Business Art
SANLAM ART COLLECTION Sanlam celebrates its 100th year with an exhibition covering a century of South African art.
Above: Paul Emsley, The Visit, Triptych-charcoal on paper, 1987 Right: Sydney Kumalo, Woman with Dove, bronze
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here are few places you can get a broad overview of South African art that covers a century in one place. Least of all would you expect to see something like this in Bellville. The Sanlam Art Gallery’s exhibition, Centennial: A Century of South African Art from the Sanlam Art Collection 1918 – 2018 does just that. Compiled by curator Stefan Hundt from the 2000 strong Sanlam Art Collection, this exhibition showcases celebrated historical works by artists such as Maggie Laubser, Irma Stern, Gerard Sekoto, JH Pierneef, Sydney Kumalo, Cecil Skotnes, Gladys Mgudlandlu and Stanley Pinker alongside more contemporary pieces and installations by, Elza Botha, Diane Victor, Ndikumbule Nquinambe, Dumile Feni, Pauline Gutter, Adam Letch, Jan van der Merwe and Gavin Younge to mention a few of the artists represented.
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The narrative of political and art historical transformation from colonial hegemony and its aesthetic conservatism, through the years of cultural isolation and state sponsored political repression, to the establishment of a democratic order in South Africa, are represented by key images in this exhibition. Beginning with early Impressionist-styled landscapes by Pieter Wenning and Hugo Naudé around 1918, through to the late 1940s the transformation in art is marked by the expressive works of Maggie Laubser, Irma Stern and Gerard Sekoto and the formalised landscapes of JH Pierneef. Abstraction dominates from the early 1950s to the 1970s represented by Kenneth Bakker, Sydney Kumalo, Ezrom Legae, Christo Coetzee, Walter Battiss and Cecil Skotnes. The 1980s sees artists challenging the politically repressive Apartheid state. Works by Elza Botha, Paul Emsley and William Kentridge at first seem
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