Visiting Professor Nontobeko Ntombela: A biomythographical maybe? Exploring the life and work of Valerie Desmore
In this open lecture, curator and lecturer Nontobeko Ntombela reflects on theories that help us expand our understanding of the work of Valerie Desmore.
Once celebrated as “Cape Town’s child prodigy, wunderkind, and teenage artist,” Valerie lived in exile in London until her death in 2008. Valerie left Cape Town in 1946 to study at the Slade School of Art in London and to escape South Africa’s racial persecution. Influenced by early South African Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and German Expressionism, her time at the Slade was short, as she found the curriculum too restrictive, and soon studied under the Viennese Expressionist Oskar Kokoschka for several years. It was at this juncture that she decided to change career and become a fashion designer and worked at Marks and Spencer for 20 years. At the age of 60, she retired from fashion to dedicate her life back to art, a pursuit she continued until her death.
Biomythography, accentedness, absenting, refusal and maybe, are some of the concepts Ntombela has engaged to understand how, through her artwork, Valerie expresses her life experiences, particularly the rejections she faced in South Africa and London. This includes the experiences of exile in London, but also her career change from visual arts to fashion and back to visual arts again. Ntombela explores how Desmore’s leaving and returning to the visual arts, as a form of self-determination, self-authorship and voice, complicates the often-simplified understandings of South African Modern Black artists as passive participants in the making of their careers; always as discovered subjects. By looking into the work of one woman artist, it asserts a particular positionality for many artists more broadly.
About Nontobeko Ntombela
Curator and Lecturer, Curatorial Public and Visual Cultures Department, Wits School of Art, The University of the Witwatersrand
Ntombela began her career as a curator in 2002 and has worked at various institutions, including the Art for Humanity (2000-2002), BAT Centre (2002-2005), Durban University Art Gallery (2005-2010), and the Johannesburg Art Gallery (2010-2012), where she curated numerous exhibitions. In 2012, Ntombela took up an academic position at Wits, developing the curatorial program, which was launched in 2019. Since joining Wits, her curatorial practice has shifted more toward centring archival and research-driven historical curatorial projects. Some of her most notable curatorial projects include: “Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting: Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective (2024-2025) at Iziko National Gallery and Wits Art Museum, ”When Rain Clouds Gather: South African Black Women Artists 1940–2000” (2022-2023) at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town, The Burden of Memory (2019) a multiple cite event in the city of Yaoundé Cameroon; From No Fixed Place (ten Solo projects) at Cape Town Art Fair (2018). She is the 2025 winner of the National Arts and Culture Awards for Outstanding Curator. Ntombela has also served in various capacities on several boards and committees for organisations such as the Department of Arts and Culture, VANSA (Visual Arts Network of South Africa), National Arts Council, KZNSA (KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts), Art for Human Rights Trust, Johannesburg Art Gallery, and UNISA Art Gallery.
Visiting professors
In the Visiting professor programme, distinguished international artists and art experts are invited to teach and share their knowledge at the Academy of Fine Arts for a fixed period. The visit also includes a lecture that is open for the audience.
Once celebrated as “Cape Town’s child prodigy, wunderkind, and teenage artist,” Valerie lived in exile in London until her death in 2008. Valerie left Cape Town in 1946 to study at the Slade School of Art in London and to escape South Africa’s racial persecution. Influenced by early South African Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and German Expressionism, her time at the Slade was short, as she found the curriculum too restrictive, and soon studied under the Viennese Expressionist Oskar Kokoschka for several years. It was at this juncture that she decided to change career and become a fashion designer and worked at Marks and Spencer for 20 years. At the age of 60, she retired from fashion to dedicate her life back to art, a pursuit she continued until her death.
Biomythography, accentedness, absenting, refusal and maybe, are some of the concepts Ntombela has engaged to understand how, through her artwork, Valerie expresses her life experiences, particularly the rejections she faced in South Africa and London. This includes the experiences of exile in London, but also her career change from visual arts to fashion and back to visual arts again. Ntombela explores how Desmore’s leaving and returning to the visual arts, as a form of self-determination, self-authorship and voice, complicates the often-simplified understandings of South African Modern Black artists as passive participants in the making of their careers; always as discovered subjects. By looking into the work of one woman artist, it asserts a particular positionality for many artists more broadly.
About Nontobeko Ntombela
Curator and Lecturer, Curatorial Public and Visual Cultures Department, Wits School of Art, The University of the Witwatersrand
Ntombela began her career as a curator in 2002 and has worked at various institutions, including the Art for Humanity (2000-2002), BAT Centre (2002-2005), Durban University Art Gallery (2005-2010), and the Johannesburg Art Gallery (2010-2012), where she curated numerous exhibitions. In 2012, Ntombela took up an academic position at Wits, developing the curatorial program, which was launched in 2019. Since joining Wits, her curatorial practice has shifted more toward centring archival and research-driven historical curatorial projects. Some of her most notable curatorial projects include: “Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting: Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective (2024-2025) at Iziko National Gallery and Wits Art Museum, ”When Rain Clouds Gather: South African Black Women Artists 1940–2000” (2022-2023) at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town, The Burden of Memory (2019) a multiple cite event in the city of Yaoundé Cameroon; From No Fixed Place (ten Solo projects) at Cape Town Art Fair (2018). She is the 2025 winner of the National Arts and Culture Awards for Outstanding Curator. Ntombela has also served in various capacities on several boards and committees for organisations such as the Department of Arts and Culture, VANSA (Visual Arts Network of South Africa), National Arts Council, KZNSA (KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts), Art for Human Rights Trust, Johannesburg Art Gallery, and UNISA Art Gallery.
Visiting professors
In the Visiting professor programme, distinguished international artists and art experts are invited to teach and share their knowledge at the Academy of Fine Arts for a fixed period. The visit also includes a lecture that is open for the audience.