This exhibition at The High Museum in Atlanta marks the first major museum showcase in the United States for celebrated South African artist Ezrom Legae (1938–1999). Following the establishment of apartheid, many South African artists grappled with the accompanying oppression and bodily violence, often depicting the human figure in animal form or through abstraction. This exhibition centers on Legae’s own bestial compositions, featuring over thirty drawings of contorted and anguished creatures. Each piece serves as an imaginative study, exploring form and metaphors that articulate the artist’s political consciousness.
Spanning works from 1967 to 1996, the exhibition emphasizes the groundbreaking decades of the 1970s and 1990s in South African political history. During the 1970s, amidst mounting unrest and anti-apartheid protests, such as the Soweto uprisings, activists and civilians faced increased violence, exile, and imprisonment, often without trial and including solitary confinement. This tumultuous period is considered Legae’s most prolific, as he created pencil, ink, and charcoal depictions of animals that served as covert representations of the apartheid regime’s impact.
After a significant lull, Legae reemerged in the 1990s during South Africa’s political transition, producing drawings that addressed the end of apartheid and ongoing concerns about racism and poverty. His beasts exemplify how artists utilize coded visual languages to subvert and endure tyranny.
