Anguished Woman

Bronze sculptures fashioned by the gifted and spontaneous Dumile Feni, especially those created during the artist's lifetime, are scarce and becoming increasingly rare on the market. His subjects are deeply rooted in social realism and are characterised by his indignant and often combative response to the discriminatory social and political environment in his country of birth. His unique style is marked by emotion and instinctive figural distortion, where many of his finest works have been elevated to the height of critical acclaim amongst institutions and collectors. Sculptures such as Anguished Woman, with its graceful silhouette and sorrowful, almond-shaped eyes, showcase striking beauty while conveying a profound sense of the oppression and injustice associated with the political regime under which Dumile lived until his departure into exile in 1968.

In the early 1960s, Dumile was an integral part of the Polly Street circles, closely collaborating with Ephraim Ngatane. With the support of Madame Haenggi, a visionary art dealer and gallery director in Johannesburg, he exhibited at her Gallery 101 and Adler Fielding Galleries starting from 1964. Subsequently, he gained increasing international recognition, participating in the São Paulo Biennale in 1967 and showcasing his work at the Antwerp Museum of Art in Belgium and the Grosvenor Gallery in London. Despite the resonance of the spirit of resistance in his art with European gallery-goers, Dumile's work marked him as a political dissident in his homeland and he achieved the unenviable status of being permanently on the radar of the Security Branch of the South African Police, which was an apparatus established in 1947 to service the political agenda of the apartheid state in South Africa and manage the mounting dissident voices within the country. Increasing government pressure and the constant threat of violence and incarceration led him into exile in 1968, initially in London and later in Los Angeles then New York, where he ultimately passed away.

Anguished Woman, a bronze created before Dumile's exile, was crafted in late 1967 or early 1968, during his final months in South Africa. Four castings were commissioned for Mr. Bernard Janks of Johannesburg, an early supporter of the artist. Additional castings can be found in the collections of the University of Fort Hare and the Bruce Campbell Smith Collection at the Norval Foundation.

Exhibitions:

Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, Dumile Feni Retrospective, 31 January - 19 April 2005.

Literature:

Dube, P.M., (2006). Dumile Feni Retrospective, Johannesburg Art Gallery. Johannesburg: Wits Press. Another cast from the edition Illustrated in colour on page 28 and described as Untitled.
De Jager, E.J., (1992). Images of Man. Alice: Fort Hare University Press. Illustrated in black and white on page 63.