Gerard Sekoto’s resistance art becomes the pride of Paris

A gallery assistant poses with Gerard Sekoto’s Portrait of a Man in London on 10 September 2018. (Photo: Barbara Lindop) Photo: Neil Hall/EPA-EFE

By Liz Clarke

11 Apr 2025

The South African-born painter went into exile in France in 1947, where he created powerful artworks depicting the realities of life for those he left behind. His paintings are now part of the Paris Noir exhibition.

Compelling and earthy, the larger-than-life face of South African-born artist Gerard Sekoto looks out across Paris, securing pride of place on a huge billboard on the side of the Pompidou Centre.

In March, his self-portrait 1946 became the face of Paris Noir, an exhibition that celebrates the rich tapestry of black resistance art that took root and blossomed in Paris during the postwar period from 1947 to the turn of the century.

South African art curator Barbara Lindop, author of a book about the life of Sekoto and a close friend of the artist, was one of the invited guests at the opening of the Paris exhibition at the Centre de Pompidou.

“That expression I see of Sekoto all over Paris is one I remember well,” she says. “He was acutely aware of the human condition and his eyes tell us, even now, that there is so much more that he wants to say.”

And one can imagine that those same feelings resonate with all the artists who, like Sekoto, escaped discriminatory politics prevalent in their own country, redefining the genre of art and politics, while forming symbiotic relationships with the likes of Pablo Picasso, Pierre Soulages, Henri Matisse and Jean Dubuffet.

A self-portrait of Gerard Sekoto on the Pompidou Centre to advertise the Paris Noir exhibition. (Photo: Barbara Lindop)

Gerard Sekoto (right) and Ethiopian artist Skunder Boghossian (1937-2003) meet at the Cafe Paris in 1965. (Photo: Archive)

Among the 150 black artists of African or American descent highlighted in this exhibition are many whose work has not been seen before, and who have helped to define modern art in France. They include South African-born Ernest Mancoba, Brazilian Wilson Tibério and Nigerian Ben Enwonwu – all of them revered internationally, all of them friends and allies of Sekoto.

“If there is an underlying theme,” says Lindop, “it is that art born out of alienation, discrimination and relocation, like those forged by exiles in Paris, produces an ethnic cross-pollination of ideas and art forms. In this case it has influenced the fabric of postmodern art forever.”

Stories like this require a lot of delving into past histories and, during my research on Sekoto, I discovered his own haunting and prophetic description in 1946 of the self-same portrait that now adorns Paris.

A gallery assistant with Gerard Sekoto’s Portrait of a Man in London on 10 September 2018. (Photo: Neil Hall / EPA-EFE)

It was in a letter sent to Lindop and reads: “What you are reading from my expression is not fear, but mostly mistrust and deep agony about contradicting attitudes among people.

“I do not have a particular fear, but am looking into the future of our country with much anxiety, yet fully determined to live this life as everybody does – through using one’s own personal walking sticks.”

It could have been written yesterday.

Life and times of Gerard Sekoto

Gerard Sekoto was born in 1913, developed his art style in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, and Cape Town, and later moved to Paris where he continued painting and composing music, eventually dying there in 1993. His work was exhibited in Paris, Stockholm, Venice, Washington and Senegal, as well as South Africa. Here are some interesting facts about Sekoto.

He was born at the Lutheran Mission Station in Botshabelo, near Middelburg, Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga). His father, Andreas Sekoto, was a priest and schoolteacher. Sekoto attended a mission school on Wonderhoek farm, established by his father, and later the Diocesan Teachers Training College in Pietersburg (Polokwane), where he developed his artistic skills.

Sekoto began his art career as a self-taught artist, initially working with watercolour and tempera, later transitioning to oil painting. He won the Esther May art competition in 1938, which encouraged him to pursue art full-time, moving to Sophiatown.

Sekoto’s art is characterised by his social realism, capturing the lives of ordinary people and the realities of South Africa’s racial and social inequalities. He was influenced by his experiences in Sophiatown and District Six in Cape Town, where he lived in mixed-race neighbourhoods.

In 1947, Sekoto left South Africa for Paris, just before the National Party came to power and instituted apartheid. He never returned to South Africa, and his works were included in exhibitions throughout Europe and the US.

Besides his artistic achievements, Sekoto was also a talented musician, playing several instruments and composing music. He played piano and sang in bars and nightclubs in Paris, living in a fashionable “boîte” on the Left Bank.

Sekoto received the Order of Ikhamanga in gold posthumously in 2003, and an honorary doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1989. The French government awarded him a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.

In 2021, Becker Street in Johannesburg was renamed Gerard Sekoto Street, recognising his contribution to South African art. Sekoto was the first black artist to have a painting bought for a museum collection, by the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 1940. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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Life and times of Gerard Sekoto