JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A boldly patterned BMW stands at the entrance of the Wits Arts Museum in the vibrant Johannesburg neighborhood of Braamfontein.
Its bright geometric shapes are part of 89-year-old South African artist Esther Mahlangu ’s unmistakable style. The car is the centerpiece of an exhibition honoring her and her work.
The BMW, commissioned by the German manufacturer in 1991, is among Mahlangu’s most well-known works and has been returned to South Africa this year after more than 30 years abroad.
Exhibition curator Nontobeko Ntombela also has included pieces that document the struggles of Nelson Mandela, who was released after almost three decades in prison and became South Africa's first Black president when the country transitioned from white minority rule to democracy in 1994.
These include a letter Mahlangu wrote to Mandela thanking him for the sacrifices he made for the country.
She is respected for persevering with art at a time when Black artists, especially women, were hardly acknowledged.
“Mahlangu dared to travel an uncharted path during a time when Black women artists were systemically overlooked. I hope when people see just how much she has done, they will realize the magnitude of what she has offered to the arts,” Ntombela said.
The retrospective also includes a documentary about the artist, where she tells the story of her rural upbringing and her Ndebele culture.
For decades, Mahlangu has used her talent to promote that culture, becoming arguably the southern African ethnic group's most recognized representative.
Ntombela said much of the publicly available information about Mahlangu tends to repeat the same narratives, including her first international show in Paris in 1989.
“Some tend to overly emphasize the culture without the balance of discussing her work as an art form. The exhibition tries to complicate this and hopefully offers an opportunity of how her art moves across these different fields and disciplines," the curator said.
Some of the artworks showing umgwalo, or traditional Ndebele painting, were borrowed from collections locally and abroad. Ntombela said it took about two years to secure them.
“Numerous works are under the ownership of international collectors, so we needed a lot of funds to bring a lot of her work back to South Africa,” she said.
Mahlangu is a recipient of one of South Africa's highest national awards, the Order of Ikhamanga in silver, which is awarded by the head of state.
She briefly attended the launch of the exhibition last month but lives quietly in Mpumalanga province, where her colorfully decorated home remains an attraction for local and international tourists.
The exhibition will run until April 17 before it embarks on an international tour starting in the United States in early 2026.
Renowned South African artist Esther Mahlangu's work is displayed at the Wits Arts Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/ Mogomotsi Magome)
A visitor looks at a timeline of renowned South African artist Esther Mahlangu's life on display at the Wits Arts Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/ Mogomotsi Magome)
Renowned South African artist Esther Mahlangu's work is displayed at the Wits Arts Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/ Mogomotsi Magome)
Renowned South African artist Esther Mahlangu's iconic BMW 525i is seen on display at the Wits Arts Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/ Mogomotsi Magome)
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel's army detained the director of one of northern Gaza 's last functioning hospitals as overnight strikes elsewhere in the territory killed nine people, including children, Palestinian medical officials said Saturday. Israel's military alleged that Hamas militants were using the facility and said over 240 people were detained.
Gaza's Health Ministry said Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested Friday along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation center. The ministry said Israeli troops stormed the hospital and forced many staff and patients outside and told them to strip in winter weather, according to the ministry.
Israel's military on Saturday confirmed it detained the hospital director and called him a suspected Hamas operative while providing no evidence. It said it encircled the hospital and special forces entered and found weapons in the area. It said militants fired on its forces and they were “eliminated.”
On Friday, the military denied it had entered or set fire to the hospital complex but acknowledged it had ordered people outside. The military repeated claims that Hamas militants operate inside Kamal Adwan but provided no evidence. Hospital officials have denied that.
The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped. The health ministry said a strike on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical personnel.
MedGlobal, the humanitarian organization for which Abu Safiya worked, said Friday it was gravely concerned about him. It said the incident follows the October detention of five other staff, calling it an “alarming and egregious pattern of targeting medical personnel and spaces.”
Israel’s nearly 15-month-old campaign of bombardment and ground offensives has devastated Gaza’s health sector. The World Health Organization has said the raid on Kamal Adwan has put northern Gaza's last major health facility “out of service" after growing restrictions on access, adding that “this horror must end and health care must be protected.”
The Health Ministry said conditions for Kamal Adwan patients who were relocated to the damaged Indonesian Hospital nearby — also raided in the past — were “extremely difficult.”
The Israeli military statement Saturday said 350 patients along with medical personnel had been evacuated from Kamal Adwan in recent weeks, and another 95 patients, caregivers, and medical personnel were evacuated to the Indonesian Hospital during the operation. It also said it had provided fuel and medical supplies to both hospitals.
The war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the Health Ministry. Its count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Since October, Israel’s offensive has virtually sealed off the northern Gaza areas of Jabaliya, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and leveled large parts of them. Tens of thousands of Palestinians were forced out but thousands are believed to remain in the area where Kamal Adwan and two other hospitals are located.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the militants' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which they killed around 1,200 people and abducted some 250 others. Some 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, and around a third are believed to be dead.
Israel continued attacks across Gaza on Saturday. An overnight strike killed at least nine people in Maghazi, including women and children, according to staff at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital where they were taken and an Associated Press reporter who saw the bodies.
Men cried as the bodies, wrapped in bloodied white plastic, lay on the floor of the morgue.
The Health Ministry said Saturday that 48 people had been killed in the past 24 hours by Israeli fire.
Meanwhile, Israel said its troops had begun operating in the northern city of Beit Hanoun, citing intelligence that fighters and Hamas infrastructure were in the area.
Strikes also continued in Israel. Air raid sirens sounded early Saturday and the military said it intercepted a missile fired by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Israeli warplanes bombed key infrastructure in Yemen again on Thursday. The Houthis also have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea and say they won't stop until Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.
Mednick reported from Jerusalem.
Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Palestinians attend funeral prayers over the bodies of those killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on the Maghazi refugee camp, at Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians attend funeral prayers over the bodies of those killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on the Maghazi refugee camp, at Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A Palestinian man sits mourning relatives killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on the Maghazi refugee camp, at Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry white sacks containing the bodies of those killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on the Maghazi refugee camp, at Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians carry white sacks containing the bodies of those killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes on the Maghazi refugee camp, at Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Dec. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
