Buy the full set of TAXI Art Books, an important collectible for any library on South African art for R4000.

The first major series of monographs on contemporary South African artists by a South African publisher, the TAXI Art Books have become an invaluable resource to educators and individuals both in South Africa and abroad. As examples of South African art history in the making, the full collection of TAXI Art Books can be valued as a collector’s item. Artists included in the set:  Mmakgabo Sebidi, Diane Victor, Sandile Zulu, Willem Boshoff, Deborah Bell, Kagiso Pat Mautloa, Steven Cohen, Noria Mabasa, David Koloane, Lien Botha, Santu Mofokeng, Jeremy Wafer, Samson Mudzunga and Jo Ractliffe.

Many of the books in the TAXI Art Book series are unfortunately no longer available as singles. These titles are TAXI-001 Jo Ractliffe, TAXI-004 Santu Mofokeng, TAXI-005 Lien Botha, TAXI-007 Noria Mababsa, TAXI-008 Steven Cohen, TAXI-009 Kagiso Pat Mautloa, and TAXI-010 Deborah Bell.

NOW AVAILABLE TAXI-014 Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmankgato Helen Sebidi

Mmakgabo  Sebidi traverses mental and physical landscapes with an eye trained on the dangerous, the discomfiting, the traumatic and the ecstatic in human experience. She is deeply grounded in her rural upbringing and traditions but also finely attuned to the rhythms of the city in which she has spent much of her adult life. Sebidi brings together these two worlds in works of great visionary and prophetic power. Her themes are wide-ranging: her cultural roots, the wisdom of the ancestors, the ravages of the modern world on the human psyche, the loss of tradition, the potential of human creativity to build relationships and restore the past.

Sebidi trained in a number of informal art institutions in Johannesburg and for many years exhibited her work – mostly ceramics, landscapes and figurative scenes drawn from her home in Marapyane – at venues such as Artists Under the Sun in Johannesburg and Pietermaritzburg. But while working at the Johannesburg Art Foundation under the tutelage of David Koloane and Bill Ainslie, Sebidi made her first semi-abstract work, a frenzied, visionary work produced in a marathon of painting that terrified the artist and prompted Ainslie to describe it as her ‘miracle’. This marked a dramatic shift for Sebidi, away from her figurative works and landscapes and into a new idiom that is part figuration and part abstraction but that always seeks to escape the boundaries of both. Sebidi’s works pulsate with energy. They are dense and exuberant, both formally and thematically. Layers and layers of rich impasto are applied in painstaking detail, often on top of drip paintings. Strange figures, some fantastical and mythological, and some drawn from her own richly storied history, jostle for space on the crowded canvases. At times they evoke a sense of celebration and at other times of terror and loss.

Sebidi has participated in many group and solo shows. She won the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Award in 1989, the Vita Art Award in 1990, and the Silver Award of the Order of Ikhamanga in 2004. Her work is in many private and public collections in South Africa and abroad, including Iziko South African National Gallery; the
Johannesburg Art Gallery; and the Smithsonian Institution.

TAXI-014 Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmankgato Helen Sebidi is written by Juliette Leeb-du Toit with an introduction by Andries Oliphant. The Educational Supplement is by André Croucamp.

TAXI Art Books is a series on contemporary South African artists initiated in 2000 by the French Institute of South Africa, Pro Helvetia – Arts Council of Switzerland, and the Royal Netherlands Embassy, and published by David Krut Publishing. The series aims to broaden awareness of, and create an archive on, contemporary South African art. An Educational Supplement accompanies each book in the series and serves as a teaching resource for arts educators.

TAXI-014 Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmankgato Helen Sebidi was funded by the MTN SA Foundation, the National Arts Council and David Krut Arts Resource.

For information on the making of the book, click here.

The tension generated by Diane Victor’s impressive body of drawings and prints arises not simply from her biting social commentary and the sometimes macabre nature of her images and narratives, but from an interplay between the tough and the fragile, between the hard edges of her visual narratives and the delicate mark-making and fragility of her preferred media.

Victor’s steady output over two decades has made her one of the most important of contemporary South African artists. She has won many awards including the Sasol New Signatures and the Financial Mail/J&B Rare Achievers Award for Art. She has exhibited widely and her work is held in private and public collections in South Africa and abroad.

Elizabeth Rankin discusses Victor’s prints, exploring their relationship to other elements of her work, while Karen von Veh focuses on Victor’s drawings, arguing that the work recalls nineteenth-century Gothic but is also strongly contemporary in its exploration of sexual politics.

TAXI-012 SANDILE ZULU, the 12th title in the TAXI Art series, is the first book on the work of Sandile Zulu. Over the last decade, Zulu has developed a working method that relies as much on rhythm and repetition as it does on the unpredictability of the elements – fire, water, found objects – he uses. He is, as Colin Richards notes in his meticulously researched essay, a pyromancer, a collector of natural elements, and a scavenger after industrial debris.

Zulu’s wide-ranging interests in science, astronomy, and pan-African philosophy, and his innovative use of fire have resulted in a body of work that stands up to rigorous interpretation but conveys a profound appreciation of patterns and harmony. Important pieces such as Royal Court Art Work and his “Artomic Passages” series, attest to a meditative aesthetic philosophy, a disciplined artistic practice, and a keen awareness of the often-difficult relationship between art and society.

Sandile Zulu has participated in numerous group exhibitions both locally and abroad, and his work is in many private and public South African collections. In July 2005 he will mount his first international solo show in London.

Colin Richards has published widely on South African art and curated several major exhibitions. He lectures in art criticism, studio practice, and art theory at the Wits School of Arts, and is a practising artist whose work is included in most major South African public collections.

SANDILE ZULU EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
Written by Philippa Hobbs
Softcover, 16 Pages with black and white images, 20 x 25 cm
ISBN: 0-958-4688-8-5

Willem Boshoff possesses the instincts of the collector, the playfulness of the prankster, and the attention to detail of the scientist. His knowledge of wood and plant species (he is a self-taught and highly regarded dendrologist) is an extension of a long-held fascination with words and language, with encryption, secret writing, taxonomies, and codes. These interests and sources of inspiration have resulted in works of profound importance such as The Blind Alphabet, which was a highlight of the first Johannesburg Biennale. Other works, like 370-Day Project, Tafelboek, the Dictionary of Perplexing English, and his monumental pieces in stone such as Kring van Kennis and Windfall are remarkable as much for their complexity of structure as their exploration of ideas and their challenges to accepted notions of aesthetic possibility.

The book includes over 100 colour images of Boshoff’s work, from his earliest woodcarvings and concrete poems, to more recent works in stone, wood, and other media. An extensive and carefully researched essay by the award-winning writer Ivan Vladislavic´ places Boshoff’s art in context and offers insightful and sensitive analyses of several major works.

Willem Boshoff’s work has been exhibited internationally since the 1980s. He has completed several important commissions and his awards include the FNB Vita Award and the Helgard Steyn Award for Sculpture.

Ivan Vladislavic´ is a writer and editor and has published five books of fiction, including The Restless Supermarket and the critically acclaimed The Exploded View.
WILLEM BOSHOFF EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
Written by Philippa Hobbs.
Softcover, 16 Pages with black and white images, 10.7×8.3 inches
ISBN: 0-9584688-2-6

THIS BOOK IS ONLY AVAILABLE AS PART OF THE FULL SET OF TAXI ART BOOKS.

Deborah Bell is a leading Johannesburg painter and sculptor whose work is created in dialogue with multiple worlds, texts, histories and consciousnesses. She is also widely known for her collaborative projects with William Kentridge and Robert Hodgins. Bell’s drawings, etchings and monumental clay sculptures possess a kind of ‘mystical godliness’ which comes from deep within her. Her art making is a spiritual practice in which the role of the artist is to ‘co-create the world, to materialise what exists and has existed for all time’. Inspired by museum objects from ancient civilisations, including African, Babylonian and Egyptian, her work incorporates multi-layered references to past and present worlds. This connection to ancient sources and memories is linked to her spiritual beliefs and how she defines herself as an artist in Africa, working with materials such as clay and bronze.

This book is the first overview of Bell’s body of work and includes a variety of authors and different forms of writing. Together, these voices provide the reader with a multi-perspectival view into the many contexts in which Bell’s work can be viewed, thought about and read. The artist’s voice is strongly present in her writings from her personal notebooks. In the section on her collaborations with William Kentridge and Robert Hodgins, all three artists reflect independently on the nature of Bell¹s contribution to the various printmaking and film/video projects. A conversation on her Unearthed sculptures with Achille Mbembe,renowned social theorist from Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research, opens up important debates around histories, geographies and artistic appropriation.

Pippa Stein, author and compiler of this book, is a writer and teacher in the School of Literature and Language Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She has published widely in the area of culture, literacies and education.

DEBORAH BELL EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
Written by Ruth Sack. Softcover, 16 pages with black and white images, 10.7×8.3 inches
ISBN: 0-9584688-2-6

Kagiso Pat Mautloa is an essentially urban artist. Based in Johannesburg, he draws his inspiration from the street culture, the dynamics of the changing city and the images and people he encounters there. A graduate of the Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre he was involved in many of the local and international artists’ workshops of the ’80s and early ’90s which helped a whole generation of black artists emerge onto the art scene despite the apartheid strictures imposed on them. He was a founder-member of the Fordsburg Bag Factory and his studio is still there, filled with pieces of the urban debris collected on his daily walks through the city.

This book provides an overview of Mautloa’s oeuvre, as well as insight into his creative process and his central themes. Andries Walter Oliphant’s text includes discussions of his installation, assemblage, print and mixed media works, spanning his days as a student at Rorke’s Drift, his active career of international Biennales and group exhibitions up to his most recent solo exhibition.

PAT MAUTLOA – EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
Written by Philippa Hobbs. Softcover, 16 pages with black and white images, 10.7×8.3 inches
ISBN: 0-9584496-8-6

THIS BOOK IS ONLY AVAILABLE AS PART OF THE FULL SET OF TAXI ART BOOKS.

Steven Cohen is a pioneering artist whose work provocatively confronts issues of identity. Best known for his live performances, Cohen appears not only on stage and in galleries but also, uninvited, in public spaces. His work deals with outsider identity, using his own and others’ bodies to create ‘living art’ that references sculpture, contemporary dance, drag and performance art.

This book is a comprehensive introduction to Cohen’s work, from his silk-screened canvases and furniture to his ‘living art’ performances. The essay and extensive captions, written by Shaun de Waal and Robyn Sassen, provide a conceptual and theoretical framework for approaching Cohen’s art, while tracing its development over time. The numerous colour reproductions selected by photo editor John Hodgkiss reveal the brilliance of this large body of work.

STEVEN COHEN – EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
Text by Jillian Carman; 16 pages; softcover; black and white images; 10.7×8.3 inches
Keywords: performance art, printmaking, dance
ISBN: 0-9584688-1-8

THIS BOOK IS ONLY AVAILABLE AS PART OF THE FULL SET OF TAXI ART BOOKS.

Noria Mabasa is an artist based in Limpopo province, north of Johannesburg. She is a sculptor of large woodcarvings and figurative ceramic work who first came to prominence in the urban art scene in the mid 1980s. Her extraordinary sculptures, inspired by dreams and visions of her ancestors, were included in the first Johannesburg Biennale.

She was awarded the order of the grand counsellor by President Thabo Mbeki in 2002 for her achievements in art under difficult circumstances.

NORIA MABASA – EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
Written by Wilhelm van Rensburg
16 Pages with black and white images, 10.7×8.3 inches
ISBN: 0-9584496-6-X

Artist, writer, arts administrator and curator David Koloane has established a reputation both locally and internationally. His paintings and graphics have been featured in major collections and exhibitions worldwide. His work reflects the socio-political landscape of South Africa both past and present. The conditions created by the apartheid system have, to a large extent, transfixed the human condition as the axis around which his oeuvre revolves.

Fellow artist and novelist Veronique Tadjo is from Ivory Coast but has made Johannesburg her temporary home. She is the author of many acclaimed works of fiction for adults and children and has woven the strands of thought and theme in Koloane’s work into an atmospheric text.

Koloane’s voice comes through in short discussions and musings on individual works, here documented in beautiful colour reproductions.

TAXI-006: DAVID KOLOANE- EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT
Written by Andre Croucamp
Softcover, 16 Pages with black and white images, 10.7×8.3 inches
ISBN: 0-9584496-4-3