Hargreaves Ntukwana

1938 - 1999

Hargreave's first local one man exhibition was held at the Adler Fielding Gallery in Johannesburg in 1967. Other local exhibitions followed in 1972. He exhibited some of his work in Salisbury, now Harare in Zimbabwe, at the African School of Art. His first overseas one man exhibition took place in London in 1973 and from there exhibitions were held in Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, Denhaag and Bonn.

Ntukwana's work is popular in the United Stares of America where he has exhibited extensively since his first exhibition there in Boston in 1974. Subsequently he was contracted by an American gallery to tour the USA with his work.

Hargreaves, who lived in Dlamini, first gained recognition for his art when he designed a cover for the album "Dollar Brand Underground in Africa." He went on to design for Letta Mbulu's record company, and also painted the designs for the costumes of the cast of the multiracial show "Black and White is Beautiful" which toured overseas with Welcome Msomi. Hargreaves, who is also an accomplished sculptor and musician - he plays double bass, sax and piano - has also lectured on South African art both here and in the USA.

Born at Crown Mines in Johannesburg on 17 June, 1938, he went to school locally - and then disappointed his father, a mine clerk, by rejecting medicine as a career and instead studying fine art and music. He worked as a messenger and a clerk to pay for his tuition in fine art, including a spell at the Artists' Colony in Toledo, Spain where he studied under the master Costa Lidas who died at the age of 100 in 1979.

His more recent exhibitions abroad were in Denmark, Zurich and San Diego in February 1986. He has also exhibited at the Oglethorpe University Art Gallery in Atlanta Georgia in the late 1980's. Hargreaeves passed away in 1999. Hargreaves used the technique of blowing diluted oils onto paper, wiping the excess with cloth and cotton swabs then inking over the colour background when it is dry.