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Former waitress ‘exploited’ by top artist

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MISUSED IDENTITY The painting called Kholiswa by Lionel Smit
MISUSED IDENTITY The painting called Kholiswa by Lionel Smit

In 2013, Kholiswa Mbozi was a waitress at Melissa’s in Somerset Mall, Cape Town, and couldn’t believe her ears when colleagues told her they’d spotted her in a glossy magazine.

She soon discovered that her face was visible all over the world and across the internet.

A beautiful large-scale painting of her, titled Kholiswa, was chosen as the face of the prestigious BP Portrait Award in London, where it won the viewer’s choice award for Cape Town-based artist Lionel Smit.

Kholiswa’s image, at once radiant and world weary, was a popular backdrop for selfies when it was used for the poster of the award show at the National Portrait Gallery that same year.

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It was plastered across the London underground and was so widespread that you one could even see Kholiswa peering out at Prince Harry meeting Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu in Cape Town.

This week, signed prints of the work were for sale at online art stores and galleries for between R35 000 and R70 000.

But Mbozi (31), who now lives in George and is the sole breadwinner for her family of seven, who share a two-roomed RDP house, told City Press that she did not sign a contract with Smit, who told her she was sitting for a painting and nothing more. She says that, after receiving his business card and an offer to model for pay, she sat for the portrait five years ago and received R250.

“I never said he could sell prints of my image. You go to his website – it’s all over there. And he made other paintings of me. One of them is on the cover of a book called Faces that he sells [for R750 on his website].”

If online art stores, gallery prices and auction results are anything to go by, Mbozi’s face is worth a considerable amount of money in the art market. Online records indicate that Smit, who focuses particularly on portraits and sculptures of black women, has become so famous that similar sized portraits have fetched between R500 000 and R1 million.

Represented by the respected Everard Read gallery in South Africa, Smit’s London solo exhibition sold out before opening night in 2015.

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Contacted by City Press, Smit, the son of prominent Pretoria sculptor Anton Smit, said the story was “premature” as he was still “in discussions” with Mbozi.

“I am saddened and disappointed to hear Kholiswa feels exploited. She never expressed this to me. This was never my intention,” he said.

He did not respond to questions about the value of his work, including the Kholiswa paintings and prints, nor how many he had sold over the years.

Mbozi told City Press that for years she contacted him when she was at her lowest financially and he only responded “once or twice”.

But Smit responded: “I don’t agree with Kholiswa’s version of events. We are still awaiting her response to our last proposals. She was never refused assistance by me.”

On its website, Britain’s National Portrait Gallery officially describes Kholiswa as follows: “The portrait is of a waitress in a township café that Smit visits frequently. He wanted this portrait to capture the essence of her life – including the long distances she travels to work and her struggles as a single mother. Over the course of two months of sittings, Smit came to know her better and gained insights into her life.”

Mbozi said: “He says in interviews he’s making work about identity, but what about my identity?”

She says the gallery’s statement is vastly untrue – she was not a single mother at the time, her sitting lasted about an hour and she didn’t sit for Smit again. He took photos of her that, she says, he used to create other portraits of her. City Press found some of these online.

Mbozi says she had flu that day and it cost her R80 for three taxis during her trip to meet the artist. He gave her the money for the return trip and deposited R250 into her bank account the next day. She said Smit had not asked to use her life story or her name.

Mbozi says Smit finally responded to her calls and messages in 2016. He bought her bus tickets between George and Cape Town, paid for an Uber and lunch for her and her sister, bought them cellphones and later gave her R3 800 for her child’s school fees.

She would send Smit pictures of her living conditions. “He wouldn’t reply,” she says.

After she contacted the SABC, Smit was in touch again and offered to set up a trust fund for her child. She said she would consider the offer, but was angered after Smit’s assistant called for a copy of her ID and the child’s birth certificate.

“But they couldn’t tell me how much was going to be paid into the trust every month. And the trust would only be available when the child turned 18. What if we both die before then?” she asked.

“I’m tired of talking. My father even insisted on emailing him and Lionel wrote back saying that he had paid me. The R250.”

Over the phone to City Press, Smit said: “I don’t know what she’s trying to achieve. I was trying to do something good and it has backfired. She’s trying to take advantage of me.”

Despite donating generously to charity, says Mbozi, Smit “undermined me and my family, and disrespected us. He has used my poverty to get richer.”


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