Capturing Madiba’s essence
By Garth King for The Echo News 4 December 2014
Nelson Mandela died on Thursday 5 2013. In commemoration of the first anniversary of his death, the Echo offers a line-up of part of the output of the world’s leading Mandela-as-icon artist, Capri resident Marc Alexander. Marc’s output of high-quality Mandela icons have resulted in global recognition. “Artworks help us celebrate and honour the Mandela legacy and reflect on some of his significant achievements,” Marc told the Echo.
“His uncompromising moral convictions and gentle yet firm sense of fairness are what set him apart. It was characteristics like these that gave him such an authority at the negotiating table. Mandela said, ‘If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness’.” Marc told the Echo that he never met Mandela. “Nevertheless, after producing so many portraits of him, I have become so familiar with every spot and wrinkle on his face. So much so that my latest sketches required little or no photographic references, and are drawn from my imagination.”
The late photojournalist Alf Kumalo once commented on Marc’s icons and said: “Alexander has captured the essence of Mandela’s compassion, sense of forgiveness and kind-heartedness perfectly.”
Some examples of Capri artist Marc Alexander’s Mandela iconography, which encompasses various stages of his life after his release from Robben Island’s Maximum Security Prison. Marc’s meticulous hyper-realism technique has earned him wide recognition and commercial success. His portraits of Mandela are in many private collections – former American president Bill Clinton bought one of Marc’s works – and Marc’s prints were handed out as gifts to all the VIPS attending Jacob Zuma’s inauguration as President of South Africa.
Robben Island Revisited. In this portrait you see Mandela with his eyes turned to heaven and hands lifted in praise to the Almighty. Marc believes that Nelson Mandela was raised as a leader by God to turn South Africa away from the brink of civil war. Here we see a man who chose forgiveness over bitterness and unity over vengeance. Mandela once said, “There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”
Let’s Talk
This portrait depicts Mandela the politician. His uncompromising moral convictions
and gentle yet firm sense of fairness are what set him apart. It was characteristics like these that gave him such an authority at the negotiating table. Mandela said, “If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.”
Man of Peace
Mandela’s ability to peacefully steer South Africa through our time of turbulent change has earned him the worldwide reputation of benevolent negotiator and quintessential peacemaker. He has become an iconic symbol that never fails to remind us to strive for justice, reconciliation and equality for all. Mandela said, “I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself.”
Joy
It has been said that what brought Mandela the most joy, was the laughter of children; therefore, besides campaigning globally for peace, he focused much of his attention on empowering disadvantaged children and being an AIDS activist. Mandela said, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
Hope for South Africa
Here is Mandela the Nation-builder. Despite his 27 years of incarceration, Mandela consistently showed a positive disposition, emotional strength, and an unwavering resolve to right the wrongs of South Africa’s past. These qualities have inspired those who have suffered injustices and hardship, paving the way for true equality. Speaking at his trial in Pretoria in 1964, Mandela said: “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
A visit to the Union Buildings
Mandela became the first South African president to be elected in a Democratic manner. During his inaugural speech at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, he said: “The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us. We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation. We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation, suffering, gender and other discrimination. We succeeded to take our last steps to freedom in conditions of relative peace. We commit ourselves to the construction of a complete, just and lasting peace. We have triumphed in the effort to implant hope in the breasts of the millions of our people. We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world.”
Day Off
This portrait was finished a few months before Mandela passed away. It depicts him at ease and in high spirits, perhaps after a Sunday afternoon concert. His legacy and the impact he made on the world will never die. A final word by Mandela, “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.”