Untitled
- Artist: Ernest Mancoba
- Date: 1957
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 458 x 269 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the Untitled by Ernest Mancoba, painted in 1957 with oil on canvas. Mancoba was a South‑African artist who left Johannesburg for Paris in 1938, later moving to Copenhagen where he helped found CoBrA, a group that celebrated childlike spontaneity in painting. In this work he layers bold, angular brushstrokes—grey‑blues, yellow, coral and brick‑red—creating a dynamic rhythm that feels both abstract and suggestively figurative. He once said it’s hard to tell if the central form is a figure or an abstraction, but that’s part of the appeal. The energetic gestures and bright colours reflect his belief that freedom of expression comes from letting the paint speak. The painting sits upright, with a cluster of marks that might resemble a stick figure, legs splayed, arms akimbo, yet it’s the play of color and movement that truly captures the moment.
See it in person
Untitled is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
