The Contemporary South African Artist as Global Citizen

Abstract In this article I investigate the ways in which a new humanism can assist contemporary artists in South Africa in making their work relevant to a global audience. Following the ideas of Chielozona Eze (Race, Decolonization, and Global Citizenship in South Africa. Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2018), I argue that decolonisation in art is possible through a cosmopolitan mindset built on inclusion and openness to otherness. Eze's ideas on empathetic cosmopolitanism and global citizenship respond to the need for a new society marked by solidarity with all people, regardless of race, class, gender, or other markers of difference. However, this call for global citizenship does not come at the cost of cultural specificity, which acknowledges (South) Africa as a site of knowledge creation. My argument is supported by an examination of the 2017 Fondation Louis Vuitton show in Paris and the work of Lawrence Lemaoana exhibited there. His embroidered works serve as an example of the ways in which young black artists can access the global art world through being open to reality and to global concerns, leaving behind tradition which is incompatible with modernity. I state that Lemaoana has managed to decolonise his art to become a global citizen with a cosmopolitan mindset, and whose art exemplifies sameness in our humanity.