Summary

Gerard Sekoto is without doubt one of South Africa's major painters of the twentieth century. Considered increasingly as one of the earliest South African modernists and social realists, he completed his most memorable work during the early and middle years of the 1940s. When he left for Paris in 1947, he was at the height of his creative powers. He spent forty-five years as an exile in France, and during these often difficult times his talent, dedication, belief in the equality of all people and, most of all, his identity as an African sustained him. Chabani Manganyi's biography is informed by the discovery, after Sekoto's death, of a 'suitcase of treasures', which contained previously unknown musical compositions, letters and a large quantity of notes, writings and private documents. Photographs and full colour plates of previously unpublished and significant paintings are included.