Lot 152: Tony (Anthony Molebatsi) Nkotsi (South African, born 1955) Figures from the struggle unframed

Figures from the struggle
signed 'Nkotsi' (lower right)
oil on canvas
178 x 127cm (70 1/16 x 50in).
unframed

As a young man in Soweto, Nkotsi was impressed by the work of Dumile Feni. He spent any money his mother gave him on art materials and attended informal art classed at weekends. In June 1976, he took part in the student protests against the forceful introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in Black schools. His involvement in the revolts, which were key to the liberation movement and challenging the apartheid regime, resulted in his detention.

Nkotsi later studied at the Mofolo Art centre under Dumisane Mabaso, Pat Mautloa and Daniel Gabashane, and at Rorke's Drift Art Centre under Keith van Winkel and Jay Johnson. A founding member of the printmaking workshop Skuzo, he taught at the Johannesburg Art Foundation from 1986 and served as Head of the Printmaking Department. In 1988, through the aid of a British Council Scholarship, he was able to study lithography at the Peacock Printmakers Studio in Aberdeen and the Printmakers Workshop in Edinburgh in Scotland. His work is in the collections of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, University of Fort Hare, University of South Africa and The Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA).