SOUTH AFRICA: BANNED RONALD HARRISON PAINTING FINALLY UNVEILED

Описание: (26 Oct 1997) English/Nat

Forty-five years after it was smuggled out of South Africa for offending Apartheid police, a painting depicting Jesus Christ as a black man was unveiled in Cape Town on Sunday.

It shows Jesus flanked by two Roman soldiers who bear the faces of Apartheid's architect Hendrik F. Verwoerd and his justice minister John Vorster.

The painting by artist Ronald Harrison was revealed to a new generation and a whole new political climate at St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town.

The controversial work, which spent almost half a century banned from South Africa, was unveiled before 200 parishioners and supporters.

57-year-old Harrison was part of the racially-mixed congregation, as was the wife of South Africa's Deputy President Thabo Mbeki.

It has been a long wait for the artist.

It took 45 years and the fall of Apartheid for his work to be allowed back into the country.

He seemed unable to leave its side as it arrived in a crate back in its homeland earlier in the week.

When the painting was originally displayed at St. Luke's Church near Cape Town church in 1962, Harrison was arrested and the painting - which officials labelled as "sacrilegious" - was removed.

It was later returned to the artist and banned by censors.

Harrison eventually had to smuggle the work to England.

It was displayed at St. Paul's Cathedral in London by Canon John Collins - a canon and anti-apartheid activist at the church.

The artwork was also used for fund-raising campaigns for the anti-apartheid movement.

The painting drew controversy not only in with its black depiction of Christ, but who Harrison used as his "models".

In the painting, he chose as the faces of the Roman soldiers flanking Jesus the then Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd - widely recognised as the architect of Apartheid - and the then Justice Minister John Vorster.

For the black Christ, Harrison used the face of Chief Albert Lutuli, South Africa's first Nobel Peace Prize winner and leader of the African National Congress at the time.

The "Black Christ" painting later passed into private hands, where it was virtually forgotten - until Harrison attempted to trace it three years ago after the fall of Apartheid.

The painting was discovered earlier this year in the London basement of Julius Baker, 90, a South African activist who went into exile in the 1960s.

Baker forgot he had the painting until he read a newspaper article about Harrison's search for his lost work.

Now, the artist is thrilled to see his most prominent work returned to where it was created.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Once again it's emotional, back in South Africa after almost four decades, I mean that in itself is exciting, back where it belongs. I don't think it should ever leave the country again."
SUPER CAPTION: Ronald Harrison, artist

Harrison said it had been his mission to return the painting to the new democratic South Africa, so different from the racially-divided country it had to be smuggled out of.

With its return to Cape Town, its legacy and those he remembered in his brush strokes are not soon to be forgotten.

Many of the descendants of anti-Apartheid's foot soldiers will be particularly affected by the painting - people like Dr. Albertina Lutuli, the daughter of Chief Lutuli.

The Chief served as president of the African National Congress from 1952 and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize before his death in 1967.

He was the most widely know and respected African leader of his era.


SOUNDBITE: (English)





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