SEFUDI CASWELL MAHLANGU
Born 1943 – South Africa
Caswell was first thought to be destined to become a teacher of languages as his school marks and interests pointed that way. He is fluent in English, Zulu, Ndebele, Tswana and Afrikaans, all learnt at his humble, rural school in the then Transvaal and within his community.
He has received no formal art education or training but has always been a keen observer of life and forms that surrounded him. Caswell learnt by trial and error and then by listening objectively to the on-lookers’ comments and criticisms. Quite apart from being self-taught as a painter he is an “iterative" draughtsman in his technique.
Caswell prefers figurative studies of everyday tribal life and captures the essence of the daily struggle for water, food and firewood. Hunting, whether it is the Bushman, Masai or the Overhimba tribe in Namibia, greatly interests him. He has painted many of his subjects onto leather, which really gives them an added appeal.
His brand of realism with a sub dominant emotional twist is what sets him and his work apart from other artists and forces the observer to seek far more meaning from them.
Caswell’s work is destined to be well collected and it is a tribute to more worldly urbanity that more works have been collected by visitors to South Africa, than by residents themselves. One noticeable exception is Miriam Makeba, the grand dame of jazz in South Africa.
Caswell’s work hangs in many private collections in Canada, Sweden, the U.K., Germany, Belgium and France.
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