Tyilo-Tyilo

Object Details

Louis Maqhubela, born 1939, South Africa

Label Text

This painting celebrates the music of the 1960s from the South African townships. "Tyilo-Tyilo" is also the title of a song that Miriam Makeba recorded in the Xhosa language and means songbird or nightingale. The lyrics describe herders listening to a nightingale. The dark square at the center of the painting suggests a night sky filled with brilliant stars; the sky changes and lightens to become a sunlit day.

Description

Goache on paper, vertically oriented. Dark lozenge surrounded by blue roughly triangular form, yellow and orange circle at top

Exhibition History

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

Claiming Art / Reclaiming Space: Post Apartheid Art from South Africa, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 21-September 26, 1999

Published References

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. 226, 242, no. 106, pl. 136.

Visoná, Monica Blackmun, Robin Poyner and Herbert M. Cole. 2008. A History of Art in Africa. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, p. 495, no. 14-53.

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 Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks.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

1997

Object number

98-19-2

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Copyright

© 1997 Louis Maqhubela

Type

Painting

Medium

Gouache on paper

Dimensions

H x W: 74.5 x 56 cm (29 5/16 x 22 1/16 in.)

Geography

South Africa

See more items in

National Museum of African Art Collection

National Museum of African Art

Topic

musical instrument

Record ID

nmafa_98-19-2

Metadata Usage (text)

Usage conditions apply

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys73114c3c4-bf84-4f40-b5f0-3b29c8622d4f