Object Details
- Gerard Sekoto, 1913-1993, born South Africa
- Label Text
- Gerard Sekoto, a pioneer of African modernism, was among the first black South Africans to work with oil paints. He found steady patronage in the 1940s before the policy of apartheid suppressed his vibrant multiracial intellectual community in District Six, the renowned inner-city area of Cape Town destroyed in the 1970s. This painting, with its alternating planes, flattened perspective, subtle palette and command of light and shadow, is one of the most recognized works of an era.
- Description
- Painting of a boy holding a match stick in his hand and playing with the melted wax of a lighted candle.
- Provenance
- Annie Shulman, 1940s to 1999
- Michael Stevenson, South Africa, 1999 to 2000
- Exhibition History
- Histórias Afro-Atlânticas, Museu de Arte de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, June 28-October 21, 2018
- African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2013–August 12, 2019 (installed October 7, 2016 to February 20, 2018)
- Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue - From the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, November 7, 2014-January 24, 2016
- African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2013-ongoing (deinstalled October 15, 2014)
- African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2010-November 13, 2013
- Encounters with the Contemporary, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 7, 2001-January 6, 2002
- Published References
- Binkley, David, Bryna Freyer, Christine Mullen Kreamer, Andrea Nicolls and Allyson Purpura. 2011. "Building a National Collection of African Art: The Life History of a Museum." Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display, ed. by Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke. Seattle: University of Washington Press, p. 279, no. 13.7.
- Kreamer, Christine Mullen and Adrienne L. Childs (eds). 2014. Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue from the Collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 104, 116, no. 67, pl. 46.
- National Museum of African Art. 2010. African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting. Exhibition card. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, no. 1 (detail).
- Toledo, To´mas. 2018. Histórias afro-atlânticas. São Paulo: Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, MASP: Instituto Tomie Ohtake. illustrated.
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase
- 1943
- Object number
- 2000-3-1
- Restrictions & Rights
- Usage conditions apply
- Copyright
- © 1943 Gerard Sekoto Foundation
- Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- Stretcher: 46.2 x 36 cm (18 3/16 x 14 3/16 in.)
- Framed: 48.9 × 37.8 × 5.1 cm (19 1/4 × 14 7/8 × 2 in.)
- Geography
- South Africa
- See more items in
- National Museum of African Art Collection
- National Museum of African Art
- Record ID
- nmafa_2000-3-1
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys7b7c59528-a8bc-45c7-bb80-cb17f239d541
