Sam Nhlengethwa Glimpses of the 50s and 60s

"The title of this series is Glimpses of the Fifties and Sixties. I have chosen to work in the style to which I have become accustomed (collage) and to also explore my printing via the photogravure process. I think one of the reasons I like this process is that it has an element of collage in it, but the process is more physically involved and delicate. It entails digitising an initial collage and working through at least five plates before even considering the trial print to be used for the series.

I sourced material from the Drum magazine archives and I also looked through my own family albums. The use of my own archive was important because I wanted to reflect an intimacy and a familiarity that would make the images accessible. Looking through the albums I reminisced about growing up in my grandmother's house and how I always found the dining room with the wedding photograph so intriguing. I also recalled enjoying a softball match in Westonaria (a small mining community on the West Rand) amidst the many dompas and curfew laws. Today these images have now been revived in the music videos of Mafikizolo and the 'Stoned Cherry' fashion label. I think I'm lucky in the sense that I have used art as an outlet for the frustrations I encountered during this time. My visual expression through painting was therapeutic and has now been transformed into what I believe to be a historical retrospective." Sam Nhlengethwa, 2004

A series of prints which are all the same size, printed by hand as colour photolithographs from pre-sensitised aluminium plates.

For links to other prints done by Nhlengethwa, please scroll to the bottom of this page.

Artists A - L

Artists M - X

For orders (with free shipping) or any other enquiries, contact us.


Collage photo-lithograph of police van and women holding protest placards

Title: Stop it Verwoerd
Medium: Six colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

A man sleeping on a concrete bunk bed in a South African mine hostel

Title: A Tired Miner
Medium: Six colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

collaged image from multiple photographs of a crowded city scene with people in the foreground

Title: Azikhwelwa
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Dining room interior with a child sitting at a table studying by candle light

Title: Candlelit Studying
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Title: Collegues
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Two miners showering in a South African mine hostel shower with their mining gear alongside

Title: Miners Showering
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Young woman kneeling on the ground using a grinding stone in traditional homestead yard

Title: The Grinding Stone
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)


Man in the foreground with racist Apartheid bus stop sign behind him in cityscape

Title: Near the Bus Stop
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Photo-litho collage of a group of men gumboot dancing and playing the marimbas in mine compound

Title: Gumboot Dance
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

South African mine scene showing mining gear, miners and buildings

Title: Hard at Work I
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Group of male workers working with mounds of mined ore in outside space

Title: Hard at Work II
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Crowded mid-twentieth century train platform with passengers and train

Title: Mbombela
Medium: Six colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Collaged image of a crowded room with men and Apartheid era signage

Title: Migrant Labourers
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Miners waiting in line with corrugated iron wall behind them

Title: Pay Day
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Apartheid policeman inspecting men's documentation with a crowded railway station platform

Title: Pass Raid
Medium: Six colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Crowded collage image of anti-Apartheid protestors and South African police

Title: Protests
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Policeman inspecting a row of naked miners standing up against a wall with arms above heads

Title: Humiliation
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Collaged image of armed South African Police and protestors shot dead at Sharpeville

Title: Sharpeville Massacre
Medium: Six colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Collaged image of a group of girls skipping with crowded buildings in background

Title: Skipping
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Coal yard scene with workers shovelling piles of coal

Title: The Coal Shed
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Three outdoor barbers cutting hair with corrugated iron fencing and mining apparatus behind them

Title: Part Time Job II
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Collaged image of Apartheid police overseeing forced removals of people from their homes

Title: The End of Kofifi
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Interior scene of a South African shebeen with men and a woman drinking alcohol

Title: The Shebeen
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Collaged image of five babies and toddlers inside brick walled yard

Title: While We Were Young I
Medium: Six colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Group of four boys standing and looking out at viewer with built structures in background

Title: While We Were Young II
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Group of children standing in front of corrugated iron walls of home with an abstracted chair on left

Title: While We Were Young III
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Two people and using foot-powered sewing machines with residential buildings behind them

Title: Part Time Job I
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Apartheid policemen inspecting dom passes, photo collage with Apartheid era signage

Title: Whites Only Area
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Four miners working at an underground rockface with drills

Title: Underground
Medium: Five colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)

Collaged street scene of a row of Apartheid-era compounds for mine workers with people walking by

Title: The Compounds
Medium: Four colour photo-lithograph
Paper size: 49 x 38 cm
Image size: 20 x 28 cm
Edition size: 25
Price: R 6 700 (excl.VAT)


Click on these links to see more prints by Sam Nhlengethwa:

Art meets Fashion

Joburg Selected

Waiting

Goats

The Beat of Drum

The Recyclers

Jazz Lithographs

 Township Series

Tribute Interiors

Conversations

Restaurant Prints

Sam Nhlengethwa Archive

New Editions from The Artists' Press


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