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2011 JAG EDUCATION
CONTENTS 4 The Impressionists and Post-Impressionists paving the way to modern art
Lenè Lordan
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Looking and learning
Jeannine Howse
11 Dada and Surrealism in the JAG collection
Anthea Buys
14 The art of the ‘new world’
Musha Neluheni
16 Modern South African artists
Nontobeko Ntombela
19 Socially-engaged art from the anti-apartheid struggle to the present
Khwezi Gule
22 Post-apartheid identity in visual art
Zen Marie
24 Questioning gender: The artwork of Mary Sibande, Zanele Muholi and Nandipha Mntambo
Portia Malatjie
27 Matters of spirit
Nessa Leibhammer
30 Glossary 31 Illustrations
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EDUCATION AT JAG Education is an integral component of the Johannesburg Art Gallery’s (JAG) activities and its institutional vision. The JAG team perceives the gallery as a learning environment in which curiosity, discovery and contemplation are encouraged. The team aims to provide all visitors, regardless of age, background or ability, with inspiring and empowering experiences through tours, exhibitions and programmes, providing new perspectives and ways of viewing the world. This publication has been structured to provide visitors with valuable background information, interactive activities, and aspects to consider when viewing selective artworks and explanations on relevant terminology.
THE JAG-ED BOOKLET The JAG-ED booklet explores South African and International works based on the 2011 national secondary school visual art curriculum. The first part of the booklet follows the Grade 11 curriculum starting from the start of Modernism to Post-World War II art movements. The second half of the booklet looks at the Grade 12 curriculum, which focuses specifically on South African art and artists from approximately the early 20th century to contemporary art. The booklet features essays focused on works from JAG’s permanent collection. The booklet has been constructed to utilise the JAG collection as an educational tool, not only targeted at art students, but to assist educators in navigating the visual arts curriculum. This booklet also functions as supporting document for the exhibitions at JAG with particular focus on the exhibition
Looking as Learning, selected works from the Foundation Room as well as the exhibition Matters of Spirit, which presents some of the works mentioned in these essays. The booklet is conceptualised as a tool to provide learners with information that will help them in writing their Matric art examinations. The essays provide different examples of how learners could investigate, examine and analyse the artworks that they are studying. 3
THE IMPRESSIONISTS & POST-IMPRESSIONISTS: PAVING THE WAY TO MODERN ART BY LENE LORDAN
Impressionism: shedding light on painting Impressionist painters were inspired by the Realists’ choice to paint directly from nature. The painting process moved from studios to outdoors. Painting in the open air – called plein air painting – allowed painters to study and explore the effect of light on everyday objects, the landscape, and on colours. Suddenly light and colour was the main inspiration for painting. Artists painted quickly and directly as they wanted to give an impression of what they saw. Impressionism was characterized by vague, soft and broken 'outlines', dappled light and luminosity. Camille Pissarro did not start out as an Impressionist, but first worked in the prescribed, realistic style of the time. This can be seen in Là Forêt, although, some traits of the Impressionists are already evident in this work, such as the broken brushstrokes of separated colour, as well as the ‘natural view’ of the scene. In previous movements, artists would adjust and manipulate the scene because it was not done from real life. Pissarro met up with Claude Monet when he was in London, and agreed that the English Romantic painter, William Turner, produced the truest depiction of light and atmosphere. Their own work became even more spontaneous after this phase. Monet is seen as the father of Impressionism. The title of his painting Impression Sunrise was the reason for the term Impressionism. Working directly from nature, he and other Impressionists discovered that even the darkest shadows contain colour. To capture the fleeting effects of light, he had to paint fast by using short brushstrokes 4
that were loaded with individual colours. Impressionist paintings had a rough surface texture. In sculpture, August Rodin applied the loose style of the Impressionists in such a manner that one can only 'read' the sculpture when the light falls on it. In his Eve, as well as Miss Fairfax, the importance of light on the bronze and marble is clearly evident. He provides an impression of the facial features, but only light completes it, giving it a soft, delicate look. Pissarro kept investigating the colour theories of the Impressionists. Under the influence of Paul Signac he became a Neo-Impressionist: he abandoned the short brushstrokes, and investigated the scientific method of juxtaposed (placed next to one another) small dots or points of pure colour. These points of colour were intended to combine and blend, not on the canvas, but in the viewer’s eye. This process is known as pointillism. This mathematical and scientific approach to painting can easily be seen in Signac’s La Rochelle, Sortie du Port. The ‘muddy’ colour mixtures of the Impressionists were replaced by luminous and intense, pure colours.
Post-Impressionism: a personal vision The Post-Impressionists developed their work from some aspects of Impressionism. But where the Impressionists all strived to meet a similar goal, the Post-Impressionists are thus called because each of the artists were influenced in some manner by the Impressionists, and developed an individual, personal style. The two major PostImpressionists and their legacy to modern art are as follows: Paul Cezanne brought a new view of the natural world. He called it a dynamic reality with more than one viewpoint, because real life is not seen from one viewpoint only. His theory of a dynamic reality was important because it broke the tradition of earlier, ‘frozen’ paintings, in which only one viewpoint is visible. Cezanne studied nature in the same manner as the Impressionists, but he was interested in different aspects: he aimed to simplify
TOP: Alfred Sisley, Bords de rivière à Veneux, 1881. Oil on canvas, 60,3 x 81,3cm. CENTRE LEFT: Camille Pissarro, Là Forêt, 1870. Oil on canvas, 78,8 x 97,9cm. CENTRE RIGHT: Claude Monet, Le printemps, 1873. Oil on canvas, 60,5 x 81cm. LEFT: François Auguste Rodin, Miss Fairfax, c1907. Marble, 54,2 x 58 x 46.9cm. 5
Paul Cezanne, Les Baigneurs, c1898. Colour lithograph, 42,3 x 51,9cm.
nature, and to find the perfect balance in the landscape. In his Les Baigneurs (Grand Planche) one can see the triangle that is formed by the mountain, and, looking more towards the foreground, another, inverted triangle is visible. A triangle is also formed by the figures in the foreground. Cezanne also said that there is no outline in nature, and, viewing how he painted the trees, it is clear that he used the division of colour to portray the leaves and branches. Vincent van Gogh brought personal, emotional value to painting through his mark-making and use of colour. He met Signac in Paris and he was impressed with his loose painting style. Looking at his Portrait of an Old Man, one can see the influence of the Impressionists in his free mark making. An important influence that Van Gogh brought to Post-Impressionism is to create a mood in a work by using emotive brushstrokes/lines to create feeling. He extended the Impressionists colour techniques by using short lines instead of dots of colour to form whirls and streams of lines to portray his subject matter. The thickness, shape and direction of the brushstrokes strengthen the emotional value in the work. Van Gogh also used colours 6
to portray emotion, e.g. yellow was a 'happier colour than blue. His works clearly portray the emotions that he felt about the subject matter. Van Gogh stated that it is more important to ‘feel’ than to scrutinize a work. Although the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists did not at first realise the importance of their work around light and colour, their break with tradition created a dominoeffect for further changes. The legacy of their ideas are visible throughout art of the 20th century: Cubism was based on Cezanne’s ideas around multiple viewpoints and Abstract Expressionism was inspired by the emotive approach of Van Gogh and Gauguin’s freedom with colour. Through the changes brought about by these two groups of painters, the way forward was paved for modern, and in fact, post-modern art.
LOOKING AND LEARNING BY JEANNINE HOWSE
Cubism and Fauvism Fauvism was a brief yet significant avant-garde movement in early 20th century France, pioneered by Henri Matisse and André Derain from 1905, later joined by Maurice de Vlaminck and others, until 1910. Fauvist painters were interested in the formal elements of composition. They rejected traditional techniques of representation and perspective, using colour to express emotion and space rather than naturalist depiction, while simplifying or abstracting the subject matter. Their paintings are characterised by vibrant colour, bold unconcealed brushstrokes and flattened space. When critic Louis Vauxcelles saw an exhibition of Matisse and Derain’s work at the Salon d’Automne in 1905 he referred to their paintings as fauves, meaning wild beasts. The name later referred to the artists as well. In Matisse’s lithograph Femme et Fleurs, we see a woman sitting at a table in front of a window with a vase of flowers. Matisse unifies the composition through the strong diagonal created by the edge of the table, her forearm and the dense lines in the background. This draws your attention to her direct gaze and the vase, away from the non-descript background. There is almost no illusion of depth or modelling of form, as Matisse has instead flattened the shapes – her shirt is just a field of pattern while the shadows by the vase and her arm are the only indication of depth. While this print lacks the vibrant colour we expect from Fauvism, Matisse uses expressive linearity and shifts perspective through the work’s flattened space. Derain’s Portrait d’une Jeune Fille Rousse retains some elements of Fauvism, but is more consistent with his neoclassical period after WWI and less abstract than the Matisse. The face of this young girl dominates the frame through her vibrant red hair and exaggerated eyes. While Derain has used bold colour (perhaps directly from the tube) for her hair and his brushstrokes are visible and loose, the subject is far more modelled than you would expect for
a Fauvist work. Essentially the image is not flattened as Derain has used a more painterly mark to reveal the contours her face, neck and shoulders, becoming more figurative than abstract. Around 1907-1908 Pablo Picasso (and Georges Braque, along with Juan Gris, developed a new approach to represent reality in art that we call Cubism. Expanding on Cézanne’s principle that all forms in nature could be reduced to three basic parts: the cube, cone and sphere; in Cubism objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form, usually depicting the subject from multiple viewpoints to represent it in a greater context. Cubism rejected the idea that art should imitate nature, instead emphasizing the two-dimensional nature of the canvas. Fernand Leger, Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes further developed the visual language of Cubism. There were two phases: Analytic Cubism (until 1912) where the subject was increasingly fractured until the surface was just a series of overlapping facets, and Synthetic Cubism (19121919) where collage was introduced and removed the last allusion to three-dimensional space. Cubism transformed representation in art and laid the foundation for future abstract art movements. Gleizes’ Portrait of a woman is a good example of early Analytic Cubism, in which we see the image of a woman fragmented into intersecting geometric shapes. She sits serenely with her arm draped across a chair back. The strong diagonal lines and triangular forms create dynamic visual movement across the surface. Gleizes has flattened the picture, not only in his even surface treatment, but also in how he has modelled the figure through shadowed planes. Look at how he removed details from the hands, suggesting their shape instead of drawing each finger, and how he breaks up the folds in her coat and blue scarf in a more geometric than organic way. The shift in colour and tone in each form allow a greater sense of the figure than the depiction of the figure itself. At first glance, Metzinger’s Paysage (undated) appears to be nothing more than a series of abstract geometric forms in muted tones. The composition feels quite crowded as many of its elements are repeated across the plane. Paysage means landscape, so if you now look more closely you 7
might be able to make sense of these shapes. Here the natural world is flattened and abstracted: rooftops, windows and buildings become outlined profiles while trees become a series of circles and elongated triangles. The landscape is depicted from multiple viewpoints which might seem chaotic, but is actually carefully ordered. At the bottom of the painting you see the side of a house with its chimney above, indicated by a flat black shape with a brown outline, while the tiled roof of blue, orange and brown daubs is tilted up as if seen from above. The composition is bounded by a painted border, a frame within a frame, further emphasizing the painting’s surface. This work is closer to High Analytic Cubism as Metzinger has abstracted the image to such a degree that little is obviously recognisable without careful observation. While the Picasso and Leger prints in this exhibition are from much later in the artists’ oeuvres, they nonetheless reflect elements of abstraction integrated from their Cubist periods. In Tête de femme (1945) Picasso depicts the head of a woman through a series of lines and shapes. The face is almost grotesque with excessive distortion in the facial 8
elements, particularly the eyes and chin – as if Picasso has portrayed the left side of her face closer than the right through two viewpoints. Leger’s L’accordéon (c.1955) depicts three female nudes positioned around a child playing an accordion. The bulky figures are heavily abstracted with tubular limbs – a characteristic shape in Leger’s work – and reduced to thick outlines and strong shadows, with even the breasts reduced to circles. The avant-garde movements of Fauvism and Cubism, along with Dadaism, had a profound effect on our perception of reality in art. By rejecting the traditional conventions of Western art, particularly through abstract representation, reorganized perspective and emphasis of the picture plane, they shifted our very definition of art and provided both visual and theoretical underpinning for art in the twentieth century.
Daumier and Social Realism In the 1840s Realism rejected the classicism of the Academies, instead choosing to portray the reality of their modern
world. Besides Gustav Courbet and Jean-François Millet who typically depicted the daily lives of the working class, Honoré Daumier was a social realist whose work commented on social and political life in mid-Eighteenth century France. As a painter he was a naturalist, recording urban life and industrialisation. But he is most known for his caricatures wherein he parodied the systems of government, bourgeoisie and royalty, using distortion and exaggeration to represent power as grotesque and corrupt.
Ratapoil, a small free-standing bronze, depicts a man cast in the trappings of emerging dandyism, with his slim pants, coat, cane and top-hat. He leans on his cane and one foot, while the curve of his back and other leg thrown forward suggest authority over the space around him. Yet something seems off. His clothing is crumpled and he looks almost emaciated, both highly unlikely for someone of class, while his expression is ominous as he glares out from under the brim of his hat. Derived from rastapoil (skinned rat), at the time the term referred to those who supported Napoleon’s imperial control. In this work Daumier translates the distortion of his print caricatures into sculptural
OPPOSITE PAGE LEFT: Henri Matisse, Femme et Fleurs, 1923. Lithograph, 27 x 19cm. OPPOSITE PAGE RIGHT: Albert Gleizes, Portrait of a woman, c1910-11, Oil on canvas, 100,2 x 73,5cm. THIS PAGE LEFT: Jean Metzinger, Paysage, undated. Oil on board, 71,5 x 54cm. THIS PAGE RIGHT: André Derain, Portrait d’une Jeune Fille Rousse, 1926-8. Oil on canvas, 41 x 33cm.
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form, retaining its expressionistic quality and breaking from the naturalistic sculpture of the time. This was never intended to be an accurate portrayal of a real person, but rather a combination of the destructive characteristics that Daumier believed were inherently rooted in power and corruption. While Ratapoil was made long before the advent of the twentieth century avant-garde, it can be considered a sign of the break with tradition and the shift that would be further developed by later movements like Fauvism and Cubism.
References 1 C hilds, E, 2004. Daumier and exoticism: satirizing the French and the foreign. New York: Peter Lang Publishing 2 C ooper, D, 1971/1998. The Cubist Epoch. London: Phaidon Press 3 Cooper, P, 1995. Cubism. London: Phaidon Press 4 G olding, J (et al), 2002. Matisse Picasso. London: Tate Publishing 5 L ynton, N, 1980/1989. The Story of Modern Art London: Phaidon Press 6 Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, an online resource made available by the Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org/toah 7 W althar, E F (Ed.). 1998. Art of the 20th Century: Volume I Painting. Germany: Taschen 8 W ilson, S & Lack, J, 2009. The Tate guide to modern art terms. London: Tate Publishing
Honore Daumier, Ratapoil, c1850. Bronze., 44 x 15 x 19cm
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9 W hile defined in Larousse’s encyclopaedic dictionary of 19th Century France, it is important to note that Larousse may be considered biased, especially with reference to his entries on Napoleon.
DADA AND SURREALISM
Tristan Tzara published a manifesto, which he had written (called The Dada Manifesto) in 1918. Shortly after the publi-
IN THE JAG COLLECTION
cation of the Dada Manifesto, World War I came to an end,
BY ANTHEA BUYS
in Zurich relocated to their home cities and other locations
and many of the the Dada artists who had congregated in Europe, as well as to New York City in the United States of America. Paris was an important city in the development of post-war Dada and in the subsequent develop-
Two years after the start of World War One, a group of
ment of Surrealism in Europe. New York, however, had
artists, poets and performers living in the city of Zurich,
become a centre for the Dada movement even before the
Switzerland, decided that rather than expressing European
end of the war, and many influential Dada artists, includ-
cultural ideals such as beauty, pleasure, and scientific ad-
ing the French artist Marcel Duchamp, relocated there as
vancement, art should hold a mirror up to the social context
early as 1915.
in which it exists. These artists had gathered in Zurich – a politically neutral city during the War – from an array of European cities, and together they tackled the question of how the nature of art might change in light of Europe’s involvement in the War, which they perceived largely to be a perverse outcome of the principles of rationality and the
Duchamp is probably the most famous of the Dada artists, and his sculptures made using found objects defined the genre of the 'readymade', a term given to his unprecedented method of assembling and modifying everyday objects in order to make artworks. His famous piece Fountain (1917),
preservation of life on which modern Europe had built itself.
an inverted urinal inscribed with the signature of a fictitious
For this group of artists the only appropriate response was
be shown in an art gallery. Duchamp was interested in the
a leap into the absurd. Tristan Tzara, recognised by several
display, commoditisation, reproducibility and dissemination
historians as the father of Dada, Marcel Janco, Jean Arp,
of artworks in early Modern culture, and in order to make
Hans Richter, Hugo Ball and other artists, regularly congre-
several of his larger sculptural and paintings more accessible
gated at Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire, where they gave readings
to art dealers and to the public, he started to make small
of nonsense poetry and manifestoes, performed absurd
boxes (in French 'boite'), which contained miniature ver-
dances in costumes they had made, and discussed the
sions and copies of his larger works. The Böite (Series G)
formation of an art and literary movement that would reject
(1968) is a fine example of one of Duchamp’s boxes. It con-
the aesthetic and moral principles which had shaped the
tains a small version of his famous 1912 painting Nude
character named R Mutt, was the first readymade ever to
arts until then. In 1917 Dada artist and poet Hugo Ball wrote,
Descending a Staircase, as well as a representation of a
“For us, art is not an end in itself ... but it is an opportunity
particularly important and fragile work of his titled The
for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in."
Bride Stripped Bare of her Bachelors Even. In its original
The name 'Dada' was chosen somewhat by chance: the word was picked at random from a children’s book. In Russian, 'dada' is the word for a toy horse. The word also resem-
form, the latter is a combination of painting, assemblage and collage, and is contained between two cracked sheets of glass.
bles the first, pre-verbal utterances made by infants as they
While found objects, sculpture and text were important
learn to speak. In the context of the Dada movement, the
media for the early Dada artists, abstract collage, painting
nonsensical nature of the word was crucial, as it expressed
and printmaking played an important role in the devel-
the movement’s rejection of established conventions of
opment of the movement and its connections to other
meaning in European culture.
Modernist movements such as Cubism, Surrealism and Expressionism. Jean Arp, one of the founding members 11
of Dada, explored the connections between the absurd and nature with his abstract collages and prints of organic forms. This mode of working can be seen in the work Cueillette. While there are certain characteristics that can be considered quite unique to Dada art and artists, there were several artists who straddled both Dada and Surrealism. Some historians regard Surrealism, a movement characterised by artists’ preoccupations with the absurd, creativity and primordial drives as products of the subconscious, to have emerged out of Dada’s interest in the absurd and in chance. TOP LEFT: Marcel Duchamp, Böite (Series G), 1968. Mixed media, variable dimensions. TOP RIGHT: Salvador Dali, Les Femmes Fleurs, c1939. Lithograph, 51,8 x 66,3cm. ABOVE: Salvador Dali, White aphrodisiac telephone, 1936. Mixed media, 18 x 30,5 x 12,5cm.
European Surrealism developed out of Dada in the early 1920s. Though it had important representatives in France, such as Andre Masson and Andre Marchande, it was the Spanish artist Salvador Dali who put Surrealism on the map internationally and established many of the movement’s stylistic conventions. As can be seen in many of Dali’s early paintings, painterly illusion – the approximation of reality through art – was an important mechanism in the depiction of scenes which were in fact entirely the substance of the imagination and defied reality. Dali was inspired by the
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writings of the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who linked
Outside of Spain, notable Sureralists included Rene
creative impulses, dream states and the will to survive, with
Magritte, Max Ernst and Man Ray, amongst others. Like
libidinal drives (many of which also manifested in sexual
many other artists of his time, Man Ray – a sculptor and
activity) ingrained deep in the mind during childhood.
early photographer – worked in both Dada and Surrealist
Based on his interpretation of Freud, many of Dali’s paintings contain overtly sexual references, such as phallic shapes, breast-like protrusions and vaginal voids. This is evident in his work Les femmes Fleurs, in which the theme of female sexuality is explored through the visual metaphor of the flower. Another important work by Dali is his
modes, and made works which often incorporated found objects and chance with more considered sexualised connotations. His lithograph Les Peches is perhaps a somewhat conventional example of his work, but demonstrates how, for Ray, the absurd and the surreal were very much rooted in every day objects.
Aphrodisiac Telephone, a modified telephone which has a white resin lobster for a receiver. This work exemplifies the Surrealist’s fascination with unexpected and mysterious conjunctions, and Dali in particular felt that such conjunctions could shed light on our unconscious drives and desires.
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THE ART OF THE "NEW WORLD" BY MUSHA NELUHENI
World War II had a tremendous effect on the power structures of the modern world. America became a super-power as Europe recovered from one of its biggest wars. This shift in financial power, along with the large numbers of European artists who left for America, established the United States, and particularly New York, as the world’s new art capital. The four major art movements which developed in America were Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Pop Art and Photorealism. The Abstract Expressionists were driven by the emotional and the intangible. Learning from Cubism and Surrealism, these artists used paint in an emotive manner that steered away from the literal and figurative. Minimalists could be seen as an extension, yet a clear antithesis to Abstract Expressionists. They believed in bringing shapes and lines down to their purest forms. They avoided the figurative, but worked with the basic shapes that all things are made of, and by accentuating the negative spaces, brought attention to the positive spaces. Pop Art, was a reaction not only to Abstract Expressionism, but also to the highly consumerist society which had developed during the post war boom. By focusing on the commercial imagery that populated their world, Pop artists merged the worlds of fine art and popular culture. Photorealism on the other hand, took its queue from a medium, which was significant to the way images were produced since the turn of the 20th Century. By creating works, which were based on photography and how the lense captured the subject, these artists started negotiating a complex layering of a representation (their painting) of a representation (the photograph). Artists like Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko ushered in the movement of Abstract Expressionism. Related to the German expressionists, this movement was based on the idea of externalising the internal. These artists used colour, brushmarks, and washes of paint to create 14
a visual representation of their emotions. Although Abstract Expressionism was largely based in America, the artists were very much influenced by European artists like Kandinsky and Klee. It did however usher in an American art scene that started to see itself as apart from what was happening in Europe. What followed Abstract Expressionism, were movements that embodied a uniquely American aesthetic. In a complete antithesis to Abstract Expressionism, Pop artists did not look introspectively at themselves when creating work, but rather at mundane, everyday objects which filled their lives. Their departure point was popular and mass culture, focusing on advertising, celebrities, and material culture. Their mode of production further developed their ideas as they turned to the mass production art forms like silkscreen and lithography. This challenged the idea of the work being made by the artist, and in a sense bringing commercial production into the realm of fine art. By doing this, they simultaneously celebrated and criticized the notion of America. Minimalist artist Donald Judd, who had assistants who made his work, wrote that it did not matter how an artwork was produced, as long as the end product was art, “After all, the work isn’t the point; the piece is.” This is a statement, which was embraced by Pop Artists. Andy Warhol’s portraits of German artist Joseph Beuys are wonderful examples of his many portraits of celebrities, American icons and popular figures. Much like Warhol’s other multiple portraits, this work consists of three portraits of Beuys in red, black and white. The incorporation of diamond dust speaks to Warhol’s notion that “I’d like to disappear. People wouldn’t say he died today, they’d say he disappeared. But I do like the idea of people turning into dust or sand.” He therefore immortalises Beuys in this glittery substance. Diamonds speak of wealth and commodity, tying into Pop Art’s investigation of consumerism. Warhol took this photograph of Beuys on their first meeting. Although the two artists had not met before this encounter, and their work was significantly different, they were both thought of as some of the greatest artists of their time and were often compared. Like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys was a cultural icon.
acceptance of the mechanical over the natural continued in the same vein as Pop Art. Unlike earlier modern art, which sought to capture nature through painting, Photorealism tried to capture the artificial materiality of photography though painting. Chuck Close’s earlier paintings were extremely detailed and had the appearance of photographs. He then started working with complimentary colours to form pixels. The portraits could only be seen clearly from afar as the pixels would merge in the viewer’s eye. This process replicated the action of a camera, which takes light and colour into a lense to create and image. Chuck Close suffers from a condition that makes it impossible for him to recognize people’s faces. Therefore his obsession with portraits can be seen as a therapeutic exploration of his condition.
TOP: Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys, 1980. Screenprint with diamond dust and black, red and white paint, 101,5 x 76,2cm each. BOTTOM: Chuck Close, Alex, 1992. Colour woodblock, 59,1 x 49,1cm. To compare this portrait to Chuck Close’s later work Alex, is to see the progression in American modern art. Photorealism, like Pop Art, focused on the visual. Photorealists wanted to represent something as close to its photographic existence as possible, rather than being true to nature. This
The American aesthetic, which was carried through from Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Minimalism and Photorealism, makes icons like the flag of the United States of America, to Coca Cola, to Campbell’s soup, synonymous with American culture and with modern American art.
References 1 Oral history interview with Donald Judd, 1965 Feb. 3, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. 2 M cShine K, 1989. Andy Warhol A Retrospective. New York, p. 466 15
MODERN SOUTH
Western forms and mediums only infiltrated into black communities through the missionary schooling systems, and
AFRICAN ARTISTS
later on, through the community arts centres as a way to
BY NONTOBEKO NTOMBELA
denied black people access to fine arts training. Artist such
bridge the Apartheid Bantu Education system, which further as Gerard Sekoto, George Pemba, Dumile Feni and others only gained critical acclaim at a later stage, but with much difficulty in getting their work equally recognised on
The voice of the emerging artist
the same level as that of white South African artists. In
This section clusters works of artists who were considered
lected by any museum in South Africa, the Johannesburg
early modern South African masters whose works became
Art Gallery.
1940, Gerard Sekoto was the first black artist to be col-
known in the early 1900s. Artists such as Jacob Pierneef, George Pemba, Gerard Bhengu, Zwelidumile (Dumile) Feni,
The earlier modern art trends show how artists focused on
Maggie Laubser, Gladys Mgudlandlu, Sydney Kumalo, Eduardo
illustrating their natural surroundings such as landscapes
Villa and Peter Clarke are included.
and still life, which were at the time popular pictorial depictions. After the ruling of the national party from 1948 the
In order to understand the context of these artists’ works
mounting political tension began to increase and land
it is important to speak about the context in which these
demarcations became more brutal and that is when black
artists lived, as this bears much of the ideas and subject
artists began to speak about their living circumstances
matter that they dealt with in their works. In most instances
through their work, although not overtly. Gerard Sekoto’s
all the artists included in this grouping imitated their natural
Yellow Houses, George Pemba’s I am sorry Madam, and
surroundings, but for each individual artist their subject
Zwelidumile Feni’s Man in Suits and Boots, speak subtly
matter speak about the times that they lived in and the
about these socio-political demarcations and the divided
kind of arts training they received (or lack thereof). Generally
lives of black South Africans. This is obviously different to
speaking there is a distinction between the artistic expres-
the pictorial illustrations of Laubser’s Lake Garda, and
sion of artists who had very little training in fine art and
Pierneef’s Karbib; a View of the Town, which were depicting
those who came from arts training backgrounds. Artists
the purity of uninterrupted nature and landscapes.
like Pierneef, Laubser and Villa, had a level of craftsmanship, which was much more technically sophisticated because of the kind of art training these artists received. This has a lot to do with the political, social and cultural divides within South Africa. What is regarded as 'fine art”' was mostly practised by white artists, as it was part of European cultural practice. These were artists who were at the time receiving critical acclaim from many public institutions and private collectors, buying and exhibiting their work. This is however, not to say that black South African communities, were no engaged in any forms of artistic expressions, because craft skills have always been part of African cultural practices, but to distinguish why western artistic expression models created exclusions.
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Community legacy, Polly Street, Rorke's Drift and community projects Artists studied in this section fall within the category of artists that received critical attention through their participation in the community art centres. Art Centre like Polly Street and Rorke’s Drift were established in order to try and bridge the gaps of higher learning arts training available for black artists. Around this time there were also growing interests from galleries on the work of artists living and working in rural areas and distinct classification between craft and fine arts were also beginning
TOP LEFT: Jacob Hendrik Pierneef, Karibib, a view of the town, 1929. Oil on canvas, 43,7 x 58,8cm. TOP RIGHT: Cecil Skotnes, Woodpanel 1, 1966. Stained carved wood panel, 182 x 47,3cm. CENTRE: Gerard Sekoto, Yellow Houses: a street in Sophiatown, c1940. Oil on canvas, 50,8 x 74,5cm. LEFT: Bongi Dhlomo, Artist Unknown: At the End of the Day, 1992. Acrylic on canvas, 90,5 x 114,5cm. 17
of Jackson Hlungwani who inherited the skill of carving (making functional objects) from his Tsonga father, and when he was ordained into Christianity, depicted images of biblical figures and symbols.
Artist influenced by historical African art Based on the grouping of artists in the 2011 schools curriculum this section explores artists whose selected work shows strong influences of African ethnicity. Artists included Bonnie Ntshalintshali, Irma Stern, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, Sfiso ka Mkame, Bongiwe Dhlomo, Cecil Skotnes, Alexis Preller, Walter Battiss and Lucky Sibiya. The common thread in the works of these artists is how they comment, critique and draw on African materials such as woodcarvings and patterns. Their work however, differs in the use of artistic mediums, which include print, painting and wood carving. Like the above section, the depiction of Christianity is also seen in the work of Ntshalintshali and ka Mkame, and John Muafangejo, A Kuanjama Wedding (descriptive title), 1972. Linocut, 50,9 x 35cm. .
also speaks of Christian influences within South African communities. Artists like Preller, Skotnes and Battiss created abstract illustrations, but show strong African patterning in their work. Much of the work uses the technique
to collapse. Acknowledging that there had been neglect
of assemblage, which can be seen in the work of Battiss.
and exclusive representation of black artists within public
Dhlomo makes a critique on the history of black artists in
institutions, galleries also began to exhibit works of artists
public museums in her work Artist Unknown: At the End
whose work was seen as falling between fine art and
of the Day, a painting of a carved African headrest. Museums
craft. Artist such as Allina Ndebele, Jackson Hlungwani
across the world have collected craft from different Afri-
and many others, suddenly received attention and were
can regions and often you find that the makers are not
‘discovered’ by galleries as fine artists in their own right.
acknowledged. By way of her title, she investigates this
The Rorke’s Drift and Polly Street Art Centres were established in the late 70s because of a need to provide artists
lack of research and acknowledgement of artists, particularly black artists who were classified under craft.
with training that was not made available in the Bantu
As an overview of the early pioneers of South African art,
Education system. Artists such as John Muafangejo, Azaria
this section merely points out how these artists made work
Mbatha and many others benefited from these training
that spoke about social, political and cultural circumstances,
centres. What was particular about these centres was
similarities and differences, and most importantly what
that they were producing artists that had a definitive style
occupied the making of Modern South African art.
and often mastered mediums such as printmaking. What later became typical was the depiction of cultural tradition and Christian narratives. This is clearly seen in the work 18
SOCIALLY-ENGAGED
experiences brought to Bester the full scale of apartheid’s brutality.
ART FROM THE ANTI-
Bester uses recycled materials in his works, which take
APARTHEID STRUGGLE
the form of assemblages that also incorporate the medium
TO THE PRESENT
duced in the early 1990s. This constitutes a number of
BY KHWEZI GULE
of painting. The work 1948 is typical of the work he pro'benches' that one cannot sit on. Some have barbed wire on them. Such a strategy is meant to allude to the demarcated bus and park benches that people of different races could not share under the apartheid system.
Our current notion of socially-engaged art derives, for the
The work 1948 is clearly a reference to the year that the
most part, from the 19th century which ushered in Social
National Party came into power. The back of the bench is
Realism. As a movement in European art, literature and
arranged in four panels from which one can discern some
the dramatic arts social realism became prominent largely
of the indignities of apartheid. Much of the visual language
due to the social upheaval brought on the industrialisation,
that is used in this work is meant to unsettle and give one
and to some extent, rapid urbanisation in many European
a sense of discomfort rather than a normal bench that is
cities. Urban poverty became rife because of unemploy-
supposed to give one a feeling of rest and relaxation.
ment, squalid living conditions and labour exploitation but it was rural poverty that forced people into the cities to begin with. In the 20 century German expressionists th
commented on the destruction of Europe in the aftermath
Madikida’s work is in many ways biographical. His earlier work dealt with the Xhosa ritual of initiation and in more recent work, HIV/Aids and the issue of absent fathers has
of the First World War.
been the artist’s focus. The work attempts to break the
Since then this tendency in art was influenced by the anti-
social taboos.
silence that follows issues relating to HIV/Aids and other
colonial struggles, the feminist movement, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersect (LGBTI) move-
The work Virus (2005) in the JAG holdings consists of a
ment. In South Africa one began to see clear engagement
set of prints that are derived from the video work Virus.
with political issues in the 1960s with artists such as
The video shows an image that is constantly splitting
Dumile Feni (1942-1991). The title of the paper published
and multiplying. The image is that of the HI virus. The
by Carol Hanisch in 1969 The Personal is Political became
visuals are accompanied by a voice singing a song that
the rallying cry of the feminist movement. Indeed many
sounds like lullaby but the lyrics of the song are quite
artists have realized that issues that affect them person-
ominous. The voice sings: “Sengikhumbul’ khaya labazali
ally and their personal experiences have wider social
bam’. Obaba no Mama bangishiya ngisese mncance.”
and political significance. Among the artists that have
Roughly translated is says: “I remember the home of my
used this approach are Willie Bester and Churchil
parents. My father and mother died (departed) while I
Madikida.
was young.” The song is a reminder that even if we are not infected with the virus we are affected by it. Perhaps
Willie Bester’s experiences under apartheid feature prom-
it is also an allusion to the children who are orphaned due
inently in his work. At the age of ten his family was forced
to illness.
to move from their farm into a homeland. Like many young men from his community he was drafted into the army in
Madikida’s work is a poignant and personal exploration
the 1980s in order to quell unrest in the townships. These
of social issues through the experiences of the artist and 19
LEFT: Willie Bester, 1948, 1993. Mixed media, 99,4 x 145 x 80cm. RIGHT: Churchill Madikida, Virus, 2005. Lambda print, 98,7 x 98,7cm. invites the viewer to partake in the dialogue and come
such as coats of arms. What is also quite evident is that
to grips with issues that are often mystified by statistics.
his work is strongly influenced by classicism and its local
In the post-apartheid era socially-engaged art no longer focuses largely on the excesses of the state as was the
variations such as the Cape Dutch furniture that is so much part of the local visual vocabulary.
case with what has been called ‘Resistance Art’ but it
In Commune: Suspension Disbelief (2001) the crucifix is
deals not only with the new social issues such as gender
rendered insculptural form with Bibles. On one level Botha
violence, HIV/Aids, identity issues but also with some of
is dealing with the interplay between the formal elements
the more subtle implications of power in society.
and the concepts, in that the form and the content are one
The work of Wim Botha concerns the subversion of the divide between the secular and the sacred by taking things that are everyday objects that have little significance or importance and he elevates them to important and noteworthy objects and also by playing with symbols or power 20
and the same. The subtext of the work is the inter-relation of faith, belief and outward manifestations of that belief. This is carried through in this other works, such as the
Mieliepap Pietà which is Michelangelo’s Pieta made out of mieliepap.
Through the juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated objects,
and a sense of shared values in order to confront both old
as well as different types of visual languages from the
and new challenges.
monumental to the decorative, and by memorialising things that are common and popular, Botha’s work is able to comment on symbols of power and their gradual degeneration.
References
In many ways the works of various artists in South African
1 www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=1367
including Madikida, Botha and Bester relate to the concerns
2 www.artthrob.co.za/03apr/artbio.html
that preoccupy other artists. Some of these are; how one
3 www.stevenson.info/exhibitions/both/botha.htm
remembers history, how we form our identity as a nation and as communities within that nation, a sense of belonging and citizenship and how to create a sense of tolerance
4 www.stevenson.info/exhibitions/churchill/status.htm 5 www.carolhanisch.org/Chwritings/PIP.html
21
POST-APARTHEID IDENTITY IN VISUAL ART BY ZEN MARIE
of an urban sensibility that is young, fresh and vibrant. Maluka’s work specifically signifies an aesthetic that comes from graffiti and hip-hop music. The pattern and colors he uses have a sensibility that echoes graffiti and it is difficult not to read the title, Nigga with an attitude as a reference to the iconic late 1980s rap group NWA (Niggaz Wit Attitude). The 'street culture' that is alluded to in Maluka’s work is
"Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with
literally enacted in Veleko’s work. In the photograph Thulani
which to shape it."– Bertolt Brecht
we see a ‘cool kid’ posing for a photo in the street. The color
The transition from apartheid to democracy caused many
Maluka’s painting can be clearly seen in the clothes that
changes in South African society. While the obvious chang-
Thulani wears. While both works clearly have a concern
es can be seen in the new government and progressive
with fashion and the culture that comes with it, they could
constitution there were, however, many other changes
also be seen to do more. They are both also portraits, which
beyond this political sphere. The cultural environment in
is a convention of picture making that has a rooted tradi-
South Africa also mirrored these shifts. There was no
tion. Oil painting and street photography are traditions
need for protest art that spoke out against the apartheid
of portraiture that have vastly different, if not conflicting
regime, as this regime was defeated. Artists could now
histories.
look at a range of material and subject matter that had not been explored in the past. For instance, more focus could be placed on the individual and the personal as opposed to the collective struggle or resistance. It seems that in this new democracy artists could investigate aesthetics and form in more playful ways. However it could be asked, what happened to the role of artist as agitator, as provocateur, as fighter of injustice? Was art in this new democracy completely devoid of politics? To answer these questions lets look at two works by artists who emerge in this post apartheid democratic South Africa. The works that I will look at are indicative of two very different modes of production. The one is an oil painting on canvas, Mustafa Maluka’s Nigga with an attitude and the other a photograph Nontsikelelo Veleko’s Thulani. While they exist in very different media and formally raise different concerns I will argue that, conceptually, they do
and pattern that was used in a more abstracted manner in
To have your portrait done in oil painting was historically a sign of wealth and standing. You had to have been someone, either important or rich in order to have your portrait painted. In the case of Maluka’s work, it is unclear who the man in the painting is – he is unnamed and anonymous. Maluka’s portraits are not of rich or famous people but are a composite of multiple images from magazines. The man in the painting is a hybrid identity formed from a multiplicity of images, and as composite identity he is a representation of the 'everyman' rather than of an important personality. Maluka inserts an anonymous hip-hop character into a genre of painting, which was previously reserved for the elite. Veleko on the other hand inserts the posed but casual street portrait into a 'high-art' context. The portrait of
Thulani, which would normally be a private or personal
similar things.
memento, now becomes a work of art intended for public
Maluka’s painting and Veleko’s photograph both depict
photograph is now inserted into a context that is much
a kind of urban contemporary aesthetics. We could think
more formal. The size of the image is also worth men-
of this as a treatment of style or fashion a representation
tioning. Normally portraits of this kind would be printed
22
display and for public consumption. The casual street
in the standard jumbo format that one-hour photo labs generically print. Veleko‘s photograph is printed out at A1, a size that situates it closer to the oil on canvas portraits from traditional and elite forms of art making. In this way, Veleko highlights contemporary fashion as something that is important to think about, and important to look at. Fashion is not the only similarity in the two artists’ work. Both artists represent images of black men in ways that are not conventional. When we speak of the history of art, we normally implicitly refer to the history of western or European art. The portrait tradition that exists within this canon is almost exclusively composed of powerful white men. The insertion of a black man into this tradition is a challenge to this racial and cultural bias. These representations of black men also importantly diverge from the images of suffering and abjection that are often associated with representations of blackness. Maluka and Veleko depict black masculinity as proud and dignified. In this way they subtly and probingly ask questions of how we see race and identity. In this sense the works by Maluka and Veleko, while seemingly playful, aesthetic and visually rich are also loaded with meaning that is actually quite political. By depicting a cultural form that is contemporary and popular in a fine art context they are asking questions of the hierarchy of culture that museums and galleries often uphold. Furthermore, by representing an identity position that is not usually included within the canon of art history they challenge the racially biased nature of how we think about this history. In both these cases identity or the personal can be seen to be vibrantly political.
TOP: Mustafa Maluka, Nigga with an attitude, 2005. Oil on canvas, 133,1 x 183,1cm. BOTTOM: Nontsikelelo Veleko, Thulani, 2005. Digital print, 127,8 x 83,5cm.
23
QUESTIONING GENDER: THE ARTWORK OF MARY SIBANDE, ZANELE MUHOLI AND NANDIPHA MNTAMBO BY PORTIA MALATJIE
Reclaiming the representation of women’s bodies is one way in which women have questioned gender-based oppression. The portrayal of women’s bodies has been one way in which women have been subjugated in the arts. For instance, the historical female nude in European art history opens up a discussion about the manner in which women’s bodies were (mis)represented, arguably for the benefit of the male gaze.1 One of the contributions of women artists to contemporary art production is taking back their subjectivity, deciding how they want their bodies to be represented. In the installation Balandzeli (2004), Nandipha Mntambo makes use of the nude female body to question the oppression of women’s bodies. The installation shows four women figures, made from cow-hide, hanging from the ceiling in a straight line. Mntambo’s work aims to “challenge and subvert preconceptions regarding representation of the female body”.2 By moulding a woman’s body in cowhide (cowhide in this context could be seen as a repulsive medium), she subverts a historic artistic culture that objectifies women’s nude bodies. In this instance Mntambo “disrupts perceptions of attraction and repulsion” with regard to the manner in which we perceive women’s bodies. In so doing, she suggests that we live in a culture that is interested in ‘looking at’ women’s bodies only if they conform to our ideas and ideals of beauty. Mntambo continues her use and exploration of cowhide in the photographic work, Praça de Touros III. In this work, she performs at a bullfight ring in Mozambique, a place where black Mozambicans used to fight as entertainment 24
for white colonisers.3 The bullfight is often associated with masculinity. Adorning the abject cowhide as part of her attire, Mntambo, a woman, appropriates this male dominated sport. The ‘sport’, like all sports, is a spectacle involving spectatorship. Bullfighters fight bulls in the ring, or in the case of Praça de Touros, black Mozambicans fight each other, in the presence of an audience. Mntambo has no audience in her work. She is alone in the arena, performing to an absent audience. One could read this as a subversion of the perennial male gaze, where women are always gazed at for men’s enjoyment. In this instance, Mntambo has eliminated the gaze – she is not being watched by those that could potentially objectify her. The absence of spectators could possibly speak to another realm. It could possibly question women’s invisibility in society. Although women play an integral part in each community, they are subordinated, silenced and made invisible in patriarchal societies. Mntambo explores whether the acts and roles women perform become spectacles with no spectators. Mary Sibande is another artist who challenges the notion of oppression in her work, particularly in the Sophie series. Sibande’s work centres visibility on a domestic worker. She employs the use of her alter ego, Sophie, to communicate a different perspective of domestic workers. Through Sophie, Sibande asserts a voice with which to speak about Sophie’s fantasies and desires, and transgresses stereotypes associated with being a maid in South Africa. In so doing, she attains and claims a degree of subjectivity and agency, which in turn gives Sophie individuality instead of being perceived through the historical archetypes that previously defined domestic workers. Sophie’s dress is an integral part of Sibande’s method of challenging the stereotypical roles that society has prescribed for many domestic workers in South Africa. The fabric and blue colour of the dress resemble that of the clothing that domestic workers wear (or the blue collar worker). Hlonipha Mokwena4 suggests that the clothing adds to the invisibility of many maids – by wearing identical uniforms, they are stripped off their individuality and arguably, their femininity. They become standardised and mechanical cleaners who occupy people’s private spaces. The oversized, Victorian era-like clothes prohibit Sophie from doing any form of domestic labour. It also alludes to dresses worn by the
TOP: Nandipha Mntambo, Praça de Touros III, 2008. Photograph, 101,6 x 153cm. BOTTOM: Zanele Muholi, Nomonde Mbusi (from Faces and Phases series), 2007. Silver gelatin print, 60,5 x 86,5cm.
Queen of England. The colour – sometimes blue sometimes purple – also references royalty. Sibande also titles her works in a manner that associates Sophie with royalty – this is evident in works such as Her Majesty Queen Sophie and Long Live the Dead Queen. The works are majestic in stature adding to the notion of royalty, importance and presence. They are easily noticeable and unavoidable, making her invisibility impossible. Zanele Muholi introduces a different aspect of exploring gender. Her work concentrates mainly on sexuality and gender. Her series, Faces and Phases I involves extensive activism to give visibility to black lesbians in South Africa and beyond.5 She believes that, “To be counted as equal
citizens in our country, we black lesbians need to make ourselves visible in whatever way we can.”6 Her series comprises photographic portraits of black lesbians. She questions whether one can tell the sexuality of the people in the images merely from looking at their faces and the manner in which they dress. Are the lesbian women who dress in ‘masculine’ clothing such as ties and male suits more homosexual than the lesbian women who dress more ‘femininely’? Muholi questions the degree to which gender – the prescribed dress code and behaviour of women and men – inform our experiences or perceptions of homosexuality. The notion of the ‘gaze’ plays an integral part of viewing Muholi’s work. In this instance, the gaze 25
of an entire society that often ostracises black lesbians, is questioned. The use of portraiture also allows for an appropriated gaze as the subjects in the portrait look back at the spectator, almost daring them to interact with them beyond a stereotypical basis. Looking at the works of Mary Sibande, Zanele Muholi and Nandipha Mntambo allows for an exploration of gender that is woman based. It is however important to acknowledge that questioning gender does not only look at the oppression of women – it includes subverting oppressions that are based on gender, sex, sexuality, and so forth. The study of gender includes investigation of sex and sexuality that include issues relating to both men and women. There are male artists, such as Nicholas Hlobo, Paul Emmanuel and Colbert Mashile, whose work deals specifically with masculinity – the male side of gender. While our sexes – that is, what makes us male and female – are determined by biology, our gender is determined by society – the roles that are performed in some societies, such as cleaning for women and providing financial support for the family as a man’s job. In addition, the examples herewith provided are exemplary of the stereotypes that we associate with gender. Gender therefore dictates how people should behave within their communities. It is precisely these gendered formations that are questioned in works that subvert femininity or masculinity.
References
Mary Sibande, I put a spell on me (TOP), They don’t make them like they use to (BOTTOM), 2009. Digital prints, 81,5 x 54,5cm each. 26
1 Farrington, L (2004), Schamahmann, B (2004), Parker and Pollock, (1987), Pollock (1996). 2 www.stevenson.info/exhibitions/mntambo/ index2007.htm 3 www.stevenson.info/exhibitionsbs/mntambo/index. htm 4 Mokoena, Hlonipha (2010) Anybody can be a Maid, in Africa is a Country. http://africasacountry.com/2010/12/06/ anybody-can-be-a-maid/ Accessed 17 June 2011. 5 www.stevenson.info/exhibitions/muholi/facesphases.htm Accessed 10 June 2011. 6 www.stevenson.info/exhibitions/muholi/facesphases.htm Accessed 10 June 2011.
MATTERS OF SPIRIT BY NESSA LEIBHAMMER
supplying objects for the exclusive use of the king. It seems as if carving traditions were largely kept within families and that a system of master carvers and apprentices existed.
Staffs Artworks such as headrests, snuff containers and milk pails made within, and for, traditional southern African contexts often embody a sacred dimension. While a supreme god is believed to exist, it is the ancestors who are understood to be ever present and to care for the well being of their living descendents. Certain types of objects function as links to this ancestral sphere. When closely examined, and the nature of the forms understood, their significance becomes clear. Beadwork is not necessarily linked to the spirit world. It is made to adorn the body and communicate messages about the identity and status of the wearer. This positions the wearer within society and speaks about wider political affiliations. Beadwork and apparel, especially red, white and black cloth and white beads, however, enhance the power and efficacy of traditional healers, who derive their strength from the spirit world. Considering links between art from the African continent and international art should not be limited to the effect of African art on modernism, as can be seen in the work of Ernest Mancoba. A deeper history should be considered as well. East coast trade in gold and ivory to places such as India and Indonesia, and centuries of imports, including textiles and glass beads from the east, inspired local aesthetic forms particularly the art of the body. In pre-colonial Southern African societies cattle husbandry, woodcarving and metalwork were activities for men and agriculture, pottery and beading reserved for women. Basket weaving appears to have been done by both men and women, with some types made by women and others by men. Communities recognised especially talented carvers with orders coming from patrons who were not only from the carver’s family or region. At the height of the Zulu Kingdom, some of the top wood carvers lived at the royal homestead
Staffs were identified with their owners and were carried to enhance their appearance and mark their status. They come in a multitude of forms and serve many functions – those with geometric shaped finials functioned as staffs of office indicating a chief or spokesperson for the royal house. Others, with club-like ends were weapons and those with elaborate beading would have been used as dance wands. Carved head finials, sporting head rings, were used by men as an indication of their senior status and those with snake and reptile motifs were probably used by traditional healers. A young South Sotho man, at the end of his initiation, returned to his home carrying a decorated staff with a mirror inset as a sign of his new status as an adult. Staffs, especially those with demurely dressed figures of women and men, were probably produced for an early tourist trade or for colonial exhibitions held in England and France.
Pottery The making of pots and containers from clay was a preserve of women. But not all women are potters as the tradition is kept within specialist families with daughters and daughtersin-law being taught the skills of hand building, decorating and firing. The making of traditional pottery still continues in rural areas as these vessels were used in the brewing and serving of traditional beer - an important substance for family celebrations and for the honouring of the ancestors. The vessels themselves were linked to the spirit realm in that they are made of earth, the sacred dwelling place of the ancestors. In traditional contexts women are further connected to the earth in that they undertake agricultural labour and are integral to the cycle of harvesting, food production and childbearing and thus to the ensuring the fertility and continuity of people and the land.
27
Child figures The small child figures are often incorrectly called ‘dolls’ but they are not playthings. The shape and material used in the construction of the child figure indicate that they represent the union of man and woman from which a child is conceived. Representing both the wished-for child and an adult person, Sotho, Ntwana, Ndebele, Tsonga-Shangaan and Venda child figures were used by young women of marriageable age and play an important part in courtship ceremonies. Swazi and Zulu child figures, on the other hand, were made by women and given to the man they wish to marry. These men would either wear the child figure or keep it as a token of their popularity. Not restricted in how many he may receive a man could acquire many from aspirant brides. However, when he decides to marry he would keep the one belonging to his chosen bride and return all the others. The practice of using child figures is now largely a thing of the past.
Headrests Adult men and women supported their heads and necks during sleep with their own personal small wooden pillows. These were sometimes buried with their owners or, alternatively, handed down to the next generation. Headrests protected elaborate hairstyles but were also symbolically charged. Through extensive use they developed a silky patina constituted out of the oils, perspiration and handling of users. This meant that headrests are saturated with presence. As they were passed through generations they became valued personal objects with powerful conTOP: Artists unrecorded, Mutsago (headrest), Shona, late 19th/early 20th Century. Wood, 13,2 x 17,8 x 6,5cm (Brenthurst Collection). CENTRE: Elina Thugwana, Jogolo (apron), Ndebele, early 20th Century. Beads, leather and brass rings, h: 54cm, outside diameter: 73,1cm.
nections to lineage ancestors and the spirit realm. Headrests also linked the head of the sleeper to the earth – the domain of ancestors – and were believed to facilitate dreams from this realm. Some headrests show small ‘lugs’ or earlobes that may be a further reference to the ability to ‘hear’ ancestors speaking. The added presence of cavities
BOTTOM: Artist unrecorded. Beer drinking vessels, Sotho,
for snuff storage in some examples reinforces the ancestral
late 19th/early 20th century. Ceramic and pigment, 21,2 x 15cm.
connections.
28
Because of these special qualities their function was not
their ‘traditional’ purposes. Some staffs are examples of
limited to that of a pillow: they may be placed by a hus-
this. Objects such as these are also becoming increasingly
band of a polygamous household outside the dwelling
valuable and so raise questions about the fluid nature of
of the wife chosen for that particular night; be used as a
what we define and as ‘art’ or ‘craft’.
nexus for accessing the ancestors; used to show respect to a deceased relative and be displayed by chiefs as signs of power and legitimacy to rule. As far as can be ascertained, no headrests remain in use today as wooden pillows but some are used by healers
LEFT: Artist unrecorded, Umndwana (child figure), Ndebele, mid-20th Century. Grass, leather, textile, wood, glass beads, wool; 55,5 x 18,6 x 10,3cm (Brenthurst Collection).
as part of their equipment and some are commissioned as burial items.
RIGHT: Artist unrecorded, Nduku/nhonga (staff), Tsonga, late 19th/early 20th Century. Wood, pokerwork
But focus should not only be directed to matters of spirit,
and shell; 103 x 6,2 x 6,9cm (Brenthurst Collection).
nor should tradition be thought of as a static phenomenon. While aspects of tradition endure, dynamic responses to changing circumstances are always present. Some of the objects on display were, for example, made to sell to tourist and urban markets becoming increasingly removed from
29
GLOSSARY abjection – brought low in condition or status aesthetic – a guiding principle in matters of artistic beauty and taste analytic – separating something into component parts or constituent elements ancestor – a person from whom one is descended antithesis – the direct opposite archetype – an original model or type after which other similar things are patterned assemblage – sculptural technique of organizing or composing into a unified whole a group of unrelated and often fragmentary or discarded objects avant-garde – the experimental, daring or radical treatment of artistic, musical, or literary material. bias – to show preference or favouritism caricature – a pictorial, written, or acted representation of a person, which exaggerates his characteristic traits for comic effect classicism – the principles or styles characteristic of art of ancient Greece and Rome commoditisation – the act of turning an object into a manufactured product composite – something made up of separate parts composition – the arrangement of the parts of a work of art in relation to each other and to the whole canon – the body of rules, principles, or standards accepted in a field of study dissemination – to distribute efficacy – effectiveness expressionist – an artistic and literary movement, which sought to express emotions rather than to represent external reality 30
facet – fragment or piece femininity – the quality or nature of the female sex gender – the behavioural, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex; Sexual identity, especially in relation to society or culture grotesque – strangely ugly or distorted hybrid – something composed of more than one source industrialisation – to develop industry on an extensive scale initiation – formal admission or acceptance into an organisation or club, adult status in one's community or society intangible – incapable of being perceived by touch libidinal – sexual instinct or sexual drive linearity – represented by, or consisting of a line or lines luminous – radiating or reflecting light manifesto – a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives masculinity – the quality or nature of the male sex memento – an object that serves as a reminder missionary – a person sent by a church into an area to conduct activities, such as educational or hospital work on behalf of that church. modern – includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. objectify – the practice of regarding or treating another person merely as an instrument towards one's sexual pleasure oeuvres – the works of a writer, painter, or the like, taken as a whole ostracise – to exclude a person from a particular group, society, etc patriarchal – relating to a system run my males perennial – continuous or constant
perspective – art of suggesting three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface, in order to recreate the appearance and spatial relationships
ILLUSTRATIONS
phallic – resembling the male genital organ
Artists unrecorded, 28-29
pictorial – illustrated in a picture
Bester, Willie, 20
portraiture – the art of making portraits
Cezanne, Paul, 6
post-modern – literature, art, philosophy that acknowledges that no scientific, philosophical, or religious truth will explain everything for everybody
Close, Chuck, 15
pre-colonial – pertaining to time before a region or country became a colony
Daumier, Honore, 10
preserve – to attend to, oversee or manage
Dhlomo, Bongi, 17
primordial – earliest or existing from the beginning
Duchamp, Marcel, 12
provocateur – a person who deliberately behaves controversially in order to provoke argument or other strong reactions
Gleizes, Albert, 8
secular – not pertaining to or connected with religion.
Maluka, Mustafa, 23
serenely – calmly or peacefully
Matisse, Henri, 8
socio-political – the combination or interaction of both social and political factors
Dali, Salvador, 12-13
Derain, André, 9
Madikida, Churchill, 21
Metzinger, Jean, 9 Mntambo, Nandipha, 25
spectatorship – the act of viewing or observing
Monet, Claude, 5
subconscious – mental processes of which the individual is not aware
Muafangejo, John, 18
subjugate – to bring under complete control subordinate – placed in a lower rank subtext – the underlying meaning subversion – an attempt to overthrow or undermine taboo – seen by society as improper or unacceptable urbanisation – to make a predominantly rural area or country more industrialized and urban
Muholi, Zanele, 25 Pierneef, Jacob Hendrik, 17 Pissarro, Camille, 5 Rodin, François Auguste, 5 Sekoto, Gerard, 17 Sibande, Mary, 26 Sisley, Alfred, 5 Skotnes, Cecil, 17 Thugwana, Elina, 28 Veleko, Nontsikelelo, 23 Warhol, Andy, 15 31
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