After the Initiation ,1979
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Note : This George Pemba work from 1979 clearly demonstrates his mastery of the social realist painterly idiom. The interior domestic scene, given a clearer context by its title, is full of the kinds of characterisations and implicit narratives that were typical of Hogarth in the eighteenth century. As with that predecessor, Pemba’s keen eye for detail offers a glimpse into a way of life for urban black South Africans that is gently humorous but also pointed. The gusto with which the old man in the foreground is drinking from the tin, on his haunches, counterpoints the admonishing gesticulations of the dominant woman figure in the midground, as if cautioning against too much celebration of the just-finished initiation ceremony.
James Sey
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