Google Arts & Culture launches Esther Mahlangu retrospective with AI memories
Google Arts & Culture has launched the first online retrospective of South African artist Dr. Esther Mahlangu, marking her 91st birthday with more than 45 curated stories, archival materials and virtual experiences. The project also uses AI to recreate memories from the period before her first documented works in 1980.
- Google Arts & Culture launched the first online retrospective of Dr. Esther Mahlangu.
- The collection includes more than 45 curated stories and archival materials.
- AI-generated images and Veo videos recreate memories from Mahlangu’s early life.
- The project documents the period from age 10 to her first recorded works in 1980.
- The retrospective is available online at goo.gle/esther-mahlangu.
A digital archive of Mahlangu’s life and work
The retrospective, titled ‘Then I Knew I Was Good at Painting’: Esther Mahlangu, a Retrospective, brings together material documenting Mahlangu’s art, life and legacy. Google says the collection is available to a global audience through Google Arts & Culture.
The archive includes large-scale murals, intimate pieces and rare archival materials. Visitors can also explore her artwork through Street View and view more than 45 exhibitions and curated stories developed with Art of Contemporary Africa, Iziko Museums of South Africa, the British Museum, the Jean Pigozzi Collection, the National Museum of Women in the Arts and Serpentine.
The retrospective includes images of Mahlangu’s work, including Ndebele Abstract from 2019 and an untitled piece from 2014, as well as material connected to her studio and homestead.
AI recreates memories missing from the archive
The project addresses a gap in the available records of Mahlangu’s early life. According to Nontobeko Ntombela, senior lecturer in the Department of Curatorial, Public and Visual Cultures at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Wits School of Arts, the archives did not include material from Mahlangu’s life before 1980.
Through workshops and interviews with Mahlangu and her family, the project documented the period from when she began painting at age 10 until her first recorded works in 1980. One recollection describes how she discovered her talent for painting as a 10-year-old using feathers instead of a brush.
Google Arts & Culture worked with Google DeepMind, Google Arts & Culture Lab and research and design studio Domestic Data Streamers’ synthetic memories initiative. Using archival material and Mahlangu’s memories, the team generated still images. It then used Veo to turn those images into videos representing her early years.
Google describes the material as a visual recreation of undocumented memories. The resulting stories also become part of the online archive of Mahlangu’s life.
What the retrospective offers audiences
The exhibition gives audiences a way to explore Mahlangu’s artistic development and learn about Ndebele culture through a combination of artworks, archival records, murals, stories and video. Its online format makes the collection accessible from anywhere, according to Google.
Ntombela said the project combines curatorial and archival research with technical expertise while keeping personal memory and historical accuracy central to the process. For users, that means the AI material is presented alongside research and source material rather than as a standalone account of Mahlangu’s past.
The retrospective is available through Google Arts & Culture at goo.gle/esther-mahlangu. Google says the project is intended to preserve Mahlangu’s artistic legacy and Ndebele heritage for a global audience and future generations.
Google: Experience the art and legacy of Dr. Esther Mahlangu
