Nils Burwitz (born 1940) lived in West Germany until 1958, when he moved to South Africa. Much of his work made during his years in Africa, and since his later move to Spain, has focused on South African politics and in particular the Apartheid regime and its legacy. This print triptych was made in the period 1990-94 and comprises 2 large-scale folded silkscreen prints, Matters Pending 1 and 2, and a folded monotype, Matters Pending 3. The series was originally inspired by a photograph taken during the marriage of Nelson and Winnie Mandela in 1958. Burwitz first saw this image published in a forbidden book he purchased in England in the 1960s, and he carried a photocopy with him for years as a talisman of hope for the future in a free democratic South Africa. Ironically, the first 2 prints were made shortly before the couple announced their separation (indeed they had been shown a smaller version of the same print and had signed it at a private event the day before); Burwitz subsequently made the third part in which Winnie has been replaced by a map of Africa, in 1994 as an expression of Mandela’s enduring love for his country and Africa itself. The title ‘Matters Pending’ arose from Burwitz’s role as designer for the Financial Mail, South Africa’s leading financial magazine in the 1960s. Some of his designs reflected his political sympathies and he collected papers, photos and press-cuttings relating to Mandela’s struggle for freedom and democracy in a file he labelled ‘matters pending’.

The prints are dramatic images which deploy a negative/positive emphasis and are designed to read ambiguously as facing profiles or the outline of an hour-glass. The faces are bleached out in the first image – a reflection on Mandela’s invisibility (facelessness) during most of his 27 years in prison. The second image, in rich colours, references Mandela after his release.