Gerard Sekoto

ABOUT GERARD SEKOTO

Known for his work in the social realism and urban black art genres, Sekoto is remembered for paintings such as Poverty in the Midst of Plenty; Mine Boy; and Jazz Band. Also a musician and composer, he worked as a pianist and singer at a Paris nightclub and had some of his original songs purchased by a French publishing house.

After taking art classes at the Diocesan Teachers Training College, he briefly taught at a local secondary school before relocating to Johannesburg to pursue full-time work as an artist.

The Johannesburg Art Gallery's 1940 purchase of one of Sekoto's paintings marked the first time in South African history that a piece by a black visual artist was made part of a museum's collection.

The child of a Lutheran missionary, he was raised in an area of South Africa that was then known as the Province of the Transvaal.

Sekoto was a contemporary of fellow South African artist Walter Battiss .