HOLLYWOOD stars may be the kings and queens of bling but their portraits in traditional Zulu attire have them bowing at the majesty of the work of a Durban artist.
And the stars are calling, with Lungelo Gumede, 29, preparing to jet off to Los Angeles in May for an exhibition of 32 paintings of Tinsel Town royalty in Zulu mvunulo (traditional attire) including Will and Jada Smith, Angelina Jolie, and Denzel Washington.
US President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, have also been portrayed in Gumede’s work.
His first US celebrity portrait in 2007 was of actor Forest Whitaker, who visited Durban after his Oscar win.
“I wanted him to feel welcome and to honour him in a unique Zulu way,” Gumede said.
Whitaker’s reaction encouraged Gumede. But the idea of more portraits blossomed while Gumede was exhibiting his works at the Essence Music Festival in New Orleans.
“There was such an interest in the portraits and when I came back I did more. I heard Chris Rock (US actor and comedian) was coming to Durban so I painted one of him but couldn’t get access to him. When Oprah came to open her school, there I was carrying the portrait I did of her. I tried hard to meet her but her bodyguards and security guards were not game.”
A disappointed Gumede lugged his portrait of the queen of talk in a red nkehli – Zulu headdress – and beads, back to Durban.
It would not be until 2010 during the UN COP17 conference that Gumede’s work caught the eye of another American celebrity.
Actor Miguel A Núñez jr, a guest of the city, was walking past Gumede’s studio at the BAT Centre when a portrait of Jamie Foxx, in a leopard print headpiece with a shield in hand, caught his eye.
Gumede gushes as he recalls how Núñez had phoned Foxx right there and then, telling the actor and singer about his Zulu likening. Núñez also phoned Smith, and to show Gumede he was not “punking” him, put the artist on the line with the “Fresh Prince”.
An excitable Gumede jumped up and down as he narrated, holding his hands to his ears to indicate a phone and speaking gibberish to imitate Núñez’s American accent.
Five years later, all the portraits are in the US ready for exhibition in two months’ time.
“What I like the most is seeing the reactions. In my paintings the celebrities see themselves, but in a way they have never seen themselves before,” Gumede said.
This will not be his first trip overseas with his work.
Raised by his grandmother in Ndwedwe near Verulam, Gumede’s first trip outside the province was to Rome, Italy. This was during his first year as a fine art student at the Durban University of Technology.
“To have a solo exhibition in first-year was an achievement. After that I went to New Zealand, Reunion Island, Moscow, I was all over,” he said.
However, his work suffered and he did not finish his last third-year module at DUT.
Gumede had been at DUT on a bursary after graduating from the BAT Centre’s Annual Artists in Action Residency Programme.
“I have always been an artist, but at the time I didn’t even know what an artist was. I just drew. In school, while the teachers were standing in front of the class, I would draw them.”
Now he is working on life-size Madam Tussaudesque wax sculptures.
“I want to open my own wax museum, the first in South Africa.”
Gumede has already registered the Lungelo Wax Museum, and is working on a sculpture of American actor Morgan Freeman, who portrayed Nelson Mandela in the film Invictus.
Daily News