Working Life in South Africa - Gerard Sekoto and Lena Hugo 2025


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Legendary early Black Modernist artist, Gerard Sekoto predominantly depicted the new way of life which workers created for themselves in the towns after the advent of mass migration affected by the mining industry in South Africa.
Before the discovery of minerals in the 19th century, the vast majority of people in South Africa were dependent on the land for a living. The large industries of diamonds and gold mining, however, changed the very nature of work. Millions flocked to the cities in search of work on the mines, and millions more, living in the rural areas, depended on the wages of migrant workers to survive.
The forces that shaped the new industrial society in the early mining days influenced working life in the towns, attracting working people of all kinds – hawkers, traders, tailors, market gardeners, flower sellers, washermen and women, brewers – largely, the preferred subject matter in Sekoto’s oeuvre before he went into self- imposed exile in 1947 – as well as rural newcomers from the platteland, peasants from Europe and other parts of Africa and Asia.
Soon, in the early 20th century, a manufacturing industry grew up alongside the mines and towns on the Rand. There was work for Black men – on the mines, in the kitchens and gardens of the white suburbs, in shops and small factories, in brick and timber plants, and metal works. But for Black women, options were limited. Domestic work was the norm, with only a handful of Black professional teachers and nurses. Many women turned to brewing beer illicitly. The development of a textile industry, however, provided a welcome alternative for many Black women.
In the factories, the most powerful wage- earners in the early years were white skilled workers, but the nature and composition of the workers began to change – from skilled to semi-skilled workers, from men to women, from white to black.
The third and fourth industrial revolutions (large-scale use of computers in the 1960s, and mechanised services and production in the 21st century, respectively) have radically changed the nature of work and working life globally, and have impacted in a profound way the South African workforce. These changes are the subject matter of the phenomenal hyper realistic pastel drawings of workers, done by Lena Hugo. The aim of the exhibition is to present, by means of selected paintings by Gerard Sekoto (nannies, washerwomen, brick makers, coal merchants, miners, barbers, shopkeepers, street photographers, water drawers), the nature of work and the world workers created for themselves in the first half of the 20th century, and to juxtapose those with depictions of workers by Lena Hugo (mainly of heavy machinery operators), in the working life of the 21st century. Apart from the strong synergy between the work of these two artists, the show provides a visual, art historical tenet, augmenting socio-cultural and politico- economic research, on working life in South Africa. Working Life in South Africa: Gerard Sekoto and Lena Hugo constitutes the seventh annual legacy exhibition mounted by Strauss & Co in which prominent artists are paired to highlight important issues raised in and through their work (Louis Maqhubela and Douglas Portway in 2019; Gladys Mgudlandlu and Maggie Laubser in 2020; George Pemba and Robert Hodgins in 2021; Mary Sibande and Dorothy Kay in 2022; Sydney Kumalo and Ezrom Legae in 2023, and Alfred Thoba in 2024).
-Wilhelm van Rensburg, senior art specialist and head curator.
1 April - 30 May 2025, Strauss & Co, Johannesburg

Exhibition Catalogue