Celebrated visual artist Nene Mahlangu says she wants to put a stop to the vicious cycle of the ‘artist dying broke’.
Mahlangu has launched a new 16-lesson course, “Introduction to Pricing Your Artwork”, to help fellow artists understand the value of their works.
Written and instructed by Mahlangu, the course aims to reduce the number of talented visual artists struggling to grow their income due to a lack of entrepreneurial skills.
In a conversation with IOL Entertainment, Mahlangu said she identified the gap between having creative talent and growing a sustainable art business, which led to her designing the course.
“When I started my career I was clueless about where to start and how to justify my pricing. I learnt through the school of hard knocks how to do it the right way,” said Mahlangu.
“Another thing is that pricing is more than a number you attach to a piece. So much goes into it, and making information accessible, as they do in other industries, is an important thing to do to improve the quality and standard of our industry.
“The trend of ‘the artist dying broke’ is something I would like to contribute to stopping. I believe the cure to this trend is education.”
Mahlangu stated that at the end of the course, the participants will walk away with more clarity about their pricing decision-making process so that they can price in a way that can sustain their lifestyles.
“They will learn about the things they can do and apply to increase the commercial value of their art.
“They will learn about the correct mindset they should have to be able to notice the opportunities around them and handle criticism effectively.
“They will learn the best strategies for discounting, when to do it and when not to apply it in their practice. They will learn the different ways to automate and keep track of their invoices to ensure the smooth running of their art business.
“They will also learn about the different ways visual artists can diversify their income.”
Born in Ga-Rankuwa, Pretoria, Mahlangu has an interest in womanness, race and self-portraiture.
“My work celebrates the positive representation of black bodies in a modern African aesthetic,” she explained.
“The recent choice of the media to make the face of the smallpox outbreak decidedly black and African; the perpetuation of the negative stereotype that assigns calamity to the African race, and privilege and immunity to other races, is a moving example of how creating beautiful images of black people is a necessary act of resistance.
“In addition to the positive representation of black people, which I think is very important, I often cover the eyes of my subjects to represent the justice system being blind to a person’s wealth, power, gender and race (referencing Lady Justice).”
She continued: “Although we are not law enforcement, hence the omission of the sword (our power to enforce punishment) which Lady Justice usually holds, we are everyday people with our own tastes and experiences.
“Change can happen if individually we work towards affecting our immediate environment when we see injustice or corruption. My hope is that we are not persuaded by a person’s wealth, power, gender and race if we are ever drawn into tempting circumstances.”
Mahlangu made history as the youngest woman to ever design two coins for South Africa in collaboration with the South African Mint.
“This project was to commemorate 25 years of South Africa’s democracy. The South African Mint team invited me to their offices to take part in the project.
“After many iterations, I was then selected to design two coins for the project. One represented the right to education, and the other represented children’s rights.
This year, while studying at Harvard Business School Online, Mahlangu was announced as the lead visual artist for the Grammy award-winning DJ and producer Black Coffee’s Hi Ibiza residency, creating 23 artworks for the project.
“Most of the artworks were made when I was in Finland during my artist residency. The works are a bit more experimental than my previous works. I used the playful and colourful spirit of the island of Ibiza as my inspiration,” she said.
“I kept imagining the type of people that I would see if I went there and through the eye of my imagination, how they would look like.
“The artworks represent the different crowds that Black Coffee attracts to his events and they serve as a beautiful visual reminder of the powerful influence music has in bringing people together.
“The highlight was the creative challenge, I enjoyed pushing my creative boundaries to do this.”