and between 1992 and 1995 he conducted fieldwork research for his dissertation. It has often been presumed that the Biblical imagery portrayed in Mr Mbatha’s prints was a consequence of his training at an art school started by a Christian group. However, this was not the case. It was his father, Matshwele Mfukutheni Mbatha, who brought a strong Christian influence to his son’s life. He was so proud of his son’s illustrations of Biblical testaments that he hosted his son’s first exhibition at his Zululand homestead in 1962.

 “At Rorke’s Drift there is the Azaria Mbatha Exhibition room that has a display of his work and more other historical artworks by other Rorke’s Drift artists and fine art students. We are very saddened by his passing, but his artwork will always remind us of his phenomenal work.”

His father’s favourite linocut was titled ‘Jonah’. His international success was to have a long-term influence on the Rorke’s Drift art school and its students. He was a graphic artist creating linocuts, silkscreens, etchings, and serigraphs, but linocut was his medium of choice.
He was more comfortable working in black and white, although he experimented with the use of colour as early as 1962. He held his first solo exhibition in South Africa in 1968 and exhibited his work in England, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. He was nominated as the 1981 Standard Bank Artist of the Year. In 1998, the Durban Art Gallery held an ‘Azaria Mbatha Retrospective Exhibition’ and produced a catalogue to accompany the exhibition. Miss Tyler concluded that: “At Rorke’s Drift there is the Azaria Mbatha Exhibition room that has a display of his work and more other historical artworks by other Rorke’s Drift artists and fine art students. We are very saddened by his passing, but his artwork will always remind us of his phenomenal work.”