Mmapula Mmakgoba Helena Sebidi Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1943 -

Mmapula Mmakgoba Helen Sebidi was born in Marapyane, near Hammanskraal,on 5th March in 1943. She developed a life-long love for the designs of traditional arts and craft as a young girl, thanks to her grandmother, who was a traditional wall and floor painter.

Sebidi was from a humble family, and with limited means of obtaining formal education, circumstances forced Sebedi to seek work as a domestic worker in Johannesburg. In private, and in her own time, she pursued her emerging sense of creativity. One day her work was discovered by her employer, who was astonished by her talent, and encouraged her to paint.

Sebidi soon realized that she needed to receive formal lessons in the art of painting. She therefore enrolled at the remarkable White Studio in Sophiatown from 1970 to 1973, which was established by the pioneering black painter John Keonakeefe Mohl.

Sebidi therefore acquired a firm grounding in the fundamentals of painting technique and composition, which resulted in her art taking a qualitative leap. She broadened the scope of her medium and her work began to be noticed within the art world, therefore she was soon asked to exhibit.