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Esther Mahlangu

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Esther Mahlangu

Esther Mahlangu (born 11 November 1935) is a South African artist. She is known for her bold large-scale contemporary paintings that reference her Ndebele heritage. She is one of South Africa's best known artists. Mahlangu began painting at 10 years of age, and was taught the skill of mural painting by her mother and grandmother, following a tradition of the Southern Ndebele people for females to paint the exterior of houses. It is in this cultural tradition where Mahlangu first began her artistic journey..

Quotes

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  • “Ndebele painting comes from a context of architecture. It is the painting of the house."
  • “Geometry and pattern is a theme that just permeates African art,”
  • Cushing, Nathan (17 September 2014). "South African artist painting commissioned murals at VMFA". RVA News. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
  • “I want them to take away a sense of excitement, a sense of how vibrant the arts are in Africa,”
  • "This culture must not die. Our young people are vandalising our traditions. This is why I try to motivate them"
  • “Our young people don’t wear the clothes or respect their forefathers, the girls have hair extensions and wear western clothes. This does not make me feel comfortable. They are vandalising our traditions. This is why I talk to them, try to motivate them with my travels and teach them too about Aids.”
  • "I love to travel, but I love most to come home again. It makes me happy if people like Ndebele art.”
  • “Ndebele art is naturally grandiose in form and only needed the concept of motion added.”
  • “My art has evolved from the tribal tradition of decorating our homes. The patterns I have used on the BMW Art Car marry tradition to the essence of BMW.”
  • “I always watched my mother and grandmother when they were decorating the house,”
  • “The original patterns that were painted on the houses in the past were part of a ritual of Ndebele people to announce events like a birth, death, wedding, or when a boy goes off to the initiation school. I started painting on canvas and board as I realized not everybody will be able to see the Ndebele painting in Mpumalanga where I live, and I felt I need to take it to them to see. This is how my work started to be exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.”
  • Cashdan, Marina (23 September 2016). "Esther Mahlangu Is Keeping Africa's Ndebele Painting Alive". Artsy. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
  • “In the old days, the decoration on the houses was always done with natural pigment and cow dung as that was the only material available,”
  • “When looking at a Ndebele mural, people get a smile of amazement on their faces. And if they watch me paint, they can’t believe that I don’t use a ruler to paint the lines, and that my hand is so steady, even at my age. If people see the bright colors, they are happy. And it makes me happy as well, as I love to paint; it is in my heart and in my blood.”
  • “To paint is in my heart and in my blood,”
  • “When you get married, you paint your first house. It’s very important to have straight lines and not zigzag lines because your family members will come and look. If your lines are perfectly straight, then you are a very good wife and can look after your family.”
  • “Every single afternoon when they went to have a nap, I’d try to paint. I got into trouble every day until eventually they realized that in my heart I wanted to paint.”
  • Mun-Delsalle, Y.-Jean. "Esther Mahlangu, One Of South Africa's Most Famous Artists, Perpetuates Traditional Ndebele Painting". Forbes. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
  • “What many find interesting about my artworks is that although they are based on traditional Ndebele designs, they are still very modern and current. They can fit into a home or office anywhere in the world and don’t appear dated.”
  • “I love to paint and have been doing it my whole life. I will paint anything, as long as there’s a benefit where my culture can be preserved, where somebody growing up can value and never forget their Ndebele roots.”
  • “As children grow up today, they’re losing their culture. I don’t want my culture to die. That’s why I teach children Ndebele art. They must know their culture and where they come from.”
  • “Being recognized at home is such a blessing. It shows that my people still see the great work that I do,”

Quotes About Her

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  • "As an artist, her ...composition is more compact, more engaging and complex than that of her contemporaries, the borders more complicated. She has a tendency to frame her pattern motifs.”
  • "Her works are in major private collections including that of The Contemporary African Art Collection (CAAC) of Jean Pigozzi and in many Western museums. Despite being an internationally recognized artist, Esther Mahlangu still presently lives in her village in close and constant contact with her culture."
  • "Mahlangu follows a local tradition through which this particular type of painting technique is handed down in the family, communicated, learned and transmitted only by women (in the past)"
  • "Esther Mahlangu has worked tirelessly exposing and developing her talent travelling around the world, and she is very passionate about sharing her knowledge with the younger generation so that she leaves a legacy that lives on for generations to come."
  • “Since being a young child, Esther had a will to paint,”
  • "The art is practiced almost entirely by women, likely passed down when girls became adolescents. Esther couldn’t wait. (She was born an artist),”
  • Cushing, Nathan (17 September 2014). "South African artist painting commissioned murals at VMFA". RVA News. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
  • “Esther is the person who has taken the local art of design and painting in the Ndebela region and [brought] it to a global context,”
  • “She has spanned the horizon of both painting locally and painting globally.”
  • "One of the most famous artists in South Africa, Mahlangu is a living tourist attraction, although visitors are few and far between in this far-flung village, two hours’ drive from the nearest city. And she is indisputably the most honoured gogo – Zulu for grandmother – of the Ndebele who remain in the Mpumalanga homelands."
  • “I am very proud of her,” says her son, William. “She is our queen, queen of Ndebele, and our happy mascot.”
  • “She was trying to blend tradition with modernity, so while there is a family trajectory there, it was also her and her generation who took this one step further, making this now-recognized Ndebele contribution to contemporary art,”
  • “It’s somewhat problematic when looking at South African art and Western art—with mostly Western art taking and African art giving. The way that African art was appropriated is more of a taker’s attitude. I want to see the art history written that pays as much tribute to the originality of this South African heritage that we also see in Mahlangu’s art as to Keith Haring.”
  • Cushing, Nathan (17 September 2014). "South African artist painting commissioned murals at VMFA". RVA News. Retrieved 24 March 2025.
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