Ezrom Legae

Who was Ezrom Legae?

Ezrom Legae was a South African sculptor and draughtsman.

Born in Vrededorp, Johannesburg, Legae studied at the Polly Street Art Centre beginning in 1959; from 1960 until 1964 he attended the Jubilee Art Centre and worked with Cecil Skotnes and Sydney Kumalo. In 1965 he became a teacher, subsequently becoming codirector of the Jubilee Art Centre. In 1970 he received a scholarship that allowed him to travel to Europe and the United States; between 1972 and 1974 he was director of the African Music and Drama Association Art Project.

Legae worked full time as an artist; he lived in Soweto with his family until his death.

Legae is best known for his powerful visual commentaries on the pathos and degradation of apartheid - a critique he extended to the persistence of poverty and racism in the post-apartheid years. He excelled as painter and sculptor of figures, heads and animals working with oil, conté, bronze, clay and mixed media.