Moses Tladi (1903–1959) was a self-taught artist who was the first black painter to hold a formal exhibition in South Africa and the first black artist to exhibit at the

South African National Gallery The Iziko South African National Gallery is the national art gallery of South Africa located in Cape Town. It became part of the Iziko collection of museums – as managed by the Department of Arts and Culture – in 2001. It then became an agenc ...

Early life

Moses Tladi was born and brought up in 1903 Lobethal, GaPhahla, in the northern part of South Africa. He was the son of a traditional healer who made a living by working creatively in iron, and a mother who was a gifted potter. Tladi spent his early years herding cattle. His parents converted to Christianity under the influence of the Berlin Missionary Society, and he was educated at the Lobethal Mission in the now

Limpopo Province Limpopo is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while th ...

. Tladi, like many young men of the time, went to Johannesburg in search of work. By the mid-1920s, he found employment as gardener at Lokshoek, the home of mining company employee, Herbert Read in the fashionable suburb of Parktown.

Career as an artist

Tladi started painting with leftover commercial house paint and a stick. His talent for painting was noticed by his employer, Read who started providing him with artists' materials. Read also introduced Tladi to the collector and philanthropist Howard Pim, who was once a mayor of Johannesburg, and played a leading role in the establishment of the

Johannesburg Art Gallery The Johannesburg Art Gallery is an art gallery in Joubert Park in the city centre of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the largest gallery on the continent with a collection that is larger than that of the Iziko South African National Gallery i ...

. Both Read and Pim promoted Tladi at public exhibitions from 1929 onwards. In 1931 Tladi became the first black artist to exhibit at the

. In 1939, he was the first Black African Artist to have his works exhibited at the National Gallery in Johannesburg, where his paintings received acclaim. Tladi served his country during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and continued to paint until 1956, when he was forced to move out of his own home in the Johannesburg suburb of

Kensington B Kensington B is a suburb in Randburg, which is an area located in northern Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bound ...

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

as a result of the National Party's

Apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

policies, specifically the Group Areas Act. He died in 1959, at the age of 56.

Moses Tladi Unearthed

The first major South African exhibition of the work of artist, Moses Tladi, opened at the Iziko

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

on Heritage Day, 24 September 2015. The exhibition entitled Moses Tladi Unearthed, provided the visitor with an exceptional opportunity to view his work. Cited as the first black artist to have exhibited formally in South Africa, Moses Tladi (1903–1959) developed a reputation as a realist landscape painter. During his lifetime, he was the first black artist to exhibit at the Iziko South African National Gallery, soon after the present building was opened, first in 1931 and then in 1933. More than half a century after his death in 1959, this exhibition brings back into public view the significance of his work. The exhibition was moved to

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...

in June 2016 to be part of the National Arts Festival. The exhibition features approximately 30 Tladi paintings, sourced from institutional and personal collections in South Africa and overseas. An “in context” approach showcasing other artists who worked in a similar vein, or at the same time, are also included.

Notes and references

External links

Moses Tladi Unearthed
at the National Arts Festival in

Joane PimIziko Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tladi, Moses 20th-century South African painters 20th-century male artists 1903 births 1959 deaths South African male painters

Early life

Career as an artist

Moses Tladi Unearthed

Notes and references

Further reading

External links