​Contemporary South African Art

Born in 1946 in Newclare, near Sophiatown, Johannesburg.  As a Grade Six boy he was asked to decorate his classroom.  he painted a hen with chickens and had to explain to his classmates that it symbolized the care of parents before their children go out into the world.  When he was 19, Nat completed his Junior Certificate (Grade Ten) at the Meadowlands Secondary School.  After leaving school, he joined a band called Ricky and the Diamonds as a guitarist.  In 1966, he started art classes of the Jubilee Art Centre in Johannesburg, where he studied under Legae and Bill Hart.  He stayed for a year/  The artists Julian Motau and Ngatane, who painted township scenes, also influenced his art.

Like his teacher Legae, Mokgosi sometimes combined humbn figures and animals.  Legae taught him to look at his subjects carefully, to notice how muscles and the skeleton work together.  Hart taught him about colour and how to paint light and dark effects and how to use primary colours.  Mokgosi sometimes draws figures that are part human, part animal.  These figures are from his imagination which are inspired by either African or ancient Greek legends.

Bill Hart taught him about colour and how to use strong primary colours (red, blue, and yellow).  For light and dark effects he often mixed white or black paint with his colours.  He worked in watercolours and gouache and later started to use oil paints.

Mokgosi often chose religious subjects that depicted suffering to symbolize the hardship of people under the apartheid rule.  Stories from the Bible, such as Christians suffering for their religion and Christ suffering on the cross, were compared to the suffering and difficulties of black people under the old unjust laws of South Africa.  Sometimes he was inspired by something in everyday life - he once saw a pair of worker's overalls hanging from a tree and this reminded him of Christ's body hanging on the cross.

Mokgosi taught for a wjile at the Open School in Johannesburg before he became a full-time artist in 1970.  His first solo exhibition took place the same year.  In 1975, he studied for a while with the artist Lionel Abrahams and was chosen for an important exhibition, Art in South Africa Today.  In 1978, his work was exhibited at the Second International Art Fair in Israel.  Some of his artworks are included in a number of publice collections.

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