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CV: Winston Churchill Masakeng Saoli was born at Acornhoek, Easter Transvaal on 3 January , 1950.
He attended the Arthurseat
Lower Primary
School.
In 1963 his family moved to Johannesburg
where he attended the Morris
Isaacson School
in Moroka.
The young Saoli was greatly influenced by the artistic talents of
his elder brother Chamberlain whose drawings inspired him. He was also inspired and encouraged by Ngatane, Legae, Skotnes and Hart.
During 1968 he studied at the Jubilee Art Centre. From 1973 to 1974 he took a diploma course
in commercial art. He is both a
sculptor and painter, but is best known as a painter. Saoli was
a very talented artist . His early work displayed
elements of his social environment.
These he never presented in an emotional or socially critical way, but
rather to promote the compositional aspects of his work. He produced fine and sensitive work in this
phase of his career. Although some of
this work, has images derived from the township life
around him, his interest was in the potential of the townships in so far as
it supplied pictorial form and inspiration.
Saoli’s work changed considerably over the
years. The potential and aesthetic
qualities contained in his early works were not only retained
but were developed and strengthened.
He worked in media such as serigraphs, pastels and oils. His work became more abstract, showing
also certain poetic quality. The human
figure, very much abstracted, was used, but so are images from nature such as
birds. There is a serious involvement
with aesthetic elements such as form, rhythm and balance. Saoli
had his first one-man exhibition at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg in 1969. His work was also included in the 1969
Contemporary African Art Exhibition, Camden Arts Centre, London. In 1971 he exhibited with Matsoso and Shilakoe in an
exhibition at Preston in the UK. In 1979 his work was included in the
Contemporary African Art in South Africa Exhibition, works from the
collection of the University of Fort Hare, that
toured four major centres in the Republic.
In 1981 he also participated in the Black Art Today Exhibition staged
in Soweto. His work was selected for inclusion in The
Neglected Tradition Exhibition held at the Johannesburg Art
Gallery in 1988.
Saoli’s work is included in many private and public
collections in South Africa,
including the Johannesburg Art Gallery,
the William Humphreys
Art Gallery
in Kimberley, the collections of the University of South Africa
and that of Fort
Hare and also in
several collections abroad. Winston Saoli sadly died in 1993
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