LUCAS SITHOLE
LS8714
"What are you running away for?" ("uBalekelani?", 1987 - Indigenous wood on msimbiti base - 060x051x029 cm
Provenance:
Gallery 21, Johannesburg
Work exhibited:
Gallery 21, Johannesburg - 1987 cat. X01; 1988 cat. X16
S.A. Association of Arts, Pretoria - 1989 cat. X09
Work illustrated:
Bona, Durban - March 1989, ill. (with Lucas Sithole)
Press review:
Financial Mail, Johannesburg - 28.10.1988, commented
Pretoria News, Pretoria - 24.10.1989, commented
Note:
This sculpture is recorded and illustrated in the monograph published in 2015
“Lucas SITHOLE 1931 – 1994: Highlights 1966-1993” – ISBN 978-3-033-04655-9 – on pp. 158/159
Legend:
"The sculpture shows a baboon wearing a traditional Zulu kilt or iBeshu. It tells the story of the baboon whose wife and children were killed by a leopard."
"The baboon, learning a Zulu warrior had managed to kill one of these creatures, borrowed the iBeshu (loin skin) from the man and put it on. On finding the leopard, he stood on his back legs and stamped his feet, daring the carnivore to a duel. The leopard was so shocked by the sight, he turned tail and fled."
"Sithole depicts the baboon at this moment of triumph, shouting after the fleeing leopard: "What are you running away for ?""
