DUMILE FENI, the story of a great artist, volume 1

286pp., b/w & colour illus., hardback, d.w., Johannesburg, 2010

Zwelidumile Geelboi Mgxaji Mslaba 'Dumile' Feni was born in Worcester in 1942. In 1963 he contracted tuberculosis and was isolated in the Baragwanath Sanatorium for three months, where he befriended the artist Ephraim Ngatane. His reputation grew after his first exhibition of sculptures and drawings at Gallery 101 in Johannesburg in 1966 and he represented South Africa at the Sao Paulo Bienniale the following year. Since his works were openly critical of the apartheid regime he was threatened by the authorities and chose to go into exile in London in 1968. In 1978 he moved to Los Angeles and worked briefly as a visiting lecturer at UCLA before moving to New York to attend film school. He died in New York in 1991.

Prince Mbusi Dube is an art collections and exhibitions officer with Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng. He curated the Dumile Feni Retrospective exhibition in 2005. He lives in Johannesburg.