Colbert Mashile has made a great impact on the SA art scene. His demeanor is self –effacing and humble, but he also impresses with his integrity of vision. One senses he does not compromise I his efforts to project work that engages with issues important to him.
He was born in 1972 and grew up in the Bushbuck Ridge the area all in the Bush buck area. All initial schooling was done locally and he did not have any aspirations to be an artist, although he spent a lot of time drawing in the sand. As chance would have it, in 1990 he came to Pretoria to study public administration and during this period began visiting the Pretoria Art Museum. This sparked an interest in art and he started noticing the craft emanating form Zimbabwe while visiting various galleries as well. Much to the consternation of his parents, in 1991 he embarked upon an art course at the Johannesburg Art Foundation for which he received a bursary.
This experience was very formative because it was the practical and he also came into contact with other disadvantaged artists, some of whom remain close associates.
The culminating exhibition at the foundation brought further possibilities for advancements as Prof Alan Crump recognized his talent and invited him to apply to do a B-tech in Fine Arts at Wits. Four years later he achieved his degree, receiving several awards in the process.
While the academic aspects of his degree were a bit stifling, Mashile threw himself into the experience and found theme that he continues to explore: initiation ceremonies and the impact of traditional rituals on the psyphe of the participant.
He points out that in his ethnic tradition , circumcision is performed at 10,not 16 as in other groups .It is not so much a rite of passage to manhood but part of a journey of life or identity. One can imagine the terror a 10-year old would feel when confronted with these circumstances and Mashile feels the need to address his suppresses feelings.
At first glance his watercolor and pastel paintings exude an air of mystery .The settings are landscapes peopled by strange beings having horns or other attributes that bring to mind rural experience.He does not stretch the paper but works on it ,exploiting the way it buckles when wet so the paint puddles and stains in unusual ways.
One senses a process of divination and Mashile is never bound by the expected .Thus shadows can take on more presence than their origins. He stresses that all shapes are personages to him and while a phallic is topped with a woven shape reminiscent of the protective cap for the penis after circumcision the entire thing is a person.
Very often his paper is divided into two segments and he sees the top section as providing extra comment to the bottom scenario.
An interesting influence for this division, not immediately apparent, is the American abstract painter Mark Rothko. He used colour and rectangular shapes to express emotions that were often spiritual in a similar way; Mashile has also harnessed these energies of perception.
It is important to understand that Mashile is not narrating events in his paintings, but exhuming images from his subconscious .He feels a nauseating fear of these rituals and reacts to scarification with abhorrence. Art to him is a healing process. His images are not defined and he allows edges to wander between abstraction and representation. This quality gives an odd, surreal quality to the work. The colors are also always earthy and he often uses brown paper, which helps to keep the tones in a midrange. Nightmarish skies hover, mysterious goings on and symbols are inscribed into scenes .the artist is a complex being and his paintings will yield much to interpretation.
Mashile is represented by Sandton’s Galley on the Square, where his works sell for about R7000. Works of his have been placed in many of the most important collections, and exhibitions continue to expand knowledge about his work.
The gallery plans to have a one man show later this year and his work is present in numerous international and local group shows. There is also a move afoot to have a one-man exhibition in New York, which will be accompanied by a catalogue. One senses that this artist will challenge and explore through his work and grow to become renowned, perhaps internationally. Colbert Mashile is definitely a name to watch and potential collectors should invest now.
Keywords: art- museum, David-Krut, mark- rothko, Mashile, phallic, pretoria, rituals, SA art scene, saandton’s -galley -on -the -square
Entries (RSS) 
