Obituary : Jackson Hlungwani: Sculptor who lived frugally

Jackson Hlungwani, who has died in Limpopo at the age of 86, would sit under an avocado tree in a remote village in South Africa's northernmost province carving weird and wonderful abstract sculptures out of wood.

The sculptures now adorn galleries and corporate collections around the world.

By the reckoning of dealers who knew him best, he completed about 800 works of wildly varying quality. Probably one out of every 30 was good enough to be sold, and most of these went for between R5000 and R20000. In September last year, a work titled Strong Man - Abraham, Isaac, Angel and Serpent fetched slightly more than R133000 at an auction in Joburg. His next highest price, in 2001, was R38500.

He was popular in Japan and Germany, and orders for his work came frequently from New York and Switzerland. Locally, his work is housed in many galleries, including the Irma Stern Museum in Cape Town, the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg, the SA National Gallery, and the Sandton Convention Centre. For the past 15 years, a whole room at the Joburg Art Gallery has been dedicated to his work.

Hlungwani was discovered when he was already in his 60s by local artist and critic Ricky Burnett, who had been asked in 1984 to come up with something different for an exhibition sponsored by luxury car maker BMW. A long and winding trail eventually led Burnett to this diminutive, eccentric man who had been carving away serenely but in almost total obscurity for years. He thought Hlungwani's were the "most complex and interesting" examples of South Africa's rich rural carving tradition.

Hlungwani's real "coming out" was at a retrospective of his work in 1989, after which he became the toast of Joburg. Dealers have been accused of plundering his work. In a limited number of cases, perhaps, this was true.

But getting work out of him was often frustrating. He seldom delivered anything when he said he would. Commissions would be forgotten and, with luck, executed after frequent visits to his village and regular dollops of cash.

Then it was handed over in its raw state and left to the dealers to have it properly treated and presented so that it could be exhibited or auctioned.

Getting him to sign his name on a piece was a major mission in itself. He did not see the point. "The work will teach", he used to say, "not Jackson's name."

Hlungwani was not motivated by money. As quickly as he got it he gave it away to hangers-on or spent it on cars and TVs for his children and other relatives. He lived frugally but happily, sitting under his avocado tree sculpting and greeting tourists, directed to his village near Elim by the local tourist authority, with a wave and a cheerful "hallelujah".

Born in Venda in 1923, the son of a Shangaan migrant worker, he was sent to Joburg to find a job but returned after losing a finger in an industrial accident.

He joined the Zion Christian Church, became a pastor, and later broke away to start a sect. He built what he called New Jerusalem on a hilltop, a conglomeration of stone walls that resembled a miniature version of the Great Zimbabwe ruins.

He began sculpting, he said, after a vision of Jesus saved him from a conflict with the devil and from suicide. He is survived by his wife, Magdalena, with whom he had 12 children.