When Lauren Tate Baeza joined the High Museum of Art in 2020 as the Fred and Rita Richman Curator of African Art, she knew she’d eventually need to propose a works on paper exhibition. Her first thought? Ezrom Legae.
A celebrated South African sculptor and draftsman, Legae spent decades channeling political unrest, grief, and spiritual symbolism into drawings of birds, dogs, and hybrid creatures—compositions that spoke volumes during apartheid without a single word.
In Ezrom Legae: Beasts, on view through Nov. 16, Baeza curates the late artist’s first U.S. museum exhibition, focusing on how Legae’s animal imagery offers not just allegory, but resistance. Here, Baeza reflects on the creative process behind the show, what she learned from working with South African scholars and institutions, and why inviting visitors to sketch their own animals matters more than you might think.
Q: What drew you personally to Ezrom Legae’s work—and specifically to the Beasts series—as a focus for this exhibition?
A: When I joined the High, I understood that I would be expected to propose a Works on Paper exhibition eventually, and I determined early on that I would propose an exhibition of Legae drawings.
Legae, a celebrated sculptor, was also a prolific draftsman whose emotive linework has left a lasting impact on me, not only due to its precision and technical skill but also because of his unique ability to alternately communicate fear, mourning, complexity, stillness, and chaos through gesture.
I later settled on the subject of his bestial compositions after realizing this would be the late artist’s first U.S. museum exhibition. It was important to me that new audiences be exposed to his artistic range, so I chose a narrative device he revisited every decade and never abandoned.
(Courtesy of the High Museum of Art)
Q: In curating a South African artist’s work in the American South, what resonances—or tensions—did you find between Legae’s world and our own?
A: Another key reason I chose the animal drawings was that, despite the familiarity of beast fables and religious parables as allegorical devices, these works were subversive. Under authoritarian and segregationist extremism, South African artists like Legae turned to this code and crafted their own visual language with it. It reveals the resilience and functional power of creative expression—even under tyranny. Art persists.
Q: What curatorial choices—lighting, pacing, placement—did you make to reflect the intimacy and urgency of Legae’s linework?
A: Legae’s linework speaks for itself, but I’ll share perhaps my favorite curatorial choice.
I placed a table and chairs with cards and pencils in the exhibition, inviting visitors to draw their own emotive animals. If they choose to, they can also hang their completed drawings in the gallery to become a part of the exhibition. This in-gallery activity has been incredibly successful, and I enjoy witnessing people seated and reflecting in the exhibition, pencils in hand. Sometimes people write profound things, personally connecting to Legae’s process and evidencing the effectiveness of this code.
Q: How did the High collaborate with South African institutions, scholars, or Legae’s estate during the development of this show?
A: I traveled to South Africa on a few occasions to prepare for this exhibition. I met with and continued correspondence with leading scholars and enthusiasts of Legae, such as Gavin Watkins and Charles Skinner.
The majority of works on view were loaned from South African private collections and institutions, including the Norval Foundation, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, and the Wits Art Museum. I also benefited from the generous assistance of Alastair Meredith at Strauss & Co to identify potential lenders.
And I worked closely with Goodman Gallery, which represented Legae when he was alive and manages his estate. There were so many individuals who were helpful, but these are a few I communicated with frequently to understand Legae beyond books, hear stories from those who knew him, and identify artworks to loan to present this story.
Q: Has this show sparked any unexpected conversations with visitors, artists, or scholars that shifted your own thinking about Legae or the role of protest in art?
A: The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, but there are occasionally people who find Legae’s contorted, tortured, and often hybridized animals disturbing. My response is that apartheid, which Legae is grappling with through his marks and the resulting compositions, was unpleasant.
In fact, in the process of searching for Legae drawings, I intentionally selected less disturbing examples, but the work is potent regardless. Walking the line between extending care to empathetic viewers, while having consideration for victims of apartheid who would not want it made light of, was a new and interesting exercise. We also aimed to strike that balance with the exhibition text, reworking drafts to land at appropriate gravity without gory violence and details.
Q: What questions or emotions do you hope visitors leave with after experiencing this exhibition?
A: My goal is always to present a prompt. I simply hope people are inspired to question. The answers to which are theirs to own.
On View: Ezrom Legae: Beasts is on view through Nov. 16 at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. For more information, visit high.org.
