Voices in Colour exhibition draws international artists

Imagine my incredulity last    week upon seeing a report on the sale of a painting, a tryptich by Francis Bacon on Lucien Freud which was sold for a stupendous US$142 million by Christies a famous art auctioner in New York. A tryptich is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided   into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged  together and can be folded   shut or displayed open according to Wikipedia. Still, just one painting…
France24, the news channel, also reported a 1963 Andy Warhol painting that captures the aftermath of a car crash being also sold for US$105 million at a New York City auction to an unnamed buyer. Of course. I would find that person myself to get just next month’s rent. What made those paintings so dear? Heaven knows.

But readers may care to know that Andy Warhol is a Western popular culture icon who haunted the New York art scene in an age in which lionised rebel youths such as Hollywood actor James Dean, so-called king of rock and roll Elvis Presley, and movie vixen Marilyn Monroe captured the imagination of millions of listless youth in America. His forte was capturing pop art icons or iconography on canvas. To sell his work for US$105 million defies common sense and the operative word being common.

It therefore takes an uncommon sense to make sense of it all. I wonder though, if Charlie Bhebhe will ever reach these summits. Well, Charles Bhebhe is a local fine artist of local repute.
He is mentioned here precisely because he is standing shoulder to shoulder with international artists in the ongoing Voices in Colour exhibition as curated by one Mthabisi Phili of the Voices In Colour Trust at the National Gallery in Bulawayo. The exhibition entitled “Reciprocal Narratives About Place, About Home will run from November 22 till December 16.

“Conscious of our geographic position and how geography is becoming more and more negligible in this time of globalisation, rapid migration trends and communication innovations as a result of technological advances, a questioning as to how we define and identify ourselves should be regarded and thus the relevance of this exhibition in questioning the ‘role of place’ or lack thereof,” reads the statement from the organisers. The participating artists are: Allen Sibanda,(Zimbabwe), Charles Bhebe (Zimbabwe), Christopher Hunt (Wales), Jade Gibson (South Africa), Justin Davy (South Africa), Mikkel Rytter Poulsen (Denmark/Zimbabwe), Preston Rolls (Germany), Meghan Judge (South Africa), Sindisiwe Buthelezi (South Africa), Thabiso Sekgala (South Africa) and Zodwa Nyoni (Zimbabwe, Britain)

The exhibition features various media; video, photography, written text, performance. The exhibition is organised by Voices in Colour, a nongovernmental organisation based in Bulawayo.
Next week we will feature an interview with the curator and some of his international guests.