Who is Anton Momberg?

Over the past decade, Port Elizabeth artist Anton Momberg has produced only carefully crafted sculpture per year.
Over the past decade, Port Elizabeth artist Anton Momberg has produced only carefully crafted sculpture per year.
Picture courtesy of Lesley Perkes.

Port Elizabeth-based sculptor Anton Momberg has produced just one meticulous new sculpture a year for the past 10 years, flying in the face of the pervasiveness of mass production.

Born in Pietersburg in 1951, Momberg is well known for his realist work. He casts his finely crafted work in a range of materials, including bronze and polyester resin.

He has focused mainly on the female nude, often in marble dust and resin, which imbues his figures with an otherworldly quality.

However, he has also turned his hand to other subjects he admires. These include an immaculate full-length sculptural portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, an edition of which can be viewed at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town and at the King George VI gallery in Port Elizabeth - and of course, the sculpture of Desmond Tutu outside the East London City Hall.

Momberg gained a Teachers Diploma in Fine Art under Hillary Graham and Neil Rodger at the Port Elizabeth Technikon. He has lectured part-time in fine art at the technikon since 1981.

He has participated in several group exhibitions, including the 2000 ArtLondon Fair in Chelsea, London, with Everard Read. His works are housed in many public collections, including the SA National Gallery, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Port Elizabeth, the Durban Art Gallery, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the University of Stellenbosch, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (formerly UPE), the University of South Africa, the William Humphreys Art Gallery in Kimberley, and in the Standard Bank corporate collection in Johannesburg.

 

back to the Archbishop Desmond Tutu memorial page

"It has been an incredible privilege to preside over the process of healing a traumatised and wounded people."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1993
Picture: © The Sunday Times

IN THE CLASSROOM

In this lesson plan, learners will be offered the opportunity to think about the impact of personal testimony about apartheid-related events. They will also be asked to interpret a cartoon, and to think about the long-term effects of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Lesson plan
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The truths that hurt
Contains extract from the SABC’s coverage of the TRC showing the testimony of Singqokwana Ernest Malgas and Archbishop Tutu’s emotional reaction to it.