Leon Golub
(American, b. 1922)
S. Africa, 1985
Lithograph
The straightforward and highly emotional draftsmanship of existential painter, Leon Golub, brings the subject of the work-the racial turmoil and political oppression evident in South Africa in the 1980s-directly to the viewer’s attention. The work, S. Africa, depicts a larger black figure juxtaposed against a significantly smaller white figure. The size of the black figure’s head may possibly symbolize the greater number of blacks in South Africa versus the smaller white population in power. The simplicity of the composition may relate both to Golub’s style and to his ideological position regarding the political situation in the contemporary era.
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