By sheer coincidence, through an article published in the Daily Sun, we discovered that the late Rorke's Drift artist, Cyprian Shilakoe, had been survived by one brother and 4 sisters. One of his sisters, Mrs Emily Mahlangu, of Mathibestad, happened to read the article which Mr S Dladla, editor of the Daily Sun, had published in his newspaper dated 3 March 2005. This is what he wrote:

Remember Shilakoe by Sicelo Dladla

The great sculptor Cyprian Shilakoe died at 26 in 1972.

If it was not for his untimely death, he would probably have been an important, internationally-recognised artist.

In his short life, Shilakoe produced a number of wonderfully expressive sculptures.

Two years before his death, Shilakoe held his first solo exhibition at the Goodman Gallery in Joburg.

He was awarded first prize for printmaking at an African art exhibition at the University of Carlifornia (sic) in Los Angeles.

Now the Durban Art Gallery is asking for anyone who has any of Shilakoe's precious work to lent it to them for an exhibition next year.
Contact Jill Addleson on 031 332 7286.

Emily Mahlangu immediately contacted Jill Addleson to introduce herself as one of the sisters of this great South African artist who had trained in 1968 and 1969 at the ELC Art and Craft Centre, Rorke's Drift, KZN.

Since Emily's contact with the Durban Art Gallery, we have been able to obtain hitherto unknown information about Cyprian Shilakoe's brief life and work. But the most exciting part of all was that Emily mentioned that there were some of Cyprian's works stored in the family home in Dennilton.

On 3 August Jill Addleson, Curator of the Cyprian Shilakoe Revisited exhibition and Philippa Hobbs, Curator of the MTN Art Collection, travelled to Dennilton - a small town about 50 km away from Bronkhorstspruit - to meet Emily and to see the early Shilakoe works owned by the family.

We made the most amazing find: there, shut up in the family home which hasn't been used by family members since the death of both Cyprian's parents on 19 June 1983, we found a total of 8 early Shilakoe works of art, never before shown on public exhibition: there are 2 clay sculptures - the rarest find amongst this collection, 2 acrylic on masonite paintings, done when he was training in art at Rorke's Drift, and three wood sculptures. We also discovered the certificate he received on completion of his fine art course at Rorke's Drift. It is signed by his teacher, Otto Lundbohm and Bishop Dlamini who was the presiding head, in charge of the Rorke's Drift Mission.

These are the titles of the works we discovered:

The Red Woman (acrylic on board)
and on the verso: Painting of a Doorway (acrylic on board)
Big Unfinished Painting (acrylic on board)
Foetal figure (clay)
Group (clay)
BaPedi girl (wood)
Large Unfinished Sculpture (wood)
Figure with head turned (wood)

What we found to be even more amazing is that since Cyprian's parents' death, no one has ever tried to break into the house and nothing at all has been disturbed in it. For years, this great national art treasure was safe, waiting to be rediscovered. We packed up all these treasures to be sent to the Durban Art Gallery in preparation for the opening of the exhibition at the end of March 2006 at the Durban Art Gallery. All these works will be on view together with other Shilakoe sculptures and prints on loan from public and private collections in South Africa.

After the exhibition has been on view at the Durban Art Gallery, it will go on a national tour to ten major art museums in South Africa. A comprehensive catalogue will accompany the exhibition on this tour with articles written by Jill Addleson, Linda Goodman, Philippa Hobbs, Otto Lundbohm, Cyprian's Swedish teacher at Rorke's Drift, Elizabeth Rankin, Yvonne Winters and other notable South African art historians.

Jill Addleson
Curator of Collections: Durban Art Gallery
January 2006

MTN is the major corporate sponsor of The Cyprian Mpho Shilakoe Revisited Exhibition.

Image 1. Inspirations from Catherine, 1971
Etching & aquatint on paper
collection: SANG

Image 2. The Gate is closed, 1969
Etching on paper
Collection DAG

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