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Louis Maqhubela was born in 1939 in Durban, South Africa. He studied under Cecil Skotnes at the Polly Street Centre, Johannesburg, which moved to the Jubilee Centre, then after moving to London in 1978, at Goldsmiths College and the Slade School of Art.
From early figurative scenes of township life in Johannesburg, Maqhubela evolved a more abstract mode of painting, becoming one of the pioneers of modern art in South Africa. His work is characterised by a specific language of forms which float or move in a radiant, atmospheric space. Sometimes a graphic element of thin black lines appears describing animals or human figures. In spirit and form they evoke Paul Klee but what they describe is part of Maqhubela's African narrative. Recent canvases refer increasingly to traditional African forms; Pondo, Zulu, Ndbele, - all of them filtered through memory and arranged in a magical, richly coloured space with richly worked surface textures.
Painting on canvas, oil or gouache on paper, he was at once recognised in South Africa, where in 1966 he was hailed as one of the earliest black painters of distinction and won an award with a three month travel bursary to Europe and the UK. He emigrated from South Africa in 1993, moving to Spain, then London. Work has entered the National Gallery of South Africa and Johannesburg Art Gallery, among many other South African collections, and in London he is represented by the Victoria and Albert Museum and the USA by the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington.
