Gallery  

Exhibit: Shared Understanding Project

Authors: Herbert Charles [Morehouse College]

Women such as Winnie Mandela, Harriet Tubman, Mary McCloud Bethune, and many others are key symbols of freedom from apartheid, slavery and segregation. Accordingly, African-American and black South African artists have portrayed women of color in ways that depict their strength and resolve. Willie Bester's "Thobeka" and Alonzo Adam's "Sister Proud" offer powerful examples of female strength and resolve. Robin Holder further references this strength through symbolism in the "Coming of Horses II." Spellman Malungu in "Fertility" cites not just heroic virtues, but the more fundamental role of women as progenators of life. Other treatments focusing on the dignity, place and remembrance of women are found in Lillian Blades "Air, Dusk, Fall and Elders" (assemblage) in which she uses found objects from her grandmother's attic, Winston Soali in "I Saw Her" (abstraction), and William Tolliver in "Cajun Lady" (figurative). Also, Louis Delsarte in "September 11" (figurative abstraction) portrays the woman's emotional strength after the attack as the child in the water looks to her for hope and a future. The continued parallel is both African-American and black South African artists accord a place of respect, honor and remembrance to women in the struggle for human rights, and social justice.

Thobeka

Willie Bester
South African, Born 1956

Untitled

William Tolliver
American, Born 1951-2000

Cajun Lady

William Tolliver
American, Born 1951-2000

I Saw Her, 1990

Winston Saoli
South African, Born 1950-1995

Sister Proud, 2001

Alonzo Adams>/b>
American, Born 1961

Fertility, 1994

Speelman Mahlangu
South African, Born 1958