ALFRED THOBA

Alfred Thoba, the fiercely independent self-taught painter who achieved sudden public attention in 1988 with a painting recalling the youth rebellion that had racked apartheid South Africa a decade earlier, died in obscurity in late 2023. Thoba’s death was not reported in the media. He received no obituary in any art press. Thoba, who was talked about and debated throughout the 1990s, slipped from public memory.

In researching Thoba for an essay for an upcoming show in Johannesburg, I found a self-portrait he made in 2001. It is titled My Spiritual Self Portrait. Although interested in the idea of human psychology, a fact often referenced in the eccentric notes he made to accompany some of his paintings, Thoba did not look at himself – not in the way Frida Kahlo did.

Why mention Kahlo? In a career marked by privation and obscurity, but also abundant self belief and dogged persistence, attributes that ultimately won Thoba a place in South African art history, it is sobering to learn that Thoba, who died aged 72, produced only about 250 paintings. To put this in perspective, this is only a little more than is attributed to Kahlo, who was 47 when she passed.

To be clear, Thoba painted nothing like Kahlo. And yet, like Kahlo, Thoba’s work was deeply invested in themes of ‘reverie, cruelty and sexuality’, to quote Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen from an important and restorative 1982 exhibition essay on Kahlo. He deserves more than a fleeting appreciation. This bold initiative between Kalashnikovv Gallery and Strauss & Co gives Thoba the respect and visibility he deserves.

– Sean O’Toole