The paintings of John Koenakeefe Mohl (1903-1985) have in recent years been discovered by the international art trade. Mohl, whose surname was Germanized and shortened from Motlhankana, was born at Dinokana in the Transvaal (South Africa) near the the frontier with the Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana).
He was professionally trained for five years at the Düsseldorf Kunst-Akademie—up until the beginning of Nazi rule. While his main patron was Kgosi Tshekedi Khama (1905-1959) in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Mohl was a major figure in the 'Sophiatown Renaissance' in Johannesburg, as the founder of the first independent black art college. His paintings reflected the confines of gritty urban-industrial life in South Africa contrasted with the indigenous heritage and wide open landscapes he portrayed first in Botswana and then in Lesotho.
Mohl was a modest but self-confident intellectual of the 'New African' generation that came to fruition between the two World Wars, who asserted African identity in the face of condescension in colonial art circles.