David Koloane (1938–2019) was a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, curator and mentor whose work helped define the trajectory of modern and contemporary South African art across five decades. Born in Alexandra, Johannesburg, he was largely self-taught in his early years before undertaking formal study at the Johannesburg Art Foundation.
Koloane’s paintings and drawings are marked by a sustained investigation of the city as a site of memory, movement, menace and endurance. Dogs, birds, shadowy figures and half-legible urban landscapes recur throughout his imagery, carrying a charged psychological and social freight without ever becoming didactic or illustrative.
Beyond his own practice, Koloane was one of the most important institution-builders in South African art history. He was instrumental in establishing the Thupelo workshops, modelled in part on the Triangle workshops in New York, which created opportunities for South African artists to work and exchange in an international setting. He was also a co-founder of the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios in Newtown, Johannesburg, which provided affordable working space and a collaborative environment for black artists during the transitional period of the late 1980s and 1990s. Through Thupelo and the Bag Factory, Koloane helped create the conditions in which a generation of significant contemporary South African artists could develop.
Koloane received the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver in 2009, one of South Africa’s highest civilian honours, in recognition of his contribution to art and culture. He continued to paint, exhibit and mentor into his later years and his work is held in collections across South Africa and internationally. He remains one of the great figures of post-apartheid cultural life.
