Nathaniel (Nat) MOKGOSI (b. 1946)
A Figure And A Dinosaur
1975
oil on board
91.5 x 91.5 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Nathaniel Ntwayakgosi Mokgosi was born in Newclare, a township near Johannesburg. He completed high school in 1965 and then joined the group Ricky and the Diamonds as their guitarist. He left the band the following year to enrol at the Jubilee Art Centre in Johannesburg where he studied under Ezrom Legae and Bill Hart. While Legae had an undeniable impact on Mokgosi in both subject and style, especially regarding animism, Hart taught him the symbolic use of colour. Mokgosi taught at the Open School in Johannesburg before devoting his time to being a full-time artist in 1970.