Ezrom Legae

Ezrom Kgobokanyo Sebata Legae (1 June 1938 – 5 January 1999) was a South African sculptor, draughtsman, and teacher. He is considered a foremost draughtsmen, and sculptor from South Africa.

Life and career

Ezrom Kgobokanyo Sebata Legae was born on 1 June 1938 in Vrededorp, Johannesburg.[1][2] He was educated at St Cyprian's Primary School in Sophiatown, then at Madibane High School in Diepkloof, Soweto.[1] Legae studied at the Polly Street Art Centre beginning in 1959; from 1960 until 1964 he attended the Jubilee Art Centre and worked with Cecil Skotnes and Sydney Kumalo.[3] When Sydney Kumalo retired from his teaching post at the Jubilee Art Centre in 1964, Ezrom Legae replaced him first as an assistant and then as a co-director of the Centre. From 1965 to 1972, Legae was represented by the influential Johannesburg gallerist Egon Guenther and from 1973 until his death by the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg.

In 1970 he received a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Europe and the United States; between 1972 and 1974 he was director of the African Music and Drama Association Art Project.

Legae worked full-time as an artist; he lived in Soweto with his family until his death.

Legae is best known for his powerful visual commentaries on the pathos and degradation of apartheid - a critique he extended to the persistence of poverty and racism in the post-apartheid years. He excelled as painter and sculptor of figures, heads and animals working with oil, conté, bronze, clay and mixed media.

References

  1. ^ a b Watkins, Gavin Graham; Skinner, Charles (2023). The Sculptures of Sydney Kumalo and Ezrom Legae: A Catalogue Raisonné. Strauss & Company. ISBN 978-0-6397-6015-5.
  2. ^ Peffer-Engels, John (1999). "In Memoriam: Ezrom Kgobokanyo Sebata Legae, 1938-1999". African Arts. 32 (3). UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center: 17+85–86. JSTOR 3337706.
  3. ^ "Ezrom Legae". National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
  • Nel, Karel (2018). Re/discovery and Memory: The works of Sydney Kumalo, Ezrom Legae, Serge Alain Nitegeka and Edoardo Villa. Norval Foundation. ISBN 978-0-6207-9391-9.
  • Watkins, Gavin Graham; Skinner, Charles (2023). The Sculptures of Sydney Kumalo and Ezrom Legae: A Catalogue Raisonné. Strauss & Company. ISBN 978-0-6397-6015-5.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.