Gladys Mgudlandlu

Early life

Gladys Mgudlandlu was born in the Peddie district near Grahamstown in 1917 (some sources give 1923 or 1925). She was raised mainly by her grandmother, who taught her traditional painting styles from their Xhosa and Fingo heritage, and about the birds native to their region. She qualified as a teacher in 1941, at Lovedale College. She was also registered as a nurse-in-training in Cape Town in the 1940s.

Career

Mgudlandlu taught at Athlone Bantu Community School until 1953, and at Nyanga West Primary School from 1953. She painted at night after work. She was exhibiting in the early 1960s, enough for Bessie Head to comment from exile in Botswana in 1963 that Mgudlandlu's work was "escapist," "childish," and aimed at white audiences. Her solo exhibition in Johannesburg in 1964 was reported as a first for a black African woman during apartheid in that city. Mgudlandlu herself claimed that she was a first; "I think that I can claim to be the first African woman in the country to hold an exhibition," she told a newspaper in 1962. "As far as I know, I am the only African woman who has taken painting seriously." This characterization has since been found inaccurate by art historians.

After being injured in a car accident in 1971, Mgudlandlu stopped painting and showing her works.

Death and legacy

Mgudlandlu died at Guguletu in 1979, aged 61 years. In 2007, Mgudlandlu was posthumously awarded the Presidential Order of Ikhamanga in Silver for her contributions to South African art. A biography by Elza Miles, Nomfanekiso Who Paints at Night: The Art of Gladys Mgudlandlu was published in 2003. A show of works by Mgudlandlu and Valerie Desmore, titled "A Fragile Archive," was on display at Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2012. Filmmaker Kemang Wa Lehulere made "The Bird Lady" (2015), a short documentary about Mgudlandlu.

Works by Mgudlandlu are in the collections of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum.