Gladys Mgudlandlu

Gladys Mgudlandlu was born in the Peddie district near Grahamstown in 1917 (some sources give 1923 or 1925). She was raised mainly by her grandmother, who taught her traditional painting styles from their Xhosa and Fingo heritage, and about the birds native to their region. She qualified as a teacher in 1941, at Lovedale College. She was also registered as a nurse-in-training in Cape Town in the 1940s.[2] Mgudlandlu worked as an art teacher in Langa, Cape Town at the Athlone Bantu Community School for fifteen years. However, when the Bantu Education Act of 1953 was enforced, Mgudlandlu was not allowed to teach at the school under the apartheid regime. Prior to dedicating herself to art full-time, she went to teach briefly at schools in Nyanga and Gugulethu.[1]

Mgudlandlu taught at Athlone Bantu Community School until 1953, and at Nyanga West Primary School from 1953. She painted at night after work. Mgudlandlu’s style was influenced by her grandmother’s indigenous painting techniques. As a child, her grandmother who was a muralist taught her about visual art. Mgudlandlu draws from her rural childhood, and depicts her memories of youth in a dream-like state. Her works feature indigenous birds, rural landscapes, and depictions of vibrant African villages.[1] She was exhibiting in the early 1960s, enough for Bessie Head to comment from exile in Botswana in 1963 that Mgudlandlu's work was "escapist," "childish," and aimed at white audiences.[1] Her introductory solo exhibition was in Cape Town in 1961 at the Liberal Party offices in Parliament Street. Before this initial exhibition of Mgudlandlu's work, no black female artist had been recognized exhibiting in a Western art tradition, they had all remained anonymous.[3] The medium of the works exhibited in the were gouache.[4] Mgudlandlu herself claimed that she was a first; "I think that I can claim to be the first African woman in the country to hold an exhibition," she told a newspaper in 1962. "As far as I know, I am the only African woman who has taken painting seriously."[5] This characterization has been found to be inaccurate by art historians.[6]

After being injured in a car accident in 1971, Mgudlandlu stopped painting and showing her works.[7]

Two Girls (1967)[8]

Mini Girls (1971)[8]

Rocky Outcrop (1964)[9]

Houses in the Township (1970)[9]

Houses in the Hills (1971)[9]

Mother and Chicks (1963)[8]

Honey Birds (1961) [8]

Landscape with Aloes (1962)[8]

The Fall (1962)[8]

Two White Birds Flying Over Mountain and Trees (1962)[8]

Two Blue Birds "Birds" (1962)[8]

Girl Carrying Wood (1970)[8]

1961:Room 404, 47 Parliament Street, Cape Town (solo). Port Elizabeth (solo). 1962:Rodin Gallery, Cape Town (solo). 1963:Dam (Art SA Today). Rodin Gallery, Cape Town (solo). 1965: (solo).

Mgudlandlu died at Guguletu in 1979, aged 61 years. In 2007, Mgudlandlu was posthumously awarded the Presidential Order of Ikhamanga in Silver for her contributions to South African art.[11] A biography by Elza Miles, Nomfanekiso Who Paints at Night: The Art of Gladys Mgudlandlu was published in 2003.[8] A show of works by Mgudlandlu and Valerie Desmore, titled "A Fragile Archive," was on display at Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2012.[12] Filmmaker Kemang Wa Lehulere made "The Bird Lady" (2015), a short documentary about Mgudlandlu.[13]

Works by Mgudlandlu are in the collections of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum.[14]

Unfortunately, many of her works have deteriorated over time because they were primarily in gouache on card. [15]

Gladys Mgudlandlu often depicted birds, the subject matter of her gouache on card painting Two Blue Birds, a work shown in her 1962 Exhibition at the Rodin Gallery in Cape Town. In a Mgudlandlu quote shared by Michael Stevenson, Mgudlandlu expresses her affinity with the creatures, "Birds have always been my companions… I am a very lonely person. They are the only real friends I have had. Sometimes I think I should have been a bird. I even paint like a bird. You will notice that my landscapes are done from a bird’s view, high up and far away"[3]

Houses in the Hills(1971) depicts ugly and oppressive houses that are the antithesis of the organic homes of the traditional African homesteads. These houses are the products of apartheid and "glare accusingly at the viewer". The discord between the yellow-browns and blue-purples serve to accentuate the harsh mood.[16]

• A 2002 educational poster, "If I don't paint I'll go mad", tells Mgudlandlu's story in images and quotes.
• Nontobeko Mabongi Ntombela, "A Fragile Archive: Refiguring Rethinking Reimagining Representing Gladys Mgudlandlu" (Master of Arts in Fine Arts thesis, University of Witwatersrand, 2013).