Abstract:
Jackson Hlungwani is a locally recognised South African artist and he is internationally
acclaimed with a considerable amount of literature written about his life and work, highlighting
his uniqueness distinct rural style (Leibhammer & Nel, 2022) and commercialised value
(Lauwrens, 2007: 121-124). He was born around 1923 (according to his grandmother, it was
during the time of the Kaiser’s war) (Burnett, 1989: 4). Having acknowledged his contribution
to the arts, this paper analyses the man and his work from a different viewpoint, focusing on
three aspects of his life namely the human, spiritual and artistic. However, these three aspects
should not be considered three independently functioning sides of this man’s existence but
three tightly interwoven elements. The research investigates how Hlungwani’s physical pain
was embodied in his religious activities and wooden creations and how his suffering, caused
by a chronic condition of damaged body tissue, was faced, accepted and assimilated to
become a source of spiritual strength supporting his religious ideology and artistic inspiration
guiding his remarkable creativity. This study highlights how this South African-born artist dealt
with his chronic, somatic condition and turned it from a supernatural condemnation into a
source of spiritual strength and creative inspiration. Therefore, through a comparative
approach, the study uses relevant published and unpublished biographic material, justified
critics and preserved manuscripts in libraries, the media, art museums and exhibitions to
unpack the theme of physical pain as a source of spiritual and artistic inspiration in Jackson
Hlungwani’s work.
