The art of Selby Mvusi (1929–1967) signposts alternative innovations on how to construct a ‘modern black African’, a debate that preoccupied black literary studies between the late nineteenth and the mid-twentieth century. This article traces this alterity to his engagement with the material surface from which he produced his paintings. The discussion reads the symbol of mist into these artworks by locating them within Zulu cosmogony – as outlined in Mazisi Kunene’s eulogy of Nomkhubulwane. It then goes on to map how the significance of this symbol resonates in his poetry, drawings and sculptures. Throughout, the investigation highlights how he nuances the key image of mist in his fashioning of contrasts with Europe’s avant-garde, and how this deployment anticipated inter-disciplinary approaches to the arts and humanities. But, first, the article presents synopses of the key image of mist in his paintings and of the echoes of its importance in the rest of his genres. In the second and final division, the discussion schematises how these resonances enrich the history of South African black aesthetics. This concluding and extended section also considers how his usage of artistic media gives effect to his experimentation with mist.

中文翻译：

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南非黑人美学演变中的迷雾：塞尔比·姆武西（Selby Mvusi）的案例

Selby Mvusi (1929–1967) 的艺术标志着关于如何构建“现代非洲黑人”的替代创新，这场辩论在 19 世纪末和 20 世纪中叶之间一直专注于黑人文学研究。这篇文章将这种他异性追溯到他与他创作绘画的材料表面的接触。讨论将雾的象征读入这些艺术品，将它们置于祖鲁宇宙起源中——正如马齐西·库内内 (Mazisi Kunene) 的 Nomkhubulwane 悼词中所概述的那样。然后继续描绘这个符号的重要性如何在他的诗歌、绘画和雕塑中产生共鸣。在整个过程中，调查突出了他如何在与欧洲前卫的对比中对雾的关键形象进行细微处理，以及这种部署如何预示着艺术和人文学科的跨学科方法。但首先，这篇文章概述了他画作中雾的关键形象，以及它在他的其他流派中的重要性的回声。在第二部分也是最后一部分，讨论图解了这些共鸣如何丰富南非黑人美学的历史。这个结论和扩展部分还考虑了他对艺术媒体的使用如何影响他对雾的实验。