Gerard Sekoto OIG, was a South African artist and musician.
13 Facts About Gerard Sekoto
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Gerard Sekoto is recognised as a pioneer of urban black art and social realism.
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Gerard Sekoto's work was exhibited in Paris, Stockholm, Venice, Washington, and Senegal, as well as in South Africa.
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Gerard Sekoto was the son of Andreas Sekoto, a leading member of new Christian converts.
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Ernest Mancoba was his mentor who encouraged Gerard Sekoto to pursue a career in art.
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Gerard Sekoto had a secret passion for doing art, but was divided between his love for teaching and art.
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Gerard Sekoto would hide his work whenever anyone came near it, and would only show his work to his closest friends.
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Gerard Sekoto only let Louis Makenna, Nimrod Ndebele, and Ernest Mancoba look at his paintings.
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The first years in Paris were hard, and Gerard Sekoto was employed as a pianist purely by chance at l'Echelle de Jacob, a trendy nightclub that had reopened for business after World War II.
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Between 1956 and 1960, several of Gerard Sekoto's compositions were published by Les Editions Musicales.
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Gerard Sekoto composed 29 songs, mostly excessively poignant, recalling the loneliness of exile, yet displaying the inordinate courage of someone battling to survive in a foreign cultural environment.
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One way that Gerard Sekoto has impacted South Africa is through the social perspective provided through his artworks.
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Gerard Sekoto's drawings depict the places he visited and moved too during this time in his life.