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Mbatha, Eric

Born in 1948 in Soweto, a south-west township near Johannesburg.  He attended school in Soweto and as a boy showed an interest in art.  He sketched often and collected many world maps.  in 1964, he entered the Polly Street Art Centre, where Skotnes helped him get a scholarship for the Evangelical Luthern Churg Art and Craft Centre at Rorke's Drift in KwaZulu-Natal.  He has exhibited several times since 1967.

 

Mbatha was part of the second group of students at the art school who started classes in 1971.  The Polly Street Art Centre in the city and the art school at Rorke's Drift in the rural area were two unique art training centres at the time and two of the early art schools where black artists could study.  The training at Rorke's Drift concentrated on intaglio printmaking whihc included the etching processes of acquaint, dry point and mezzatint.  They also experimented with printing etchings in colour and colour etchings by hand.  Eric was good at colouring sections of the etching plate before printing it.

 

When Mbatha completed his two-year course at Rorke's Drift in 1972, he was offered a job as an art teacher at the Young Women's Christian Associaton in Soweto.  His first solo exhibition was held at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg in the same year.  He had a long relationship with the Rorke's Drift art school.  He was visiting artist in 1974 and taught there in 1975, and again from 1977 for two years.  He was invited to Augsburg College, Minneapolis, USA as visiting artist in 1976, where he taught graphics and sculpture.  He travelled a lot while he was in the USA and taught at various universities.  He also visited Sweden and France.

 

Mbatha's work deals with everyday life in Africa with titles like African Queens, Dancers.  He expressed his life experiences and feelings with titles like Lost and Marching to Golgotha.  The subjects he uses are seldom political, but he has depicted a scene like Township in Revolt about the 1976 Soweto riots.

 

Ref:  Walking Tall, Without Fear - 24 South African Artists from the Struggle Era by Ifa Lethu & Dirkie Offringa

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