Norval Foundation announces the return of a significant exhibition, ‘THEY CAME AND LEFT FOOTPRINTS’, featuring the powerful and evocative works of South African artists Lucas Sithole and Cyprian Shilakoe.
- Running from 9 May to 21 August 2025, this exhibition invites reflection on memory, ancestry, and the legacy of artists whose voices remain deeply resonant today.
The exhibition’s title is taken from an inscription carved into one of Shilakoe’s sculptures that greets visitors at the entrance. These words – They came and left footprints – pay homage to ancestors who have passed into the spiritual realm, and serve as a reminder of our impermanence, the traces we leave behind, and how we are remembered.
Lucas Sithole and Cyprian Shilakoe were active during the 1960s and ’70s, a period marked by the harsh realities of Apartheid and the dislocation brought by the migratory labour system. Their work is a moving testimony to that era, capturing the fractured realities of communities, the sadness of separation, and the longing for connection amidst social upheaval. Despite their different paths, a remarkable synergy emerges in the bodies of work shown together for the first time in this way—powerful translations of lived experience into artistic expression.
Tall, etiolated figures, a hallmark in both artists’ work, echo the solitude and disconnection felt in the era they lived in. These forms offer haunting narratives of resilience and introspection that still speak to the contemporary moment.
About the Artists
Lucas Sithole (1931–1994) was born in Springs and spent much of his life in KwaZulu-Natal. Initially discouraged from pursuing art, he found his calling in sculpture and eventually trained at the Polly Street Art Centre. Encouraged by figures such as Cecil Skotnes, Sithole’s works gained national and international recognition throughout the 1960s and beyond. Living later in relative isolation near Pongola, he continued to carve until his death in 1994. His work was supported and exhibited by institutions such as Gallery 21 and the Haenggi Foundation.
Cyprian Shilakoe (1946–1972), born at a Lutheran mission near Barberton, studied at Rorke’s Drift Art & Craft Centre. Under the mentorship of Azaria Mbatha, he developed his skills in printmaking and sculpture, embracing themes of loss, longing, and the mystical. Shilakoe’s emotionally charged and otherworldly imagery grappled with the fragmentation of family and community life. His life was tragically cut short in a car accident at the age of 26, but his legacy continues to resonate. He was posthumously honoured with the 1990 Standard Bank Guest Artist award.
Though both Sithole and Shilakoe were featured in the pivotal 1988 exhibition, The Neglected Tradition, their work has rarely received the attention it deserves—until now.
THEY CAME AND LEFT FOOTPRINTS is drawn from the Homestead and Bruce Campbell Smith Revisions Collections, and curated by Karel Nel and Carmen Joubert.
- Curator-led walkabout by Carmen Joubert: 21 May 2025 at 11am
WHAT: THEY CAME AND LEFT FOOTPRINTS – Lucas Sithole and Cyprian Shilakoe
WHERE: Norval Foundation, Gallery 9.
WHEN: 9 May – 21 August 2025
INFO: T 087 654 5900 | E info@norvalfoundation.org | VISIT | Instagram @norvalfoundation | Facebook NorvalFoundation | LinkedIn NorvalFoundation
The WHAT, WHY & WHERE of the
arts scene in around Cape Town
see the 2023 art craft + museums map
and listen in to the
Arts Round Up Fridays @17:30
on Fine Music Radio FMR 101.3fm
The FMR App makes it even easier to tune into the Arts Round Up on Fridays! i-Phone HERE | Android HERE
Another reason Cape Town is placed 3rd in Time Out’s World’s Best Cities for Culture!
