Jazz and art transcend language and culture in Sam Nhlengethwa’s work

“Jazz, I think it’s a universal language and expression,” says the artist and one of the founders of the Bag Factory art organisation in Newtown, Sam Nhlengethwa.

The artist is best known for his figurative paintings and collage works exploring themes of social and art history, jazz, mining and domestic life. Nhlengethwa was born in 1955, in the mining community of Payneville, Springs, south-east of Johannesburg. After studying at the Rorke’s Drift Art Centre in the late 1970s, he attended the Johannesburg Art Foundation.

Jazz forms an integral part of his creative process ­- legends like Abdullah Ibrahim, Miriam Makeba, Nina Simone, Hugh Masekela and Cannonball Adderley regularly feature in his work. “I always play jazz in my studio while working,” he says. In a former interview with the international art magazine Apollo, he described it “like oxygen. “It completes my life. I grew up listening to jazz music that was played to me by my two eldest brothers; from when I was as young as 15, there was jazz around the house.”

When he uses jazz as inspiration, he considers it a homage to his late brother, Rankie Ramponeng, who was a jazz collector and musician.  “I feel that every time I do a jazz piece, I pay tribute to him.” “People who are passionate about jazz realise what a strong tool it is. The American jazz musician Keith Jarrett said that jazz is transportive, it’s a universal language that speaks to different tribes of people from all around the world. ”Jazz music, like art, transcends all language and cultural barriers, Nhlengethwa believes. A jazz musician can come from South Africa, and play jazz in the marabi-style, but it speaks to you, whether you’re from China or Cuba A Cuban artist can play a clave, a rhythmic arrangement that conjures images of dark clubs in Havana’s back street, gyrating bodies shrouded in cigar smoke, and immediately the listener will be transported to that same club.

Like jazz music, Nhlengethwa’s work possesses the same universal language that speaks to the viewer on a deeper level.  His compositions – usually mixed media collages – have a harmony and rhythmic arrangement similar to a jazz composition, but also possess a spontaneity and playfulness associated with an improvised jazz riff.

South Africa’s leading auction house Strauss & Co is also thrilled to offer four notable works of Nhlengethwa during their Live Virtual Auction, which takes place from 16 – 17 May, 2022.One of the lots up for auction, Abdullah Ibrahim and Johny Dyani (R120 000 – R160 000) is an evocative mixed-media collage featuring South African jazz legends Ibrahim and Dyani. The artwork shows the two musicians against a stark black background, lost in their melodies while rays of studio lights beam down on them. The artwork immediately conjures a mournful marabi, punctuated by the sonorous twangs of Dyani’s contrabass.

The creative process

Nhlengethwa uses cuttings from magazines, his family albums and his own photographs, as well as books, cloths, steel and other found objects.  “There is a lot that goes on before I can even start with the actual collaging. I have to think of a theme and conceptualise it. Then I think of how the image I have in mind has to be executed, how much acrylic or oil paint I need, versus the other materials. The perspective in the image is determined by the sizes of the images,” he explains. “I am inspired by my surroundings and where I come from. Street scenes feature prominently in my art, my admiration for other artists is a factor, music, and my own experiences all play a part,” he explains. “Studying at Rorke’s Drift in the late 1970s impacted my art – living with the village people, studying their rural life and comparing it with the city life of where I come from.”

Nhlengethwa also worked for the SABC as a studio set designer, a craft that contributed to his popular “room collages”. “I think I always had a dormant interest in ‘dressing-up’ my designs. I would always have some input about how I thought the final product should look.” One of these artworks The Piano (R150 000 – R200 000) features a mid-century Scandi-style chaise-longue, juxtaposed against a grand piano, and an abstract artwork. Above the piano hangs an image of a musician.

Nhlengethwa is also known for his protest art, which depicts the plight of Black people under the Apartheid regime.

Hacking away at Apartheid’s roots

“During the struggle, art and music played an important role in protest art. Artists were participating in various ways, showing their dissent against the struggle – both locally and internationally,” he said in an interview with Khaya FM. Artists would produce work that visually showed the suffering of black people in the country, while musicians like Abdul Ibrahim’s legendary song, Mannenberg‘s became a worldwide hit and anti-apartheid anthem, played at anti-apartheid rallies. “I believe in this way, both musicians and artists contributed a bit in hacking away at the roots of the Apartheid government,” he concludes.

For more info on the sale visit www.straussart.co.za.

The exhibition is open to the public to view  until May 17, 2022, at 89 Central Street, Houghton Estate, JHB. Strauss & Co’s May auction in Johannesburg, which has a focus on Surrealism in South Africa, begins with a sale of fine wine from the private collections of Peter Veldsman and Dirkie Christowitz on Sunday 15 May at 11am. Sessions of Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art will take place on Monday 16 May at 2pm and 7pm, as well as on Tuesday 17 May at 7pm.