Mythological Rider ,1970
Notes : This work was created five years after Sidney Kumalo left full-time teaching in 1965, and during this time, most of the work he created was more spiritually inclined as compared to the works he did in his early years as an artist. His frame of reference at this time tended to be wider, influenced by the works of the Cubists, and of British sculptors Henry Moore and Lynn Chadwick. In fact, during this period, Kumalo became noted for adapting shapes from these artists into his own figures. However as he matured he developed his own distinct technique to the extent that the success of his use of monumental simplicity and purely aesthetic abstractions of natural forms has been emulated by many South African sculptors since the 1970s.Mythological Rider reflects that era when a lot of the pieces he created were increasingly steeped in African spiritual mysticism. And because Kumalo during this juncture in his career was comfortable and confident enough in his work, and had decided to leave teaching to work full-time as an artist, it can be argued that Mythological Rider represents an example of work created by an artist coming into his peak creative powers, and producing some of his most profound works, with regards to technique as well as aesthetic concept. From 1969 onward, just prior to the production of this work, Kumalo allied himself with Linda Givon, founder of The Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, where he exhibited regularly until his death in December 1988. At various points he shared this stable with Skotnes, Villa, Legae and later such peers from the Polly Street era as Leonard Matsoso, Durant Sihlali and David Koloane.
Edward Tsumele
