Gerard Sekoto's genius at home

Gerard Sekoto, the man once referred to as a "native houseboy", is now regarded as the father of South African contemporary art.

A hundred years after he was born in the Mpumalanga town of Botshabelo, the Wits Art Museum is staging a retrospective of his work, Song for Sekoto 1913-2013.

"One of the remarkable things about this exhibition," says curator Mary-Jane Darroll, "is how contemporary it is. And it's such a rarity to have so many good works in one space. It's probably not going to happen again."

Before the opening last night, Darroll walked me through the exhibition, as Sekoto's biggest painting arrived at the Braamfontein gallery.

Dawn, now hanging at the end of the museum's ramp into the main exhibition space, depicts a woman with a child hanging from her neck, dawn sunlight behind a hill.

"It's a major work, probably one of his most political works. It speaks of the dawn of a new time,'' says Darroll.

She has hung the 280 works in the retrospective according to the periods of Sekoto's life. The first group, arranged salon style, are from his early years in Sophiatown, Johannesburg.

After winning second prize in a national art competition (won by his friend George Pemba), Sekoto left his teaching job near Polokwane and in 1938 moved to Sophiatown, where he began painting full-time.

These and other township paintings - from District Six and Eastwood in Pretoria - are vibrant and colourful and display Sekoto's sense of mood and movement. Stylish people dance, drink and eat. But they are juxtaposed with desperate-looking people painted next to empty food cupboards, and with men in mining hostels. The works are invaluable depictions of street and interior scenes in areas bulldozed by the apartheid government during the 1950s and 1960s.

The early periods of the artist's life were his most prolific and the works created then are the most sought-after by collectors.

Stephan Welz, art appraiser and auctioneer, says of Sekoto: "He was a special artist. Under his circumstances and for his time, a lot can be said for what he did. He understood his subject matter, but when he left for Paris [self-imposed exile in 1949], his works lacked the substance of his township work. It was difficult for him to work when he was living away from his subject."

In Paris, Sekoto battled the hardships of living in another country, of identity and of a sense of failure. To make a living he played the piano and sang in a nightclub. His failures were coupled with successes and he was collected and exhibited across Europe.

Darroll says Sekoto was a Renaissance man. "He wrote texts, poems, music, he played music and sang. But his most significant contribution is his painting."

• 'Song for Sekoto 1913-2013' is on until June 2. Call 011-717-1365