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Francina Ndimande
Francina Ndimande (born 1940, currently 80 years old) is a traditional Ndebele artist in South Africa. Her artwork is displayed at many exhibitions and private collections in Africa and abroad. She's mentioned in 5 publications about African art.

Early life
Francina Ndimande was born in Weltevreden, South Africa in 1940. Growing up, she learned the skills of mural painting of the Ndebele tribe from her mother and grandmother.

What is Ndebele?
Ndebele is a group Native to South Africa. As tradition, Ndebele women wear a great amount of ornaments (types of jewelry) to symbolize their beauty and status in society. The wearing of these ornaments day to day is not as prominent as it was in earlier times, but are still worn in the various ceremonies of the Ndebele people. Examples of ornaments are:


 * Beaded strips
 * Idizila: Copper and brass rings worn around the arms, legs, and neck
 * Ijogolo: Five-fingered aprons
 * Isigolwani: Neck hoops made of grass
 * Nguba: Marriage Blanket

Ndebele Art History
Art is a huge portion of the Ndebele tribe, specifically house and wall painting.“Wall painting is not unique to the Ndebele, but one could argue that over the past two centuries, they have become the masters of the art,” says the founder of The Africa Meets Africa Project, Helene Smuts.

Ndebele wall painting flourished after 1883, when the army of President Paul Kruger’s Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek defeated the Nzunza Ndebele clan, seized their ancestral lands as farmland and placed Nzunza families on Boer farms to work as indentured labor for a minimum of five years. Ndebele families, who until then had lived in villages, were now isolated from one another and forced to confront a fundamental question: How do we keep our traditions alive when we’ve been plucked from our ancestral land and village life?

Sadly, there are few traditional Ndebele painters left and few people still paint their homes. Another Ndebele artist Esther Mahlangu states, “As children grow up today, they’re losing their culture. I don’t want my culture to die."

Ndebele Art Meaning
Ndebele women are responsible for painting these murals on the exterior walls of their houses, some paint the interior as well. This tradition of house painting is passed down in families by the mother, which is whom Francina Ndimande was taught by to paint. In the Ndebele culture, men aren't usually allowed to be artists, which is the complete opposite for art history in European and Western cultures. The colors and designs each woman chose to paint was a way to show their individuality and self-worth, personal praise, values, and emotions, war strategies, or announcing marriage. The quality of the painting itself is also judged my others in the village. For example, another Ndebele artist Esther Mahlangu says, "If your lines are perfectly straight, then you are a very good wife and can look after your family."

Ndebele Art Supplies
The important characteristics of their art include linear, symmetrical, and colorful shapes painted over the original houses paint of limestone whitewash, which can be up to 40 feet of space. White is used as a the background color to make the other colors and patterns stand out more. They're all painted freehand, without any set squares or rulers. To paint, the women will use things from paintbrushes, chicken feathers, their fingers, toothbrushes, or whatever else is available to them. The Ndebele tribe would get the colors to paint from natural sources, but In the 1940s the Ndebele added a new color of blue from Reckitt’s Blue laundry detergent. And later, when oxides became readily available, women painted with reds, greens and yellows. The arrival of acrylic and latex paints in the 1970s meant instead of murals being repainted because every year the summer rains washed away the pigments, colors now remain vivid for much longer.

Francina Ndimande Career
Francina is known for her acrylic paint murals and canvas artworks. Just like traditional Ndebele art, her art is a combination different symmetrical geometric shapes of all different bold colors like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown; each shape outlined by black lines all on a white canvas. Sometimes a painting will have a different value like a lighter red, or darker green. Francina uses variety of shapes such as squares, rectangles, triangles, parallelograms, trapezoids, and semi-circles. Her color choice carries her towards more acid tones and her motives are more design like. Highly stylized figurative elements like staircases, airplanes, two story houses, television antennas, electric lights and bulbs are regularly found in her work. These images are brought back from her frequent visits to the city and her overseas trips.

Represented
Francina has artwork in:


 * Musée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Asie in Océanie, Paris, France
 * Botshabelo Museum, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Botshabelo is an open-air museum that still functions as a living village. It's purpose is to preserve the customs and art of the Ndebele tribe. The women in Botshabelo still wear traditional garments and practice various traditions.

Francina's work is also in numerous private collections in South Africa and abroad.

Exhibitions
Francina participated in 5 art exhibitions between 1993-2002

Publications
Francina is mentioned in 5 publications about African art


 * 1) Elliott, A. The Ndebele, Art and Culture
 * 2) Angelou, M. and Courtney-Clarke, M. My Painted House, My friendly Chicken and Me
 * 3) Duncan Clarke, D.  African Art, Page 107
 * 4) MAGNIN, A. & SOULILLOU, J.,  1996. CONTEMPORARY ART OF AFRICA.  New York & London :  Thames a Hudson. ( ISBN 0-500-01713-1 )
 * 5) Magubane, P. and Klopper, S. African Heritage, Arts and Crafts, P. 41- 47, Cape Town : Struik. ( ISBN 1 86872 516 2 )

Where you can purchase Francina Ndimande's art
You can purchase Francina Ndimande's artwork at these art auction websites:


 * 1) Invaluable: https://www.invaluable.com/artist/ndimande-francina-dogl63o15c/sold-at-auction-prices/
 * 2) Artnet (auction currently closed) http://www.artnet.com/artists/francina-ndimande/
 * 3) Mutual Art https://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Francina-Ndimande/D6518432676406E1

References