Mashudu Nevhutalu (b. 1992) The Mighty Pen Has Met Its Match, 2020 Oil on canvas
Signed and dated lower right: M. Nevhutalu 20 Unframed: 40 x 30 inches (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
PROVENANCE: 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Private collection, New York, acquired from the above, circa 2020.
EXHIBITED: 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa, "Mashudu Nevhutalu: Matriarchs," July 4-25, 2020
Mashudu Nevhutalu was born in Auckland Park, Johannesburg in 1992. Mashudu seeks to bring about feelings of nostalgia in the viewer looking at his work. He believes these feelings occur from anything such as a dress worn by one’s mother, or a bumper sticker that reminds one of their parents', or their own, first car. Mashudu is interested in photography and works from old family photographs in his paintings. Though these images are personal to him, he believes that we have all had similar experiences and moments captured in photographs. In his works, Mashudu’s figures are simplified and often made to look hazy and blurry, this depiction emphasizes the notion of memory being a vague and elusive thing. This effect also removes the identity of the person from the original photograph, making the work universal and the figure representative of anyone the viewer wishes them to be from their own memories. Mashudu’s use of bright, vivid colors is his way of reliving those memories and creating them anew.
