KHULEKILE HAMILTON BUDAZA (b. 1947)
News Bulletin
1992
linocut
edition 16/40
23.5 x 32 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Hamilton Budaza was born in Kensington, Cape Town. He attended primary school in Ciskei and, later, Langa High School, matriculating in 1976.
Budaza worked as a part-time teacher at the Roma school in Gugulethu and was a member of the Community Arts Project (CAP) in Mowbray and, later, District Six. CAP was a prominent cultural hub and place of fertile creativity during the apartheid era, with a creed of non-racialism, and a quest to foster education in the arts during an era in which opportunities for training in the arts were severely restricted by apartheid dictates. Budaza’s work depicts everyday scenes from life under apartheid and the sustained struggle against apartheid policies. Although he is known mainly for his stark linocuts, he also made figurative sculptures.
At the age of 23, he was awarded an Italian government scholarship to study in Perugia for a year.
In 1985, Cecil Skotnes suggested an exhibition featuring five Cape Town artists and six artists from Johannesburg who had trained at the Polly Street Centre. The exhibition, which featured work by Budaza, Lionel Abrams, Patrick Holo and Sydney Kumalo, among others, was held at The Gowlett Gallery and was very successful, with works by Budaza and Abrams being bought by the South African National Gallery.
Later, a second group exhibition was held at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town and a third at the Conservatoire in Windhoek.
In 1987, Budaza’s work was featured at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Frankfurt, Germany, and discussed in the book Botschaften aus Südafrika: Kunst und künstlerische Produktion schwarzer Künstler (1987).
In the early 1990s, Budaza started a successful career as an illustrator of books – especially children’s books.
In 2013, one of his works was used as the key image for the Mandela for President: South Africa votes for democracy exhibition held at UCLA (University of Los Angeles).
Budaza’s works is represented in the Constitutional Court art collection, the National Arts museum in Cape Town and also in the Smithsonian Institute. Also in international corporate and private collections.
Freedom (1995), a collaborative work by Budaza and Skotnes is held in the Constitutional Court Art Collection. It is the first artwork to have been donated to the Constitutional Court Trust. It consists of seven panels – one large central panel carved and painted by Skotnes surrounded by six smaller panels carved and painted by Budaza. Skotnes invited Budaza to collaborate on creating this tribute to democracy. ‘It remains one of the CCAC’s most confident, optimistic and commanding works, embracing and exuding the African Renaissance,’ reads the CCAC website.
In September 2022, Fine Art conservator Dr Isabelle McGinn in collaboration with conservator Hannes Elsenbroek and the Masters in Tangible Heritage Conservation students at the University of Pretoria completed the conservation treatment of Freedom (1995), while conducting a workshop with the curatorial intern, Emma Prior.