Cyril Fradan - South African - Apartheid

This work shows the suffering during the apartheid regime and is probably one of the first protest works of art.
Cyril Fradan was born in Johannesburg, Union of South Africa (now South Africa) in 1928. He moved to London in 1960, where he showed abstract paintings that drew attention to the suffering caused by the apartheid regime. A well-known figure in the London arts scene of the time, Fradan held annual art and music festivals at his home in Holland Park for a number of years from 1979. Some of Fradan's paintings depict the suffering of Africans under apartheid, centering on a large abstract depicting the pain of 69 Africans killed in the Sharpeville massacre the year before. While his canvases were on display, a threatening letter to the 'communist Fradan' was sent to the Gallery, warning him of such images, causing him to fear for his life.
The Bantu Education Act of 1955 banned black South Africans from receiving formal art training during the years of apartheid and as a result, the artistic movements that emerged from this community were until recently clearly classified as 'craft' rather than 'art '.