Art Exhibitions

Cape Town-based artist Chantal Coetzee is engaged in an on-going Passion Project, which will soon be on exhibition for the public to enjoy. She’s produced a powerful body of work whose subjects are literally African Queens, a collection of portraits of meticulously researched historical subjects. These women were Queens of their people in various parts of Africa, in past centuries, comprising a fascinating social and political history consistently suppressed by subsequent generations of patriarchy and colonialism.

 

The title points to the key element of the exhibition. It uses allegorical portraiture as a means to establish a series of revisionist histories – more accurately, “herstories”. The allegorical portraits of the Queens open up a neglected history of pre-colonial and early colonial African society in the wider sense, with the revelation of extensive empires, trade routes, wars and various powerful civilizations that have slipped from official accounts and understanding.

 

Coetzee understands her position as that of historical observer, turning these forgotten narratives into accessible and relatable historical figures and at the same time imbuing her subjects with an iconic character befitting their stories and personalities. It is a dramatic act of historical revisionist painting, rather than a reflective and representational historical account. Coetzee celebrates womanhood through the achievements of these Queens from various parts of Africa, including Ghana, Madagascar, Nigeria, Angola, Benin and South Africa. They range as rulers from the 14th to the 20th centuries.

 

Ultimately Coetzee’s thoroughly researched and finely executed portraits are great examples of the role art can play in reimagining social relations and emancipation from a received idea of the past.

 

“These women rulers demonstrated great power, that strengthens ours,” says Coetzee. “Their courage emboldens us to be fearless. These Queens have left giant footsteps in which all women today may be inspired to follow.”