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Featured artists

Bengu

Born in Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, Bengu received her BA (Fine Arts)(cum laude) from Mount Vernon College, Washington DC, USA in 1993 and in 1997, her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Cape Town. Bengu lives and works in Johannesburg.

Bengu's work, Boiling Point, features jazz musicians: Dolly Rathebe; Dorothy Masuku; Kippy Moeketsi and beauty queen, singer and actress Hazel Futa. Using African-Americans as role models, blacks adopted Western practices in order to claim equality with whites in the 1950s. For the first time there were so-called 'beauty queens' and beauty contests. The beauty of the era cannot be more aptly described than with the photograph of singer Miriam Makeba rehearsing in her studio, her full skirt swirling and her face jubilant.

"Boiling Point is a celebration of the 1950s people of South Africa, an era of renaissance and transformation captured in DRUM magazine. DRUM helped restore dignity to the oppressed by celebrating the rich, vibrant culture in the townships."

Boiling Point,
collage, 94 x 149cm, 2001
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Wayne Cahill Barker   Gerhard Harald Batha   Walter Whall Battiss   Deborah Margaret Bell   Bongi Bengu   Willie Bester
                     
         
                     
Peter John Bonney   Willem Hendrik Adriaan Boshoff   Mbongeni Richman Buthelezi   Norman Catherine   Erika Hibbert   Phillemon Hlungwani
                     
         
                     
Robert Griffiths Hodgins   William Kentridge   John Kramer   Speelman Mahlangu   Colbert Mashile   Clare Menck
                     
         
                     
John Mark Moore   Zwelethu Mthethwa and Sam Nhlengethwa   Olbie Olberholzer   Walter Oltmann   Milwa Mnyaluza George Pemba   Uwe Pfaff
                     
         
                     
Karin Preller   Dan Rakgoathe   Albert Redelinghuys   Jürgen Schadeberg   Lucky Sibiya   Jaco Sieberhagen
                     
         
                     
Lionel Smit   Richard John Smith   Angus Taylor   Alfred Thoba   Andrew Verster   Edoardo Villa
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