SOUTH AFRICAN
Advertise in the
BUSINESS ART
Business Art Times
call Eugene
at 021 424 7732
E-mail: sales@arttimes.co.za
Risky Business, Anthea Moys throws herself to the Pirates, in her award winning show at The Everard Read Gallery, Jhb. Moys who won the prestigious Bait-Everard Read Award 2009 worked with the Pirates Rugby Team in Johannesburg. In her words she states: “In this performance I played the role of the ball.
Throwing oneself into unfamiliar territory always involves risk. It asks of both performer and participant to engage in a shared space of play. For modern humans, this is a risky proposition, for there are no winners or losers in my rugby game. The outcome is the experience”.
See her show at The Everard Read Gallery, 6 Jellicoe Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg from Thursday 30 July. Or visit there website at www.everard-read.co.za or www.antheamoys.co.za Photo: John Hodgekiss
Report back session from The Joburg Art Fair
The SA Business Arts publishes 2 keynote speakers at the JAF disscussion
held at the Narina Trogon restaurant in Braamfontein last month
to ceiling (sounds like an art fair!);
Clive Kellner’s speech the art works were not for sale! Here
the academic and artistic merit of the
works were paramount and sales were
In reflecting on the Joburg Art Fair, its for tradesmen. Art was not seen as a
trade but as a higher activity. Far from
past and future, I thought I might raise
a number of comments, facts, con- where we are today! Today art’s value
is created by headline newspapers,
tradictions and ideas about art fairs,
high prices and business managers.
the art market, curating and values as
However the global financial crisis is
a means of addressing this post Joburg
beginning to show signs of a downturn,
Art Fair assessment. In a sense, what is
postwar and contemporary art auc-
at stake here is the relationship between tion have tumbled 77% from totals
art and commerce. Often, it achieved a year ago. Although records
would appear that the two are diame- prices for select artists continue to be
trically opposed, more especially in re- established. It is a contradictory time.
lation to curating, academia, museums There are 284 art fairs and Biennale’s
and art history. Damien Hirst’s now in the world today and they in total
infamous two-day sale at Sotheby’s on
receive a total of 4.9 million visitors
September 15 and 16, 2008, brought in a year. By comparison, the Tate
in sales of 95.7 million Pounds, on the
Modern received 5.3 million visitors
same day that the Lehman Brothers in 2007, MOMA 2.6 million visitors
collapsed initiating a global financial and the metropolitan 4.24 million. The
crisis. Art has never been so popular! Joburg Art Fair is in its infancy. Art
Art certainly does reflect its time and Basel has been going for four decades
in the Warholian sense, appeals to and has changed significantly over
everyone and is accessible to all. Art this period. Perhaps one of the oldest,
Fairs have become symbolic of a time the cologne Art Fair which started in
where money and art are synonymous 1967 with just 18 galleries. Art Basel,
and everybody knows the name of Da-
started in 1968 when 3 Swiss gallerists
mien Hirst. There is a story that goes, in – Trudi Bruckner, Ernst Beyler and
the 16th century, Mrs Albrecht Durer,
Baltz Hilit decided that Switzerland
would set up her stall of art works for needed an Art Fair too. One of the most
sale in the public square in Bruges. The celebrated newer Art Fair’s must be the
roots of the art market can be traced Frieze Art Fair in London. However
to the fairs of Brabant and Medina del American art critic, Dave Hickey had
Campo in the 15th century and during some very controversial things to say
the 16th century the public sale of art about it at the keynote lecture he gave
became widespread particularly in the at Frieze in 2007. I will quote a few
Netherlands. Art, for a long time has lines, “This is a great moment. There
remained the domain of the select few,
are people out there who like art more
a rarefied field where connoisseurship, than money”. How do we know what
the canon and art history were the makes for ‘good art’. We live in an age
purveyors of knowledge and therefore where money defines taste and im-
taste. The more things change, the more ages are everywhere. So much so that
they stay the same! I believe that during economists are beginning to define this
the Salon’s of the 17th century, where era as the image economy or i-conomy.
art works were hung wall to wall, floor Sir Alan Bowness in his 1989 Walter
The South African Print Gallery
Presents:
GABRIEL CLARK-BROWN
Mid Life Retrospective Exhibition
Work from 1990 – 2007
runs until Thursday 25 August 09
AUGUST 2009 | Supplement to The South African Art Times | E-mail: subs@arttimes.co.za | Member of the Global Art Information Group
Neurath Memorial Lecture given at the
University of London gives four factors
that lead to an artist’s success: 1) peer
recognition 2) critical recognition 3) pa-
tronage by dealers and collectors and 4)
public acclaim. Art Fairs are not the all
conclusive defining arbitrator of artistic
taste or merit. But they are important
vehicles in a network of artists, dealers,
auctions houses, media, curators, col-
lectors and museums. Increasingly they
are changing their focus from purely
economic, dealer booths to include
collateral events and programs. These
include: talks by leading figures in the
art world, music and film pro-grams,
education programs, curatorial pro-
grams, artistic commissions, awards,
public art projects and collaborations. I
remember in the 1990’s – there was an
outcry by galleries and artists not being
presented at the Basel Art Fair and
they ended up creating the un-fair! The
Joburg Art Fair is important in a South
African context. It promotes an active
and positive image of the contemporary
South African art market internation-
ally, contributes to cultural tourism and
facilitates the
growth and development of art collec-
tors and patronage. Even more impor-
tantly, it brings contemporary South
African art into the mainstream public
domain. A recent article in the Art
Newspaper runs with the heading, “At
times of crisis, fairs should take a more
‘curated’ approach”. It would appear
that there is a move toward bigger,
better, more complex and more
competitive art fairs as the pressures
of success, hype and the ‘shock of the
new’ are increasingly present. Art’s
function, at least, one of them, has
shifted from an academic role to that of
a social function. It is now cool to be
seen at Venice Biennale or Art Basel. In
the end, does this help make
better art?
Creating our Eden, Etching 1996
Alex Dodd’s
report back to The Art Times
Before I begin, I feel it is neces-
sary to state upfront that I under-
took some media strategy work
for Artlogic in the runup to this
year’s Joburg Art Fair. There was
an article published in a recent
edition of SA Art Times that sug-
gested that I was compromised or
some kind of sellout as a result
of this. So perhaps this is an op-
portune moment to respond and
say that, as an independent writer
and editor, it is my prerogative to
associate with whomever I choose
on whatever basis I choose. Those
associations are often deep and
implicated ones. I have never
claimed to be a detached and
unbiased onlooker commentating
on the toings and froings of the art
world. I write in the first person
and have never striven to be some
ideologically unstained bystander.
For this reason, I have always had
difficulties with the term ‘critic’,
although it is often tagged on to
my name. For me, it is too cool a
term. I am far more interested in
the generative possibilities that my
writing may serve, than in criticis-
ing things in a manner that shows
no concern for the potentially
damaging impact of published
words. I am not suggesting that
criticism be discouraged, merely
stating that I am personally more
committed to constructive collabo-
ration, translation and invention,
than in detached deconstruction.
This year’s Joburg Art Fair
was the first big test for the lo-
cal art market since the dreaded
turbulence in the global economy
kicked in late last year. Despite the
fact that the Fair’s attendance was
up by 4 000 and that the produc-
tion value of this year’s event way
outstripped last year’s, art sales at
this year’s Fair grossed about half
of what was achieved last year. It
was a jackpot of a Fair in every
sense other than sales, which must
surely be attributed to the dreaded
slump having metamorphosed
from a hazy projection into an
uncomfortable reality.
Since then we have seen the
landmark closure of Warren
Siebrits Contemporary and an
article in the latest edition of
SA Art Times in which just about
all the key Johannesburg galler-
ies, barring Everard Read, admit
to having to tailor their strategies
around an impaired art market and
a limping economy.
It is against this choppy back-
drop that we are evaluating the
Fair. And for this reason that
I wish to encourage a spirit of
treading gently, not roughly
stamping on a seedling before it
has a chance to put down roots.
We South Africans are all too
quick to slag off things and people
when they’re still trying to find a
foothold and then mourn the loss
of them when they’re suddenly
not there anymore. This said, the
Joburg Art Fair is not the delicate
young calf that needs my protec-
tion. It has already proven itself to
be quite a strapping and muscular
young event, drawing thousands
through the doors of the Sandton
Convention Centre and command-
ing a healthy chunk of airtime and
page space across Johannesburg’s
various media platforms.
Yet the vinaigrette criticisms
have also been fairly rife, centred
chiefly around the argument
that fairs are nothing more than
meat markets for art. The same
criticisms have been leveled at Art
Fairs the world over, and I quote
Jerry Saltz from an article in The
Village Voice a few years ago: ‘Art
fairs are perfect storms of money,
marketability, and instant gratifica-
tion – tent-city casinos where art
is shipped in and parked for five
days. They’re adrenaline-addled
spectacles for a kind of buying and
selling where intimacy, convic-
tion, patience, and focused look-
ing are essentially nonexistent.
They are places where commerce
has replaced epistemology, and
the unspoken contract that existed
between artists, dealers, and col-
lectors has been scraped.’ Eish!
More than a touch of pulpit-style
fulminating there.
Since the 1990s, when art fairs
started to become big events on
the global art calendar, there have
been countless articles comparing
fairs to the other big international
forums for contemporary art –
biennials. Usually the biennale
is introduced as counterpoint to
protest against the gross com-
modification of art. But, in my
view, although they are different
animals, they are not at opposite
ends of the art spectrum. Biennials
are not exempt from conceptual
trendiness or favouritism, and fairs
generate a lot more than just cash.
While biennials are curated
with quite specific ideological or
methodological aims, art fairs are
hybrids combining elements of
trade fairs, conferences, and big
family get-togethers. Money might
be their motive but community is
their medium. Fairs can superfi-
continued on page 2
ARTTHROB PRINT EDITION
Opens Saturday 27 August 09 11h30 - 14h00
a brand new Robert Hodgins Print.
Artists include: Guy Tillim, Mikhael Subotzky,
Penny Siopis, David Goldblatt,
107 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock Cape Town.
See our Global Information family at:
The SA Art Times: www.arttimes.co.za
Global Art Jobs: www.globalartjobs.com
SA Art Info Directory: www.saaid.co.za
Breaking Art News
Daily at The Art Times
In an effort to break the monthly and even
quarterly South African art news cycles
The SA Art Times brings you daily breaking news
stories from South Africa and beyond.
See us at www.arttimes.co.za
Also Read us at Facebook at SA Art Times as well as follow
our Twitterings at www.twitter.com
People in the Spotlight
Britz: Kebble’s Lost Orchid, not the Lost Orchid (27 Jul 09)
After months of speculation, auctioneer Graham Britz has admitted, in an interview
with Beeld, that a painting sold as Tretchikoff’s “Lost Orchid” earlier this year, is
“without a doubt” not the original. Forensic tests have proved that the painting is
definitely not the work it was billed as in the catalogue, but, says Britz, may still be
an original work by Tretchikoff. According to the auctioneer, forensic tests prove
that the work is at least 60 years old, while other tests and the opinions of experts
suggest that the work, is “in all probability”, another work by Tretchikoff, entitled
“After the Dance”. [more...]
An arts adviser for Zuma? (27 Jul 09)
Sean O’Toole writes a letter to president Jacob Zuma, in the Sunday Times, offering
the president Kudzanai Chiurai as official cabinet photographer. ‘Sobriety Tool’, as
the Art South Africa editor coyly signs the letter, says that he has already entreated
the president to accept his services as an art consultant. “You didn’t reply. That’s
OK, really, I understand”, says a mock hurt Tool. Chiurai, whose satirical posed
photographs are currently on show at Goodman Gallery Cape, portrays “extreme
stereotypes” of African success, and says he would love to photograph the real
cabinet. [more...]
ABSA L’Atelier 2009 Award Winners announced (24 Jul 09)
The results of the 2009 Absa L’Atelier competition were announced last night at a
gala exhibition in Johannesburg, and the this year it’s Eastern Cape artist, Stephen
Rosin, who will be taking home the R110 000 prize money and jetting off for a six
month jaunt in Paris, Die Burger reports. [more...]
Babelaas after the festival: NAF Director reports back (24 Jul 09)
National Arts Festival director, Ismail Mohamed compares himself to an alcoholic
in a report-back on this year’s Grahamstown fest, on Artslink. “I guess there is much
similarity between a festival producer and an alcoholic. As soon as the alcoholic’s
bottle is empty he looks for the next.” The morning after the end of a successful
festival, is, says Mohamed, like a “lekker babelaas”. [more...]
START Nivea Art Award winners announced (22 Jul 09)
The winners of the 2009 START The Nivea Art Award were announced at a packed
gala award ceremony at the KZNSA last night. First prize went to Pinetown artist,
Jane Oliver, who received R20 000 in cash, a sponsored art studio and art materials
for six months, as well as an exhibition at the KZNSA in 2010. [more...]
New CEO for NAC (14 Jul 09)
The National Arts Council has a new CEO, in the shape of Annabell Lebethe, Mail
and Guardian reports. Lebethe has a background in provincial government, where
Newsfeeds continued on page 2
including
Willem Boshoff more.
South African Print Gallery
Tel 021 462 6851 www.printgallery.co.za
02 BUSINESS ART | AUGUST 09
Breaking art news daily
continued from page 1
Read the full stories at
www.arttimes.co.za
she held the Director of Creative
Industries post, and was responsible
for the development of arts, music and
other creative projects in the Gauteng
department of sport, art, culture and
recreation. [more...]
Kentridge cops mixed reviews in
States (15 Jul 09)
“It’s quite a coups for the Modern to
snag a show devoted to this rising star
of the art world”, says the Fort Worth
Weekly, claiming that Kentridge “has
been winning raves for the exhibition
William Kentridge: Five Themes”. Art
Daily calls it “a searing body of work”.
But not everyone is so happy. [more...]
Hlobo “weird”? (14 Jul 09)
Grahamstown festival visitors dubbed
Nicholas Hlobo’s ‘Umtshotsho’
“weird”, but Anthea Buys suggests
that this might have more to do with
the extremely limited National Arts
Festival art program, than Hlobo’s flow-
ing rubber forms. In a review for the
Mail and Guardian, Buys reveals that,
as a socialisation ritual, Umtsho-sho
provides “a place for marginial subjects
– particularly gay men and women –
within traditional Xhosa culture”. This
is the point of departure for Hlobo’s
works, which are, says Buys, “the
worthiest follow-up on a Young Artist
Award in years.” [more...]
Hlobo in Grahamstown: exclusive
pics (13 Jul 09)
For those who didn’t make it to Graha-
mstown for the National Arts Festival,
festival rag, Cue, publishes a slideshow
of work by 2009 Standard Bank Young
artist Award winner, Nicholas Hlobo.
Report back session
continued from page 1
cially be viewed as crass reduc-
tions of art into exchange value,
but the less cynical understand
that they also offer something
else to the inhabitants of the ‘art
world’.
For most visitors, the big fairs
create a sense of kinship that over-
rides the whirl of air kisses and
lipstick stained bubbly glasses.
‘Art fairs are the new biennials,’
declared The Village Voice a few
years back. They are gigantic
conventions where everyone sees
one another, hangs out, and does
deals. Fairs may even generate a
valid sense of community in an
art world so disparate that this
experience is otherwise rare. Some
even argue that they are more
loose and egalitarian than curator-
Be Seen | Be Heard | Be Read : Be Understood
Use our very extensive and active
SA Art Community Network to get your message through
SA Art Times:
Business Art Times:
www.arttimes.co.za
SA Art Times Newsletters
Join us on Facebook
Twitter with us at Twitter
Our reasonable advertising rates include:
SA ART TIMES
Full Page R 6 500
Half Page R 5 000
Quarter Page R 2 800
Eighth of a Page R 1 200
Inserts: weight dependant: R 0.50 per insert
Newsletters and Website placement prices on request.
Call Eugene now on 021 424 7732 or E-mail sales@arttimes.co.za see www.arttimes.co.za for more details
SA ART TIMES NEWSFEEDS
‘Umtshotsho’, a “traditional youth
dance”, comprises new sculptures made
in Hlobo’s distinctive materials, rubber
inner tube, leather and ribbon. [more...]
Goldblatt and Subotzky are pre-
sented with prestigious photographic
awards (13 Jul 09)
David Goldblatt has been awarded the
important Henri Cartier-Bresson Award
(2009), for his project ‘TJ’, an ongoing
examination of the city of Johan-
nesburg. The award is intended for a
photographer of exceptional ability
who has an established career and has
completed a significant body of work.
This award will be followed by an
exhibition of David Goldblatt’s essay of
Johannesburg photographs at the Henri
Cartier-Bresson in 2010. Goldblatt’s
exhibition Joburg was on view at the
Goodman Gallery in 2008.
Goldblatt has been photographing and
documenting South African society for
over 50 years. Born in Randfontein in
1930 to parents who came to South Af-
rica to escape the persecution of Lithu-
anian Jews in 1890. Motivated by his
contradictory position in South African
society, Goldblatt began photograph-
ing this society, and in 1963 decided to
devote all of his time to photography.
Mikhael Subotzky has been awarded
the highly regarded Leica Oskar
Barnack Award for his Beaufort West
essay. An international jury is involved
in the selection process, and the prize
is awarded to a photographer who has
the ability to capture and express the
relationship between man and environ-
ment without being obtrusive while
maintaining a poignant and strong
vision throughout the series.
South African photographer Mikhael
Subotzky was born in Cape Town in
1981, and achieved both international
and South African acclaim for his final
year project entitled Die Vier Hoeke,
which consisted of a detailed study of
the South African prison system. In
2007 Subotzky went on to photograph
driven exhibitions in which one
person tells everyone else what to
look at.
One of the most significant fea-
tures of all fairs is that by making
your way around the booths, indi-
vidual galleries’ signature styles
start to become clear and acces-
sible. And, perhaps even more ex-
citing than tracking the distinctive
styles of each gallery present, is
the thrill of having galleries from
all three of South Africa’s major
cities present under one roof.
It’s the ideal opportunity to track
regional trends. One of the themes
that I picked up on that this year’s
Joburg Art Fair was a trend in
intimate, personal, psycho-sexual
paintings. Paintings that grapple
with psychological rather than
socio-political realities or concep-
tual trickery, they explore loss,
desire, memory, transience, an
uncertain connec-tion to the notion
the town of Beaufort West, an area
notoriously associated with violent
crime and alcoholism. Exhibited as a
solo show at Goodman Gallery Cape in
August 2007, the series was then shown
at MOMA, New York as part of their
New Photography 2008 program.
African Art Downers
Valuable Sumner self-portrait stolen
(24 Jul 09)
A Maud Sumner painting worth an
estimated R150 000, has been stolen
from the house of former art dealer, and
Pretoria Association of the Arts director,
Elbie Kachelhoffer. Kachelhoffer, who
has been bedridden since October 2008,
first noticed the theft on the 17th July
of this year, when she visited her sitting
room for the occasion of her daughter’s
fiftieth birthday. [more...]
Walsh’s work stolen at his memorial
celebration (24 Jul 09)
One of the last ten works painted
by Aidan Walsh, before his death of
cancer on July 11, was been stolen at
the deceased artist’s Monday memorial
ceremony at the KZNSA in Durban,
Artsmart reports. Partner of 42 years,
and fellow artist, Andrew Verster, said
the theft was “an act of desecration
to his memory.” “As the last works
that an artist touched before they died,
they have the aura of holy relics”, said
Verster. [more...]
Nigerian Gallery Officials charged
with stealing $6.8m (23 Jul 09)
While Nigerian president Umaru Musa
Yar’Adua faces impeachment threats
for ‘lopsided budget implementation’,
five Nigerian government officials have
been charged with the theft of $6.8m
worth of funds meant for the National
Gallery of Art, the BBC reports. Gallery
director and artist, Joe Musa, and four
colleagues, stand accused of siphoning
off the money for their own personal
use, over the past three years. [more...]
of place or home. Interestingly,
these paintings came mostly out of
Cape Town, with a strong showing
at the João Ferreira stand, while
the focus in Johannesburg seems
to be more outward looking, with
a strong foothold in photography
cerebral/conceptual engagements
with form, social documentary
excursions, installation and urban
interventions.
Another common criticism of
Art Fairs is that they dissolve into
a meaningless whirl of freebee
champagne and canapés, but from
my point of view that really is
a choice. And even with all the
distractions, if you have your heart
set on discovery and aesthetic
exploration, the Joburg Art Fair is
a great opportunity to encounter
work by artists that are fresh and
new. I was delighted not only to
discover the bright fantastical
collage paintings of Gabrielle
National circulation of 7000
National circulation of 7000
18 000 news stories read per month
6 000 per week
(1 100 friends to date)
(900 followers to date)
BUSINESS ARTS
Full Page
Half Page
Quarter Page
Eighth of a Page
SA Art Uppers
Arts sponsorship on the rise
(21 Jul 09)
The 12th Annual Business Day BASA
Awards, supported by Anglo Ameri-
can, have received a record number
of entrants this year, with 63 different
projects putting themselves forward
for the award, Artsmart reports. “The
large number of first-time entries is also
exciting as it indicates the diverse sup-
port of the arts through business,” said
Michelle Constant, CEO of Business
and Arts South Africa (BASA). The
awards are set to take place on August
31, in Johannesburg’s Turbine Hall.
[more...]
ArtHeat gets remix (20 Jul 09)
Cape Town-based artist, critic,
“feminist, WWE fan” and cultural com-
mentator, Linda Stupart has launched
a new, collaborative blog, linked to
Robert Sloon’s blog, ArtHeat.net.
Stupart’s blog, Mixtape (‘collabora-
tion, culture, chaos’), takes the form of
a collaboration with fifty odd artists,
critics, students and academics. The
space will serve “as a space for each
member of the project to post whatever
they like.” This may be fiction, reviews,
music, video, “philosophical meander-
ings, angry feminist rants and blatant
self-promotion”. Contributors include
Charles Maggs, Andrew Lamprecht,
Julia Rosa Clark, Andrjez Nowicki,
Wayne Barker and Ed Young amongst
others. [more...]
Arts Alive under new management
(20 Jul 09)
Johannesburg’s Art’s Alive Festival will
be under new management, as of this
year, with brand solutions company,
Zanusi, taking over the festival program
and event management, Artslink
reports. The festival, which will take
place in Johannesburg from 3 to 30
September this year, will include visual
art, theatre, dance, comedy and poetry,
amongst other things. Organisers hope
Manglou at Galerie Beatrice
Binoche from Reunion Island,
but to have the opportunity to talk
with the artist herself about how
she had drawn on old colonial
photographs to conjure the ghosts
of history and capture the post-
colonial melee of island life on
Reunion.
Art Fairs also provide us with
the valuable opportunity to see
things in the flesh previously only
encountered in reproduction.
Before this year’s Joburg Art
Fair I had only ever seen the
work of Ghanaian waste sculp-
tor El Anatsui in books. Despite
the brilliance of reproduction,
nothing compared to seeing these
large-scale majestic sheets of
goldenness, ironically crafted
from the throwaway tops of booze
bottles. Only one wealthy Sheik
could afford to buy an El Anatsui
masterpiece at the Fair, but there
R 6 000
R 4 200
R 3 200
R 1 800
to expand on the established festi-
val, looking to models such as New
Orleans’ Mardi Gras festival, and the
National Arts Festival in Grahamstown
for inspiration, as well as seeking
the expertise of those who have been
involved with the festival since 2003.
[more...]
Minnaar vs Maggs & Sloon
(15 Jul 09)
It’s gloves off for Melvyn Minnaar
as he reviews Maggs and Sloon’s
Whatiftheworld exhibition over at
Tonight. The whole show, says Min-
naar, has “been positioned with such
evangelistic self-confidence... that one
wonders whether they will even con-
sider that what they are showing may
not be all that interesting.” ‘Syndrome’,
a two man show by artheat.net blogger
Robert Sloon, and video artist, Charles
Maggs is what Minnaar derisively dubs
a “’conceptual’ show”, and has “been
smothered in highbrow words and
hype”.
[more...]
National Arts Festival triumphs
despite recession (14 Jul 09)
This year’s National Arts Festival saw
visitor numbers increase by 13.21%,
with a whopping 170 045 people turn-
ing out to support the various events.
Growth in visitor numbers has been the
trend over the past few years however
this kind of growth is unprecedented.
Previously, 2005 held the record with
a 5.18 % rise in visitor numbers.
[more...]
Charity Auction rakes in the cash
(10 Jul 09)
A charity art exhibition at the Knysna
Oyster Festival has outstripped all
expectations, raising three times as
much money as organisers had hoped
on opening night. Organised by the
Hospice Knysna fundraising commit-
tee, the ‘Night of 1000 Pictures” had
hoped to raise R10 000 for the hospice,
they were at the October Gallery
stand for everyone and his cousin
to enjoy.
I conducted several tours of
the Fair, which were supposed to
last for an hour. Mostly though
they turned into wild discursive
adventures with aunties from
Cyrildene and visiting art teachers
from Toronto that went on for
more than two hours at a stretch,
and only ended when I managed
to drag myself out of the conven-
tion centre in search of a Strepsil
for my burning throat. But the the-
matic connectivities that emerged
on those tours were exhilarating.
One of my personal high points
being the moment when the
emasculated wingless vulture at
the centre of Jane Alexander’s
gut wrenching Security installa
tion, conjured up the memory of
Kevin Carter’s 1994 Pulitzer
Prize winning photograph of a
(horizontal & vertical)
by selling donated works at R100
apiece. [more...]
2010 art project largest ever for Fifa
World Cup (09 Jul 09)
South Africa will “break new ground”
with the arts festival accompanying the
2010 Fifa World Cup, says managing
director of 2010 Fine Art, Craig Mark,
The Herald reports. Never before has
such a large arts festival accompanied
the Fifa World Cup, according to the
paper. The project is still growing to in-
clude more artists and will be promoted
internationally and locally. [more...]
Prisoners art on show in Graham-
stown (09 Jul 09)
“I did art at school, but after matric I
did not practise my skills. In prison,
they showed me how to do it again”,
said Andile Jaha, an inmate whose work
is currently on show at the Department
of Correctional Services exhibition, The
Times reports. Jaha produced a range
of ceramics and vases embellished
with flowers for the Department of
Correctional services marquee, which is
displaying prisoner’s art on the village
green. A spokesman for the region’s
Correctional Services said there was no
policy regarding the sale of prisoner’s
art in place. [more...]
Artists show their appreciation (06
Jul 09)
Tammy Ballantyne, writing for the
Weekender offers a more positive view
of the Standard Bank young artist
awards. Ballantyne, who attended the
celebration of the 25th anniversary of
the awards at the end of June, witnessed
many previous and current winners
j
showing their appreciation for the
exposure and acclaim the award had
brought them. She also reports a new
initiative, being launched in conjunction
with Alliance Francais this year, which
Read 3-4 daily news clips at
www.arttimes.co.za
vulture stalking a starving Suda-
nese child. The parallel felt all the
more prescient against the back-
drop of the renewed hype around
the work of the Bang Bang Club
photographers whose work was on
show at the Rooke Gallery stand.
So, in my eyes, the Joburg Art
Fairs is an invaluable forum that
provides visitors with the oppor-
tunity to see the work of hundreds
of different artists under one roof,
assess at a glance what’s on the
market and get acquainted with art
and the people who write about it,
produce it, appreciate it and sell it.
As someone who passionately and
fervently hopes to see the arts and
culture sector flourish and grow
in South Africa, it is my wish that
every year we will see a greater
number of art collectors, artists,
dealers, curators, critics and art
enthusiasts from around the
world participating in the Joburg
Art Fair.

Les and Taryn Cohn
Les and Taryn Cohn direct Artsource a Johannesburg based art
promotions company
Michael Coulson
Art Source, the consultancy run
by mother-and-daughter team Les
and Taryn Cohn, claims to occupy
a “unique niche” in the local at
world. That’s the sort of state-
ment that raises any experienced
journo’s eyebrows, but they make
a convincing case. “Most artists
are hopeless at career planning,”
says Les, “and while galleries have
the resources to help them, they
tend to focus on short-term sales.
We can help artists devise a long-
term career strategy which can
range from marketing individual
works to museums or corporate
collections to project development
and organising travelling exhibi-
tions that can tour museums both
in SA and internationally, literally
for many years.”
Museum tours, they stress,
are aimed at building an artist’s
profile rather than immediate sales,
though they hope the work has a
commercial value at the end of the
day. As a prime example, they cite
the Transitions exhibition of Paul
Emmanuel. Its appearance at this
year’s National Arts Festival is its
fifth outing in SA. Later this year it
goes to Spier, in the Western Cape,
and next year to Zylt, in Germany.
This will open the door to other
European venues.
“We reckon Transitions still
has another five years’ life in it,”
says Les. As Emmanuel started
conceptualising the project in 2004
(its first outing was at Jo’burg’s
Apartheid Museum in 2008), this
will give it a total lifespan of 10
years.
The South African Art Information Directory
Please call Eugene at 021 424 7732 or E-mail sales@saaid.co.za For more information see www.saaid.co.za
This is their second project
for Emmanuel. Other artists for
whom they’ve worked on projects
include Rosemary Marriott, Leora
Farber and, in association with art
dealer Ralph Seippel, Mbongeni
(Richman) Buthelezi, whose cur-
rent mid-career touring exhibition
opened in Pretoria in April 2009
and will visit five other galleries
before coming to Jo’burg next
year. Thereafter, they are hoping
for international exposure.
Fund raising for projects is a
knotty area. Organisations like Art
Source may not take fees from a
grant or foundation. If finance is
raised from a more commercial
source, Les says Art Source may
charge either a flat fee or take a
percentage, but she stresses that
this is done in consultation with
the funder and will be on top of the
project finance.
Projects like this are only one
aspect of Art Source’s activities,
however. Broadly, it claims to in-
terface between creators of art and
providers of funds, both corporate
and public-sector, and is branching
out into marketing, public relations
and communications.
For the past six years Art Source
has been a major fund-raiser for
Jack Ginsburg’s Ampersand Foun-
dation, which gives local artists
the opportunity to spend time in
New York. It has also raised funds
for the Phum ani Paper craft-based
national poverty alleviation pro-
gramme and has been appointed
to raise funds for the Keiskamma
Trust’s art project, based in Ham-
burg, in the Eastern Cape.
Art Source is, indeed, a member
of the SA Institute of Fund Raisers,
Early Bird Special prices until 15 August.
though Les says the Institute’s
requirements on how fund raisers
may be rewarded can be inappro-
priate for artistic projects.
Art Source has also acted as
intermediary in the acquisition of
art works by many major institu-
tional collections, including BHP-
Billiton, Hollard Insurance, Spier.
Sanlam, Sasol, the Iziko National
Gallery, the Apartheid Museum,
Constitution Hill and civic galler-
ies in Kimberley, Johannesburg
and Pretoria
What qualifies the duo to offer
this range of services, and how did
they get into the business?
Les has a BA Fine Art from
UCT and a diploma in arts and
culture management from the Wits
Business School. In the 1980s, she
returned to full-time study at the
former Technikon Witwatersrand.
One of her teachers was Kim
Berman, who introduced Cohn to
outreach work and the arts’ need to
raise funds.
In 1995 Cohn was appointed
to start a residency program me
at the Bag Factory, of which Ber-
man was a major progenitor, and
raise funds for it. Six years later
she left to start Art Source. From
2006-2008 she was artistic director
and curator of the Sasol Wax Art
award, sadly axed in a precursor to
Sasol’s more recent major retreat
from sponsorship of the visual arts.
Taryn was also involved in Sasol
Wax as project manager or publi-
cist throughout its existence.
Taryn did a BA Fine Arts (Hons)
at Stellenbosch, followed by a
Master of Philosophy in Cultural
development, in which Berman
was one of her supervisors. Since
2002 she’s worked on various
cultural projects. As well as the
already mentioned Sasol Wax, she
was with the first Brett Kebble
Award but presciently quit the
second, unhappy with how it was
developing, and was marketing
manager for Constitution Hill.
She began working for Art
Source part-time in 2006, and went
full-time in October 2007. She
still presents a weekly radio pro-
gramme focusing on Jo’burg, Jozi
Today, for the community station
Radio Today 1485.
Some may feel that consultan-
cies like Art Source are parasites
on the art world. But in truth, as
Les and Taryn argue, most artists
(like most journos!) are so bad at
career development and financial
management that, properly used,
they can only benefit from their
skill and services.
Be part of the incredible 2010
ART LEADERS PROFILE AND IN THE NEWS
The Fine Art of Fifa
Work from “Real Heros’s” show by Clint Strydom
Peter Machen chats to Craig
Mark from Kizo Gallery who is
also the MD of 2010 Fine Art, a
South African company that has
acquired a global license to pro-
duce and distribute fine art re-
lated to the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Peter Machen: This is the first
time in the history of the world
cup that Fifa has licensed a fine
art licence? What does a Fifa art
licence actually mean?
Craig Mark: It means that we, as
the license holders, are allowed to
assemble, exhibit and retail fine
art collections that will be official
licensed products of the 2010 Fifa
World Cup. It also means that, as
a South African company, we will
have the opportunity to use the
phenomenal international platform
provided by the tournament to
promote African visual arts to
the world and have some of the
world’s most talented contempo-
rary artists celebrate Africa and
South Africa through art.
PM: Does your contract with Fifa
allow the license to continue in
subsequent world cups?
CM: Technically our license is
with the Global Brands Group –
Fifa’s worldwide Master Licensee,
and no, it is for 2010 alone –
although, should this project suc-
ceed as we believe it will, we feel
certain that there will be scope to
negotiate licenses for Brazil 2014
and beyond.
PM: And does it, in terms of
Fifa’s 5km restraint of trade, mean
that only Fifa World Cup 2010
artwork will be allowed for sale in
the defined radius?
CM: No commercial or retail ac-
tivity can happen in the so-called
exclusion zones except through
the on-site stores operated by
Fifa’s commercial affiliates. Even
our own products, if they were to
be sold within those zones, would
have to be carried by those retail
stores. Those locations are not re-
ally our focus – the 2010 Fine Art
collections will be more specifi-
cally retailed through exhibitions,
although we may look at some
targeted merchandising lines if
there is a demand for them.
PM: I presume that Fifa will be
taking a large share of the profits?
CM: There is a share of each
work sold that is payable to the
Global Brands Group – which
is only fair in the sense that the
value of the Fifa brand and the
association with the tournament
provides the raison d’etre for the
collections.
PM: At the launch, I think you
said that there will be Fifa-li-
censed exhibitions in 80 countries.
This sound like a massive project
and a major undertaking. How
have you chosen your partners
around the world? And who is co-
ordinating the global project?
CM: The 2010 International Fine
Art Collection will be exhibited
in all 32 countries that qualify to
play in South Africa in 2010 – this
is being done through a gallery
partner in each of the qualifying
Now in it’s 7th Edition The SA Art information
Directory provides the user with a wealth of
Art Information and access to the South African Arts
Community. By advertising your art, art
gallery and arts related company you will reach a large
audience of arts professionals for a whole year.
2010 Early Bird advertising rates
until 15 August 09
Double Page Spread ( 332 x 166mm )
Full Page ( 240 x 166 mm )
Half Page ( 120 x 166 mm )
Third of Page ( 75 x 166 mm)
Artist Listings
AUGUST 09 | BUSINESS ART 03
nations. It is certainly one of the
largest and most ambitious inter-
national art collaborations ever –
befitting the first ever African Fifa
World Cup. Our partner galleries
are being chosen for their ability
to exhibit the Collection to its best
effect, their existing client bases,
and their connections with their
local media to assist in promoting
the exhibitions. The project is be-
ing coordinated by our 2010 Fine
Art team based in Cape Town.
PM: And how will local artists
benefit?
Craig Mark: Local artists and art-
ists from other African countries
are being given the opportunity
to submit works for consideration
for inclusion in the 2010 African
Fine Art Collection. We also
firmly believe that the 2010 Fine
Art project will benefit the broad
community of African and South
African visual arts by helping
to showcase the talents of our
communities to a very diverse
international audience.
PM: All of the works on show at
the recent 2010 African Fine Art
Collection were inspired by South
Africa’s hosting of the 2010 Fifa
World Cup and they have all been
recognised as Official Licensed
Products of the 2010 Fifa World
Cup. What are the criteria for
recognition or inclusion?
CM: There are both thematic and
technical criteria. In terms of the
thematic brief, we have asked
participating artists to draw inspi-
ration from the return of the world
to Africa, the energy and passion
of the world’s largest sporting
event and the national pride of
their own country’s participation
therein. The technical criteria ad-
dress issues like medium, size etc.
PM: The exhibition showed
original artworks but sold prints
of them. Will this be the standard
format for all Fifa-licensed exhibi-
tions? Who owns the original
artworks?
CM: Both the 2010 International
Fine Art Collection and the 2010
African Fine Art Collection
comprise originals and limited
edition, signed, numbered prints.
The originals are also planned to
be offered for sale – but will only
be made available for acquisition
closer to the period of the tourna-
ment.
R 7 200 R 6 400
R 3 800 R 3 200
R 2 600 R 2 200
R 1 100 R 900
R 420 R 400

Eastern Cape
East London
Ann Bryant Art Gallery
6-23 Aug, East London Fine Art
Society Peep Show exhibition, an
exhibition of miniature paintings
9 St Marks Road, Southernwood,
East London T. 043 722 4044 An-
nbryant@intekom.co.za
Port Elizabeth
Alliance Francaise Port Elizabeth
1-22 Aug, Clay 5 Artists 5 Direc-
tions
17 MacKay Street, Richmond Hill,
T. 041 585 7889
www.alliance.org.za
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art
Museum
4 Jun-10 Aug, Decade, A selection
of works by some of South Africa’s
most valued and emerging artists
from the Sanlam Art Collection.
30 Jul-20 Sep, sculpture by 2009
Standard Bank Young Artist Award
Winner, Nicholas Hlobo. 15 Aug-25
Nov, Poking Fun, works from the
Art Museum’s permanent collection
exploring humour, biting commen-
tary and satire.
1 Park Drive, Port Elizabeth, T. 041
506 2000
www.artmuseum.co.za
Free State
Bloemfontein
Oliewenhuis Art Museum
21 Jul-18 Aug, Dissemination,
computer drawings by Jaco Spies,
7 Jul-16 Aug, Wilma Cruise, Cocks,
Asses &,
16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein
T. 051 447 9609
Johan Smith Art Gallery
Glass, Bronze, Ceramics, Old Mas-
ters, Contemporary works.
Windmill Centre Main Street
Clarens T. 058 256 1620 www.
johansmith.co.za
Blou Donki Art Gallery
Contemporary Art, Steel Sculp-
tures, Functional Art, Photography,
Ceramics.
Windmill Centre Main Street
Clarens T. 058 256 1757 www.
bloudonki.co.za
Gauteng
Art on Paper
25 Jul-12 Aug, mixed media works
by Senzeni Marasela; 15 Aug-12
Sep, prints and watercolours by
Fiona Pole
44 Stanley Ave, Braamfontein Werf
(Milpark), T. 011 726 2234
www.artonpaper.co.za
Artspace – JHB
29 Jul-22 Aug, Six Small Stories,
group exhibition of contemporary
jewellery design by Liz Loubser,
Marchand van Tonder, Geraldine
Fenn, Eric Loubser, Nannette Nel
and De Villiers Venter. 26 Aug-16
Sep, paintings by Dylan Graham
Chester Court, 142 Jan Smuts Av-
enue, Parkwood, Johannesburg. T.
011 880 8802
www.artspace-jhb.co.za
Brodie/Stevenson
9 Jul-8 Aug, photography by Zanele
Muholi. 13 Aug–5 Sep, solo show by
Conrad Botes.
373 Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannes-
burg T. 011 326 0034,
http://www.brodiestevenson.com/
Constitution Hill
From 6 Aug, Innovative Women,
work by ten contemporary black
South African female artists Dineo
Bopabe, Zanele Muholi, Nandipha
Mntambo, Ernestine White, Ingrid
Masondo, Nontobeko Ntombela,
Usha Seejarim, Senzeni Marasela,
Lerato Shadi and Bongi Bengu.
S O U T H A F RIC A N A RT G A L LERY SH O W LISTIN G S A U G U ST 2009
T. 011 339 6040/082 388 6870 Fax:
086 547 5195
Email: avanwyk@constitutionhill.
org.za www.constitutionhill.org.za
Coolart Space
From 28 Jul, sculptures and paint-
ings by Avril Kentridge-Kayser.
17 6th st, cnr 4th Ave, Parkhurst,
Johannesburg. T.011 442 6469
David Brown Fine Art
20 Aug-20 Sep, Aidon Westcott
39 Keyes Ave,off Jellicoe, Rose-
bank, Johannesburg. T. 011 788
4435
www.davidbrownfineart.co.za
David Krut Projects
30 Jul-29 Aug, I Knew you in this
Dark, an exhibition of paintings by
Jessica Webster
142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood,
Johannesburg T. 011 447 0627
www.davidkrutpublishing.com
Gallery MOMO
9 Jul-3 Aug, Long Live the Dead
Queen, work by Mary Sibande. 6-31
Aug, ‘Agony and Ecstacy’, David
Tlate and Charles Storr.
52 7th Avenue, Parktown North,
Johannesburg T.011 327 3247
www.gallerymomo.com
Gallery on the Square
For Aug, contemporary South Afri-
can artists, including: Paul Blom-
kamp, Wilma Cruise, John Kramer,
Colbert Mashile, Hermann Niebuhr,
Carl Roberts, Jenny Stadler among
others
32 Maude Street, Nelson Mandela
Square at Sandton City, Sandton,
Johanesburg. T. 011 784 2847
www.galleryonthesquare.co.za
Gold of Africa Museum Gallery
30 Jun-30 Sep, Headgear, drawings
by Jeannette Unite.
Turbine Hall, Jeppe Street, Johan-
nesburg T. 07829251834
www.goldofafrica.com
Goodman Gallery
6-22 Aug, Eliza Kentridge
163 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood,
Johannesburg, T. 011 788 1113
www.goodman-gallery.com
A Better World is Possible, by Lisa Brice
in her exhibition entitled:
More wood for the fire Until 01 August
09 at The Goodman Gallery, Jhb
Everard Read Gallery Jhb
30 Jul-23 Aug, solo show by
Brait-Everard Read Award-Winner,
Anthea Moys. 11-25 Sep, sculptures
by Dylan Lewis
6 Jellicoe Avenue, Rosebank,
Johannesburg T. 011 788 4805
http://www.everard-read.co.za
Grahams Fine Art Gallery
16 Jul-16 Sep, Imaging and Imagin-
ing: South African Art circa 1896-
2008
Shop 31, Broadacres Lifestyle
Centre, Cnr. Valley & Cedar Roads
Fourways, Johannesburg. T.011 465
9192 www.grahamsgallery.co.za
GordArt Gallery
11 Jul-1 Aug, Family by Lettie
Gardiner and Sticks and Stones
(Dodge Burn) by Carla Crafford. 8
Aug-29 Aug, Cast and Crew, by Alex
Hamilton, and Mtkidu, an interac-
tive performance by the collective
Shop 1 Parkwood Mansions, 144
Jan Smuts Ave, Parkwood, t/f 011
880 5928
http://www.gordartgallery.com/
gordon@gordartgallery.com
Manor Gallery
2-26 Aug, 6th Black Like Us Exhibi-
tion of 2009
Norscot Manor Centre, Penguin
Drive T. 011 465 7934
Email: gallery@wssa.org.za
www.wssa.org.za
Johannesburg Art Gallery
30 Jun-27 Sep, Musha Neluheni:
Vantage, in the artist’s project room
#5. 26 Jul-1 Nov, Vik Muniz, Stephen
Shore and Janaina Tschape.
King George Street, Joubert Park,
Johannesburg T. 011 725 3180
www.joburg.org.za
Market Photo Workshop
8 Jul-13 Aug, Alternative Kidz, an
exhibition of photography by Musa
Nxumalo.
2 President Street, Newtown, Johan-
nesburg, 2000 T. 011 834 1444
www.marketphotoworkshop.co.za
Museum Africa
25 May-24 Dec 2010, l’Afrique:
A Tribute to Maria Stein-Lessing
and Leopold Spiegel; co-curated
by Nessa Leibhammer and Natalie
Knight.
121 Bree Street, Newtown, Johan-
nesburg, T. 011 833 5624
www.knightgalleries.net
Origins Centre
5 Aug-10 Oct, From Abidjan to
Joburg, Veronique Tadjo
Cnr Yale and Enoch Santonga Str.
University of the Witwatersrand
T. 011 717 4700 www.origins.org.za
Resolution Gallery
For Jul/Aug, The Wealth of No
Nations, works by Pat Mautloa and
Godfried Donkor.
142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood,
Johannesburg T. 011 880 4054
www.resolutiongallery.com
Sally Thompson Gallery
2-29 Aug, Drawing from Memory,
paintings by Hazel Frankel and Judy
Shear
78 Third Avenue, Melville, T. 011
482 9719
www.thompsongallery.co.za
Standard Bank Gallery
4 Aug-19 Sep, SBYA 25th Anniver-
sary exhibition.
Cnr. Simmonds & Frederick Streets,
Johannesburg, 2001
Tel: 011 631 1889 www.standard-
bankgallery.co.za
The Art Place, Gallery & Art
Centre
11 Jul-8 Aug, All Creatures Great
and Small, a group show.
144 Milner Ave, Roosevelt Park, T
011 888 9120
University of Johannesburg Arts
Centre Gallery
29 Jul-22 Aug, Boarding House,
photographs by Roger Ballen. 2
Sep-14 Oct, Braam Kruger. 2 Sep –
14 Oct, retrospective of oil paintings
by Braam Kruger
University of Johannesburg,
Auckland Park Kingsway campus
cnr. Kingsway and Universit-
eits Rd, Auckland Park T. 011 559
2099/2556 www.uj.ac.za/artsacad-
emy
Pretoria
Alette Wessels Kunskamer
Exhibition of Old Masters and se-
lected leading contemporary artists.
Maroelana Centre, Maroelana.
GPS : S25º 46.748 EO28º 15.615
T. 012 346 0728
C. 084 589 0711
www.artwessels.co.za
Cameo Framers and Gallery
1-12 Aug, Glass art by Tersia du
Plessis, sculptures and prints by
Marinda du Toit and monoprints,
paintings and drawings by Hardus
Koekemoer
198 Long Street, Waterkloof, Preto-
ria T. 082 923 2551
trent.art@gmail.com
Fried Contemporary Art Gallery
8 Aug-12 Sep, Recent work by
Johann Moolman, Diane Victor and
Rossouw van der Walt
430 Charles Str, Brooklyn, Pretoria
T. 012 346 0158 www.friedcontem-
porary.com
Kraal Studio
29 Aug-10 Oct, Solitude and Things
Collected.
364 Milner Road, Waterkloof, Preto-
ria T. 082 464 6767
Email:hanlieandclive@kraalstudio.
co.za
Magpie Gallery
18 Jul-6 Aug, Dear John, postcard
works by a selection of South Afri-
can artists. 8 Aug-17 Sep, If I were
a girl it is, works by male artists,
curated by Debbie Cloete
Shop 21B, Southdowns Shopping
Centre, Centurion T. 012 665 1832
www.magpie.co.za
Naude Modern
1-26 Aug, Face Look, portraits by
Cathy Giordano and Leonie van
der Loo
254a St Patrick’s Road, Muckleneuk
Ridge, Pretoria, T. 012 440 2201
www.art.co.za/andrenaude
Platform on 18th
30 Jul-15 Aug, bronze sculpture by
Andre Otto and Sua Havenga. 20
Aug-5 Sep, Narrative Video art,
paintings and sculpture by 22 Open
Windows students.
232 18th Street, Rietondale, Pretoria
T. 084 764 4258
Pretoria Art Museum
14 May-16 Aug, Mbongeni Buthe-
lezi’s first touring national exhibition
of “plastic painting”. Until 1 Dec,
A selection of artworks tells a brief
story of South African art from the
time of the first San artists, includes
early 20th century painters, Resis-
tance artists and artists of the 21st
century. Also on show until Dec, the
Corobrik Collection, showcasing the
development of ceramics in South
Africa in the past thirty years.
T.012 344 1807/8 http://www.
pretoriaartmuseum.co.za
Pretoria Association of Arts
14 Aug- 2 Sep, etchings, monoprints
and mixed media works by Gerda
Scholtemeijer
173 Mackie Street, New Muckle-
neuk, Pretoria, Gauteng, 0181, T.
012 346 3100
www.artsassociationpta.co.za
Tina Skukon Gallery
19 Jul-12 Aug, Worker, by Helen
Hugo
Plot 6 Koedoeberg Road, Faerie
Glen, Pretoria
T. 012 991 1733
St Lorient Fashion & Art Gallery
30 Aug-26 Sep, Rooftop, outdoor
sculpture exhibition curated by
Gordon Froud
492 Fehrsen Str, Brooklyn Circle,
Pretoria. T. 012 460 0284
www.stlorient.com
UNISA Art Gallery
15 Aug-11 Sep, New Acquisitions
exhibition
Theo van Wijk Building, Goldfields
entrance, 5th floor. Unisa Campus,
Pretoria. T.012 429 6823
www.unisa.ac.za/gallery
KwaZulu-Natal
Durban
Artisan Contemporary
10 Aug-20 Sep, Vista, a collection of
fibre art by Fibreworks, and beaded
sculpture by Ceasar Mkize and
Thase Dlamini
344 Florida Rd, Morningside, T. 031
312 4364
Email: sue@artisan.co.za
Art Space - DBN
3-22 Aug, Body of Work, a solo show
of paintings by Coral Spencer Domi-
jan, 24 Aug–12 Sep, mixed media
works by Martin Burnett and Life
Journey by Di van Wik
3 Millar Road, Durban. T.031 312
0793
www.artspacedurban.co.za
Durban Art Gallery
Until 2 Aug, Working in Warwick,
by Denis Gilbert. 12 Aug- end Oct,
PAST/PRESENT, works by Andrew
Verster. Until Dec 2009, Pic(k) Of
The DAG, South African works from
the gallery’s Permanent Collection.
Second Floor, City Hall, Anton
Lembede Street, Durban T. 031 311
2268
Email:strettonj@durban.gov.za
www.durban.gov.za/durban/dis-
cover/museums/dag
Durban University of Technology
(DUT) Gallery
31 Jul-14 Aug, Architectural
exhibition, 20 Aug-1 Sep, National
Creative Youth Arts Festival
Steve Biko Campus, Cecil Renaud
Theatre 2nd floor, Durban
artgallery@dut.ac.za or 031 373
2207
Elizabeth Gordon Gallery
A variety of new South African
artworks, including new black and
white acrylics and charcoals by
Chris Buchner and Wim Rauten-
bach.
120 Florida Road, Durban T. 031
303 8133
eqqart@iafrica.com
Imbizo
13 Aug-13 Sep, Black and White,
a show including black and white
works in all media.
Shop 7A, Ballito Lifestyle Centre,
Ballito 4418 T. 032 946 1937
info@imbizogallery.co.za
KZNSA Gallery
21 Jul-8 Aug, START! The Nivea
Art Awards, an exhibition by the
23 finalists of this year’s awards.
Lerato Shadi: Hema (or six hours of
out-breath captured in 792 balloons,
video work.
166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, T. 031
2023686, www.kznsagallery.co.za
Tatham Art Gallery
25 Jun-6 Sep, Into the Light, work
by KZN women artists of the early
part of the 20th Century. 9 Jul-13
Sep, Heath Family Retrospective,
paintings by Jack, Jane and Jinny
Heath.
Cnr. Of Chief Albert Luthuli (Com-
mercial) Rd. and Church Street (Op-
posite City Hall) Pietermaritzburg.
T. 033 342 1804
www.tatham.org.za
Northern Cape
Kimberley
#William Humphreys Art Gal-
lery
From 30 Jul, David Walters and
Friends, an exhibition of top South
African ceramicists.
Civic Centre, Cullinan Crescent,
Kimberley, T. 053 831 1724,
www.museumsnc.co.za
Mpumalanga
The Loop Art Foundry & Sculp-
ture Gallery
Casterbridge Complex Corner R40
and Numbi Roads White River T.
013 751 2435 www.tlafoundry.co.za
Western Cape
Cape Town
Alliance Française
For August, Nina Barnett, a sound,
video and stop-motion animation ex-
hibition, investigating urban spaces.
155 Loop Street, Cape Town. T. 021
4235699
www.alliance.org.za
Art B Gallery
29 Jul-19 Aug, mixed media works
by Marieke Kruger and sculpture by
Paul de Jongh
Library Centre, Carel van Aswegen
Street, Bellville T. 021 918 2301,
www.artb.co.za
Association for Visual Arts (AVA)
17 Aug-4 Sep, Flatlands, photogra-
phy by Marc Shoul.
35 Church Street, Cape Town T. 021
424 7436 www.ava.co.za
Brenda, The Mexican Sports Bar, Hill-
brow, 2006. Photo from Marc Shoul’s
show entitled ”Flatlands” to be seen at
the AVA Gallery, CT 18 of August -
04 September 2009
Atlantic Art Gallery
A permanent display showcasing
leading contemporary South African
artists.
25 Wale Street Cape Town, T. 021
423 5775
Blank Projects
5-25 Aug, Black: the antithesis of
the fraudulent sensuality of culture’s
façade an experiment in voluntary
asceticism. A group show includ-
ing works by Zander Blom, Liza
Grobler, Nomthunzi Mashalaba,
Kathryn Smith, Michael Taylor, Hen-
tie van der Merwe and Mary Wafer
198 Buitengracht Street, Bo-Kaap,
Cape Town, T.072 1989 221, www.
blankprojects.blogspot.com
Cape Gallery
26 Jul-14 Aug, prints by Lorraine
Vivian and Ellen Norbu; 16 Aug-12
Sep, Annual Wildlife exhibition,
including painting, sculptures and
mixed media
60 Church Street, Cape Town, T.
021 423 5309
www.capegallery.co.za
Carmel Art
Dealers in Fine art, exclusive dis-
tributers of Pieter van der Westhui-
zen etchings
66 Vineyard Road, corner Cavendish
St, Clarement T.021 671 6601
Constantia Village Shopping Centre,
Main Road, Constantia T. 021 794
6262
Christopher Møller Art
Dealers in South African contempo-
rary art and South African masters.
82 Church Street, Cape Town, T.
021 439 3517
www.christophermollerart.co.za
David Porter Antiques
Buyers and sellers of South African
art
T. 021 683 0580/083 452 5862
david@davidporterantiques.com
Erdmann Contemporary /Photog-
raphers Gallery
25 Jul-29 Aug, Painting, Drawing,
Sculpture, Photography and Vintage
Printmaking group show, featur-
ing work by Walter Battiss, Abrie
Fourie, Mark Hipper, Jan Neethling,
Jurgen Schadeberg, Themba Shi-
base, Manfred Zylla and more.
63 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town
T. 021 422 2762
www.erdmanncontemporary.co.za
Exposure Gallery
For Aug, an exhibition of contempo-
rary photography
The Old Biscuit Mill, 373 Albert
Road, Woodstock. T. 021 447 4124
www.exposuregallery.co.za
Focus Contemporary, Fine Young
Art
27 Jun-15 Aug, All Together Now,
work by Ian Cattanach, Mark
Stanes, Glen Green, Chris Dieder-
icks, Philip Marinig, Karin Miller.
24 Jul-4 Sep, Works by Christiaan
Diedericks, Chad Barber, Ian Cat-
tanach, Mark Stanes, Glen Green,
Philip Marinig, Aphelele Sikwebu
and Karin Miller.
2 Long Street Cape Town, T. 021
419 8888
www.focuscontemporary.co.za
Gallery F
Contemporary and archival South
African Art
221 Long Street, Cape Town, T. 021
422 5246
www.galleryf.co.za
Gill Allderman Gallery
For Aug, Group Exhibition 11,
including new works by Dathini
Mzayiya
278 Main Road, Kenilworth, Cape
Town T. 083 556 2540
www.gillalldermangallery.co.za
Goodman Gallery, Cape
16 Jul-15 Aug, Dying to be Men,
works by Kudzanai Chiurai, 20 Aug-
12 Sep, Hentie van der Merwe
3rd Floor, Fairweather House, 176
Sir Lowry Road Woodstock,
Cape Town T. 021 462 7573/4,
www.goodmangallerycape.com
Infin Art Gallery
Wolfe Street Chelsea Wynberg T.
021 761 2816 and Buitengracht St
Cape Town T. 021 423 2090 www.
infinart.co.za
Irma Stern Museum
8-29 Aug, functional ceramics by
four potters
Cecil Road, Rosebank, Cape Town
T. 021 685 5686
www.irmastern.co.za
#Iziko South African National
Gallery
2 Jun-16 Aug, Jol, paintings and
prints on the subject of jolling.
Includes work by William Kentridge,
Bob Gosani, Michael Wyeth and
Gerard Sekoto, amongst others.
9 Jun-25 Oct, Cross-Pollination,
South African artists working from
1930-50. Includes work by Laubser,
Stern, Kibel, Pierneef, Sekoto and
Lipshitz. 30 Jun-25 Oct, Choices
2008, showcasing new artworks
acquired in 2008 by the Acquisitions
Committee. From 14 Jul, The Art
of Relief Printing, an exhibition de-
mystifying print processes. Includes
woodcuts, wood, engravings and
linocuts.
Government Avenue, Company’s
Garden T. The 021 467 4660,
www.iziko.org.za
Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery
15 Aug-12 Sep, 10-20 Anniversary
Exhibition: Art That Inspires
In-Fin-Art Building, Upper Bu-
itengracht Street, Cape Town, T.
021 423 6075/082 5664631 www.
johansborman.co.za
Kalk Bay Modern
Winter Showcase: art works on pa-
per by Cecil Skotnes, Penny Siopis,
Colbert Mashile, Michele Tabor,
Jane Eppel, Lyn Smuts, Rory Botha,
Nat Mokgosi.
1st Floor, Olympia Buildings, 136
Main Road Kalk Bay. T.021 788
6571
kbmodern@iafrica.com
Kunst House
18 May–31 Aug, a varying collec-
tion of work by resident artists
62 Kloof Street, Gardens, T. 021
422 1255
www.kunsthouse.co.za
Lindy van Niekerk Art Gal-
lery
Exhibition of SA’s leading artists.
31 Kommandeur Road, Welgemoed,
Belville T. 021 913 7204/5
www.artpro.co.za
Michael Stevenson Contemporary
4 Jun–1 Aug, Everything Matters,
paintings by Deborah Poynton;
Ingubo Yesizwe, new installation by
Nicholas Hlobo; This is my Africa,
documentary by Zina-Saro-Wiwa;
Shroud, sculpture by Katharine
Jacobs. 6 Aug-26 Sep, Wim Botha,
Sidestep by Simon Gush and Middle-
sea, a video work by Zineb Sedira.
Ground Floor, Buchanan Building,
160 Sir Lowry Road, Cape Town, T.
021 462 1500
www.michaelstevenson.com
Rorschach (After Velázquez), Lino-
print, by Wim Botha in his show
Joburg Altarpiece & Amazing
Things from Other Places
6 August - 26 September 2009 at
The Michael Stevenson Gallery
Michaelis School of Fine Art
Michaelis Gallery: 28 Jul-21
Aug, Legacies of the landscape,
landscape prints from the Katrine
Harries print cabinet. Rosedale
Gallery: 28 Jul-16 Aug, Anaphora,
work by seven Wits MFA students:
Colleen Alborough, Francki Burger,
Maja Marx, Anthea Moys, Richard
Penn, Mary Wafer and Amy Watson.
31-37 Orange st, Gardens, Cape
Town
T. 021 480 7147
Raw Vision Gallery
New digital prints by Mike Fisher
available for viewing. Upcoming
show: Athol Lewis
89 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock. T.
076 581 9468 fishermike@mac.com
Rose Korber
For Aug, Prints from the Graphic
Drawer
48 Sedgemoor Road, Camps Bay,
Cape Town T. 021 438 9152
e-mail: roskorb@icon.co.za
www.rosekorberart.com
Rust-en-Vrede
4-20 Aug, Through my Eyes, an in-
spired mosaic exhibition. 25 Aug-17
Sep, Judy Woodborne, Paul Birchall
and Chris Diedericks
10 Wellington Road, Durbanville. T.
021 976 4691
www.rust-en-vrede.com
Salon91 Contemporary
12-29 Aug, Fate Amenable to
Change, a solo exhibition of paint-
ings by Shui-Lyn White
91 Kloof Street, Gardens, Cape
Town 021 424 6930
www.salon91art.co.za
South African Museum
25 Jul-Mar 2010, Subtle Thresholds,
the representational taxonomies
of disease, a mixed media show
curated by Fritha Langerman.
25 Queen Victoria Street, Cape
Town T. 021 481 3800
http://www.iziko.org.za/sam/index.
html
South Gallery
Showcasing creativity from
Kwazulu-Natal including Ardmore
Ceramic Art.
Fairweather House, 176 Sir Lowry
Road Woodstock, Ground Floor. T.
021 465 4672
info@southgallery.co.za
These Four Walls Fine Art Gallery
14 Aug-5 Sep, an exhibition of
sculptures and paintings by P L
Anderson
169 Lower Main Road, Observatory,
T. 021 447 7393. www.thesefour-
walls.co.za
The South African Print Gallery
Until 26 Sep, prints by gallery art-
ists. 27 Aug-28 Sep, ArtThrob Print
Editions Exhibition, works by Jane
Alexander, Willem Boshoff, Lisa
Brice, Nontsikelelo ‘Lolo’ Veleko,
Guy Tillim, Mikhael Subotzky, Peet
Pienaar, Penny Siopis, David Goldb-
latt, Hentie vd Merwe, Tracey Rose,
William Kentridge and Zwelethu
Mthethwa, as well as a new Robert
Hodgins print, hot off the press.
107 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock,
Cape Town, T. 021 462 6851
www.printgallery.co.za
UCA Gallery
29 Jul-21 Aug, Voight-Kampff,
curated by Chatherine Ocholla, will
feature works by Shani Nel, David
Scadden, Justin Allart, Niklas Wit-
tenberg, Catherine Ocholla, Linda
Stupart and Andrew Lamprecht. 26
Aug-18 Sep, Elysian Fields, group
show.
46 Lower Main Road, Observatory,
Cape Town T. 021 447 4132
www.ucagallery.co.za
VEO Gallery
From 1 Sep, The Concept, group
exhibition
Jarvis Road, De Waterkant, Cape
Town. T. 021 421 3278
www.veo.co.za
What if the World…
5-29 Aug, solo show by Athi-Patra
Ruga.
First floor, 208 Albert Road
Woodstock T. 021 448 1438 www.
whatiftheworld.com
The backyard picture by Robert Sloon,
part of the “Syndrome” exhibition
featuring Charles Maggs and Robert
Sloon at the Whatiftheworld Gallery,
Cape Town
see www.whatiftheworld.com
for more details
Worldart
27 Jul-22 Aug, The Plot Thickens,
paintings by Michael Taylor.
54 Church Street Cape Town CBD,
T. 021 423 3075
www.worldart.co.za
Franschoek
Galerie L’ Art
A permanent exhibition of old
masters
Shop no 3, The Ivy, Krugerstreet,
Franschoek T. 021 876 2497
www.galart.co.za
Gallery Grande Provence
From 9 Aug, new works by Guy du
Toit and Pacual Tarazana, jewellery
by Boezaart & Bauermeister
Main Road Franschoek, T. 021 876
8600
www.grandeprovence.co.za
George
Strydom Gallery
For Aug, General exhibition
Marklaan Centre, 79 Market Street,
George, T. 044 874 4027.
www.artaffair.co.za
Oudtshoorn
A
ArtKaroo Gallery
From 6 Aug, Klein Karoo Kleur en
Geur Exhibition, Judy Bumstead,
Francois Tiran, Francois Gerber,
Lisl Barry
107 Baron van Reede Str, Oudt-
shoorn
Tel/Fax: (044) 2791093
janet@artkaroo.co.za / www.
artkaroo.co.za
Paarl
The Hout Street Gallery
30 Jul-20 Sep, the 34th annual
Winter Gala, including paintings by
25 South African artists, as well as
sculptures, glass work and ceramics.
270 Main Street Paarl T. 021 872
5030
Stellenbosch
Art on 5
Permanent exhibition of paintings
and ceramics by Maryna de Witt,
Pera Schillings, Karen Kieviet.
7b Andringa Street, Stellenbosch. T.
021 887 7234
Dorp Straat Gallery
Until 31 Aug, Winter Warmers
Exhibition, featuring work by Henk
Serfontein, Anthony Sherratt, Anya
Adendorff, Maraleen Jonker-Aran-
gies, Kelly John Gough, Louis Nel,
Cornelia Stoop, Jenny Parsons, An-
thony Johnson Anton Momberg and
ceramics by light from Africa, Laura
du Toit and John Newdigate.
144 Dorp Street, Stellenbosch T. 021
887 2256
www.dorpstraatgalery.co.za
Red Black and White
30 Jul-29 Aug, Beesboude en Blom-
potte, by Johann Slee A
5a Distillery Road, Bosman’s Cross-
ing, Stellenbosch. T. 021 886 6281
www.redblackandwhite.co.za
H
SMAC Art Gallery
25 Jun-1 Sep, On Skin, works by
Ricky Benett; Abstract South African
Art from the Isolation Years, part
III; Collection 11 in the library
De Wet Centre, Church Street, Stel-
lenbosch T. 021 887 3607
www.smacgallery.com
Stellenbosch Art Gallery
Permanent exhibition of Conrad
Theys, John Kramer, Gregoire
Boonzaier, Adriaan Boshoff and
other artists.
34 Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch
T. 021-8878343
www.stellenboschartgallery.co.za
University of Stellenbosch Art
Gallery
4 Aug-25 Aug, Propositions, works
by Postgraduate students of the
Department of Visual Arts, Univer-
sity of Stellenbosch. Participating
artists include Lunga Kama, Larita
Engelbrecht, John Henry Foster,
Corlia Harmsen, Niel Vosloo, Berry
Meyer, Gina Heyer, Lara Kruger,
Gussie van der Merwe, Wessel Sny-
man, Zahn Rust, Rachael Colette,
Ferdinand Kidd, Hendrick L. Coe-
tzee, Doret Ferreira, Janienke van
Zyl, and De Villiers Venter.
cnr Dorp & Bird Street, Stellen-
bosch T.021 808-3524/3489
Email: us.max.09@gmail.com
Knysna
Knysna Fine Art
20 Aug-1 Sep, Decade, 10 Years of
Collecting for the Sanlam Art Col-
lection
8 Grey Street Knysna, T.044 382
5107
www.finearts.co.za
Elgin
Oudebrug Gallery
Showcasing oil paintings, pastels
and sculptures in the sculpture
garden
Grabouw, Elgin T. 021 859 2595
www.ridley.co.za
Hermanus
Abalone Gallery
8 Jul-31 Aug, Uitkyk – Outlook,
etchings and collages by Titia Ballot
and sculptures by Susanna Swart
2 Harbour Rd, The Courtyard,
Hermanus. T. 028 313 2935
www.abalonegallery.co.za
The Old Harbour Gallery
Works including sculpture by Col-
leen Madamombe
No.4 Warrington Place, Harbour
Road, Hermanus T. 028 313 2751 /
0822595515
www.oldharbourgallery.co.za
Philip Harper Galleries
Specialising in South African old
masters and select contemporary
artists.
Oudehof Mall, 167 Main Rod,
Hermanus T. 028 312 4836 www.
philipharpergalleries.co.za

Alex Dodd
Furniture designer and chef
Lientjie Wessels and her husband
Robert Denton of the cult Pretoria
eaterie and homegrown design
outlet, Libel, have recently taken
to regular Facebook postings on
the theme of winter to draw
people’s attention to the hearty
cuisine on offer at their establish-
ment. The one that seemed to most
aptly summarise the dusty and
gusty spirit of late July on the
Highveld was a nugget by Ameri-
can author and billiard’s cham-
pion player Robert Byrne, who
quipped: ‘Winter is nature’s way
of saying “Up yours”.’
Among the myriad events
clustering in my inbox, like
kindling for a fire to ward off the
decimations of winter, was an
email subtitled: ‘This presentation
will address the shifting curatorial
practices affected by the current
economic crisis.’ The terms ‘cura-
torial practice’ and ‘current eco-
nomic crisis’ seem to be in such
urgent circulation at the moment,
I couldn’t resist contending with
the parking crisis at Wits Univer-
sity to make my way to the School
of the Arts for this Diva Talk by
Tumelo Mosaka.
Mosaka graduated from Wits
with a BA Fine Arts and com-
pleted his Masters in Curatorial
Practices at Bard College in New
York. He is currently the curator
of contemporary art at the Kran-
nert Art Museum at the Univer-
sity of Illinois, after working as
associate curator at the Brooklyn
Museum in New York, where he
curated the exhibition, Infinite Is-
lands: Contemporary Carribbean
Art (2007), among others. He was
most recently in town in April as a
guest curator at this year’s Joburg
Art Fair, for which he curated
Here a nd Now, an exhibition of
DVD work by artists from around
the globe.
10-20 Borman Birthday exhibition
celebrates the artist as hero
JH Pierneef - ‘Bushveld’
Johans Borman will be celebrating
ten years in their Upper Buiten-
gracht Street Gallery, and twenty
years in the business with a “10-20
Anniversary exhibition”. Opening
on the 15th of August, the exhibi-
tion will deal with
notions of heroism in art making.
“The concept of ‘heroism’ first
surfaced during my research of
the early Sekoto painting, ‘Family
with candle’”, says gallery director,
Johans Borman. “Barbara Lindop
describes how Sekoto managed to
successfully capture ‘the heroism
revealed in ordinary human life’ in
most of his early works. It required
a talented artist, an ‘art hero’ in his
own right, to identify this and com-
municate it truthfully.”
The more research Borman
undertook, the more the concept
seemed appropriate; “it became
the golden thread throughout this
collection of work which was
produced over more than a century
- from 1906 to 2009”.
Winner of the ABSA l’Atelier Award
The winner of this year’s ABSA
L’Atelier competition is an un-
likely suspect. Thirty-four year
old Stephen Rosin runs a family
pie-making business, and lives in
a rural area near Plett, where, until
last September, he had no elec-
tricity. Winning the award, held
at Gauteng’s ABSA gallery on the
23rd July came as something of a
surprise to the artist too. “I wasn’t
even supposed to be going,” says
Rosin, “it was completely unex-
pected!”
Rosin, who studied painting at
the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
Museum in Port Elizabeth (though
he never painted a single canvas
in his final year), has entered the
competition for the previous two
years in a row, making the list of
Johannesburg
I was drawn to Mosaka’s easy
going unpretentious manner,
which stood out against the atti-
tude of that other ‘blue-chip’ (a
term Mosaka applied to art-
ists) curator Simon Njami, who
succeeded in alienating several
local audiences at public events
surrounding Africa Remix with his
stand offish pop star shades and
his supercilious one liners.
Mosaka judiciously hedged his
bets when one audience member
asked him to comment on the
stereotyping effect of Njami and
Fernando Alvim’s Africa Pavil-
lion at the 2007 Venice Biennale,
which agglomerated the art of
a continent, whilst the rest of
the world was represented on
country-by-country basis. But he
did stake his claim by expressing
a degree of skepticism in rela-
tion to ‘mega-shows’, which are
‘driven by political ideology’, and
asserting that he was more drawn
to the ‘complexities of specificity’
that lie in smaller, more nuanced
exhibitions. But his presentation
was sadly lacking in specificity.
Although he did present slides of
a few works from shows he has
curated, he didn’t mention any art-
ists’ names or offer much insight
into their conceptual motivations.
That said, his time was limited
and his focus was on emerging
curatorial strategies in the light (or
should I say the gloom?) of the
current global crunch. Giving us
a sense of the New York climate,
he said ‘about 20 galleries had
shut down in Chelsea in the past
month or two, with about 30 hav-
ing closed before that’ and that
the Brooklyn Museum, where he
used work, had recently laid off
about 70 people. He said that, in
this tight climate, institutions are
tending to turn inwards, showing
work from their established collec-
tions and opting for exhibitions of
master works, which guarantee an
audience. More artists are working
as collectives and, in the absence
of gallery spaces, are redirecting
their energies away from com-
mercial pursuits, using available
materials and occupying vacant
lots and empty buildings. The
picture he painted signaled the rise
Many of the masters included
on the show had to overcome
adversity to produce their work,
says Borman. Pieter Wenning,
whose early life was plagued by
malaria, also suffered bad health
and poverty during the last
years of his short life. Despite
this, he managed to produce a
respected body of work, influenc-
ing the work of second generation
Cape Impressionists such as Gre-
goire Boonzaier, Terence McCaw,
Piet van Heerden and David Botha.
Gerard Sekoto is another inspira-
tional artist included on the show.
“He progressed from a rural, Pedi
background to become a Modernist
painter with dogged determina-
tion - leaving the relative comfort
of early fame and the repressive
political situation in South Africa
to brave a new beginning in Paris,
the ‘centre of the art universe’ at
the time, in spite of the handicaps
of being black, poor and not know-
ing the language or culture.” Works
top ten finalists last year. This
year however, was third time
lucky for the Rosin, the artist
taking home the winning prize of
R110 000, and a six month tenure
at the Cité Internationale des Arts
in Paris. It’s dream come true for
Rosin, who living as he does in
a rural area, says he doesn’t get
much exposure.
Rosin’s winning work is the
eponymously titled, “The devil
makes his Christmas pie out of
politician’s tongues and banker’s
fingers”, a low relief group portrait
shot of a suited group of men.
Worked up with layers of pinstripe,
bespoke suiting, fake suede and
velvet, the men might be “a govern-
ment cabinet or a corporation’s
board”, but for their heads, which
of a new conservativism in the
arts, with less new commissions
and less institutions being willing
to go out on a limb for the sake of
something fresh and dangerous.
My spirit was renewed by a visit
to a collaborative installation by
Bronwyn Lace and Vaughn Sadie
at the Sci-Bono Discovery Centre,
which shed a bright new light on
the fertile possibilities of re-
examining the kinds of objects and
spaces that lie dormant in existing
institutions. This project, Unit for
Measure, presents a challenge to
rigorously explore spatial practices
in ways that reinvent the architec-
tures of museums, presenting new
landscapes and possibilities for
displaying objects that trigger fresh
thoughts and associations. Lace
and Sadie’s immaculately rendered
installation was forged in tandem
with a workshop process that en-
couraged the education officers of
local museums to think about new
experiential modes of exhibiting.
Practising what they preach,
Lace and Sadie, uncovered a rub-
ble-strewn storage area in the cool
depths of the Sci Bono building,
and transformed it into a sparsely
sensual space of wonder. The
project’s other manifestation will
take place at the Durban Art Gal-
lery in November where the exact
same materials will be applied to a
completely different space.
Using 6 000m fishing line, 3mm
of perspex, 2 000 fishing flies and
an African Monarch butterfly, Lace
Cecil Skotnes - ‘Head’
from both before and after Sekoto’s
exile are included on the show.
Maggie Laubser is another artist
on the show. “Laubser grew up on
a farm at the end of the 19th cen-
tury, but liberated herself through
her studies of German Expression-
ism at a time when it was most
unusual for an Afrikaner woman to
have such dreams.”
Work by contemporary artists
such as Susqya Williams, Jaco
Sieberhagen, Jacobus Kloppers,
Ben Coutouvidis and Walter Meyer
are also included on the show,
which comprises 72 works overall.
Though the challenges facing art-
ists today are somewhat different
to those faced by our early masters,
artist today still require a measure
of heroism to succeed. Says Bor-
man
“The art world today is more
competitive than ever... it has
become far more challenging to be
unique and authentic in the creative
process”.
have been replaced by devil horns.
A subtle jibe at corporations,
it is perhaps a brave choice for
ABSA, a sign perhaps that the
organisation is open to laughing
at itself. Rosin, for his part, is in-
terested in contemporary geopoli-
tics and globalism, and is highly
critical of the power held by a
small number of individuals at the
heads of such businesses. He is
currently working on a piece using
hundreds of bank bags, one of the
few items, which, Rosin points
out, one can still get for free from
banks. “Soon they’ll be charging
a cover charge just to enter”, jokes
Rosin, who has seen the effects of
the recession hit the small town
of Plett.
Rosin is also fascinated by
COLUMNISTS & RECOMMENDED UPCOMING SHOWS
climbed up and down a ladder 1
850 times to create two lumines-
cent blocks of delicate, almost
invisible chord that catches the
light in the most ephemeral ways.
In one structure a suspended mass
of feathered fishing flies resembles
a swarm of insects caught for one
fleeting moment in time, or a hand-
ful of dandelions thrown up at the
sky. A solitary African Monarch
Butterfly has been pinned to the
Perspex base of the other structure
in a way that subtly calls for an
interrogation of outmoded Vic-
torian modes of collection and
display.
Meanwhile Sadie walked 30km
within the small block of space
contained within the room to
install 1 000m of galvanized steel
wire rope. The suspended trails of
wire start to resemble the electrici-
ty cables that run along the sides of
freeways evoking vast landscapes
in a way that makes you wonder
about scale and about the kinds of
distances and vastness that can be
traveled in one enclosed room.
The project arose out of ongo-
ing conversations between Lace
and Sadie around the creation of
platforms in South Africa for ex-
perimental and experiential work.
To me it was a blazing affirmation
of the fact that some South African
artists are rising to the challenges
of the reduced and strapped art
context described by Mosaka in
the most fabulously future-minded
ways.
Ben Coutouvidis - ‘The windmill’
The gallerist who spent ten years
dealing in Pretoria, Stellenbosch
and Onrus with his wife, prior to
opening his Cape Town space,
puts his success down to relation-
ships. “The success of any gallery
business depends on maintaining
a healthy equilibrium between the
three groups participating in such
an enterprise -the artists, the art
lovers or clients, and the gallery.”
The opening is on Sat 15 August
at 12h00. Dr Elza Miles will be the
opening speaker. Show runs until
until 12th September.
the American political situation
at the moment. He is horrified
by the apparent neo-colonial
project with which the country is
occupied,“working on the strategy
for a new American century”, as
politicians claim to be.
The pie season being what it is,
Rosin says he will only be able
to head to Paris after December,
possibly in January of 2010.
He is however, thrilled at the
prospect. “It’s incredible,” says
Rosin, “amazing”, to be afforded
the opportunity not only to travel
to Paris, but to receive so much
exposure. Until then, he plans to
set up a proper portfolio, fram-
ing the works he hasn’t had funds
to frame, and saving up for his
European sojourn.
Melvyn Minnaar
Nurturing the real thing
At least we can’t fault the brand-
new CEO of the National Arts
Council, Annabell Lebethe, on
noisy enthusiasm. Unlike the previ-
ous (useless) lot, she can speak
(well) in public, it seems - and
laugh chirpily. This she did in an
interview with Nancy Richards on
SAFM shortly after taking on the
job last month.
What is worrying is that Ms Leb-
ethe, in chatting to Ms Richards,
was using the usual (bureaucratic)
jargon which throws out words like
‘facilitate’, ‘economics’, ‘opportu-
nity’, ‘empower’, ‘community’ and
the like.
The subtext of this kind of talk
is that the land is inhabited by mil-
lions of creative people, who only
needs to be shown the way to fame
and fortune. A fresh-faced CEO,
not yet untainted by the wear-’n-
Peter Machen
A few Wednesdays ago marked
the first time that I missed
an event because I wasn’t on
Facebook. Well, kind of, almost,
missed. I was actually next door
to the event in question – at Bean
Bag Bohemia, having a drink
– when the owner, Guy Wood,
dragged me along to some random
function a few metres away at St.
Mary’s church, one of Durban’s
most beautiful and flexible spaces
where religious dogma hasn’t
excluded a good spread of fairly
risqué entertainment over the
years.
The function happened to be
Durban’s inaugural Pecha Kucha
event, another global phenomenon
spread by the web, where creative
people get up and talk for 400
seconds (that’s 6 minutes and forty
seconds) while they show 20 im-
ages, each for twenty seconds. We
arrived as people were flooding
out into the courtyard for the inter-
val. A small army of cigarettes lit
themselves up into the evening air
– a brisk winter night for Durban
but still warmer than nearly ev-
erywhere else in the country – and
after a few minutes, everyone was
herded back inside.
And I was so glad I joined
them. Not for the whole Pecha
Kucha ticked-that-done-that thing
but for the presentation which fol-
lowed from Garth Walker. Walker,
who is widely acknowledged as
one of the kings of global graphic
design, has also always been a
rabid documenter of the idiosyn-
crasies of local design language
and iconography, something which
has never been separate from his
design work and his appreciation
What to watch out for in August
Cape Views this month –
Some to venture out for...
Black, Michael Taylor
The young and the talented are in our
sights this month – such as students
in their sprint stage towards becom-
ing artists (or whatever they become).
In Stellenbosch, some 20 of the
local art school’s postgraduates have
gone public with their
Propositions in the cute university
art gallery (until August 25). Special
about this show is that students,
under a scheme they call MA|X09,
work completely independently in
managing the project.
In the city, at the Michaelis Art Gal-
lery, the curiously-named Anaphora
is an exhibition by seven fine art
masters students from Wits (until
August 18).
While at Michaelis, don’t miss the
wonderful collection of prints from
the university’s famous Katrine
Harries print cabinet now on show
(until August 21). Talking of prints,
Dianne Victor’s masterly series The
Disasters of Peace is in the groups
show at the old wine cellar at Spier
in Stellenbosch (until August 14).
And even more about prints: Not to
be missed is Wim Botha’s enor-
mous lino-prints, part of his Joburg
Altarpiece, at Michael Stevenson
(until September). Then there’s Fritha
Cape Town
tear of real life and art politics,
no doubt would tackle this in an
academically-designed, scientific
way. (May the force be with her.)
Only towards the end of their
conversation, did the word ‘creativ-
ity’ appear; the word ‘artist’ never
did. For all her gusto, the new CEO
showed little appreciation that real,
good art and real, talented artists
are rarities. Which is exactly why it
and they need the pampering which
an fully-effective NAC would
provide.
Not every one is an artist. (Even
though some art schools, numbed
in their postmodern haze, would
like to teach that hackneyed con-
cept. And Cape Town has a solid
gang of youngsters who believe
that of themselves.)
Making paintings or videos, or
staging performances, or weaving
wire, doesn’t make you an artist,
nor is a painting, video, perfor-
mance or wire toy per se an art-
work. True invention is measured
against expectation and something
a little higher tuned. A good artist
kicks butt; good art re-wires audi-
ence minds; the excited reviewer
revels in that originality.
A lot has happened in South
Africa’s dynamic art world since
democracy fifteen years ago. Plenty
of that has been very exciting, but
Durban
Photo: Guy Wood
of culture in the broadest possible
sense of the word. In fact his doc-
umentary photography is seldom
presented as such – with Walker,
content is king – the things he
photographs are so intriguing
and fascinating – that you don’t
even see the photograph. Which
is, I suppose the sign of a good
documenter.
And one of the things that
Walker has been obsessed with
documenting is burial sites. For
more than forty years, he has
been photographing grave sites in
Southern Africa. “I’ve got millions
of these”, he said, and I’m sure he
was only slightly exaggerating.
But if you’re thinking neoclas-
sical tombstones and doves and
angels think again. In South Africa
– where for all our embrace of
the West, we tend to do things on
our own terms - grave sites are
often, as Walker pointed out, more
about life than death. And so the
headstones included such graphic
elements as guitars, turntables
and motorbikes, all of which can
now be constructed with digital
assistance. And while Durban
might not have got the Picasso
Langerman’s installation Subtle
Thresholds at the Iziko SA Museum
in the Gardens (until March).
Prints, of a very different kind, are
also part of talented Michael Taylor’s
portfolio of work. His solo show at
World Art in Church street, called
The Plot Thickens, is long anticipated
(until August 22).
Most artists-on-show this month
seem to be the youthfully talented.
One such is the bright Kudzanai
Chiurai, originally from Zim-babwe,
whose Dying to be Men is at the
Goodman Gallery Cape (until
August 15).The equally sharp Hentie
van der Merwe follows him here
(until September). In a similar vein of
challenge and flash is
Athi-Patra Ruga’s art - on show at
Whatiftheworld (until August 29).
At Blank Projects, Black: the
antithesis of the fraudulent
sensuality of culture’s façade – an
experiment in voluntary asceticism
sounds a top-notch conceptual show
(until August 28). Another such fresh
group show is Voight-Kampff at the
UCA in Observatory (until August
21).
If these are more of the pretty young
things, an oldie (he’s 60
this year) can also catch plenty of
attention. Ricky Burnett’s On
Skin at the small Smac space
in Stellenbosch is teasing the ma-
tronly locals by their Twombly-esque
outrage (until August 14). Nice.
Finally, the one thing that is sure to
be a gallery hit, is Zineb Sedira’s new
film at Michael Stevenson as part of
the Forex series. If MiddleSea (2008)
) is as stunning as Saphir, shown in
2007, we’re in for a treat. Enjoy.
AUGUST 09 | BUSINESS ART
a great deal has been falsely pam-
pered and promoted. Some of that
had to do with political correctness,
some with the usual buddy-buddy-
ness in the fragile world of artists,
and much of it with incompetence
or lack of knowledge, not to men-
tion expertise.
(If the grumblings of ‘elitism’
sounds up against this notion, it’s
simply insulting to those who have
worked hard to encourage real tal-
ent the last decade or two. One or
two curators and perhaps a couple
of local galleries can take a bow.)
When, at the beginning of the
1990s, the battle cry was about
breaking down the boundary
between so-called ‘high’ and ‘low’
art - and the ‘art-versus-craft’
thingy kept museum curators oh-so
busy - it was a legitimate, liberating
move. But, two decades down the
line, it is not obvious that we’ve
managed to nurture the real thing
- true creativity, great invention -
properly. Mediocrity abounds.
Artists (not crafters who can
paint, make videos or wire cars -
they have another kind of job) have
a vital role to play in the culture
and well-being of society. It is not
only a matter of money and oppor-
tunity, as those NAC people (and,
for that matter, the Western Cape’s
relevant provincial department who
exhibition or Africa Remix, we’ve
got Chatsworth cemetery. These
things even out in the end.
The motorbikes were par-
ticularly great, encased in joyful,
deadly irony. There was one image
in particular, which was one of the
most beautiful, amazing things I’d
ever seen. It didn’t just make my
night but made me glad I’d lived
to see it. The photograph was of
five bikers astride their machines,
riding towards the viewer, two
in front, three behind; riding on
for all eternity, perhaps as Walker
suggested, on their morning run.
It wasn’t just me who fell in love
with the image; the whole room
cooed and aahed like five-years-
olds watching bubbles being
blown, before breaking into fits of
laughter.
It makes sense that Walker
lives in Durban. The biker image
I loved so much wasn’t – as far as
I can remember – from a Durban
cemetery, but it is exactly the kind
of deeply human craziness you
find in the streets of eThekwini.
Just spend an afternoon read-
ing the taxis and marvelling at
the graphic design of the city’s
On Show in Durban
in August
Heath Family Retrospective
at the Tatham Art Gallery
Although their work has not been
fully acknowledged, The Heaths
are one of KwaZulu-Natal’s most
influential artistic families. Between
them, they taught in the Fine Art
Department at the University of
Natal (now University of KZN) for
more than 70 years. Jack Heath was
the head of department for many
years, while his wife Jane, taught
there until her retirement, as did
their daughter Bronwen, who has
restored much of her late parent’s
work for this exhibition. Regarded
as artists’ artists, the Heaths’ talents
have thus far been recognized only
by colleagues, their students, the
South African art museums and a
handful of private art collectors.
This Family Retrospective is an
excellent place to start for everyone
else.
Closes 13 September.
Penny Siopis
at the KZNSA
Siopis, who taught at DUT (then the
Natal Technikon) for several years
in the 80s, returns to Durban for
Pop in See more Daily News at www.arttimes.co.za
05
has just again embarked on some
such calling-all-artists scheme)
seem to believe.
One needs only to take a look
at the nonsense that goes for art
on the fringe of art festivals like
last month’s in Grahamstown, to
know that art-making or craft in
the bread-and-butter stratagem
delivers little. You may feel a little
less guilty after buying a piece, but
nothing more will come from that
bought object. Of course, what you
paid will make a welcome differ-
ence to the economic status of the
crafter. But that is not the point.
It is time that the NAC and the
useless official department of arts
and culture step out from this way
of thinking. It is on the one hand
paralysing genuine invention - and
great art-making. On the other, it
is creating expectation that a town-
ship scheme painted for and sold
to gullible tourists will put you on
a great career path. By all means
encourage as many crafters as you
like. Polish their skills and excel-
lence; give them opportunities. But
let’s not forget about the precious-
ness of the real thing.
If these officials did, we’d have
had a brilliant presence at the cur-
rent Venice Biennale - with all the
positive spin-offs.
buses (those few that are left on
Durban’s streets at the moment
since our municipal service
have kind of evaporated - but
that’s another story). On a good
day, I find myself in awe of the
chaotic visual expression that is
exercised in the Durban’s public
spaces even though we ain’t got
much public art. Even the city’s
bridges and walls which retain
freeways have images etched into
them. Check out the architectural
drawings, from Zulu huts to Cape
Dutch gables, on Essex Terrace in
Westville, or the animated draw-
ings on the Umgeni Road freeway
interchange.
In the more formalised space
of the KZNSA, where the Penny
Siopis survey show Red was about
to take hold of the city, Siopis
spoke about how important this
freedom was to her during the
time she spent in Durban. It was
in Durban, she said that she found
the confidence to be experimental,
and where she found that experi-
mentalism to be encouraged and
accepted; when she subsequently
moved to Jo’burg her experimen-
tal cake paintings weren’t nearly
as eagerly received, and it was
some time before she re-embraced
her now seminal exploration of the
material nature of painting.
If Siopis gave Durban a compli-
ment, the city more than repaid her.
I don’t remember a show that has
had such an overwhelmingly emo-
tional response from the public.
Durbanites are often reticent about
darker work but Siopis’ blend of
terror and tenderness seemed to
cut through that reluctance. A col-
league who is particularly wither-
ing about most of modernity, said
“it restored her faith in art.” Me, I
don’t need no faith.
Finally, I must bid a sweet and
teary-eyed farewell to talented
painter and former gallerist Aidan
Walsh, one of Durban’s sweetest
souls, who died last month. He is
deeply, deeply missed.
her first show here in many years.
‘Red’, subtitled ‘the Iconography of
Colour in the Work of Penny Siopis’
is curated by KZNSA director Bren-
ton Maart. The exhibiton includes
many of Siopis’ most seminal works
from her Cake painting to ‘Mel-
ancholia’ to the Pinky Pinky and
Shame series, and even includes a
reconstruction of her 1997 video in-
stallation, My Lovely Day, complete
with the original mini-cinema and
plush red seats. Closes 19 July.
Roger Ballen
at the Durban Art Gallery
In ‘Boarding House’, Ballen contin-
ues to zoom in on the physical and
psychological details of his
artistic landscape. Although it is
clear to anyone who has been fol-
lowing the arc of Ballen’s career
that
‘Boarding House’ evolves directly
from his earlier work, at the same
time the work recalls the dadaism,
primitivism and surrealism that
fueled the western art world in
the late 20s and early 30s. When
looking at Ballen’s images it easy to
forget that photography is consid-
ered by many to be a figurative art
form. Closes 19 July.
06 BUSINESS ART | AUGUST 09 GALLERY BUZZ

Artb Gallery, Cape Town July exhibition openings of ‘Peripheral Vision’ Zizamele ceramics and artists Sisanda Mbana, Eignoria Eononisi, Vuyelwa
participating 4 artists Sean Cameron, Stasa Hlava, Miona Janeke and Khatswa and Joyce Mfene.
Yolanda Warnich.

National Arts Festival Rhodes Art School student exhibition where

students from First year through to the Honours year exhibit at a
National level.

artSPACE durban 13 July – 1 August 2009

‘Flavours’ – Emerging Jewellery Designers from Durban
left to right: Indira Munthree, Taryn Coleman, Taryn Koekemoer, Sean
Leipoldt, Chantell Wehmeyer with Romela Mudaly in front of her, Christy-
Ann Bestwick with Lusanda Mgugudo in front of her, Jadi Clark with
Nomfundo Cebekhulu in front of her, S’bhekile Lukhele and Chris de
Beer
Artists Mbongeni Buthelezi and Paul Emmanuel together on the island of Sylt. They were both (individually) invited and their trips co-incided to the Founda-
tion, The Kunst: Raum Sylt Quelle The Sylt-Quelle Foundation is located on the island of Sylt in the North Sea, off the coast of Germany. The Kunst:Raum
Sylt-Quelle Foundation is for artists interested in multiple areas of interaction and co-operation. The Kunst:Raum Sylt-Quelle Foundation is intended as a
place of beginnings: of ideas, of creative projects throughout the year. Artists, actors, musicians and writers come to this foundation to work on projects, to
participate in events, and to exchange ideas. Its South African branch, Jozi Art:Lab, works much the same way – the setting up of cultural projects with local
artists, actors, musicians and writers and has coordinated projects in Kliptown and Johannesburg CBD.

Mad Bad Monk

By Sean O’Toole
All that survives, at least with
any fidelity, are his recordings,
those paper-thin slivers of Cape
Town’s unlovely and unloved.
Of the man who made these
photographs, a man whose fam-
ily name recalls an exuberant
American jazz pianist of the same
name, all we have is legend.
This we know: Billy Monk
was born William John Monk on
January 11, 1937. Since his death
27 years ago, on July 31 1982,
the biography of this skollie
with an artistic eye has taken on
the character of myth. Meaning,
there are a lot of gaps in the life
story of this one-time nightclub
bouncer whose balled fist also
sensitively wielded a camera.
In the imagination of the
editors of Revue Noire, that
posh Parisian poodle of an art
journal who in 1999 released
432-page anthology of African
photography, Monk was killed
in Johannesburg, “struck down
by two bullets in the heart”. The
mental image this conjures is of
Billy Monk as Saint Sebastian,
the Christian martyr whose body
was treated like a pincushion by
Roman bowmen.
The truth about this chiselled
Capetonian with a big bust nose
planted between his dark eyes is
far less gilded. Monk was neither
a model Christian nor a saint. His
unwritten autobiography could
easily have been titled Chipped
Nails and Worn Heals.
My colleague Lin Sampson
tells the story of Monk’s death in
a house with turquoise-blue walls
with great aplomb. She origi-
nally did it in 1982, her article on
Monk for this paper later deliver-
ing the title for her 2005 book,
Now You’ve Gone ‘n Killed Me.
“Now you’ve gone and killed
me.” It is what Monk exclaimed
after two bullets from .22 pistol
felled him on a rainy Saturday
evening off Somerset Road in
Cape Town (not Johannesburg).
Two men, one of them a friend of
Monk, were embroiled in an ar-
gument over furniture. Someone
was at fault for not showing up
to help move the stuff. A gun was
produced. Monk leaped to save
a life, in the process sacrificing
his own.
Monk was 45 when he died
– at least according to Sampson
and Revue Noire who correctly
give his birth date as 1937. When
I meet photographer Jac de
Villiers, who in 1979 stumbled
on Monk’s unpublished archive
when he took over a photograph-
ic studio on the corner of Hope
and Wesley streets in Cape Town,
he categorically states that the big
bruiser died aged 50. Details.
Let’s agree that Monk lived, a
very hard and sexually rampant
life by all accounts, and then he
died. All that survives are his
recordings, crisp black and white
photographs that read like spare,
uncompromising short stories.
Which prompts a thought.
Amongst his many vocational
attributes – add petty criminal,
jailbird and gentleman to those
not already mentioned – I would
add another, storyteller. Monk
used his Pentax like Hemingway
did his Royal typewriter, beauti-
fully rendering brutal stories.
To quote the “dark-haired
Frenchman” from Revue Noire says De Villiers, who together were in an embattled apartheid a neat script. what you see on the periphery – their sole author? the mid-1970s he cashed in on
who visited De Villiers, Monk with friend Andrew Meintjes put society. Ever the schemer, Monk For those who have never see the broken bottles underfoot, the “I think when an artist dies his notoriety and opened up a
“brought a tragic but in no way together Monk’s first exhibition sold his photographs back to his Monk’s social snapshots from faces of other club-goers in the there are always these myths small leather shop on Long Street
indulgent sensibility to bear on of his Catacombs pictures. Held subjects. the late 1960s, they are currently background – that tells a story, about the person,” responds De called Mad Monk. A decade later
the nocturnal world” of Cape at Johannesburg’s Market Gallery “I think he just saw it as a job,” on view at the South African the darker side of jolling.” Villiers. “We’ve had four exhibi- he found a modicum of respect-
Town’s foreshore. in 1982, Monk died without see- ventures De Villiers. “But he was National Gallery. Titled Jol, the Like De Villiers, Warne is in- tions. No-one has come forward ability as a diamond dive r. Two
It was here, near the harbour, ing the outcome; he was trying to genuinely interested in photogra- exhibition features a selection of trigued by the rapport Monk had and claimed any of the pictures.” bullets ended it all.
that dodgy nightclubs like the hustle a lift up north at the time. phy. He worked as an assistant for work by painters Gerard Sekoto with his subjects. Case closed.
Catacombs and Navigator’s Den “He documented by default,” a commercial photographer, a guy and Johannes Phokela and pho- “He wasn’t a spectator, he was It bears stating that Monk
adds De Villiers. “He was there called Leslie Dektor.” Monk even tographers David Wise, Graeme a participant,” states De Vil- wasn’t a longsuffering shutter- Sean O’Toole is a journalist and
mushroomed, selling booze to editor of Art South Africa
foreign sailors. Since their pa- to make money from his pic- accompanied Dektor, now a big Goddard and Michael Wyeth that liers. This gave Monk license to bug.
trons represented all nationalities, tures.” name in moving images the US, collectively depict a society at push the boundaries and show “In 1969 Monk stopped taking The following article was
these establishments tended to be In between bouncing rowdy on a shoot abroad. ease, a nation carousing. Monk is his subjects in less than flatter- pictures in the Catacombs,” wrote published in an abridged form in
exempt from the strict separate customers, a little too roughly “He was very disciplined,” in- the star act. ing scenarios. “He took some De Villiers in a 1991 article for Sunday Times Lifestyle, July 5,
it is generally agreed, he made sists De Villiers of the seemingly “I love the grittiness of his pictures that he could probably Vrye Weekblad. “He later com- 2009
amenities laws of the day. Not
that this social context was im- pictures of bleached blonds high dissolute figure whose work he photographs,” says Pam Warne, a never have sold to anybody,” plained to me that Polaroid film
on brandy and gaunt hipsters is the custodian of. When he first curator of photography and new states De Villiers. had become the vogue for social Jol is on at Iziko South African
portant to Monk.
with pointy shoes. Jollers seeking discovered Monk’s photographs, media at the National Gallery. What about the widespread photographers and he had no National Gallery until October
“I think he was a documentary
photographer without the ideals reprieve in imagined republics, he says they were carefully “It’s not only what is the immedi- rumours that Monk didn’t take feeling for this instant product.”
of a documentary photographer,” which is what nightclubs often archived, everything annotated in ate focus of the image, but also the pictures, or that he wasn’t It wasn’t the end of Monk. In

Strauss & Co Auction
Important British, Continental and South African Paintings, Drawings,
Prints and Sculpture
Country Club, Johannesburg, Woodmead
Corner Lincoln Road & Woodlands Drive, Woodmead, Johannesburg
Edoardo Villa
South African 1915-
Massai Warrior
signed and dated 1963
painted steel
168 by 40 by 40cm
R600 000–800 000
On view:
Friday 4 September, Saturday 5 September and Sunday 6 September
10.00 am to 6.00 pm
Auction:
Part I at 3.30pm
South African Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture
Lots 1-222
Part II at 8.00pm
Important British, Continental and South African Paintings, Draw-
ings, Prints and Sculpture
Lots 1-143
Edoardo Villa is one of South
Africa’s most enigmatic sculptors
who, in both in style and personal-
ity, indelibly stamped his African
Vision onto his works and into our
consciousness over a period of
more than 50 years. The thirteen
Villas in our upcoming sale are
remarkable in that they represent
a range of stylistic diversity and
evolution not usually seen except
in a specifically curated exhibi-
tion.
Contents of titles include in depth coverage of the SA artworld,
art news, interviews with both artists and art market professionals, listings, art auction and a whole lot more.
7 September 2009
For online catalogue see wwww.straussart.co.za
Edoardo Villa
Edoardo Villa
South African 1915-
South African 1915-
Figure
Sentinel
signed and dated 1993
signed and dated 1970
painted steel
painted steel
270 by 60 by 40cm
111 by 22 by 22cm
R200 000–250 000
R120 000–150 000
LITERATURE
Karel Nel, ELizabeth Burroughs
and Amalie von Maltitz, Villa at 90,
Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg and
Cape Town, 2005, illustrated on
page 219.
This maquette was submitted for a
proposed monumental sculpture
at the Jan Smuts Airport, the
project, however, never came to
fruition.
It is indeed surprising to see so
many works by the prolific Italian-
born sculptor Edoardo Villa on
auction. This leads one to surmise
that they might have belonged to
a single collector, as the pieces
cover a wide range of Villa’s oeu-
vre. The “Masai Warrior” of 1963
attests to his masterful use of pre-
fabricated mechanical metal parts,
which he blends in iconic figures,
standing proudly tall and assertive.
This verticality, which embodies
the mammal who stood up, i.e. the
human, is characteristic of much
This impressive group of works
has not come from one source of Villa’s work, as can be seen
as one might be tempted to in subsequent sculptures of Lot
assume but from various own- 100, The Sentinel,1970, Lot 102,
ers. The works span a period of Conversation, 1971, and Lot 104,
thirty years, the earliest work Figure,1993, where the formal
dating from1963 and the most language changes, but the vertical
core remains.
recent 1998. One seldom has the
Ever exploring, however, Villa
privilege of working with such a
wonderful range of iconic pieces may swing from works that are
– not likely to appear again in one bursting with fecund energy in
sale, and the finest examples I their massive rotundity, as does
have dealt with in my career! the bronze Lot 60, Figure of 1970,
Mary-Jane Darroll to the slender, almost disembodied
The South African
ART TIMES
& SA Art Times with SA Business Art 1 years subscription R 180,-
BUSINESS ART
Purchase the SA AArt Tmes & SA Business Art
1 year’s subscription for ist R180,-
Receive a year’s subscription to South Africa’s leading
published art newspaper together with the
SA Business Art Newspaper to your door for just R 180,-
SOUTH AFRICAN ART AUCTIONS
Edoardo Villa
South African 1915-
Abstract Form
stamped IMI (Mike Edwards
Foundry,) dated 90 and numbered
37.17, mounted on a cylindrical
steel plinth
bonze with green patina
50 by 20 by 24cm on a plinth with
a total height of 163cm
R60 000–90 000
forms of the highly polished steel
Lot 102, Conversation, 1971.
Another venture into the lesser
known, is his exp loration of the
use of polystyrene packaging
materials; this smaller “Abstract
form” is a unique cast, as the
original disappears during the
mould-making process. Here
again, he masterfully adapts
mechanical geometrical formal
elements in expressive combina-
tions, while the expert casting by
Mike Edwards retains the texture
of the original material.
While Villa’s assistant Lu-
cas Legode was on leave, Villa
reverted to modelling for bronze,
and in these works his gentler,
more emotive side comes to the
fore in small intimate groups.
Earlier pieces were more figura-
tive, later ones as these of 1998
and 1988 become more vegetable/
animal, but no less expressive of
gentle interrelationships.
Amalie von Maltitz
South African Artist
Jacob Hendrik Pierneef’s
Royal Pictures
on Sale at Bonhams
HJ Pierneef, Cape Avenue
Irma Stern, Ripe Fields
Three Pierneef paintings, which
once belonged to Queen Victoria’s
granddaughter, Princess Alice,
Countess of Athlone, will be sold
at Bonhams South African sale on
October 14th in New Bond Street,
London.
Princess Alice accompanied
her husband when he served as
Governor-General of South Africa
from 1924–1931. During their
time in South Africa, Lord and
Lady Athlone had a coastal beach
house constructed at Muizenberg,
a beach suburb of Cape Town,
which still stands today and is one
of South Africa’s national monu-
ments. The Cape Town suburb of
Athlone was named in honour of
the Governor-General. Princess
Alice, Countess of Athlone (1883
– 1981) was the longest lived
Princess of the Blood Royal of the
British Royal Family and the last
surviving grandchild of Queen
Victoria.
Bonhams smashed the previous
world record for a South African
work of art with the sale of J.H.
Pierneef’s ‘The Baobab Tree’
for £826,400 (ZAR 12,400,000)
as part of their September 2008
auction, the biggest sale of South
Africa art ever held, grossing
over ZAR100million. These three
paintings by Pierneef (1886-
1957) include a scene of a sleepy
town in the Cape, depicting a
sun-drenched avenue with typical
Cape Dutch cottages and Dutch
Reformed Church beyond. It is
estimated to sell for £80,000 to
£120,000. It is signed and dated
1929, the same year Pierneef was
commissioned to paint 32 panels
for the Johannesburg railway
station, which occupied most of
his time over the next three years.
Once owned by HRH Princess
Alice, Countess of Athlone, it has
been passed by direct descent to
the current owner.
The second picture is a Karoo
landscape with a rural dwelling,
also oil on board, that is estimated
to sell for £40,000-60,000.
The third picture is ‘Gov-
ernment House, Pretoria’, oil
on board, estimated to sell for
£15,000-20,000. The Presidential
Guesthouse, designed by Sir Her-
bert Baker in 1902, was known
as Government House when the
work was painted, presumably as
How to purchase your
SA Art Times & SA Business Art 1 years subscription
Pay by Cheque: simply write out the Cheque to SA Art Times, and send it with this form with
the enclosed addressed and postage paid envelope to us.
By Internet or Bank transfer please pay: Account: South African Art Times.
First National Bank, Acc. number: 62171029856 Branch code: 201511 and
email, or fax proof of payment to accounts@arttimes.co.za
Tel: 021 424 7733 Fax: 021 4247732. see more details at www.arttimes.co.za
Name
Address
Tel (code) (number)
Additional details:
AUGUST 09 | BUSINESS ART
a commission or gift to Princess
Alice who would have lived there
during her husband’s tenure as
Governor-General.
It is not certain whether these
pictures were gifts or works
commissioned by Princess Alice.
What is certain is that she was
an admirer of Pierneef’s work.
In October 1930 Pierneef held
an exhibition of 47 paintings in
Pretoria, which Princess Alice
visited and where she selected
two paintings for the Women’s
Committee of Pretoria to present
to her. The Princess chose `Karoo’
and `Bushveld Rustenberg’. Two
months later she and the newly
retired Governor General visited
Pierneef’s studio and chose a
large painting – a landscape of
the northern Transvaal that they
wished to donate to the museum in
Cape Town, because they felt that
South African artists were poorly
represented in the museum. Today
that work takes pride of place in
the South African National Gal-
lery, opened by the Athlones on
3rd November 1930.
Giles Peppiatt, Head of African
Art at Bonhams comments: “This
charming painting has the added
interest and significance of having
once belonged to a British Royal
married to the Governor Gen-
eral of South Africa. Pierneef is
artistic royalty in South Africa and
painted a number of commissions
for South Africa House in London.
So this picture is a very potent
link between Britain and South
Africa.”
Also appearing on the market
for the first time is a rare land-
scape by the grand dame of South
African art, Irma Stern. Better-
known for her exotic portraits and
luscious still-lifes, this is an idyllic
rural scene in early summer during
the wheat harvest. Other sale high-
lights include works by Maggie
Laubser, Cecil Skotnes, Anton van
Wouw, Gerard Sekoto and Alexis
Preller among many others.
For further press information
please contact Julian Roup on
0207 468 8259 or
julian.roup@bonhams.com or
press@bonhams.com
(code)
E-mail
07
Upcoming
South
African
art auctions
Gregoire Johannes Boonzaier
SALDANHA BAY
R300 000 - R500 000
4 & 5 August 2009 – Johannesburg
Stephan Welz & Co.
In Association with Sotheby’s
Fine & Decorative Arts, Furniture,
Silver, Ceramics & Jewellery
Venue: 13 Biermann Avenue, Rosebank
7 September 2009 – Johannesburg
Strauss & Co
Important South African Paintings,
Watercolours and Sculpture
(Entries open till 3 July 2009)
Venue: Country Club, Johannesburg,
Woodmead at 8 pm
8 October 2009 – Cape Town, 8pm
Strauss & Co
(Entries open till 15 July 2009)
Venue: The Vineyard Hotel, Newlands
13 & 14 October 2009 – London
Bonhams
The South African Sale
20 & 21 October 2009 – Cape Town
Stephan Welz & Co.
In Association with Sotheby’s
Fine & Decorative Arts, Furniture,
Silver, Ceramics & Jewellery
Venue: Kirstenbosch
1 February 2010 – Cape Town, 8pm
Strauss & Co
Important Paintings, Furniture, Silver
and Ceramics
(Entries open till 10 December 2009)
Venue: The Vineyard Hotel, Newlands
Auction Houses Contact details
Ashbey’s Galleries cc
Antique & Fine Art Auctioneers-
Valuers & Appraisers
For an appointment please contact:
Inge Beck
43 Church Street Cape Town
Tel: 021 423-8060
Fax: 021 423-3047
email: info@ashbeys.co.za
www.ashbeysgalleries.co.za
Bonhams
Contact for SA Artwork:
Hannah O’ Leary
sapictures@bonhams.com
www.bonhams.com/southafrica
+44 (0) 20 7468 8213
Stephan Welz & Co.
In Association with Sotheby’s
Johannesburg
13 Biermann Avenue, Rosebank,
Johannesburg
Telephone: +27 (11) 880-3125
Fax: +27 (11) 880-2656
Email: jhb@swelco.co.za
www.swelco.co.za
Cape Town
The Great Cellar, The Alphen Hotel,
Alphen Farm Estate, Alphen Drive,
Constantia 7808
Tel: +27 (21) 794-6461
Fax: +27 (21) 794-6621
Email: ct@swelco.co.za
www.swelco.co.za
Strauss & Co
Johannesburg
89 Central Street, Houghton, Gauteng,
2198
Tel: +27 11 728 8246
Fax: +27 11 728 8247
General Information jhb@straussart.co.za
Cape Town
The Oval, 1st Floor Colinton House,
1 Oakdale Road, Newlands, 7700
General Information ct@straussart.co.za
Tel: +27 87 806 8780
Fax: +27 86 654 6100
 Suburban house, Cape Town, etching, 1996

The South African Print Gallery Presents

GABRIEL CLARK-BROWN
Mid Life Retrospective Exhibition
Work from 1990 – 2007
runs until Thursday 25 August 09

ARTTHROB PRINT EDITION

Opens Saturday 27 August 09 11h30 - 14h00
including a brand new Robert Hodgins Print.
Artists include: Guy Tillim, Mikhael Subotzky, Penny Siopis, David Goldblatt, Willem Boshoff more.

South African Print Gallery

107 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock Cape Town.
Tel 021 462 6851 www.printgallery.co.za