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Le Zimbabwe

L'école/texte africains d'atelier par Frank McEwen ; photographie par Sylvia Beck. [Salisbury : Galerie nationale de la Rhodésie, 1967]. [illus de 34] pp. NB1096.6.R5A25 AFA. OCLC 5993013.

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Ce livret, consistant principalement en photographies, est d'intérêt comme document historique du mouvement en pierre de sculpture du Zimbabwe. Les photographies tôt des sculpteurs, qui ont maintenant vieilli avec le mouvement, sont montrées ici au travail ou au jeu. Elles et d'autres sont référées par McEwen, au courant et caché, des noms simples -- « Mouche, » « demander, » « Simon » -- nous nous demandons qui ils sont vraiment.

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Ce qui intéresse également dans la rétrospection est le voile du romantisme qui déjà était drapé au-dessus des sculpteurs -- « mystiquement incliné et armé avec la patience sans fin… avec une croyance inhérente dans le culte d'ancêtre et le royaume de l'invisible. » L'école d'atelier, dix ans d'en service d'ici 1967, a pris la fierté en étant autosuffisante de la vente des travaux. Le commerce faisait partie et colis du mouvement dès le début.

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Arnold, Marion. Sculpture en pierre zimbabwéenne. Bulawayo : Louis Bolze, 1986. xxvi, 234pp. illus., carte, bibliog. OCLC 18909483.

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La thèse d'Arnold était la première étude principale de la sculpture en pierre zimbabwéenne contemporaine. La portée est légèrement plus large du fait elle considère également la sculpture en pierre antique -- les oiseaux et les monolithes en pierre du grand Zimbabwe. Son foyer est sur l'iconographie de Shona plutôt que sur le mouvement d'art dans l'ensemble dans tous ses aspects sociologiques et commerciaux (comme livre d'Hiver-Irving's 1991 est). Une étude historique d'art, sculpture en pierre zimbabwéenne discute la forme et le contenu, y compris le langage figuré humain, animal et surnaturel, en regardant le travail d'un groupe choisi de sculpteurs de Shona. Les biographies de ces vingt et un sculpteurs sont données dans une annexe (pp. 183-197). D'autres sculpteurs en pierre, non discutés dans le texte mais qui ont participé aux expositions, sont énumérés dans une annexe séparée.

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Bien qu'Arnold ne discute pas le raccordement direct entre la sculpture en pierre antique et le moderne, elle propose que Shona découpant en bois et moulant en argile des figures anthropomorphes et zoomorphic la base iconographical fournie et l'expertise technique sur lesquelles les sculpteurs modernes ont dessiné -- une fois la nouvelle incitation, un art dans l'intéret de l'art, a été présentée.

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La recherche originale sur laquelle ce livre est basé était la thèse du maître de l'auteur autorisée : Quelques aspects d'iconographie dans les sculptures choisies en Shona. Cette réimpression de l'édition 1981 (Bulawayo : Les livres du Zimbabwe) incorpore des changements d'endroit-nom et offre un nouveau post-scriptum.

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Venez de l'âge : aus Zimbabwe de Kunst de zeitgenössische : Chikonzero Chazunguza, Doreen Sibanda, Voti Thebe, Ishmael Wilfred, matrice Bildhauer d'und de Craig Wylie : Bernard Matemera, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Joseph Muzondo, John Takawira. Aschaffenburg : Städtische Galerie Jesuitenkirche, 1998. 96pp. illus. (couleur). (Forum Aschaffenburg, 20). N7396.6.R5C66 1998 AFA. OCLC 43343882.

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La peinture est sculpture en pierre finie privilégiée dans cette exposition de l'art zimbabwéen contemporain tenu à Aschaffenburg, Allemagne, en 1998. Les artistes décrits sont Chikonzero Chazunguza, Doreen Sibanda, Voti Thebe, Ishmael Wilfred, Craig Wylie, Bernard Matemera, Nicolas Mukomberanwa, Joseph Muzondo, John Takawira, et Sithabile Mlotshwa.


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Art contemporain au Zimbabwe. Amsterdam : Artoteek Amsterdam Zuidoost, 1998. 39pp. illus. (pinte. couleur). qN7396.6.R5C68 1998 AFA. OCLC 47094868.

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Cette exposition à Amsterdam comporte les artistes zimbabwéens représentant une section transversale de la scène contemporaine d'art, sans la sculpture en pierre omniprésente. Les peintres et les sculpteurs qui travaillent en matériaux autres que la pierre sont un secteur donné sur et vibrant. Les essais par Yvonne Vera et Barbara Murray fournissent la vue d'ensemble de l'art contemporain au Zimbabwe.

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Les artistes participants sont Keston Beaton, Chikonzero Chazunguza, Tapfuma Gutsa, Charles Kamangwana, Peter Kwangware, Bulelwa Madekurozwa, berger Mahufe, Luis Meque, Zenzo Ndlovu, cosmos Shiridzinomwa, et Richard Witikani.

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Découpage en pierre contemporain du Zimbabwe : [exposition] parc de sculpture en Yorkshire, 22 juillet au 25 novembre 1990. [Wakefield, l'Angleterre] : Sculpture Park, 1990. 60pp en Yorkshire. principalement illus. (pinte. couleur). qNB1209.Z55C76 AFA 1990. OCLC 23359729.

Le parc de sculpture en Yorkshire était un arrangement élégant pour ce qui était la plus grande exposition de la sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe jamais assemblée. Trente-six artistes ont été décrits, les maîtres tôt et les plus jeunes sculpteurs de même ; leurs travaux sont photographiés in situ au parc de sculpture en Yorkshire. Le texte de catalogue offre trois perspectives sur le phénomène en pierre de sculpture du Zimbabwe. Frank McEwen, qui était présent à la création de ce mouvement d'art, mais s'est maintenant écarté de la scène, partage quelques réflexions personnelles de sa position avantageuse unique. Le berger de Michael de critique d'art évalue le travail du pôle opposé : un étranger qui n'a jamais été au Zimbabwe. Troisièmement, Joram Mariga, parfois crédité d'être le tailleur en pierre original du Zimbabwe, certainement un du premier, parle de son propre travail. Les biographies et un glossaire des artistes de pierre du Zimbabwe sont inclus.

Exposition passée en revue par Gemma Nesbitt, « sculpture captivante, » économiste africain méridional (Harare) 3 (5) : 45-46, octobre le novembre 1990.


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Cousins, Jane. « La fabrication de la sculpture zimbabwéenne, » troisième texte ; Les perspectives du tiers monde sur l'art contemporain et cultivent (Londres) aucun 13:31 - 42, illus de l'hiver 1991., des notes. NX1.T445 AFA.

Le commodification de la sculpture en pierre en Zimbawean a été un juste de problème du commencement pour ses instigateurs et ses détracteurs. Puisque l'indépendance il est devenue un produit politique aussi bien, symbolisant une identité culturelle nationale et favorisé en tant que tels par la galerie nationale du Zimbabwe et de d'autres. Pourtant pour la plupart des Zimbabwéens, la sculpture en pierre « traditionnelle » demeure étrangère, ou plutôt, ils restent notamment indifférents à elle. Son succès commercial est international, non local. Les cousins explore pourquoi c'est ainsi et pourquoi la poignée d'artistes qui essayent d'éclater de ce moule le trouvent ainsi faire dur. Parmi ces plus jeunes artistes poursuivant leurs propres visions intellectuelles être Tapfuma Gutsa et voix Thebe.


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Kennedy, Jean. « Les sculpteurs du Zimbabwe : artistes avec un vieux legs, » pp. 158-168. Dans : Nouveaux courants, fleuves antiques : artistes africains contemporains dans une génération de changement. Washington, C.C : Pression Smithsonienne d'établissement, 1992. illus., bibl. refs. (page 192). N7391.65.K46 1992X AFA. OCLC 22389510.

Le mouvement en pierre de sculpture au Zimbabwe a provoqué beaucoup de discussion au sujet de l'authenticité, de la qualité, du mercantilisme commercial, et de l'imitation dans l'art, mais après que presque pendant quatre décennies ce reste un mouvement essentiel et réussi, comme lui ou pas. Raconter de nouveau de Kennedy de l'histoire de la sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe se concentre sur la période formatrice, l'où la première génération des artistes a émergé. Bon nombre d'entre eux sont toujours (ou étaient jusque récemment) en activité -- Sylvester Mubayi (1942 -), Joseph Ndandorika (1940 -), défunt John Takawira (1938-1989), Henry Munyaradzi (1931 -), et Joram Mariga (1927 -).


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Kennedy, Jean. « Ciel et terre au Zimbabwe, » pp. 155-157. Dans : Nouveaux courants, fleuves antiques : artistes africains contemporains dans une génération de changement. Washington, C.C : Pression Smithsonienne d'établissement, 1992. illus., bibl. refs. (page 192). N7391.65.K46 1992X AFA. OCLC 22389510.

La genèse de l'art moderne au Zimbabwe était dans l'école d'atelier à la galerie nationale, l'enfant de cerveau de Frank McEwen (1907-1994). Dans le commencement (vers la fin des années 50) la peinture et woodcarving ont été enseignés, mais lapident par la suite le découpage prédominé, selon l'evangile de McEwen. Cet effort abortif à la peinture a produit un peintre de note -- Thomas Mukarobgwa (1924 -). Bien qu'il, aussi, ait abandonné la peinture pour la sculpture en pierre, il a été intéressant encouragé à retourner à ce milieu dans les années 90.

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Kileff, Clive et Maricarol Kileff. Marchands ambulants de la sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe : artistes et entrepreneurs. Gweru : Pression de mambo, 1996. XII, 68pp. illus. (pinte. couleur), bibliog. (pp. 67-68). HF5459.Z55K55 1996X AFA. OCLC 35948827.

Le mouvement en pierre de sculpture du Zimbabwe a toujours été autant au sujet du commerce qu'au sujet de l'art. De son commencement vers la fin des années 50, les discussions ont porté sur des questions de l'authenticité, art fin contre l'art de touristes, et distinguer les « vrais » artistes des imitateurs et des entailles. Personne ne s'est vraiment concentré sur l'extrémité inférieure du l'art-bas spectre élevé d'art -- les marchands ambulants, entrepreneurs qui gagnent une vie de sculpture de fabrication et colportante. L'étude courte du Kileffs est un regard régénérateur à la fin de petite entreprise de la production d'art au Zimbabwe. Elle commence par les lieux que ces affaires sont parfaitement légitimes et dignes. Loin d'adopter une position renvoyée vers ces individus, le Kileffs admirent les artiste-entrepreneurs pour leur industriousness et initiative. Les auteurs évitent les soucis de l'établissement d'art, et étudient carrément ce qui va sur en dehors de la galerie d'art climatisée. De cette position avantageuse il est tout au sujet des stratégies de sciences économiques et de survie dans un marché concurrentiel. Sept stratégies de vente sont identifiées et discutées : les marcheurs solos de rue, kiosque en bord de route, stand durant la nuit loué, stand de propriété collective, magasin de curiosité, ont diversifié l'entreprise communale, et la galerie. Le comportement du consommateur est soigneusement contrôlé par les vendeurs, et ils adaptent leur lancement de vente et bagout de négociation en conséquence : la publicité facile, un upmanship, appellent votre prix, dégageant en privé les prix courants, le sculpteur absent représenté par des autres qui ne peut pas ajuster des prix, et le bombardement de masse.

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Les vignettes des histoires de la vie des différents artiste-entrepreneurs, que le Kileffs ont rassemblés, parlent aux aspirations, aux qualifications acquises, et aux réalités économiques. Plusieurs des artistes sont des bacheliers cherchant à faire un dollar honnête ; plusieurs sont des femmes ; certains sont des entreprises de famille ; uns essayent aussi loin au loin que le Cap, Afrique du Sud, de vendre leurs articles. Bien que seulement une fraction minuscule des marchands ambulants du Zimbabwe la fasse jamais au circuit de galerie d'art, la plupart de rêve de faire ainsi. Mais dans un monde post-moderne, des questions de la qualité sont balayées de côté, car l'autorité culturelle d'élite est défiée. Commodification d'art est un grand niveleur. Importe-t-il qui fait l'art ou où art est vendu ?

En dépit d'un post-scriptum sur « une évaluation poteau-moderne de la qualité de l'art des marchands ambulants, » ce n'est pas une étude pesée vers le bas avec l'analyse et les un bon nombre lourd-exprimés de statistiques ; elle lit presque anecdotely, comme un essai qui se développe hors de la nécessité personnelle d'intérêt plutôt que d'universitaire. Illustré avec des photographies des artiste-entrepreneurs.

Passé en revue par M.F.C. Bourdillon dans Zambezia (Harare) 24 (2) : 201-202, 1997.

Passé en revue par Murray MCARTNEY dans la galerie ; le magasin d'art du delta de galerie (Harare) aucun 10:22, décembre 1996. qN1.G168 AFA. OCLC 33161032.


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Kuhn, joie. Mythe et magie : l'art du Shona du Zimbabwe. Le Cap : Don Nelson, 1978. 112pp. illus. (pinte. couleur). NB1096.6.R5K83X AFA. OCLC 5661113.

La perspective de Kuhn de joie sur les sculpteurs en pierre du Zimbabwe et leurs mentors, le Frank McEwen, le Ned Patterson, et le Tom Blomefield, est fortement personnalisée ; son récit est complètement bavard. Mais sous tout singulier de premier-personne, on peut glaner quelques perspicacités dans ces années tôt de la pré-indépendance du mouvement, quand Harare était Salisbury immobile, le Zimbabwe était la Rhodésie et les « terroristes » étaient à l'étranger dans la terre. Gêner, cependant, est toute l'absence des légendes pour identifier les photographies ; aucuns noms, aucuns endroits ; aucunes dates ; rien, excepté une note qui les la plupart sont de la collection privée de Tom Blomefield et ainsi, n'illustrent vraisemblablement des sculptures en Tengenenge.


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Legs de pierre : Le Zimbabwe après et le présent. Le volume 2/curated et a édité par Geert G. Bourgois, aidé par Els De Palmenaer ; avant-propos par George P. Kahari. Tervuren : Musée royal pour l'Afrique centrale, 1997. illus. (pinte. couleur), carte, bibliog. (pp. 190-194). N7396.6.R5L44 1997 volume 2 AFA. OCLC 38742939.

Une exposition importante sur le Zimbabwe a été tenue au centrale royal de Musée de l'Afrique en 1997, demi dont a été consacré à l'art moderne. Le volume 2 contient neuf essais qui couvrent la sculpture en pierre, l'art de mission, la peinture, le « art d'étranger, » l'art de touristes, et l'éducation d'art. Cette vue panoramique de la scène contemporaine d'art au Zimbabwe est prévue pas en tant que « qui est qui, » mais en tant que « ce qui est ce qui. » À l'origine elle a été projetée pour inclure seulement la sculpture en pierre, mais les organisateurs ont été persuadés que cela ferait un service aux artistes du Zimbabwe aussi bien qu'à des visiteurs à l'exposition. Deux essais sur la sculpture en pierre mènent au loin, suivi « d'un intermède scientifique » du géologue que Georges se penche. Son analyse des roches employées par les sculpteurs en pierre du Zimbabwe prouve que les noms de la pierre visés à la littérature ne correspondent pas à la réalité. Les pierres les plus utilisées généralement, chlorite, sericite, serpentinite et stéatite, sont tout le relativement douces et faciles à découper avec les outils simples mais sont suffisamment dures pour garantir la fermeté. Les écoles d'art mission-basées tôt, Cyrene et Serima, fournissent la substance d'un chapitre historique important dans l'histoire de l'art moderne au Zimbabwe. La partie bien illustrée de catalogue (volume 2, pp. 141-184) reflète l'ordre des essais montrant des exemples de tous les types d'art. Non chaque travail dans l'exposition est illustré, cependant.

Table des matières : Paul Wade, art contemporain au Zimbabwe ; - Jonathan Zilberg, la réception occidentale d'un art africain moderne : le cas de la sculpture en pierre zimbabwéenne ; - Geert Gabriël Bourgois, sculpture en pierre en Vingtième-siècle au Zimbabwe ; - Georges se penche, pétrographie des roches utilisées pour la sculpture zimbabwéenne ; - Elizabeth Randles, art de mission au Zimbabwe ; - Timothy O. McLoughlin, paysages zimbabwéens et paysage urbain : quelques exemples des peintres zimbabwéens et des auteurs en anglais ; - Pépin se courbant, art d'étranger : sujet et modèle ; -- Geert Gabriël Bourgois, art de touristes : une bénédiction dans le déguisement ? ; - Néo- Matome et Stephen Williams, jetant un pont sur des frontières culturelles : une école d'art et de conception pour la région africaine méridionale de la Communauté de développement (SADC).

Passé en revue par Gary van Wyk dans des arts africains (Los Angeles) 32 (1) : 17, 88-89, le printemps 1999.

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Leyten, Harrie M. Tengenenge : een le beeldhouwersgemeenschap au Zimbabwe/Harry Leyten. Baarn, Pays Bas : Kasteel Groeneveld, c1994. 120pp. illus. (pinte. couleur), bibl. refs (page 119). NB1209.Z55L49 1994 AFA. OCLC 37343584.

Ce catalogue a été édité pour accompagner l'exposition « Vieux-Tengenenge nouveau de Tengenenge » chez Kasteel Groeneveld, Baarn et dans le musée de l'Afrique, en dal, Pays Bas, 19 mai au 26 septembre 1994 de Berg. Les « vieux et les nouveaux » se rapportent à trois générations des sculpteurs en pierre qui ont travaillé à la Communauté de sculpture en Tengenenge au Zimbabwe nordique de son établissement en 1966 au présent. Tom Blomefield, ancien fermier de tabac avec un coudé artistique, recomptes comment Tengenenge s'est produit suivre la déclaration de l'indépendance universelle en Rhodésie en 1965 et l'effondrement des affaires de tabac. Les travailleurs de ferme sont devenus des sculpteurs pour suppléer à l'insuffisance dehors d'une vie. Chrispen Chakanyuka et citron Moïse étaient le premier. La guerre des années 70 a arrêté Tengenenge mais d'ici 1980 elle a rétabli.

Harrie Leyton écrit un essai bien informé pensif sur l'histoire et la croissance de la Communauté de sculpture en Tengenenge par ces trois phases : 1966-1978, 1981-1987, et 1988 au présent. On ne le réalise pas généralement que les artistes de Tengenenge sont venus du Malawi, d'Angola et de Mozambique aussi bien que du Zimbabwe. L'inimitié maintenant légendaire entre Tom Blomefield et Frank McEwen Tengenenge réglé sur un cours indépendant pour faire son propre nom indépendamment de l'établissement d'art dans Harare, qui a été dominé par McEwen. Avec le succès commercial sont venues les questions de l'authenticité, de la répétition, de l'innovation, et de la qualité. La sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe a réussi et a échoué sur ces points, et la Communauté de sculpture en Tengenenge n'est aucune exception.

Les sculptures dans l'exposition actuelle sont prêtées par le parc de sculpture en Chupungu dans Msasa, Harare. Les photographies et le biodate sont inclus pour les sculpteurs.

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McEwen, Frank. « Revenir aux origines : nouvelles directions pour l'art africain, » arts africains (Los Angeles) 1 (2) : 18-25, 88, illus de l'hiver 1968.

À McEwen les artistes se sont associés à son école d'atelier dans Harare (puis Salisbruy) sont les seuls artistes modernes véritablement authentiques en Afrique. À la différence du stupide, banal, homogenzied le travail sortant des écoles d'art de troisième-taux en Afrique, l'art du Zimbabwe résulte « des entrailles de l'Afrique. » Consolidé et protégé, « un génie dormant a rétabli. » McEwen est nullement intimidé dans sa défense du rôle de la galerie nationale en favorisant, en logeant, et les artistes de commanditaire du talent. Ce qui est intéressant dans cette manifestation tôt de talent zimbabwéen est le nombre de peintres -- des travaux à côté de Thomas Mukarobgwe, de Charles Fernando, et de Joseph Ndandarika sont illustrés ici. Qu'une partie du mouvement d'art du Zimbabwe semble s'être éteinte en faveur du découpage en pierre. Les sculpteurs Bernard Manyandure, Boira Mteki, Barakinya, citron Moïse, Joram Mariga, et Kumberai Mapanda sont également illustrés en cet article.

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Mawdsley, Joceline. Sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe : le deuxième génération : Dominic Benhura, Arthur Fata, Jonathan Gutsa, Tapfuma Gutsa, Kakoma Kweli, merveille Luc, Colleen Madamombe, Fabian Madamombe, Eddie Masaya, Anderson Mukomberanwa, Alice Musarara, Joseph Muzondo, Agnes Nyanhongo, Gedion Nyanhongo, Brighton Sango, Norbert Shamuyarira, Staycot Tahwa/[conçu et écrit par Joceline Mawdsley]. Harare, Zimbabwe : Sculpture Park, 1994 en Chapungu. [illus de 48] pp. (pinte. couleur), bibliog. (page 48). Notes : « Une exposition de tourisme, lieu de rendez-vous de lancement, 1994, galerie d'Atkinson, centre d'arts de CRMA très bien, rue d'école de Millfield, Somerset, Angleterre. » Inclut les biographies des artistes. NB1209.Z55M46 1994 AFA. OCLC 34126628.

Trente-cinq ans après le commencement du mouvement en pierre de sculpture du Zimbabwe, on peut parler de l'apparition d'un deuxième génération des sculpteurs. Les la plupart ont émergé comme artistes des années 70 en retard. Avec venir de l'indépendance en 1980 et avec l'appui et l'encouragement de la première génération des sculpteurs, ces plus nouveaux sculpteurs (principalement plus jeunes) se sont épanouis. Le deuxième génération, accordant le Mawdsley, poussent les frontières de la sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe des manières innovatrices et importantes, telles que combiner la pierre avec du bois et d'autres matériaux. Les formes, aussi, changent, et il y a un éloigner des surfaces en pierre fortement polies de combinaison.

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MOR, Ferdinand. Sculpture/photographies en Shona par David Hartung ; préface par Robert Mugabe ; traduit de l'Italien par Belinda McKay. Harare : Jongwe, 1987. 160pp. illus. (couleur), carte, bibliog. NB1096.6.R5M82 1987 AFA. OCLC 18537957.

MOR, un ancien ambassadeur italien vers le Zimbabwe, a encapsulé la tradition sculpturale de Shona pour des non spécialistes dans ce qu'il appelle « un texte et une invitation. » Un layperson au courant, il a écrit cet essai non-savant mais pensif et sincère, évidemment, comme travail de l'amour. Bien que MOR emploie la sculpture en « Shona » de désignation, généralement jetée maintenant en tant que misleadingly étroit, la liste des artistes (pp. 152-158) mentionne plusieurs qui sont de Yao, de Chewa et d'autres origines de non-Shona. Le foyer de MOR, cependant, est la « école de Harare, » et il a interviewé un certain nombre d'artistes Harare-basés. Il discute des origines et des développements -- Les communautés de Frank McEwen, de Vukutu et de Tengenenge -- les caractéristiques et les tendances, égalisent la pierre elle-même comme milieu de sculpture. Choisissant John Takawira, Henry Munyaradzi et Nicholas Mukomberanwa comme trois lumières de la tradition, il discute également brièvement plusieurs autres. Cent sculptures sont illustrées en couleurs. La bibliographie étendue, y compris des articles de journal, et la liste d'expositions de la sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe sont apposées.

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Noy, Ilse. L'art des femmes de Weya. Harare : Baobab Books, 1992. 184pp. illus. (pinte. couleur). [distribué : Livre africain collectif, Oxford]. N7396.6.R5N94 1992 AFA. OCLC 29293467.

Ce livre agréablement produit, avec beaucoup de photographies de couleur, est une collaboration entre les femmes zimbabwéennes rurales et un artiste et un professeur d'art allemands, Ilse Noy. Noy a à l'origine enseigné les femmes zimbabwéennes dans la région communale de Weya cousant et peignant, pour les aider à compléter leur subsistance cultivant des revenus. Par leur art, les femmes ont indiqué des aspects des leurs vies et traditions. Elles parlent de leur travail dans les légendes avec les photographies de couleur du meilleur de leur dessin-modèle. Dans le texte de accompagnement, les femmes parlent de leurs mondes de mariage et enfants, sexualité et mort, spiritueux et ancêtres, espoirs et s'inquiètent. Le livre est immédiatement un livre concernant l'art des femmes, et un aperçu dans le tissu des vies des artistes.

Passé en revue par Janet L. Stanley dans le disque de édition de livre africain (Oxford) 20 (3) : 181, 1994 ; par Victoria Scott dans la revue africaine d'études (Atlanta) 38 (1) : 168-169, avril 1995.

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Pearce, Carole. « Le mythe « de la sculpture en Shona, » « Zambezia ; le journal de l'université de la Zambie (Harare) 20 (2) : 85-107, 1993. tables, notes, bibl. refs. Abstrait, page 85. H1.Z35X AFA.

La sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe était ainsi délimité et creusé des rigoles par Frank McEwen et plus tard par d'autres instigateurs qu'elle était inévitable que la sculpture est devenue homogénéisée, commerciale et formulaic. Son « authenticité » est la vision modernisève imposée par McEwen, dont l'insistance sur protéger les artistes -- hommes ruraux et en grande partie incultes -- de l'extérieur pernicieux les influences en fait a arrêté leur croissance comme artistes. La « sculpture en Shona » est demeurée remarquablement conformée au cours des années dans le thème et le contenu -- conservateur, rural, idéalisé, détaché des réalités de la vie au Zimbabwe. Travailler la pierre est conceptuellement plus facile que formulant une idée dans une peinture bidimensionnelle. McEwen a préféré la pierre en tant que meilleur capable moyen exprimer cette créativité africaine « authentique ». Le marché exige et le goût pour la sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe ont perpétué ces solutions artistiques formulaic et conventionnelles.

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Ponter, Anthony et Laura Ponter. Spiritueux dans la pierre : le nouveau visage de l'art africain. Sébastopol, CA : Pression d'Ukama, 1992. 202pp. illus. (couleur), bibliog. NB1096.6.R5P814 1992 AFA. OCLC 26610101.

Largement produits, les spiritueux dans la pierre est une croix entre un livre glacé de table de café, un catalogue lisse de ventes d'un grand magasin d'upscale, et un magasin d'environnement de sauver-le-planète. L'histoire d'art ceci n'est pas. On devrait placer ce livre au pôle opposé de l'histoire sérieuse d'art. Sculptures génériques -- le hibou symbolise ceci, le lion symbolise cela -- sont offerts vers le haut pour les acheteurs potentiels, et un arrangement à distance et exotique est évoqué pour accomplir l'image, avec les animaux sauvages requis et les automnes finis de Victoria d'arc-en-ciel. Le lecteur prennent garde. Apprécier les images, qui conviennent impressionnantes et toutes en couleurs, mais sauter le texte, qui patronne et préoccupé avec rendre la sensation de lecteur bonne au sujet de la sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe et du Zimbabwe plutôt que l'arrangement au sujet de ce qu'il est tout.

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Esprit dans la pierre : Sculpture du Zimbabwe Shona : le musée de Cleveland de l'histoire naturelle, 1er juin au 4 août 1991. [Cleveland : Musée de Cleveland de l'histoire naturelle, 1991]. 24pp. illus., bibl. refs. qNB1096.6.R5S75 1991 AFA. OCLC 24169497.

Pour cette exposition américaine, le cuisinier de Roy a choisi neuf sculpteurs du Zimbabwe dont le travail représente pour lui le plus exceptionnel et le plus chevronné de la sculpture en pierre de ce pays. Ce faisant, il a espéré étinceler l'intérêt du public américain (et d'autres musées) sous cette forme d'art. Que ces sculptures ont été montrées dans un musée d'histoire naturelle au lieu d'un musée d'art a soulevé quelques sourcils. Le dilemme plus grand pour le cuisinier et d'autres, qui apprécient la sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe comme art véritablement fin, est sa commercialisation rapide et dilution conséquente par les imitations inférieures. Les critiques d'art ici et au Zimbabwe jusqu'ici n'ont pas tracé la ligne : la plupart des téléspectateurs véritablement ne peuvent pas voir la différence entre le bon, le mauvais et le médiocre. Peut-être nous devrions compter sur le jugement du cuisinier. Ses neuf sont : Edronce Rukodzi, Henry Munyaradzi, Joseph Ndandarika, John Takawira, Moïse Masaya, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Sylvester Mubayi, Norbert Shamuyarira, et Richard Mteki. Frank McEwen, l'instigateur de ce phénomène artistique, contribue un essai à ce catalogue intitulé « renaissance d'un art. »

Exposition passée en revue par Evelyn Castillo, « esprit dans la pierre : Sculpture en Shona, » vraie affaire (Cleveland, OH) 1 (2) : 5-7, 21 juin 1991.

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Stanislaus, grace. « Esprit congelé : La sculpture en pierre zimbabwéenne, » sculptent (Washington, C.C) 11 (1) : 44-47, janvier le février 1992. illus., bibl. refs. VF -- Artistes -- Le Zimbabwe.

La sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe a été félicitée en tant que « art tribal authentique, » lancé sur le marché en tant que « spiritueux dans la pierre, » décrié en tant que « art d'aéroport. » Qu'elle a été menacée par mercantilisme commercial presque dès le début vers la fin des années 50 n'est pas dedans conflit. En fait, tels qui pleurent le plus fort sont les marchands d'art.

Stanislaus choisit trois sculpteurs, qu'elle sent l'élévation au-dessus des discussions fâchées et dont le travail parle par éloquence pour lui-même. Les trois sont Nicholas Mukomberanwa et Henry Munyaradzi de la première génération des sculpteurs du Zimbabwe, et Tapfuma Gutsa, un plus jeune, plus expérimental sculpteur.

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Sultan, Olivier. La vie dans la pierre : Sculpture zimbabwéenne ; naissance d'une forme d'art contemporaine. Harare : Baobab Books, 1992. x, 86pp. illus. NB1096.6.R5S95 1992 AFA. OCLC 27981056.

Le sultan a organisé des expositions de la sculpture en pierre du Zimbabwe dans Harare et à Paris ; il voit son rôle sans excuses comme instigateur d'art et est tout à fait vif pour apporter ce travail aux assistances européennes. Ce livre sert son but. Son assistance est l'un de non spécialistes, qui veulent un fiable, introduction précise au sujet et est disposée à dépenser plus que quelques minutes poussant des feuilles par des photographies (bien que son livre est composé principalement des photographies). Les photographies sont toutes noires et blanches. Le sultan discute les origines du mouvement d'art et (certains diraient, dominant) le rôle séminal de Frank McEwen, directeur de la galerie puis nationale de la Rhodésie, dans sa formation et promotion internationale. Un centre alternatif s'est développé à la ferme de tabac de Tom Blomefield, Tengenenge, et un autre centre plus tard a émergé chez Chapungu de Roy Guthrie. Le sultan voit trois phases dans l'évolution de ce jeune mouvement : les premières années sous la tutelle de McEwen (1957-1973), les années de guerre après le départ de McEwen (1973-1980), et l'ère de la poteau-indépendance. Il consacre moins d'attention à la période récente.

Il accentue le travail de quinze sculpteurs : John Takawira, Henry Munyaradzi, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Bernard Takawira, Tapfuma Gutsa, Lazarre Takawira, Joseph Ndandarika, Bernard Matemera, Fanizani Akuda, Brighton Sango, Joram Mariga, Norbert Shamuyarira, Sylvester Mubayi, Richard Jack, et Eddie Masaya.

Passé en revue par Janet L. Stanley dans le disque de édition de livre africain (Oxford) 19 (4) : 229, 1993 ; par Johnston A.K. Njoku en Afrique aujourd'hui (Denver) 41 (2) : 98-99, 1994 ; par Stephen Williams en Afrique aujourd'hui (Denver) 41 (2) : 100-101, 1994 ; par Carlo Magee-Curtis dans des arts africains (Los Angeles) 27 (3) : 24, juillet 1994.

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Pierres parlantes/production de télévision de Grenade pour ITV ; relaté par John Bowe ; produit et dirigé par Bulley élégant. 60 minutes. Vidéocassette. VHS. écart-type., couleur, titre de po de ½ sur la couverture : Le Zimbabwe : pierres parlantes. Distribué par Films pour les sciences humaines et les sciences sociales, boîte 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543-2053 de P.O. vidéo 000228 AFA. OCLC 28287035.

Artnetafrica

Un regard au mouvement en pierre de sculpture en Shona et comment il a évolué. Frank McEwen, directeur de fondation de l'école d'atelier à la galerie nationale de Rhodes, est clairement le protagoniste dans cette histoire -- présenter à la création et instrumental dans son développement. Interviewé à la fin de sa vie, McEwen peut regarder en arrière avec une partie du même esprit intransigeant qui lui a fait une figure controversée durant toute sa vie et la carrière en Rhodésie. Parler des pierres inclut également des segments avec Roy Guthrie, de parc de sculpture en Chapunga, Tom Blomefield, fermier-tourner-sculpteur escroc de tabac et fondé de la Communauté de sculpture en Tengenenge, et de plusieurs des artistes, qui parlent au sujet de leur travail et inspirations. Parmi ceux interviewés sont Tapfuma Gutsa, Joram Mariga, citron Moïse, Sylvester Mubayi, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Bernard Takawira, et Lazarre Takawira. La question de la commercialisation de la sculpture en pierre est également abordée et comment elle affecte les deux artistes établis et les copyists cherchant à gagner un dollar honnête.


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Hiver-Irving, Celia. Sculpture en pierre au Zimbabwe : contexte, contenu et forme. Harare : Roblaw Publishers, 1991. xviii, 210pp. illus., bibliog. NB1096.6.R5W78 1991 AFA. OCLC 26124120.

Les sculpteurs en pierre du Zimbabwe ont trouvé un publiciste capable et enthousiaste en Hiver-Irving de Celia, un sculpteur australien transplanté et l'ancien directeur de galerie, qui a pris la cause de ce « mouvement du pays » avec une intensité et une vigueur qui nous incite à reposer vers le haut et prendre la notification. Son enthousiasme sincère vient à travers clairement dans ces pages pendant qu'elle adresse les origines de la sculpture, de ses qualités formelles et de rapport avec d'autres traditions sculpturales en Afrique et ailleurs, les origines culturelles des thèmes de la sculpture (rejetant l'appellation « sculpture en Shona »), le rôle séminal de Frank McEwen et la galerie nationale du Zimbabwe, et les contributions de la Communauté de sculpture en Tengenenge.

Un long chapitre est retourné aux artistes pour exprimer leurs propres perceptions de leur art. Basé sur des entrevues, vingt-trois sculpteurs sont profilés, vraisemblablement choisi en tant que représentation d'une partie du meilleur et le plus lumineux (cependant pas tous sont des noms de ménage). Inclus être : Sanwell Chirume, Barankinya Gosta, Tapfuma Gutsa, Makina Kameya, Wazi Maicolo, Amali Mailolo, Damien Manuhwa, Josia Manzi, Joram Mariga, Moïse Masaya, Bernard Matemera, Richard Mteki, Thomas Mukarombwa, Nicholas Mukomberanwa, Joseph Muli, Henry Munyaradzi, Joseph Ndandarika, Locardia Ndandarika, Agnes Nyanhongo, Brighton Sango, Bernard Takawira, John Takawira, et Lazarre Takawira.

Par le fond profond, l'Hiver-Irving offre quelques vues le passé culturel et artistique du Zimbabwe -- Le grand Zimbabwe et le San basculent l'art. Mobile en avant à temps, elle considère après l'impact colonial sur les arts visuels au Zimbabwe, puis arts contemporains autres que la sculpture en pierre. En conclusion, elle aborde la question épineuse de la qualité et de son pôle opposé : au-dessus-commercialisation de l'art. Le patronage privé, étranger et de corporation de patronage et de gouvernement sont tous les éléments principaux dans cette discussion. Au total, la sculpture en pierre au Zimbabwe est probablement le livre le plus utile pour commencer une étude du sujet.


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Hiver-Irving, Celia. Sculpture en pierre contemporaine au Zimbabwe : contexte, contenu et forme. Tortola, BVI : Artisan House, 1993. 203pp. illus. (pinte. couleur), bibliog. NB1096.6.R5W78c 1993 AFA. OCLC 28397803.

Un format plus somptueux et plus grand et une édition mieux illustrée de la sculpture en pierre au Zimbabwe ont été édités en 1993 par Craftsman House sous le titre légèrement modifié. Le texte est identique. Passé en revue : « Les pierres parlantes du Zimbabwe, » périodes des Caraïbes/périodes africaines (Londres) le 29 juin 1993, page 16.


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Zilberg, Jonathan Leslie. Sculpture en pierre zimbabwéenne : l'invention d'une tradition de Shona/par Jonathan Leslie Zilberg. Dissertation de PhD, université de l'Illinois chez UrbanaChampaign, 1996. xiv, 332 feuilles : illus., carte, bibliog. (feuilles 300323). NB1209.Z55Z5 1996a AFA. OCLC 37149185.

Détails de cette thèse comment la sculpture en pierre zimbabwéenne a été créativement conçue en termes de Renaissance « tribale » par le premier directeur de la galerie nationale dans Harare, Zimbabwe, Frank McEwen. En dépit de la complexité démontant l'histoire du mouvement, McEwen lance le discours de sculpture en Shona en utilisant des théories au sujet des renaissances artistiques développées par l'historien d'art français Henri Focillon aussi bien que les techniques pédagogiques du dix-neuvième peintre Gustave Moreau de symbolist de siècle. De cette manière, McEwen a présenté les travaux créés pendant sa tenure (1957-1973) comme re-apparition d'une tradition antique de Shona. Il a annoncé la sculpture en Shona comme renaissance culturelle qui stimulerait un retour au chant religieux dans l'art européen moderne qu'il a interprété comme trivialized désespérément. Par une analyse critique de ses écritures, la dissertation indique la complexité englobée dans la construction d'une tradition enracinée dans des conceptualisations d'essentialist d'appartenance ethnique et d'histoire et fortement fléchie par de premières idées de moderniste et de symbolist d'art comme sacrées.

Contrairement à la conceptualisation largement admise du McEwen qu'il n'y a eu aucune influence étrangère sur cette tradition, la dissertation démontre des influences africaines autres que Shona. En plus d'indiquer ces influences et les liens à l'art européen moderne tôt par le rôle inspiré de McEwen, la dissertation décrit comment la tradition est liée aux arts britanniques et ouvre le mouvement par vie-travaille de Canon Edouard Paterson, un missionnaire Anglican qui a formé les premiers sculpteurs en pierre zimbabwéens modernes.

The dissertation situates Shona sculpture in a specific relation to the study of tourist art as Frank McEwen defined it to be the unique historical antithesis of tourist art--or, as he termed it "airport" art. Hence this study details an ongoing debate over the need to differentiate "real" from "fake" Shona sculpture. Beyond problemizing the issue of authenticity, the thesis concludes that while many artists do perceive their works to be expressive of Shona culture, others struggle to transcend the ethnic label so as to be accepted in the modern art world as contemporary international artists in their own right. -- original abstract.


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Zimbabwe Heritage (1986: National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe heritage: contemporary visual arts: [commemorative catalogue for the 8th summit of Non-Aligned States, Zimbabwe: National Gallery of Zimbabwe annual exhibition -- Nedlaw contemporary sculpture, Baringa contemporary painting, graphics, ceramics, textiles, and photography, 25 August-28 September 1986]. Harare: [National Gallery of Zimbabwe], 1986. 80pp. illus. (color), bibliog. qN5290.Z55Z71 1986 AFA. OCLC 15095188.

This is the first in a new annual exhibition of contemporary Zimbabwean art juried by an international panel; it combines the annual Nedlaw sculpture exhibition, begun in 1981, and the Baringa exhibition which recognizes painting, graphics, ceramics, textiles and photography. The overall grand prize winner for 1986 was sculptor Bernard Matermera. Gillian Wylie, curator at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, introduces the exhibition. Includes color illustrated section and short biographies of the artists.


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Zimbabwe Heritage (1987: National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe heritage 1987. Harare: National Gallery of Zimbabwe, 1987. 48pp. illus. (color). qN5290.Z55Z71 1987 AFA. OCLC 17515993.

The second comprehensive competition of Zimbabwean art followed the lines of the original 1986 one with two exhibitions in one: the Nedlaw exhibition for sculpture and the Baringa exhibition for painting, graphics, ceramics and textiles. Tapfuma Gutsa won the Nedlaw with his smoldering grass engulfing a wood bird, which turned into a performance piece. Berry Bickle won the Baringa competition for his mixed media work. Elimo Njau, one of the panel of jurors, makes some overall comments on the strengths and weaknesses of "Zimbabwe Heritage" 1987.


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Zimbabwe Heritage (1988: National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe Heritage 1988: annual Baringa-Nedlaw exhibition. Harare: National Gallery of Zimbabwe, 1988. 48pp. color illus., ports. qN5290.Z55Z71 1988 AFA. OCLC 19882457.

The third annual juried art competition, "Zimbabwe Heritage" awarded prizes in painting/graphics, textiles, ceramics, photography and sculpture. Overall winner was Bernard Takawira. Nedlaw award for best sculptural work went to July Nyengera. The Baringa prize for best painting, graphics, ceramics, textiles or photography went to painter Bert Hermsteed. The competition, organized by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, fields a growing number of artists each year. Awards of merit and highly commended works are illustrated in color. Very brief biographies of the artists are included.


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Zimbabwe Heritage (1989: National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe Heritage 1989: Baringa/Nedlaw annual exhibition of contemporary visual arts: National Gallery of Zimbabwe; [exhibition held October 1989]. Harare: National Gallery of Zimbabwe, 1989. 60pp. illus. (pt. color), ports. qN5290.Z55Z71 1989 AFA. OCLC 21400145.

The fourth annual juried art competition, "Zimbabwe Heritage," awarded prizes in painting/graphics, textiles, ceramics, photography and sculpture. Sculptor Nicholas Mukomberanwa received the top award. The Nedlaw awards for outstanding sculpture went to three sculptors: Nicholas Mukomberanwa (again), Bernard Takawira (last year's grand prize winner), and metal sculptor Paul Machowani. The Baringa award went to an outsider, Fidgie Ngombe, a painter of promise, who has come up the hard way. Organized by the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, the competition fields a growing number of artists each year; in 1989 alone, there were 548 works submitted with sculpture being the largest category. Awards of merit and highly commended works are illustrated in color. Very brief biographies of the artists are included. Some of the 1989 entries were to be re-exhibited in Auckland, New Zealand, at the Commonwealth Games, January 1990.


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Zimbabwe Heritage (1990: National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe Heritage 1990: Mobile Oil Zimbabwe annual exhibition of contemporary visual arts: National Gallery of Art Zimbabwe; [exhibition, October 1990]. [Harare]: National Gallery of Zimbabwe, 1990. 60pp. illus. (pt. color), ports. N5290.Z55Z71 1990 AFA. OCLC 26118015.

This was the fifth "Zimbabwe Heritage" exhibition, now a well established annual event in Harare. The international panel of judges selected more than four hundred works from among those submitted. Although the category of stone sculpture still predominates, other areas, such as painting and textiles, show increased vitality and creativity. In addition to awards by medium, the judges also honored young artists of promise and women artists (trained and self-taught). The top award in 1990 went to painter Helen Lieros. The works of winners are reproduced in color in this catalog, and short biographies of all the artists are given.

Exhibition reviewed by Celia Winter-Irving, "Zimbabwe Heritage 1990 annual exhibition of contemporary visual arts," Artist (Harare) 1 (9): 4-5, November/December 1990.


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Zimbabwe Heritage (1991: National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe Heritage 91: commemorative catalogue. [Harare]: National Gallery of Zimbabwe, 1991. 64pp. illus. (pt. color). N5290.Z55Z71z 1991 AFA. OCLC 25769391.

The sixth "Zimbabwe Heritage" exhibition introduced a new feature: invited artists. In addition to the open competition, five recognized and established artists were invited to show works. They included painters Berry Bickle and Helen Lieros and sculptors Bernard Matemera, Bernard Takawira and Agnes Nyanhongo. Grand prize winner in 1991 was Nicholas Mukomberanwa. Further awards were made in each of the media categories and others were given for outstanding women artists and young artists. Artists' biographies are included.


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Zimbabwe Heritage (1992: National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe Heritage 1992: annual exhibition of contemporary visual arts sponsored by Mobil: National Gallery of Zimbabwe; [exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, October 1991-October 1992]. [Harare]: National Gallery of Zimbabwe, 1992. 56pp. illus. (pt. color). N5290.Z55Z71 1992 AFA. OCLC 27916976.

"Zimbabwe Heritage" for 1992 continued the feature introduced in 1991 of inviting artists of distinction to exhibit alongside the competitors. This year's invitees each represented different media: Babette Fitzgerald ("textilist"), Never Kayowa (painter), Nicholas Mukomberanwa (sculptor), Linos Mushambi (graphics), and Estelle Zimi (ceramicist). The grand prize winner was Bernard Takawira and the top two director's awards went to Rashid Jogee and Steven Williams. The works of these and other award winners in the media categories are illustrated.


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Zimbabwe Heritage (1993: National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe Heritage 1993: annual exhibition of contemporary visual arts sponsored by Mobil: National Gallery of Zimbabwe; [exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, November 1993-1994]. [Harare]: National Gallery of Zimbabwe, 1993. 47pp. illus. (pt. color). qN5290.Z55Z71 1993 AFA. OCLC 31926253.

The eighth "Zimbabwe Heritage" exhibition with its ever more complex array of "invited," "selected," "award-winning," and "highly commended" artists remains a good barometer of the national art scene. In the 1993 exhibition, there were 307 entries, representing a cross section of established and emerging artists. Stone sculpture continues to dominate the field, but the painting, graphics, and metal sculpture sections show more innovation. Among those singled out for awards of distinction were Luis Meque (painting), Kier Turner (graphics), Gladman Zinyeka (stone sculpture) and Martin Mushonga (metal sculpture). The president's award of honor in 1993 went to invited artist Nicholas Mukumberanwa.


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Zimbabwe Heritage (1994: National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe Heritage 1994: annual exhibition of contemporary visual arts sponsored by Mobil: National Gallery of Zimbabwe; [exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, October 1994-January 1995]. [Harare]: National Gallery of Zimbabwe, 1994. 47pp. illus. (pt. color). qN5290.Z55Z71 1994 AFA. OCLC 32767098.

The ninth annual "Zimbabwe Heritage" exhibition was smaller than in previous years -- 258 entries -- but equally dynamic and diverse. The president's award of honor went to Bulawayo sculptor Adam Madebe, and the honored artist was the venerable Thomas Mukarombwa (aka Thomas Mu). Some new names emerged in the awards of distinction: Fasoni Sibanda (painting), Mary Davies (graphics), Sure Try Katinhimure (stone sculpture), and Tapiwa Vambe (metal sculpture).


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Zimbabwe Heritage (1996 : National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Zimbabwe Heritage 96: annual exhibition of contemporary visual arts; [November 1995-November 1996] / National Gallery of Zimbabwe, [sponsored by Mobil, AAC]. [Harare]: National Gallery of Zimbabwe, 1996. 43pp. chiefly color illus., portraits. N5290.Z55Z71 1996 AFA. OCLC 38075001.

The eleventh annual "Zimbabwe Heritage" exhibition seemed more selective than in previous years -- only 226 entries in paintings and graphics, textiles, ceramics, photography, and sculpture from just over one hundred artists. The president's award of honor went to the venerable Bernard Matemera; other awards of distinction and merit went to Ishmael Wilfred, Shepherd Mahufe, Joseph Muzonda, Godfrey Machinjiei, Martin Kafara, and Anderson Mukomberanwa. Their works and those of lesser award winners are illustrated in color. Biodata is included for all artists.


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Zimbabwe Heritage (2000 : National Gallery of Zimbabwe). Mobile Zimbabwe Heritage Biennale 2000. Harare: National Gallery of Zimbabwe, 2000. 32pp. illus. (color). N5290.Z55Z71 2000 AFA. OCLC 49535078.

More than 130 works were entered in Zimbabwe Heritage 2000 with the top award going to Morgan Musorowembudzi for his sculpture "Mugudu Riding." As in past biennales, sculpture and painting/graphics predominated, but there were a few entries of ceramics, textiles, and photography. In the sculpture category, scrap metal works outnumbered the usually prevalent stone sculpture for which Zimbabwe is famous.

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Zimbabwe, Skulpturen 1986-1988 ; [exhibition held at the Forum für Kulturaustausch in Stuttgart] / [text by Hermann Pollig and Monika Winkler]. Stuttgart: Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen, [1988]. 86pp. illus. (pt. color), bibliog. NB1209.Z55Z56 1989X AFA. OCLC 21375011.

The Zimbabwe stone sculpture movement continues to gather new practitioners, but is a young enough tradition that some of the original artists are still quite active. The recent work of established artists, such as Bernard Takawira, Henry Munyaradzi, and Bernard Matemera, are featured in this exhibition alongside that of a younger generation of artists; seventy works in all are illustrated.

In the catalog essay, Harrie Leyten recounts the history and evolution of this stone carving tradition; its very commercial success carries the risk of attracting imitators and "airport artists." The two major centers of Zimbabwe stone sculpture -- the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare (originally under Frank McEwen and now the B.A.T. School) and Tengenenge Farm (Tom Blomefield) -- have evolved on parallel yet distinct lines. A clue to the future of this tradition is offered in the work of Stanford Dereres, whose choice of political themes and use of new combinations of materials, suggest a departure from the usual repertoire of animal, human and mythological forms.

Zimbabwean/Rhodesian Teak furniture

Cecil John Rhodes' dream of a Cape to Cairo rail link spawned Southern Africa's earliest railway lines in the late 1800's. The tracks were supported by indigenous hardwood sleepers that have weathered for a century under the scorching African sun and torrential rain - soaking up the very essence of Africa. These sleepers, now obselete, are being recovered and once stripped of their scarred outer crust, glow with the warmth and richness of Africa's poignant history. Of these hardwoods, indigenous Teak (Baikiaea Plurijuga) with its fine weathering and warm tones, provides the most exquisite recycled medium. These items are hand fashioned from these sleepers into individual pieces of furniture unique in their design and enduring beauty.

ArnetAfrica_Furniture

 

Mozambique

Alpers, Edward A. "Representation and historical consciousness in the art of modern Mozambique," Canadian journal of African studies (Ottawa) 22 (1): 73-94, 1988. illus., notes, bibliog. French abstract, page 73. Reprinted in Art et politiques en Afrique noire = Art and politics in Black Africa. Ottawa: Canadian Association of African Studies, 1989. N7391.65.A785 1989 AFA. OCLC 20260907.

Artnetafrica

The artists of the colonial period in Mozambique shared an historical consciousness, which is expressed unequivocally in their art. Symbols of colonial domination and the superior even mystical power attributed to Europeans are reflected in art forms, such as the Makonde mapico (mapiko) masquerade or machinamu ancestor figures. Social commentary was understandably less evident in the early Makonde sculptures sold to the Europeans, but it was not wholly absent. Among the Makonde sculptors who moved to Tanzania, there is a greater artistic freedom in representing oppression or satirizing Europeans.

Artnetafrica

The emergence of a national culture of resistance among artists in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) from the 1950s is an even clearer expression of historical consciousness. Malangatana is the dominating figure of this modern group of artists. His paintings and the later sculptures of Albert Chissano became powerful symbols of resistance to the increasingly radicalized intelligencia during the last years of colonial rule. The painter Inàcio Matsinhe was another voice of resistance, though from exile in Lisbon. In the period after independence in 1975, the new government encouraged revolutionary art, an official popular art, now seen as supporting the transformation of the society.

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Descoberta: Concurso Nacional de Artes Plásticas, setembro de 1995, Maputo, Moçambique. [Maputo: Casa da Cultura do Alto-Mae, 1995]. 66pp. illus. (color). qN7397.M6D47 1995 AFA. OCLC 40520179.

Artnetafrica

The initiative of the Casa da Cultura do Alto Mae in Maputo to organize a national art exhibition was a welcome opportunity to expose a wide range of talented artists. Around one hundred artists were selected and are each represented in this catalog with one or two works and brief biographical information. Malangatana and Albert Chissano, the best known Mozambican artists, lead off, but the majority belong to the younger generation -- born in the 1960s and 1970s. Painting predominates, but there are also wood sculptures and prints.


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Images of a revolution: mural art in Mozambique / text by Albie Sachs; photographs by Moira Forjas and Susan Maiselas. Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1983. [88]pp. chiefly illus. (color). ND2866.6.M614 1983X AFA. OCLC 10779814.

The murals of Maputo flowed from the hands of many painters, some amateur volunteers, a few, skilled professionals, like Malagantana and Mankeu. Following independence in 1975, these murals began appearing on walls of Maputo buildings. Although not planned projects, people's art of this sort is encouraged by the FRELIMO government. One of the most dramatic is that at Heroes' Circle, a mural ninety-five meters long and six meters high. The color photographs in this slim book show details and sections of some of these urban murals.

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Mozambico: arte di un popolo ; exhibition held at the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, September 25-October 8, 1986 / curated by Egidio Cossa. Roma: Palazzo Venezia, 1986. 86pp., 9pp. of plates. illus. (pt. color), bibliogs. N7397.6.M6M93 1986 AFA. OCLC 17056614.

Artnetafrica

In a major exposition of art from Mozambique, these photographs and essays feature both old and new Makonde masks and figures; a separate section of color reproductions of works by modern Mozambican painters (Malangatana, Chissano and others).

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9 [nove] artistas de Moçambique ; [exhibition, Expo `92, Universal Exposition, Seville, 1992] / text by Rhandzarte. Maputo: Museu Nacional de Arte de Moçambique, 1992. 1 volume [unpaged]. illus. (color). Text in Portuguese and English. ND1097.6.M6N93 1992 AFA. OCLC 3057928.

Mozambique was a hotbed of artistic activity in the years following independence in 1975, particularly at the Centro de Estudos Culturais in Maputo. The center attracted many aspiring artists, not all of whom survived the artistic test of time, nor succeeded in moving beyond imitating the two luminaries: Malangatana in painting and Alberto Chissano in sculpture. But a number were able to succeed to the extent of making a living from their art. Because Mozambican artists did not depend on foreign patronage, and because they shared the experiences of war and political struggle, one might argue that a national identity, even a national style, evolved. According to Rhandzarte, there is a certain "Mozambicanicity" -- not isolating and provincial, but affirmative and distinctive.

The nine selected to represent Mozambique at Expo `92 were: Bertina Lopes, Roberto Chichorro, Alberto Chissano, Estevão Mucavele, Malangatana, Naguib, Rafael Nkatunga, Samata Mulungo, and Victor Sousa -- two sculptors and seven painters. Several works of each are illustrated.


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Salström, Berit and António Sopa. Catálogo, cartazes: catalogue, posters. [Maputo]: Arquivo Historico de Mocambique, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, [1988]. 112pp. illus. (pt. color). Text in Portuguese and English. qNC1807.M85S17 1988 AFA. OCLC 23120042.

The art of the poster has a lively and active history in the Mozambican revolution both before and after independence. As in other socialist countries, posters are used as vehicles for rallying and mobilizing the masses. But the posters in the collection of the Arquivo Historico in Maputo go beyond the usual didactic and political themes of struggle and solidarity; they include posters with cultural and educational themes. Some of Mozambique's artists have turned their hands to creating posters.

See also the Tanzania section below for references on Makonde sculpture.

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Namibia

National Art Gallery of Namibia. Art in Namibia: National Art Gallery of Namibia / Adelheid Lilienthal; with contributions by Annaleen Eins and Jo Rogge. [Windhoek]: The Gallery, c1997. xiv, 242pp. illus. (pt. color), map, bibliog. (pp. 223-224). N3885.W54A54 1997X AFA. OCLC 38731937.

The National Art Gallery of Namibia (NAGN) is a private initiative begun in 1965 with the establishment of a permanent collection. It grew out of the Namibian Arts Association (formed in 1947), which is devoted to promoting all the arts. Since independence in 1990, the activities and programs of the NAGN have broadened considerably to reflect the breadth and possibilities of art in Namibia, which previously had been in all-white affair.

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The organization of the catalog Art in Namibia mirrors this transition from colonial state to independent nation. One whole section is devoted to landscape and wildlife art, a genre which predominated in earlier decades of this century and still forms a sub-stratum of Namibian art. "Traditional Transitions" brings in indigenous craft art of the ethnographie variety -- basketry, pottery, woodwork, personal ornaments and the like. But the major section showcases "Contemporary Artists," where white artists still predominate, but younger black artists are well represented.

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Three significant new initiatives which are injecting vigor and dynamism into the Namibian art scene are the Standard Bank Namibia Biennale, the Tulipamwe International Artists' Workshop, and the John Muafangejo Art Centre.

Appendices to Art in Namibia include a chronology of the history of the Namibian Arts Association and the NAGN; listings of art education centers, funders and sponsors, teachers and mentors; artists represented in the permanent collection of NAGN; and museums in Namibia. A short chapter on rock art in Namibia is also included. Annaleen Eins, Curator of NAGN, introduces the volume.

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South Africa

Alexander, Lucy and Evelyn Cohen. 150 South African paintings: past and present. Cape Town: Struikhof, 1990. 180pp. illus. (color), bibliog. glossary. ND1092.A376 1990 AFA. OCLC 22721516.

"What is a South African artist?" is the opening question posed by the authors. This is neither the first nor the last time that that question arises in South Africa, but Alexander and Cohen offer their own definition. Elements of European painting traditions, such as the sublime or the picturesque, are found in early South African painting. The uniquely South African landscape -- Table Mountain, the Karoo, the highveld -- features prominently. The quest to portray black people in traditional clothing and settings is another recurring theme defining South African painting. The nationalistic art movement in the interwar years was replaced by self-conscious moves away from what came to be seen as provincialism. For many white artists, European art training and travels shaped their interpretation of the South African experience. In recent times, the painters' quest for a South African identity has intensified. And indeed the nature of South African painting has shifted and broadened, as more and more black artists entered the arena.

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Opening this panorama of painting with a tribute to the original South African painters, the San rock artists, the viewer is quickly brought forward several millenia to Francois Le Vaillant in the eighteenth century. The selection of 150 paintings by Alexander and Cohen, though inevitably subjective, does try to present a healthy cross section of South African canvasses right up to the present. For each color plate, they give some background on the artist and some commentary on the work itself. Most of the paintings illustrated are from public South African collections. Glossary.

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Reviewed by Amanda Jephson, "Paint and popular texture: making South African art accessible," ADA: art, design, architecture (Cape Town) no. 9: 58, 1990/1991.

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Ardmore: an African discovery / by Gillian Scott; photographs by Anthony Bannister and Kathleen Comfort. Vlaeberg, South Africa: Fernwood Press, 1998. 79pp. Illus. (color). NK4210.A684S38 1998X AFA. OCLC 41618272.

Ardmore Ceramic Art Studio in rural KwaZulu-Natal was established by ceramicist Fée Halsted-Berning in 1985. Her studio assistant Bonnie Ntshalintshali, born in 1967, soon became her artistic partner, and in 1990 the two shared the Standard Bank Young Artist Award. Ntshalintshali became the star of Ardmore with her fanciful, colorful glazed ceramic sculptures, which are showcased in this book. In 1993, she exhibited work in the Venice Biennale. Success led to the expansion of Ardmore, which now engages several dozen ceramicists both men and women, who make highly decorated functional ceramic ware as well as sculptures. The history and growth of Ardmore are documented in this well-illustrated book. Ntshalintshali died of AIDS in 1999 after this book was published.

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Arnold, Marion I. Women and art in South Africa. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996; Cape Town: David Philip, 1996. x, 186pp. illus. (pt. color), bibliog. (pp. 178­183). N7392.A77 1996X AFA. OCLC 35318603.

Feminist perspectives are long overdue in South African art history. The histories of women artists need to be retrieved, and the meanings behind images of women need to be revealed. In a series of essays, Arnold tackles these gender-based topics, first examining pre-twentieth century women artists and the depictions of women in South Africa by artists of both genders. Landscape painting and botanical art, areas that attracted women artists, are discussed in separate essays. "Portrait of servitude" examines depictions of women as servants. The painter Irma Stern (1894-1966) is the focus of another esay, and women's self-portraits, yet another -- with reference to Maggie Laubser (1884-1973), Maud Sumner (1902-1985), and Dorothy Kay (1886-1964).

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Moving to the more recent period, Arnold critiques the work of sculptors and their depictions of the body, with particular reference to Wilma Cruise (1945- ) and Jane Alexander (1959- ). Feminist perspectives overflow in a final essay on modern women artists active in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s: Penny Siopis (1953- ), Pippa Skotnes (1957- ), Sue Williamson (1941- ), Reshada Crouse (1953- ), Sandra Kriel (1952- ), Helen Sebidi (1943- ), Allina Ndebele (1939- ), Noria Mabasa (1938- ), Margaret Vorster (1953- ), and Philippa Hobbs (1955- ).


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Art from South Africa . Oxford: Museum of Modern Art: London: distributed by Thames and Hudson, 1990. 95pp. illus. (pt. color). N7392.A784 1990 AFA. OCLC 23088898.

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"Art from South Africa," the exhibition organized by the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, kicked up a dust storm of controversy even before it opened in June 1990. This was not unexpected, as shown by some of the essays in the catalog. It brought onto a new stage some of the debates that had been raging already in South Africa. Controversies about the role of art in the political struggle, cultural appropriation, pluralism and domination, "transitional" art, all dealt with in essays in this catalog, remain unresolved. The exhibition attempted to be non-racial, showing works by artists from South Africa's different communities. Sixty-four artists are represented. The show later traveled "home" to South Africa.

Exhibition reviewed by John Picton in African arts (Los Angeles) 24 (3): 83-86, July 1991; by Pat Williams, "A hard-won place in the sun," Independent (South Africa) February 24, 1991, page 16; by Neville Dubow, "A picture of SA's polyglot art," Weekly mail (Johannesburg) July 3-6, 1992, page 22.

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Berman, Esmé. Art & artists of South Africa: an illustrated biographical dictionary and historical survey of painters, sculptors and graphic artists since 1875. New enlarged edition. Cape Town: A. A. Balkema, 1983. xviii, 545pp. illus. (pt. color), bibliog. N7392.B47 1983X AFA. OCLC 11031114.

Berman's dictionary of South African art, first published in 1970, has become the standard reference book on the subject, though like any reference book, it will become dated and stand as an historical marker. The vast majority of artists, art movements, organizations, training centers treated by Berman refer to the white art establishment, although not exclusively so by any means. Entries for individual artists who merit consideration include basic biographical data, list of major exhibitions and public collections, and a summary of the artist's life and work, with illustrations. Appendices cover chronology of major exhibitions with participating artists and a list of South African artists exhibiting professionally since 1900.

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Berman, Esmé. Painting in South Africa. Johannesburg: Southern Book Publishers, 1993. xxiv, 395pp., 99pp. of color plates. illus. (pt. color). ND1092.B49 1993 AFA. OCLC 31200286.

Painting in South Africa is a radically revised and repackaged version of Berman's 1975 The story of South African painting. It remains, as Berman states, a survey and "an outline of the sources, sequences and developments that have been significant [in South African painting], and a glimpse of the most prominent and influential careers and styles" (author's preface). The story begins in the nineteenth century and is carried forward chronologically to the present, told within the local South African context but related also to international movements and trends. White painters predominate, as painting was their preserve until recent decades. South African reality is accurately mirrored here, but a fair balance is struck in portraying latter-day developments. Certain painters are singled out along the way for their particular contributions, a roll call of major players. Among them: Hugo Naudé, J. H. Pierneef, Maggie Laubser, Irma Stern, Gregoire Boonzaier, Gerard Sekoto, Jean Welz, Walter Battiss, Alexis Preller, Larry Scully, Cecil Skotnes, Cecily Sash, Louis Khehla Maqhubela, William Kentridge, Malcolm Payne, Penelope Siopis, Karel Nel, Helen Sebidi, and Norman Catherine.


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Botschaften aus Südafrika: Kunst und künstlerische Produktion schwarzer Künstler / text by Minika Stötzel; foreword by Josef Franz Thiel. Frankfurt am Main: Museum für Völkerkunde, 1987. 156pp. illus. (Roter Faden zur Ausstellung, 11). N7392.B74 1987 AFA. OCLC 22436326.

The Museum für Völkerkunde in Frankfurt has in recent years shown a commitment to collecting and exhibiting modern art from outside Europe. This 1987 show which focused on art from South Africa, mainly from the 1970s and 1980s, included works by Hamilton Budaza, Peter Clarke, Smart Gumede, Austin Hleza, David Koloane, Billy Mandindi, Kagiso Mauthoa, Azaria Mbatha, Derrick Mdanda, P. David Mogano, George Msimango, Sam Nhlengethwa, Dan Rakgoathe, Sydney Selepe, Cyprian Shilakoe, Lucky Sibiya, Durant Sihlali, Tanki and Ephraim Ziqubu. Two other artists are showcased separately: Namibian John Muafangejo and South African Vuminkosi Zulu. In her text, Stötzel tries to place these artists and their work within the context of contemporary South Africa.


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Brooklyn Museum and Brooklyn Public Library. Black South African contemporary graphics; [exhibition held March 25-May 16, 1976] / introduction by Sylvia Williams. New York: Brooklyn Museum and Brooklyn Public Library, 1976. 64pp. illus., bibliog. NE788.6.S6B87 AFA. OCLC 3479561.

Featured artists in this 1976 Brooklyn exhibition included Azaria Mbatha, Eric Mbatha, John Muafangejo, Dan Rakgoathe, Cyprian Shilakoe, Vuminkosi Zulu, Judes Mahlangu, Linda Nolutshungu and Caiphas Nxumalo. All were trained or worked at Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Center, well known for graphic arts instruction. The fifty-eight works illustrated are linocuts and etchings. Williams categorizes five themes in this group of graphics: love, birth, maturation and sexual consciousness; social protest of the human condition; psychological states -- the power of fear, silence, lonliness and despair; death; and hope for regeneration.


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Cape Town Triennial (1982). Cape Town Triennial 1982 = Kaapstadse Trienniale 1982. [Cape Town]: Rembrandy van Rijn Art Foundation, [1982]. [24]pp. illus. (pt. color). Text in English and Afrikaans. N7392.C23 1982 AFA. OCLC 31418432.

The Cape Town Triennial is intended "to bring together the best contemporary art being produced" in South Africa. Sixty-nine artists were represented at this first Cape Town Triennial; they are selected by local panels of judges from five regional centers: Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Kimberley. The gold medal went to Karel Nel; the silver, to Annette Pretorius; and the bronze, to John Clarke. The exhibition was held at the South African National Gallery and other venues in South Africa between September 15, 1982 and November 6, 1983.


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Cape Town Triennial (1988). Cape Town Triennial 1988. Cape Town: Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation for the Cape Town Triennial, 1988. 75pp. illus. (pt. color). N7392.C23 1988 AFA. OCLC 19256767.

The Cape Town Triennial is a nationwide art competition in South Africa whose works go on tour in several exhibitions around the country. This third triennial selected eighty-five works with four winners who were exhibited at the South African National Gallery and other venues in South Africa between September 28, 1988 and January 7, 1990. Although this event is organized and funded by the white art establishment, there were ten black artists represented in 1988: Jackson Hlungwane, Noria Mabasa, Sfiso Mkame, Saint Mokoena, Tommy Motswai, Bonie Ntshalinshali, Derrick Nxumalo, Helen Sebidi, Mashego Segogela, and Tito Zungu.


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Cape Town Triennial (1991). Kaapstadse Triënnial 1991 = Cape Town Triennial 1991 / introduction by Elza Miles; foreword by Christopher Till. Cape Town: Kunsstigting Rembrandt van Rijn, [1991]. 115pp. illus. (pt. color). Text in Afrikaans and English. N7392.C23 1991 AFA. OCLC 25328621.

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The grand winner of the 1991 Cape Town Triennial was William Kentridge, and the three merit awards went to Willie Bester, Sandra Kriel and Russell Scott. They were chosen from a field of 137 artists, whose work made the final cut of six regional panels of jurors. As South Africa's most prestigious national exhibition, the Triennial carries in its wake great interest and controversy alike. Efforts to democratize and broaden the selection and evaluation of artists resulted in a greater diversity than evident in previous Triennials, but one might say that the Triennial itself in is a process of evolution. The selection of regional jurors has also been opened up and given freer reign, as we see by their published comments on the Triennial process. Elza Miles in her introduction highlights some of the outstanding and original art works in the 1991 Triennial. All 147 works in the exhibition are illustrated.

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Exhibition reviewed by Christopher Till, "Melting pot's diffused focus," New nation (Johannesburg) May 8-14, 1992, page 23; by Judy Kukard, "Works of violence, decay...and hope," Southside (Cape Town) October 10-16, 1991, page 10; by Muffin Stevens, "Divergent art to expand definitions," South African arts calendar = Suid-Afrikaanse kunskalender (Pretoria) 17 (2): 22-23, 1992. See also Marilyn Martin, "Herhalings asook veranderings: Kaapstadse Tríënnale 1991," [Cape Town Triennial, 1991]. South African arts calender = Suid-Afrikaanse kunskalender (Pretoria: South African Association of Arts) 16 (3): 4-5, 1991.

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For a critique of the skewed historical "package" of national art exhibitions, such as the 1985 "Tributaries" (see below) or the Cape Town Triennials, see T. H. King, "Tributaries and the Triennial: two South African art exhibitions," Critical arts (Johannesburg) 5 (3): 39-57, 1991. King addresses issues of selection criteria for exhibitions, access or lack of access, self-serving publicity and media attention versus real art criticism, and goals of sponsorship.

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The collector's guide to art and artists in South Africa: the visual journey into the thoughts, emotions, and minds of 558 artists / compiled by Tai Collard. Claremont, South Africa: Twenty Two Press, South African Institute of Artists and Designers, 1998. 205pp. illus. (color). N7392.C65 1998X AFA. OCLC 44750884.

For each of the 558 artists listed in this directory, there is a condensed biography comprised of a brief statement by the artist, a reproduction of one work of art (occasionally more, sometimes none), a minuscule face portrait, birth date, preferred medium, education, group exhibition (very abbreviated), and most usefully, contact information. The majority of artists listed are painters. Only living artists are included. Artists living outside South African are excluded. Coverage is not comprehensive and there are some surprising omissions (e.g., Jane Alexander, David Koloane, Sue Williamson, Sophie Peters, Pippa Skotnes, to name a few).

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Colours: Kunst aus Sudafrika / Katalogredaktion, Alfons Hug, Sabine Vogel. Berlin: Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Ars Nicolai, 1996. 190pp. illus. (chiefly color), bibl. refs. Text in German. qN7392.C65 1996 AFA. OCLC 36717722.

This large South African art exhibition held at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, May-Aigist 1996, features works of thirty-six artists. The theme of "Colors" (as in "rainbow nation") was a celebration of the New South Africa emerging from apartheid and in the wake of the 1994 transition of power. The exhibition was a European venue for the South African component of the 1995 Johannesburg Biennale, "Africus." The artworks spread across the spectrum -- sculptures, installations, paintings, drawings, photographs, collages, and mixed media. All are illustrated. Biodata on the artists is included.

Included in the catalog are eight essays and contributions that provide the background and context: Colours / by Alfons Hug -- Die falsche Farbe / by Sabine Vogel -- Kunst und Kunstlersein in Sudafrika--einst und jetzt: Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa im Gesprach mit Sabine Vogel -- Bild und Text : Vergangenheit und Zukunft in der sudafriken Kunst / by Andries Walter Oliphant -- Vom Werden : die Kunste des Moglichen / by Jane Taylor -- Die Perversitat meiner Geburt--die Geburt meiner Perversitat -- Kendell Geers -- Koloniale Gedachtniskunst / by Ivor Powell -- Die Regenbogennation--Identitat und Wandel / by Marilyn Martin.

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Common and uncommon ground: South African art to Atlanta, April 12-June 7, 1996 / essay by Steven Sack, curator. Atlanta: City Gallery East, 1996. 48pp. illus. (color). N7392.C66 1996 AFA. OCLC 47079471.

South African Art to Atlanta was a bridge-building project conceived in 1993 by organizers Susan Woolf in South Africa and Eddie Granderson in Atlanta. Steven Sack, engaged as curator, assembled a multi-faceted exhibition comprised of professional artists, workshops artists, art projects and photo documentation of "People's Parks." The illustrated catalog Common and uncommon ground is the record of this collaborative art venture between the city of Atlanta and South Africa. It includes brief biographies of the artists and one or a few works each. All media are represented – painting, sculpture, mixed media, prints, installations, and photography.

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Contemporary South African art: the Gencor collection / edited by Kendell Geers. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers, 1997. 168pp. illus. (color), bibliog. (pp. 165-166). N7392.2.C66 1997X AFA. OCLC 37843149.

In 1994 the Gencor corporation engaged South African artist and art critic Kendell Geers to develop its corporate collection of modern South African art for its new corporate headquarters in Johannesburg. Rather than acquire a random selection of art works, a central theme was chosen: the transition from the old to the new South Africa. The works acquired and commissioned are decidedly modern and predominantly political in content; most date to the 1980s and 1990s. In this published catalog of the Gencor collection, there are eleven essays by experts on various aspects of modern South African art. Contributors are: Kendall Geers, Lesley Spiro, Mark Pencharz, Elizabeth Rankin, Okwui Enwezor, Colin Richards, Elza Miles, Julia Charlton, Olu Oguibe, Marilyn Martin, and Ashraf Jamal.

Reviewed by Anthea Bristowe in Nka: journal of contemporary African art (Ithaca, NY) no. 8: 64, spring-summer 1998.

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Cross, cross currents: contemporary art practice in South Africa, an exhibition in two parts; Atkinson Gallery, Millfield School, June to September 2000 / edited by John Picton and Jennifer Law. Street, Somerset, England: Atkinson Gallery, Millfield School, 2000. 120pp. illus. (color), bibliog. (page 60). N7392.C698 2000 AFA. OCLC 46928157.

South African art of the last two decades of the twentieth century was spawned by and reflects the final throes of apartheid and the early years of the Rainbow Nation. This transition out of apartheid remains a rocky road despite the euphoria of the birth of the New South Africa in 1994. Nation-building in heterogeneous, democratic South Africa is the backdrop for this large two-part exhibition held in the summer of 2000 in England. Diversity is the operative impulse both for curatorial choices and artistic intent.

The artists represented are Bill Ainslie, Beezie Bailey, Deborah Bell, Willie Bester, Willem Boshoff, Breyten Breytenbach, Lisa Brice, Marlene Dumas, Garth Erasmus, Leora Farber, Dumile Feni, Craig Hamilton, Kay Hassan, Jackson Hlungwani, Robert Hodgins, David Koloane, Dumisane Mbabso, Billy Mandindi, Chabane Manganyi, Louis Maqhubela, Johannes Maswanganyi, Kagiso Pat Mauthloa, Walter Meyer, Titus Moteyane, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Karel Nel, Albert Netshidzati, Sam Nhlengethwa, Johannes Phokela, Thabiso Phokompe, Phillip Rikhotso, Claudette Schreuders, Helen Sebidi, Phuthuma (Phatuma) Seoka, Durant Sihlali, Penny Siopis, Paul Tavhana, Dominic Tshabangu, and Sandile Zulu.

Included in this catalog are introductory essays by co-curators John Picton and Jennifer Law, and several other short essays by artists, art historians and critics, which together the provide history and context for contemporary South African art.

Reviewed (the catalog and the exhibition) by Mario Pissarra, "Cross currents: contemporary art practice in South Africa," Third text: critical perspectives on contemporary art and culture (London) 52: 95-102, autumn 2000.

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De Jager, E. J. Art, artist and society: a social-historical perspective on contemporary South African black art. Mafikeng, Bophuthatswana: Institute of African Studies, University of Bophuthatswana, 1990. 31pp. (Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje memorial lecture, 18th October 1990. [not in AFA Library]. OCLC 27337237.

Art may be viewed aesthetically through the language of art criticism and art appreciation. Or it may be viewed through the socio-historical perspective of the artists and their society. Both approaches are valid. De Jager elects the latter approach in considering black South African artists and what he calls their "expressive culture." How have the particular historical realities of South Africa -- apartheid, township life -- shaped and defined black artistic expression over the past sixty years?

Three phases are apparent in the history of contemporary black art. The early pioneering artists and the few art centers available to blacks (Polly Street, Rorke's Drift) form the history of the period from the 1930s through the 1950s. By the 1960s a new Township Art movement had coalesced to define two more decades. By the 1980s yet a new stage was reached, one still in process of unfolding. The black art scene today in South Africa is witnessing many new, younger artists, including women, the emergence of an informal art sector, artists exploring non-figurative art styles, the growth of "transitional" art, the proliferation of urban mural art, the intensification of protest and resistance art, and the organization of black artists into associations and centers, such as FUBA (Federated Union of Black Artists) or CAP (Community Arts Project) in Cape Town. The chasm between black artists and white artists still exists, but it is being bridged.

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De Jager, E. J. Contemporary African art in South Africa. Cape Town: C. Struik, 1973. 31pp., 128 plates. illus. (pt. color), bibliog. N7392.D4X AFA. OCLC 830033.

This was the first attempt to publish a substantial book on black South African artists. Although De Jager makes no claims to authority or art scholarship, he clearly felt a calling to begin the process of visual documentation. And this he has accomplished: a first step.

In his essay "Contemporary African art in South Africa" (pp. 17-31), he paints the peculiar South African backdrop against which these emerging artists must be seen, and he collectively attributes their artistic style to "humanisitic figurative expressionism." Within this encompassing stylistic category, he explores the content and themes of individual artists, highlighting several of the outstanding exemplars. The main part of the book is given over to illustrations. The majority of the works are from the University of Fort Hare collection.

A portion of De Jager's text appeared earlier in the article" Contemporary African art in South Africa," Zeitschrift für Ethnologie (Braunschweig) 96 (heft 2): 137-144, 1971.

Reviewed by John Povey in African arts (Los Angeles) 8 (2): 72-73, winter 1975.

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De Jager, E. J. "Contemporary African sculpture in South Africa," Fort Hare papers (Fort Hare, South Africa) 6 (6): 421-458, September 1978. illus., bibliog. (p. 456). AS611.G6X AFA.

Contemporary black South African artists are part of what de Jager calls "neo-African art," meaning that their art retains the "essence" of traditional art forms but also strikes out in new directions. Black South African sculptors do not have, after all, the great sculptural traditions to draw upon, as do those sculptors from Western and Central Africa. Their art is a humanistic, people-centered art; it also expresses an awareness of urban life. Sculptors work mainly in wood (it is cheap and available), and they draw upon three sources: folklore, Christianity and daily life. Stylistically, their work is characterized as "African Expressionism." De Jager introduces ten sculptors with biographical information and comments on the work of each. They are: Michael Zondi (1926- ), Sydney Kumalo (1935- ), Ezrom Legae (1938- ), Lucas Sithole (1931-1994), Eric Ngcobo (1933-1987), Solomon Sedibane (1933- ), Stanley Nkosi (1945- ), Dumile (1939-1991), Cyprian Shilakoe (1946-1972), and Solomon Maphiri (1945- ). Brief mention is made of the Polly Street Centre and Ndaleni Art School. Twenty works (by some of the above and others) are illustrated.

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De Jager, E. J. Images of man: contemporary South African black art and artists. Alice, Republic of Ciskei: Fort Hare University Press in association with the Fort Hare Foundation, 1992. [14], 220pp. illus. (pt. color), bibliog. N7392.D32 1992 AFA. OCLC 26617819.

The University of Fort Hare began collecting contemporary art of black South African artists in 1964, and consequently has one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of its kind in South Africa or anywhere. Using works from that collection, De Jager surveys twentieth-century black South African artists, according to a mixed schema of chronology, schools and movements, and media. All of the major artists are represented along with some less well-known ones. There are chapters on the five pioneer painters, on the township art movement, on Rorke's Drift, and on the sculptors. The art works are reproduced in color.

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A directory of South African contemporary art. volume 1: Painting 1997/1998 / introduction by Benita Munitz. Stanford, South Africa: Contemporary Arts Publishers in association with Africus Institute for Contemporary Art, 1997. 170, [42]pp. illus. (color). N55.S6D574 AFA. OCLC 39244637.

This directory of South African painters includes those who could pay for space or get sponsors to do so. As such, it is limited primarily to white South Africans. The impetus behind the publication of this directory (the first of three planned volumes) is that artists should take the initiative to promote themselves and not rely on the vagaries of the art market and chance contacts. It is also propelled by a desire on the part of many of those represented to be liberated from the stranglehold of de rigeur political art. There are, after all, South African artists doing non-political art. Also included are gallery ads, a select listing of galleries, artists' studios and other art-related businesses, and an address list of South African painters.

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Echoes of African art: a century of art in South Africa / compiled and introduced by Matsemela Manaka; foreword by Eskia Mphahlele. Braamfontein: Skotaville, 1987. 111pp. chiefly illus. (pt. color) (Skotaville graphic series, no. 2). qN7392.E18 1987 AFA. OCLC 17634113.

Although Manaka covers traditional South African art, his main interest in this work is the documentation of contemporary sculptors, painters and graphic artists. Chiefly illustrated, it contains many new and lesser known artists (as well as some of the older ones, such as Sekoto, Sithole, Dumile and Bhengu) who are working in the 1980s and who are strongly shaped by Black Consciousness. South African artists in exile are the most overtly political in their work.

The sculptors work more frequently in wood or clay than in metal because of availability and cost. Painters and graphic artists are found more often in the urban areas ("township art") and are more clearly Western-influenced than rural artists.

Reviewed by Brenda Danilowitz in African arts (Los Angeles) 21 (4): 84-85, August 1988; by Jacques Alvarez-Pereyre in Third world quarterly (London) 11 (3): 263-266, 1988; by Anitra Nettleton in South African journal of cultural and art history (Pretoria) 3 (3): 287-290, July 1989; by Andries Walter Oliphant in Staffrider (Braamfontein) 7 (1): 92-96, 1988; by Frieda Harmsen in South African journal of cultural and art history (Pretoria) 3 (3): 284-286, July 1989; by Amanda Jephson and Nicolaas Vergunst, "Imijondolo: black and white in gold," ADA: art, design, architecture (Cape Town) no. 6: 46, [1988]; by J. L. F. in Africana news and notes (Johannesburg) 28 (6): 245, June 1989.

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Grundy, Kenneth W. "Cultural policy in South Africa: an inconclusive transformation," African studies review (Atlanta) 39 (1): 1-24, April 1996. bibliog. (pp. 23-24). DT1.A1A26 AFA. OCLC 01461411.

Includes discussion of the struggle of South African artists, cultural workers, and the art establishment during the transition from the apartheid to the post-apartheid periods. Also includes discussion of the African National Congress' Department of Arts and Culture, the Albie Sachs controversy, the National Arts Coalition, and other art groups.


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Hobbs, Philippa and Elizabeth Rankin. Printmaking in a transforming South Africa. Cape Town: David Philip, 1997. ix, 204pp. illus. (pt. color), bibliog. (pp. 126-127). NE788.S6H62 1997X AFA. OCLC 38238931.

Printmaking in South Africa has been a medium of choice for artists across the color line. It serves those who lack access to well-equipped studios (usually black artists) as well as those who are better placed. Printmaking, however, has been overshadowed by painting and other fine arts media. This book by printmaker Hobbs and art historian Rankin is meant to redress this imbalance. Their approach is by print technique: relief, intaglio, planographic, stencil, mixed media and computer-generated. They highlight artists who are exploring each technique. The seventy-eight prints illustrated are all recent work, mainly from the 1990s, so this is not an historical look at South African printmaking. Includes "Register of South African printmakers" (pp. 128-137).


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Huntley, Merle. Art in outline. volume 1: An introduction to South African art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. 182pp. illus. (pt. color), bibl. refs. N278.6.S6H95 1992 AFA. OCLC 30093004.

Learning how to appreciate art can be fun, as this lively textbook sets out to show. The context is South African art with much emphasis on the recent periods. Modern Western-style art fills two central chapters of Huntley's book: "Western art comes to southern Africa" and "The melting pot," in which she weaves a swift-flowing, never dull narrative of art trends, influences, and artistic intention. Many artists are brought into the well-illustrated discussion. Other sections of the book deal with older art traditions, including Eastern art influences, and architecture.

Reviewed by Frieda Harmsen in De arte (Pretoria) no. 47: 41-43, April 1993.


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Images of defiance: South African resistance posters of the 1980's / the Poster Book Collective, South African History Archive. Johannesburg: Raven Press, 1991. ix, 181pp. chiefly illus. (color). DT1963.I46 1991X AFA. OCLC 26188033.

Posters have been very much part of the struggle in South Africa. Even publishing this poster book, which documents some of those produced under the broad umbrella of the ANC, would have been impossible a few years ago. Community, even underground, workshops provided venues for the cultural workers, who made the posters in less than ideal circumstances. See especially the introductory essay "Making posters in South Africa" (pp. 2-9). From exile in Botswana, the Medu Art Ensemble also created posters for distribution within South Africa.

The collection on which this book is based is that of the South African History Archive (SAHA). Through their foresight in collecting these posters, an important cultural-artistic component of the struggle against apartheid has been preserved. The 320 posters illustrated here in color are a selection from the two thousand owned by SAHA; they are presented in six broad categories by theme: politics, labor, community, education, militarization & repression, and culture.


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Incroci del sud: arte contemporanea del Sudafrica: mostra collaterale con il patrocinio della XLV Biennale di Venezia 1993, giugno-dicembre 1993 = Affinities: contemporary South African art: collateral exhibition under the patronage of the XLV Venice Biennial 1993, June-December 1993 ; [exhibition Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, Venice, 1993]. Roma: Ambasciata del Sudafrica, 1993. 95pp. illus. (color). Text in Italian and English. N7392.I37 1993 AFA. OCLC 29018574.

South Africa rejoined the international art community through its official participation at the Venice Biennale in 1993. The twenty-seven artists, shown at three separate venues, were drawn from all segments of South Africa's multicultural society and were selected on the curatorial premise of "affinities" between the various communities of artists, black and white. At the Giardini di Castello, two artists were featured: Jackson Hlungwane and Sandra Kriel. Ceramic sculptor Bonnie Ntshalintshali showed separately. At the main venue: Willie Bester, Andries Botha, Norman Catherine, Keith Dietrich, Kendell Geers, Philippa Hobbs, Sfiso Ka Mkame, William Kentridge, David Koloane, Noria Mabasa, Trevor Makhoba, Johannes Maswanganyi, Tommy Motswai, Karel Nel, Tony Nkotsi, Malcolm Payne, Joachim Schönfeldt, Helen Sebidi, Mashego Segogela, Penny Siopis, Pippa Skotnes, Willem Strydom, Sue Williamson, and Tito Zungu.


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Jephson, Amanda Anne. Aspects of twentieth century black South African art, up to 1980. M.A. thesis, Faculty of Fine Art and Architecture, University of Cape Town, 1989. 2 volumes. [volume 1, viii, 239 leaves; volume 2, plates]. illus., maps, bibliog. [unpublished]. N7392.J54 1989a AFA. OCLC 22883587.

Urban art of black South African artists flows from two streams of influence: Western-style art schools in South Africa and rural art forms and styles of South African blacks, notably figurative wood carving and mural painting. The evolution of modern art in South Africa is not unrelated to what occurred elsewhere on the continent, namely the decline of older art forms, the emergence of new popular forms, and the introduction of art schools and workshops as missionary enterprises or as academic programs. This comparative background is dealt with by Jephson in chapter 1. In the second chapter, she treats at length the rural art forms of figurative wood carving (Tsonga, Venda, Pedi, and Lovedu) and mural painting (Southern Sotho, Ndebele and Xhosa).

The beginning of urban black art is traced to four artists who are characterized as transitional figures: John Koenakeefe Mohl (1906-1985), Gerard Benghu (1910- ), George Pemba (1912- ), and Gerard Sekoto (1913-1993). All four of these artists developed and worked independently. Products of rural environments and mission schools, none had much formal art training.

The two principal art centers that became focal points for black South African artists and which are key to understanding the real emergence of urban art are the Polly Street Art Centre in Johannesburg and Rorke's Drift Art Centre, a missionary enterprise in KwaZulu (see chapter 3). These were the training grounds for the artists who came to the fore in the decades of the 1960s and 1970s, and it is this group of artists who are at the heart of Jephson's thesis. In the fourth (and central) chapter, she discusses the work of fifteen artists working in four media: sculpture, painting, drawing/mixed media, and printmaking. They are Sydney Kumalo, Lucas Sithole, Ezrom Legae, Gladys Mgudlandlu, Ephraim Ngatane, Louis Maqhubela, Leonard Matsosa, Tshidiso Andrew Motjuoadi, Mslaba Dumile, Tito Zungu, Azaria Mbatha, Daniel Rakgoathe, Lucky Sibiya, Cyprian Shilakoe, and John Muafangejo.

Volume 2 contains all plates.


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Kennedy, Jean. "South African artists speak for the voiceless," pp. 171-183. In: New currents, ancient rivers: contemporary African artists in a generation of change. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992. illus., bibl. refs. (pp. 192-193). N7391.65.K46 1992X AFA. OCLC 22389510.

South African "townships" are the crucible in which the art of black artists was forged, especially in the decades of the 1960s and 1970s. Making art, and indeed living life itself, was like walking on a tightrope. Death came early for Julian Motau (1948-1968), Winston Saoli (1950-died in prison), and Cyprien Shilakoe (1946-1972). Exile was a way out for others -- Louis Maqhubela (1939- ), Dumile Feni (1939-1991), and Gavin Jantjes (1948- ). Some endured and persevered at home -- Michael Zondi (1926- ), Lucas Sithole (1931-1994), Sydney Kumalo (1935-1988), Vumikosi Zulu (1947- ), John Muafangejo (1943-1987), Tito Zungu (1946- ).


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Koloane, David Nthubu, 1938- "Moments in art," pp. 140-157, 316. In: Seven stories about modern art in Africa / organized by the Whitechapel Art Gallery; concept and general editor, Clémentine Deliss. Paris; New York: Flammarion, 1995. illus. (color)., bibl. refs. (page 316). N7380.5.S49 1995 AFA. OCLC 33663281.

David Koloane, as invited curator to represent South Africa at the Whitechapel Art Gallery's "Seven Stories" exhibition, is expected to tell the South African story from an insider's perspective. The political realities of apartheid defined art production for both black and white artists, both in the limits it imposed and the stimulus it provided. This essay by Koloane sketches out his conception of this uniquely South African story. It reads, however, like an outline rather than the fully realized essay, which should have been published here.


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Koloane, David Nthubu, 1938- "The Polly Street art scene," pp. 211-229. In: African art in Southern Africa: from tradition to township / edited by Anitra Nettleton and David Hammond-Tooke. Johannesburg: Ad. Donker, 1989. illus. (pt. color), bibliog. (page 252). N7391.7.A25 1989b AFA. OCLC 22501798.

Community art centers in South African townships have been (and still are today) the primary venues for teaching art to black youth. Among them, the Polly Street Art Centre in Johannesburg stands as the premier and certainly the most renowned of these informal art schools. Founded in 1948 -- the year after Gerard Sekoto left South Africa for Paris -- Polly Street Art Centre became a training ground for many of the talented black artists whose names are familiar today -- Durant Sihlali, Louis Maqhubela, Sydney Kumalo, Ezekiel Segola, and Louis Sithole. The philosophy of teaching art adopted by Cecil Skotnes (who became director in 1953) was that formal instruction should be set aside in favor of spontaneous creativity -- a philosophy that became a sore point with some of the artists, who felt that some grounding in principles of art was essential. In the 1960s the Centre moved to new quarters and was called Jubilee Centre, and in 1980 was renamed Mofolo Art Centre. Although some of these artists had commercial success in the white art galleries and enjoyed the patronage of whites, this was an exploitative, patronizing and ultimately limiting development -- a situation still unresolved.


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Liberated voices: contemporary art from South Africa / edited by Frank Herreman, assisted by Mark D'Amato. New York: The Museum for African Art; Munich; New York: Prestel, 1999. 190pp. illus. (color), bibliog. (pp. 185-188). qN7392.L53 1999 AFA. OCLC 43035759.

Can South African artists, black and white, learn to live without the enemy? Now that apartheid is history, how are artists confronting, challenging, and critiquing "post-apartheidism"? "Liberated Voices" explores that question with works of nine artists created between 1994 and 1999 - - the first five years of the New South Africa. Featured artists include Brett Murray, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Mbongeni Richman Buthelezi, Penny Siopis, Samson Mnisi, Thabiso Phokompe, Bridget Baker, Sandile Zulu, and Claudette Schreuders. For each artist, there is an essay by a critic or other artist; in two cases, the artists speak for themselves.

Commentaries on the recent South African past, artistic expression then and now, and "where do we go from her" are provided by poet Mongane Wally Serote, artist David Koloane, artist Sue Williamson, curator Mark D'Amato, critic Andries Oliphant, and anthropologist Kristine Roome.


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Lissoos, Sheree. Johannesburg art and artists: selections from a century. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1986. 96pp., 12pp. of plates. illus. (pt. color), notes, bibliog. qN7395.J65L77 1986 AFA. OCLC 19254834.

Marking the centenary of the city of Johannesburg and the 75th anniversary of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, a major retrospective exhibition of Johannesburg artists was mounted in 1986. The first part of this catalog features pioneer artists, those active between 1886 and 1939. It includes an historical essay on the growth of art institutions in Johannesburg during this period, notably the Johannesburg Art Gallery itself. Two prominent Johannesburg artists -- painter Willem Hermanus Coetzer (1900-1983) and sculptor Anthonie Van Wouw (1862-1945) -- are featured in a separate section. The third section focuses on the art centers of the 1950s and 1960s, including the Wits Group (associated with the fine arts department of the University of the Witwatersrand), the Amadlozi Group under the guidance of Egon Guenther (which included Sidney Kumalo), and the Polly Street Art Centre.

A succession of now well-known black artists passed through Polly Street Art Centre or taught there. Founded in 1948, it did not hold its first exhibition until 1955. Cecil Skotnes, appointed in 1952 as Cultural Officer, oversaw what can be seen, certainly in retrospect, as a vital artistic program for black artists. Sidney Kumalo was one of its most illustrious art teachers. In the 1960s Polly Street Art Centre closed; the program shifted to the Jubilee Social Centre. The latter-day spiritual successor to these early undertakings is the art center operated by FUBA (Federated Union of Black Artists).


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Martin, Marilyn. "Is there a place for black abstract painters in South Africa," De arte (Pretoria) 44: 25-39, September 1991. illus. (color), notes, bibliog. qN8.A34A78 AFA.

One of the many artistic ghettos to which black South African artists are confined is the one labeled Figurative and Narrative Painting. To break out of this ghetto into the garden of abstraction, as a few have tried (David Koloane and Louis Maqhubela, for example), is to invite total ostracism and to be roundly criticized. The Thupelo Art Project is a dramatic case in point. There are many reasons why figurative and narrative work predominates among black South African painters, but, Martin argues, abstraction as a stylistic choice should not be off limits for anyone, black or white.


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Miles, Elza. Land and lives: a story of early black artists. Cape Town: Human and Rousseau; Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1997. 191pp. illus. (pt. color), bibliog. OCLC 39485472. N7395.6.M55 1997X AFA. OCLC 39485472.

Elza Miles, South African art historian, is helping to rescue unsung black South African artists through her research and writing. Her earlier book on Ernest Mancoba was a Noma Award Honorable Mention title in 1995 (Lifeline out of Africa), and she has also written a book on another black artist, Selby Mvusi. The present book, Land and lives, is more ambitious in scope; it presents forty-seven black South African artists (plus the work of a few anonymous artists) all born before 1930 (the criterion for inclusion). Her research grew out of a 1993 exhibition of six of the better known pioneering artists, during which she uncovered material on several "abandoned artists" and began documenting this broader history. The culmination of the effort is this book and a corresponding 1997 exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (an exhibition checklist of 144 works is included). Land and lives is more than an exhibition catalog, however. It will remain as a text on the subject long after the show closes. Although several of the forty-seven artists are familiar names -- Gerard Sekoto, Job Kekana, Peter Clarke, Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba, Gladys Mgudlandlu -- most are not household names, even in South Africa. In comparing Land and lives with the landmark exhibition catalog The neglected tradition (1988), it is fair to note that there is some overlap of artists covered. However, the scope of The neglected tradition being much broader, it treats the early artists less completely than Miles does in Land and lives.

Land and lives is essentially a biographical encyclopedia. The individual essays on each artist vary in length -- some run to several pages; others only a couple of paragraphs. Miles has tried to uncover as much as possible on each and to include at least one illustration of an artwork (usually more).

Miles is careful to point out the dramatic impact that access (or lack of access) to art education and mentoring had on these South African artists. In fact, the primary criterion around which she organized the book is just that -- the schooled and the unschooled. The predominant theme of the study is that these artists, both schooled and unschooled, took up art-making and continued to create despite the obstacles placed in their paths by apartheid, by poverty, by lack of opportunities for training, by overly protective/patronizing or "visually illiterate" mentors.

In the first of two sections, Miles treats those artists who lacked formal training and who remained relatively isolated throughout their lives. These early artists were not without mentors, and they did occasionally have their work exhibited in shows of "native arts and crafts." The artists discussed in the second section ("Emerging independence," she calls it) all had benefit of some post-secondary education or tutelage with other artists. In most cases, they had exposure to original art works and art books, which broadened their horizons. A few studied abroad. Although Miles' organizing device of schooled and unschooled is occasionally blurry (e.g., some "emerging independent" artists did not actually have formal art training), it is certainly one way of presenting the material. Others might argue that the art itself (rather than the background and training of the artist) is a more valid way of viewing art history. Still others might argue that the dialogue between artist and audience/mentors is the truest way to read art history. The role of mentors is itself a fascinating angle, because mentors are the leitmotif throughout these stories. As Miles draws the distinction, the untrained artists' work "seems to comply with the wishes of well-meaning mentors who were often visually illiterate and upheld the notion that art should be imitative. These artsist were required to make art that appeared natural and was often illustrative" -- (preface). By contrast, the independent artists were presumably much freer in their artistic expression.

Miles makes no claim to having done an exhaustive study. Other early artists will no doubt come to light -- for some reason, she does not include Jackson Hlungwane (ca. 1923- ), though he is mentioned in passing -- and more information on the lives and careers of the present artists is waiting to be discovered. Many of the artists are still alive or have family and colleagues still alive, so the task is far from complete. Miles herself interviewed many in the course of research. Ever modest about her goals, Miles' "homage" to the artists certainly builds a solid foundation, and future researchers will invariably refer back to this publication.

Reviewed by M. A. Nolte, "Finally, recognition for African art," Weekend Argus Saturday Books (Cape Town) February 7-8, 1998, page 17.


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The neglected tradition: towards a new history of South African art (1930-1988) ; Johannesburg Art Gallery, 23 November 1988-8 January 1989 / guest curator: Steven Sack. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1988. 155pp. illus (pt. color), bibliog. (pp. 135-153). qN7392.N38 1988 AFA. OCLC 19747702

[and]

The neglected tradition: towards a new history of South African art (1930­1988), Johannesburg Art Gallery, 23 November 1988­8 January 1989 / guest curator, Steven Sack. Edition: [Corrected edition]. Johannesburg: The Gallery, c1991. 155 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm. Notes: "The only changes ... are the correction of material typographical and factual errors, and the inclusion of death dates of artists who have died since 1988"­­p. 4. Includes bibliographical references (p. 135­153). qN7392.N38 1991 AFA. OCLC 25757971.

Steven Sack has put together a ground-breaking retrospective exhibition of black South African artists whose catalog, The neglected tradition, stands as a major, perhaps the first significant book on the subject. The exhibition was notable not only because it was the first time a large public art gallery in South Africa had devoted such serious attention to black artists, but, more importantly, because it and the catalog lay the scholarly foundation for the study of these artists. Sack and his collaborators have amassed a tremendous amount of biographical and bibliographical data on one hundred artists, which serves as the essential reference source on the subject. His text presents an historical survey covering: The Pioneers, the Polly Street era, Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre, the New Generation, and New Generation Sculpture. The photographs, while not of outstanding quality and most, sadly, in black and white, offer a wealth of visual information.

Reviewed by Brenda Danilowitz in African arts (Los Angeles) 23 (2): 94-96, April 1990.; J. L. F. in Africana notes and news (Johannesburg) 28 (8): 331, December 1989; Anitra Nettleton in South African journal of cultural and art history (Pretoria) 3 (3): 287-290, July 1989; Frieda Harmsen in South African journal of cultural and art history (Pretoria) 3 (3): 284-286, July 1989.

Exhibition reviewed by Joyce Ozynski in South African journal of cultural and art history (Pretoria) 3 (3): 276-284, July 1989.


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Ogilvie, Grania with Carol Graff. The dictionary of South African painters and sculptors, including Namibia. Johannesburg: Everard Read, 1988. xvii, 799pp., [84]pp. of plates. illus. (color), bibliog. N7395.6.O34 1988 AFA. OCLC 20185364.

This monumental effort to document 1,800 painters, sculptors and graphic artists of South Africa and Namibia stands as a major reference book on modern southern African art. Based on questionnaires to artists and extensive archival and library research, the compilers highlight the artists' careers, listing public collections where their works are represented, and provide bibliographic references for further research on any particular artist. The criteria for inclusion, the methodology, and the format are clearly spelled out in the introduction. An extensive bibliography (pp. 773-781) and a list of gallery, museums and other useful addresses are appended.

Reviewed by Brenda Schmahmann in South African journal of cultural and art history (Pretoria) 3 (3): 290-292, July 1989.


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Panoramas of passage: changing landscapes of South Africa. Washington, DC: Meridian International Center; Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand Art Galleries, 1995. 121pp. illus. (pt. color), maps. N7392.P36 1995 AFA. OCLC 34713121.

South African landscape is the theme of this traveling exhibition planned on the eve of the transition to democracy to introduce South African art to American audiences. Landscape is a persistent and complex subject in South African art, just as land itself is a contentious issue in South African politics. Curator Clive van den Berg selected an eclectic group of artworks from nineteenth and twentieth century artists to develop the idea of landscape -- as place, as memory, as metaphor.

In the catalog the works are not presented chronologically, but rather alphabetically by artist, which creates unsettling juxtapositions of serene vistas and claustraphobic townships, of Voortrekkers on the veld and forces removals, of frontiers and states of emergency. For some artworks, the artists comment. The sole catalog essay by Elizabeth Delmont and Jessica Dubow ("Thinking through landscape: colonial spaces and their legacies") gives a one-sided perspective on contested territories and the imagination: that of the white South African. On the changing landscapes of the late twentieth century, there is no explication.


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Plessis, Antoinette du. "The Cape Town Triennial: a phenomenon of the Eighties," De arte (Pretoria) 45: 15-24, April 1992. notes, bibliog. (page 24). qN8.A34A78 AFA.

The 1991 Cape Town Triennial was the last and most controversial of the four that were held (1982, 1985, 1988 and 1991). Intended as one of South Africa's most prestigious art exhibitions, the Triennials became a vortex of controversy, drawing in and spewing out more and more acrimony and protestations (as well as praises). In the end the sponsor, the Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation, had had enough and withdrew support. What went wrong?

Du Plessis offers a dispassionate post mortem on the Cape Town Triennials in which she considers the processes of selection and rejection of artists, the opening up to black artists, the changing composition of jury panels, the prize money, the role of the sponsor, and ultimately the increasingly volatile socio-political environment in South Africa within which this story unfolds.

For more opinions on the Cape Town Triennial, the final eruption, see "Special Feature: the 1991 Triennial," De arte (Pretoria) 45: 24-48, April 1992. illus. qN8.A34A78 AFA.

That the Cape Town Triennials drew such fire and aroused such heated debate are not necessarily to be deplored. Art-making and exhibiting should elicit viewer response and stimulate discussion. Even before the Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation withdrew its support, the editors of De Arte had invited a host of commentators to offer their views on the issues surrounding this national South African art exhibition -- issues of selection criteria, quality of works, and even of the role of national competitions within a rapidly evolving arts scene.

Included here are contributions by Dick Leigh, Neville Dubow, Wilma Cruise, Alexander Podlashuc, John Sampson, Sally Thompson, Marilyn Martin, Elza Miles, Linda Givon, Kim Siebert and Zirk van den Berg.


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Rankin, Elizabeth L. "Black artists, white patrons: the cross-cultural art market in rural South Africa," Africa insight (Pretoria) 20 (1): 33-39, 1990. illus (pt. color), notes, bibl. refs. HC800.S727 AFA.

The commercialization of Ndebele beadwork is only one of many examples of white entrepreneurs embracing the inventiveness and adaptability of the black artists in a relationship that is at once exploitative and manipulative -- on both sides. The white promoters are not shy about intervening to influence production, and the black artists are quick to take advantage of new outlets and new consumers by catering to the market. Some of the rural-based artists who have been most successful in this urban white market are sculptors Johannes Maswanganyi, Nelson Mukhuba, Phuthuma Seoka, and Noria Mabasa, all discussed here.


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Rankin, Elizabeth L. "Black artists, white patrons: the cross-cultural art market in urban South Africa," Africa insight (Pretoria) 20 (1): 25-32, 1990. illus (pt. color), notes, bibl. refs. HC800.S727 AFA.

The relationship between black South African artists and their white patrons is a complex one, built on dependency, mentoring and at times exploitation. The urban artists discussed by Rankin in this context include: Gerhard Bhengu, Gerard Sekoto, John Koenakeefe Mohl, Helen Sebidi, Sydney Kumalo, Ephraim Ngatane, Durant Sihlali, Winston Saoli, Alphen Ntimbane, Peter Sibeko, Emmanuel Sibanda, Lungile Phambo, Thomas Motswai, Mslaba Dumile, Julian Motau, Azaria Mbatha, John Muafangejo, Andrew Motjuoadi, Leonard Matsoso, Cyprian Shilakoe, Lucky Sibiya, Louis Maquabela, Dumisani Mabaso, Philip Malumise, David Koloane, Bongiwe Dhlomo, Ezrom Legae, and Tony Nkotsi.


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Rankin, Elizabeth L. Images of metal: post-war sculptures and assemblages in South Africa / foreword by Alan Crump; preface by Rayda Becker. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press and University of the Witwatersrand Art Galleries, 1994. 206pp. illus., bibliog. NB1220.R19 1994 AFA. OCLC32909847.

Images of metal is a companion volume to Rankin's Images of wood (1989), both of which redress the lack of public and scholarly attention to sculpture and sculptors within South African art history. The unifying theme in the present volume is metal as medium -- bronze, steel, aluminum, iron, and wire. Twenty-two sculptors are singled out, most of whom are white artists (for reasons spelled out by Rankin in her main text). The featured sculptors are: Bruce Arnott, Vincent Baloyi, Willie Bester, Andries Botha, David Brown, Neels Coetzee, Guy du Toit, Marc Edwards, Michael Goldberg, Sydney Kumalo, Ezrom Legae, Louise Linder, Noria Mabasa, Johann Moolman, Titus Moteyane, Walter Oltmann, Jan Redelinghuys, Durant Sihlali, Willem Strydom, Jeremy Wafer, Richard Wake, and Gavin Younge. For each, Rankin provides a biographical essay in which she discusses the style, technique and evolution of the artist's work in metal (several of the artists also work in different media). A small selection of wire toys, also included in the exhibition, reveal how intricate and sophisticated these "toy" sculptures have become (see pp. 71-76).

The field of South African metal sculpture has been dominated by those who have had access and exposure to a formal art education, the white artists. The technical requirements and costs of working in this medium (using bronze foundries, for example) automatically restricted participation. Women, even white women artists, tended to avoid taking up metal sculpture. As for black South African artists, it is only a few, through rare opportunity or sponsorship, who have concentrated on metal sculpture, notably Sydney Kumalo, Percy Konqobe, and Ezrom Legae. Public sculptural commissions and art competitions have perpetuated these racial and gender distinctions.

Rankin explores the history and evolution of recent metal sculpture in South Africa along three themes, namely, formally trained sculptors, informally trained sculptors, and competitions and commissions (see pp. 9-68). Most of the sixty-nine sculptures in the exhibition are from the University Art Galleries of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All photographs are in black and white.

Reviewed by Shannen Hill in African arts (Los Angeles) 31 (4): 13-14, 89, autumn 1998.


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Rankin, Elizabeth L. Images of wood: aspects of the history of sculpture in 20th-century South Africa; [exhibition, Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1989]. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1989. 188pp. illus., bibliog. NB1255.S6R2115 1989 AFA. OCLC 20359737

Sculpture in wood was the theme of this retrospective exhibition of twentieth-century artists of South Africa, which curator Rankin acknowledges is a neglected and largely uncharted realm of South African art history. Around ninety sculptors, black and white (including a few anonymous works), were selected as representative of sculptural traditions through the century.

In her long essay, Rankin explores these trends taking a chronological approach, beginning with early exemplars Mary Stainbank, Ernest Mancoba and Job Kekana. The different opportunities for art training available to artists, both formal and informal, account for the wide range of sculpture produced in South Africa. In piecing together this art history, discernible "schools" or families of sculptors emerge from the university fine arts programs (available to white students), from mission training courses, and from community art centers and workshops. Likewise, impulses toward abstraction and naturalism found divergent expression among white and black sculptors. Much of the sculpture of black artists was representational, while a few white sculptors sought an "African-ness" in their work. The art market, too, played a predominate role in shaping developments and defining sculptural products, particularly for black artists.

The peculiar social environment in South Africa itself defines art and the discourse about art; this becomes more apparent when one considers recent sculpture of South African artists. The biographies of the artists and photographs of their works, which fills two-thirds of this catalog, constitute a major contribution to South African art history.

Reviewed by Rayda Becker in South African journal of art and architectural history (Pretoria) 1 (2): 72-74, May 1990; by William Boshoff in South African journal of art and architectural history (Pretoria) 1 (2): 70-72, May 1990; by Eunice Basson in De arte (Pretoria) 42: 68-71, September 1990.


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Rankin, Elizabeth L. Reclaiming black art history in South African galleries and museums. Paper presented at the South African Association of Art Historians conference, Durban, South Africa, June-July 1993. [s.l.: s.n.], 1993. 18pp. bibl. refs. [unpublished]. qN8846.S6R2115 1993 AFA. OCLC 29624068.

A survey of black artists represented in South African art museums and galleries reveals a "profound neglect" until very recent times. This situation mirrors the general disregard for South African black art throughout the century. Ethnographic museums did, of course, collect African artifacts, but it was neither viewed nor exhibited as "art." Commercial art galleries led the way, beginning in the 1960s, to show work of black South African artists, and the art museums and galleries tentatively began to acquire works. But it took publications on black South African art to really begin to legitimize museum acquisitions.

Exceptional among institutional collections is that of Fort Hare University, an exclusively black university, which began to develop a collection of black South African art in 1964. This effort and the 1988 landmark exhibition "The Neglected Tradition" at the Johannesburg Art Gallery raise a troublesome question: should black artists be so segregated, apartheid-like, or should their work be integrated into a color-blind South African art history?

Another unresolved question: how should museums and galleries treat non-conventional categories of "art," that is, work regarded as "craft"? Differences in artists' backgrounds and training create real differences in art production in South Africa today. Museums and galleries are still grappling with how to become ecumenical without pandering and without abandoning evaluative criteria altogether.


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Rankin, Elizabeth L. and Elza Miles. "The role of the missions in art education in South Africa," Africa insight (Pretoria) 22 (1): 34-48, 1992. illus. (pt. color), bibl. refs. HC800.S727 AFA.

Apart from the Evangelical Lutheran Art and Craft Centre at Rorke's Drift, the role of missions in art education of black South Africans has been overlooked. Rorke's Drift and the secular Polly Street Arts Centre in Johannesburg are often assumed to have been the only places where black South Africans could receive any art instruction. Not so. Several Protestant and Catholic missions alike afforded opportunities for art training -- either as part of a curriculum or as an extra-curricular activity. Often art was encouraged for the production of church furnishings and religious images, but this was not always the case. Sometimes there was an economic incentive -- producing works to sell. In short, there were a variety of attitudes toward art, levels of tuition (or non-tuition), and incentives to create with an equally diverse output.

Among the missions discussed are the Anglican mission at Grace Dieu, Mariannhill Mission in Natal, and Ndaleni Training College also in Natal. Among the many students who passed through or were otherwise affiliated with these institutions are: Gerard Sekoto, Job Kekana, Ernest Mancoba, Bernard Gcwensa, Ruben Xulu, Duke Ketye, Zamokwakhe Gumede, Dan Rakgoathe, Solomon Sedibane, and George Ramagaga.


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Rankin, Elizabeth, Louis Vorster, and Hella Rabbathge-Schiller. Contemporary art !Xu & Khwe, Kimberley/South Africa. Johannesburg: [s.n.], 1997. 53pp. illus. (pt. color). qN7392.R36 1997X AFA. OCLC 46790831.

Out of the bleak relocation camp in Schmidtsdrift, Northern Cape, South Africa, emerges an art project for displaced San people from Angola. Deprived of any livelihood in this refugee camp, their prospects are dismal. The !Xu and Khwe Cultural Project, begun in 1993, offers a ray of hope for a few to make a living from art.

The work of several of the most successful San artists is illustrated and discussed by Elizabeth Rankin. She explores the imagery and compositions of the paintings and prints. Louis Vorster provides the political and economic background on these Angolan refugees. Bios are given for thirteen artists.


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Richards, Colin. "About face: aspects of art, history and identity in South African visual culture," Third text: Third World perspectives on contemporary art & culture (London) 16-17 double issue: 101-133, autumn-winter 1991. illus., bibl. refs. NX1.T445 AFA.

The totalitarianism of the apartheid vision created its own culture of resistance. But what happens after apartheid is swept away? What will sustain creative energy? What identity will artists seek or claim for themselves in the New South Africa? How will competing ideologies and opposing views of nationalism be resolved post-apartheid? Richards explores these questions which have already been percolating within artistic circles in South Africa for several years.

The controversial 1990 exhibition of photographer Steven Hilton-Barber, which exposed "rites of passage" images, was one flash point. Sue Williamson's installation "For Thirty Years, Next to His Heart" was another. In it, she visualized the history of the hated passbook. Other visions of history and historiography of the South African experience emerge in the work of Penny Siopis, Helen Sebidi, and Durant Sihlali.

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Richards, Colin. "Desperately seeking `Africa,'" pp. 35-44. In: Art from South Africa. Oxford: Museum of Modern Art; London: distributed by Thames and Hudson, c1990. notes. N7392.A784 1990 AFA. OCLC 23088898.

"Transitional" art is a problematic category in South Africa, implying an appropriation by the dominant art establishment. These cultural debates emerged in South Africa in the 1970s when "transitional" art of black artists became, for better or worse, an acceptable category. The official ideology of pluralism has become another strategy of maintaining differences and domination.

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Sack, Steven. "Art in black South African townships," Art monthly (London) no. 17: 6-9, June 1989. illus., bibl. refs. qN1.A7843 AFA.

With the widespread unrest in South African townships in the 1980s and the collapse of the authority of township councils, a political and social vaccuum was created. One of the responses to this was the spontaneous creation of peoples' parks where some kind of overt political expression could take place. A public art in the form of assemblages of found objects (e.g., tires, bicycle wheels, painted stones) sprang up in these common areas. They were largely affirmative positive expressions, efforts at reclaiming the township environment and reasserting control. Sadly, however, they were destroyed by the armed forces who saw them as threatening. This brief artistic flourishing was effectively quashed.

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Sack, Steven. "From country to city: the development of an urban art," pp. 54-59. In: Catalogue: ten years of collecting (1979-1989): Standard Bank Foundation Collection of African Art, University Art Galleries' Collection of African Art and selected works from the University Ethnological Museum Collection / edited by David Hammond-Tooke and Anitra Nettleton. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg Art Galleries, 1989. illus., color illus. (pp. 81-82), bibliog. N7380.5.N47c 1989 AFA. OCLC 20322250.

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The development of black artists in South Africa since the 1930s must be understood within the framework of a capitalist economy which imposed restrictions on where people could live and work. It was not only white middle-class patronage that influenced the content of art, but the duality of rural homesteads and urban townships, which for the black artists translated into works of art which speak to both environments. Sack explores this duality in the works of John Koenakeefe Mohl, Gerard Sekoto, Andrew Motjuoadi, Helen Sebidi and others. The early depictions of township life in works by Mohl and Sekoto, for example, are the only glimpses we have of what it was like in the 1930s and 1940s. Later, as black townships became off limits to whites, paintings (sold to a white market) carried the added responsiblity of letting whites see what it was like.

Sack draws an important distinction between "protest art" and "resistance art." The former is art made by township artists and bought by whites and rarely seen by township residents, an art which communicates "between victims of oppression and the oppresor" (page 58). Resistance art, on the other hand, arose out of the Black Consciousness movement; it was one of affirmation, cultural awareness and pride. Art was meant to empower people (for example, the "peoples' parks"), and it became an adjunct to the political struggle and subject to the same repressive forces. The number of artists who have died young (the roster with which Sack introduces this essay) is unassailable testimony of the toll that repression, direct and indirect, has taken on township artists.

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Sack, Steven. "`Garden of Eden or political landscape?': street art in Mamelodi and other townships," pp. 191-210. In: African art in Southern Africa: from tradition to township / edited by Anitra Nettleton and David Hammond-Tooke. Johannesburg: Ad. Donker, 1989. illus. (pt. color), notes (pp. 249-251), bibliog. (page 251). N7391.7.A25 1989b AFA. OCLC 22501798.

Street art recaptures the social function of art, which has been the preserve of the elite (certainly in the twentieth century). Nowhere is this move to the streets more clearly seen than in South African townships. A partial parallel can be drawn to the spontaneity of popular mural art in Mozambique before independence, but there the government co-opted and redirected this popular art into a larger cultural program after independence. In South Africa, this has not yet happened.

The example of "people's parks" in townships in the year 1985 is the inevitable culmination of a cultural-political process that found no other suitable outlets. Even poster art, though populist in intent, was created by a few. People's parks, on the other hand, were spontaneous creations, assemblages of found objects, painted signs and slogans, intended as attempts to reclaim and beautify public spaces. They were an affirmation of pride, an expression of solidarity, and tributes to heroes, such as Biko, Mandela or Luthuli, put together by untrained artists. These "gardens of Eden" were inevitably viewed by the authorities as dangerous "political landscapes," and they were all demolished.


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Sack, Steven. "In the name of art: a reflection on fine art," pp. 74-96. In: Culture in another South Africa / edited by Willem Campschreur and Joost Divendal. London: Olive Branch Press, 1989. illus. (color). NX589.8.S6C96 1989 AFA. OCLC 19264868.

Political and artistic landscapes merged in South African townships in the 1980s where a new "artculture" challenged the system, but also affirms and negotiates its own "liberatory vision." Some white artists, too, were caught up in this new vision. "Art," as Sack puts it, "lost its innocence" in the years since the Soweto uprising in 1976. All this occurred despite official attempts to subvert or neutralize the emerging and shifting art culture and despite the continuing dilemma of co-option by white middle-class structures for mediating art (galleries, museums).

Twenty-eight color photographs of art works and installations, some since destroyed, are presented with commentary by Sack.


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Sasol art collection = Die Sasol-Kunsversameling / designed by Frank Horley; introduction by Leoni Schmidt. [Johannesburg]: Penrose Press, 1988. vi, 73 color plates. Text in Afrikaans and English. N7392.S25 1988 AFA. OCLC 27365254.

The Sasol art collection, like many corporate collections, began rather casually. Around 1982 a more systematic approach was formulated under the artistic guidance of Leoni Schmidt and others to develop a representative collection of contemporary South African art from the 1960s forward. A selection of seventy-three paintings from the Sasol collection is presented in this volume, introduced by Schmidt. A second volume was published in 1991; see next entry.


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Sasol art collection = Die Sasol-Kunsversameling. volume 2 / designed by Frank Horley; introduction by Leoni Schmidt. [Johannesburg]: Penrose Press, 1991. viii + 70 pages of plates (color). Text in Afrikaans and English. N7392.S25 1988 volume 2 AFA. OCLC 27365254.

Sasol, South Africa's major oil company, has been building a serious art collection since the early 1980s, although the beginnings date back to the 1960s. The Sasol collection specializes in paintings by South African artists from the 1960s to the present. The first volume on the collection was published in 1988 (see preceding entry). This second volume is published on the occasion of the opening of the Sasol Art Museum at the University of Stellenbosch in October 1991.

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The paintings reproduced in the first volume were largely abstract works, typical of the 1960s and 1970s. But those in the present volume reflect a shift toward figurative and expressive works. Four themes are discernible: nature, man, community and cultural tradition; the book is organized around these broad themes. Eighty-one paintings and works in other media, dating mainly from the late 1980s, are illustrated (in color).

See also Opening of the Sasol Art Museum in the Eben Dönges Centre at Stellenbosch University, 3-24 October 1991. [Stellenbosch: s.n.], 1991. 36, 36pp. Text in English and Afrikaans. N3885.S8O614 1991 AFA. OCLC 27356158.


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A selection of Eastern Cape art / compiled by Helena Theron; text by Bert Olivier. Port Elizabeth: Bird Street Publications, 1994. [148]pp. illus. (pt. color). N7394.C25S46 1994 AFA. OCLC 32520163.

Artists from the Eastern Cape have suffered under the misbegotten label of provincialism within the context of South African art, but this, Helena Theron argues, is unfair and blind-sighted. To prove that art is alive and well in the Eastern Cape, she assembled the work of seventy artists. Predominantly painters, predominantly white, one work of each is reproduced along with a photograph of the artist and a biographical sketch.

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Sixpence a door: black art in South Africa [videorecording] / directed by Gavin Younge; produced by Les Films du Village, 1990. 1 videocassette (ca. 55 minutes): sd.: color: ½ in., PAL format. video 169 AFA. OCLC 28652025.

This video, originally done for French television, is intended to give some of the variety of flavors of contemporary artistic expression of black South African artists, both urban and rural, trained and self-taught. Gerard Sekoto, Jackson Hlungwane, and Helen Sebidi are among featured artists. One segment of the film is devoted to politically inspired posters produced by cooperatives associated with the labor movement. "Art" is also extended to cover contemporary manifestations of Christian worship and church dress, e.g., Shembe's Zionist church. On this last point, see Karen H. Brown's review of the exhibition "Spiritual art of Natal," African arts (Los Angeles) 27 (1): 78-79, January 1994.

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South African National Gallery. Contemporary South African art, 1985-1995 from the South African National Gallery permanent collection; [exhibition, South African National Gallery, December 14, 1996-March 31, 1997] / edited by Emma Bedford; introduction by Marilyn Martin. Cape Town: South African National Gallery, 1996. 176pp. illus. (pt. color), bibliog. (pp. 169-174). N7392.2.S68 1997 AFA. OCLC 38418131.

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The acquisitions policy of the South African National Gallery (S.A.N.G.) has shifted dramatically over the last fifteen years as a direct response to the new political and cultural environment of the dissolution of apartheid. In many sectors of the art world and at S.A.N.G. in particular, this sea change has been long anticipated and accommodated, even helped along by a liberalizing attitude and expansive approach to collecting and exhibiting South African art.

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Neville Dubow, the chairman of S.A.N.G.'s acquisitions committee from 1982 to 1995, discusses this new direction in an interview with Emma Bedford. A cross section of modern art acquired during this period is presented chronologically with complete catalog information on each artist and each work of art.

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Reviewed by Ruth Kerkham in Third text: Third World perspectives on contemporary art and culture (London) 45: 104-106, winter 1998-1999.

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Thorpe, Jo, 1921-1995. It's never too early: a personal record of African art and craft in Kwazulu-Natal 1960-1990. Durban: Indicator Press, Centre for Social and Development Studies, University of Natal, 1994. 112pp. illus. (pt. color). ISBN 1-86840-167-7.

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Jo Thorpe began the African Art Centre in Durban in 1959 as a small part of the Natal region's South African Institute of Race Relations. Right from the start, the art shop promoted Zulu art as a means of helping rural artists, and Thorpe is credited with maintaining high standards of quality workmanship in all the arts and crafts that were offered for sale.

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In this personal history of the African Art Centre, Thorpe tells first-hand its evolution through three decades. Over the years she acquired a small collection for the Centre, almost inadvertently, by keeping back choice objects. Three key events shaped the decade of the 1960s for the Centre: the launching of the bienniale "Art: South Africa: Today" exhibition in 1963; the collaboration with Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre, and the extraordinary and fortuitous "discovery" of Azaria Mbatha (1941- ) in 1962. The 1970s and 1980s witnessed major expansions in the operations and artistic repertoire of the African Art Centre. In 1982 the Centre became independent of the Institute of Race Relations and continued to flourish.

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In telling this story, Thorpe profiles the key artists who have been associated with the Centre. In the 1960s, there were Allina Ndebele, Azaria Mbatha, Michael Zondi. In the 1970s: Tito Zungu, Dan Rakgoathe, Raphael Magwaza, John Muafangejo, Bridgeman Nyawo, Vuminkosi Zulu, Cyprian Shilakoe. In the 1980s: Wiseman Mbambo, Zamowakhe Gumede, Derrick Nxumalo, Paul Sibisi, Bheki Myeni, Mziwakhe Mbatha, Henry Mshololo, Saint Mokoena, George Msimnag, and Bafana. In the early 1990s: Moses Buthelezi, Joseph Manana, Sokhaya Charles Nkosi, and Trevor Makhoba.

Reviewed by Lyn Graybill in African book publishing record (Oxford) 23 (3): 223, 1997.

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Tributaries: Quellen und Strömungen; Eine Ausstellung zeitgenössischer Kunst des südlichen Afrika; Bilder und Skulpturen = A view of contemporary South African art / edited by Ricky Burnett. [Johannesburg]: Communication Department, BMW South Africa, [1985]. 64pp. illus. (pt. color). Text in English and German. N7392.T82 1985 AFA. OCLC 19990829.

In retrospect, Ricky Burnett's "Tributaries" exhibition was ground breaking for South Africa; perhaps it was viewed so at the time. 1985 seems a long time ago and much has happened since then to transform the art scene in South Africa. "Tributaries" was a large show (111 works), whose curator reached out to artists not then in the mainstream, but whose work flowed, like tributaries into a river, toward a larger more panoramic view of contemporary South African art. In fact, it was the concept of tributaries, of diversity, rather than the mainstream, that motivated Burnett in his quest. It took some digging but he succeeded in unearthing "some compelling images" that shared, if nothing else, a common humanity. Portraits of the artists are included, along with illustrations of works.

For a critique of the skewed historical "package" of national art exhibitions, such as the 1985 "Tributaries" or the Cape Town Triennials, see T. H. King, "Tributaries and the Triennial: two South African art exhibitions," Critical arts (Johannesburg) 5 (3): 39-57, 1991. King addresses issues of selection criteria for exhibitions, access or lack of access, self-serving publicity and media attention versus real art criticism, and goals of sponsorship. The element of cultural dominance, intended or not, in these national art exhibitions has been overlooked in art historical writing in South Africa. The politics of exhibitions, he argues, is a legitimate, even critical theme in reconstructing South African art history. See also: Ivor Powell, "Killing the father: some thoughts on South African art and the BMW show," De Arte (Pretoria) 32: 45-47, April 1985.


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Van Robbroeck, Lize. The ideology and practice of community arts in South Africa, with particular reference to Katlehong and Alexandra Arts Centres. M.A. thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1991. 140 leaves. [unpublished]. qNX820.S6V36 1991a AFA. OCLC 44463771.

Community arts projects have been vitally important in South Africa, and Von Robbroeck argues, "could provide viable solutions to some of the cultural and educational problems which beset this country" (page 1). The ideological foundation of community arts in Britain and America has been largely absent in South Africa, but the potential is there. In Chapter 1, Von Robbroeck, discusses the revolutionary aims of the international community arts movement. In Chapter 2, she discusses the socio-political and educational factors that gave rise to the community arts movements in South Africa. Includes references to Rorke's Drift, Polly Street, Nyanga Art Centre, the Black Consciousness movement, and the Funda Arts Centre. In Chapter 3, the centerpeice of her thesis, she examines the aims and ideology, political orientation, management, relationship with the community, funding, marketing and education of two of South Africas community art centers: Katlehong and Alexandra.


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Verstraete, Frances. "Township art: context, form and meaning," pp. 152-171. In: African art in Southern Africa: from tradition to township / edited by Anitra Nettleton and David Hammond-Tooke. Johannesburg: Ad. Donker, 1989. illus. (pt. color), notes (pp. 245-246), bibliog. (page 246). N7391.7.A25 1989b AFA. OCLC 22501798.

The term "township art," if it is to be used at all, applies specifically to urban black art of the 1950s and 1960s, in particular painting and graphic art. (Gerard Sekoto was a precursor of "township art.") In an environment permeated with poverty, crime, bleakness, restrictions, physical and psychological pressures, artistic creativity, however limited, provided one outlet. The little painting that was done (given scarcity of opportunity, training and supplies) was a response to this oppression, an effort to humanize an inhuman situation. The themes of these paintings were invariably those of daily life in the township, not political in intent, but made so by the very circumstances of their creation and the expressive styles with which they were drawn or painted.

Verstraete singles out Mslaba Zwelidumile Mxgaji, known simply as Dumile, as the "best known exponent of the expressionistic style." His work confronts his own struggle to survive emotionally and physically in the hard urban environment from which there is no turning or escape. His concern is with the human condition, the hardships and suffering of life in the townships. As a true original, Dumile has had serious followers, such as Julian Motau or Winston Saoli, as well as a host of imitators, who have lowered the quality of "township art" by their pedestrian and now crassly commercial approach. Dumile went into exile [now deceased]; Motau is dead. The scene has changed -- Black Consciousness, the Soweto uprisings. These and new opportunities for black artists in South Africa from the 1970s on have altered the artistic landscape completely.


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Williamson, Sue and Ashraf Jamal. Art in South Africa: the future present. Cape Town: David Philips, 1996. 159pp. illus. (color). N7392.W54 1996x AFA. OCLC 37518816

This is a companion volume to Williamson's ground-breaking Resistance art in South Africa written from the perspective of seven turbulent years as witness to "the future present" in the New South Africa. Like the predecessor volume, Art in South Africa showcases recent work by forty artists, which collectively represents the flavor and sensibilities of art in the 1990s. Where is South African art in the "post-resistance" period? With apartheid on the scrap heap, what issues engage those artists who still want engagement? The curatorial guideline for artist Williamson and journalist Jamal is to seek "artists who express durable questions," who realize that the future may be as turbulent as the past. The present offering is certainly eclectic. With all the international attention on South Africa, the irruption of South African art exhibitions overseas, and the center-ring circus attraction of the 1995 Johannesburg Biennale, the past few years have been a heady, exhilarating and confused period for South African artists. It is not clear where this artistic vortex at the southern tip of the African continent is headed.

Reviewed by Joan Bellis, "Women who paint with the wolves," Mail and guardian review of books (Johannesburg) November 1996, pp. 1-2.

Reviewed by by Hazel Friedman, "SA art in technicolor," Mail and guardian review of books (Johannesburg) November 1996, page 2.


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Williamson, Sue. Resistance art in South Africa. Cape Town: David Philip, 1989. 160pp. illus. (color) N7392.W732 1990 AFA. [London: Catholic Institute for International Relations, 1990. OCLC 20722632].

The Soweto uprisings of 1976 jolted artists both white and black out of their complacency and galvanized them to express their resistance to apartheid. Sue Williamson, an artist and activist, has compiled the works of more than sixty South African artists in this visual survey of the many forms and varieties of resistance art. Themes of violence, aggression, exploitation and anguish are mixed with those of satire even whimsy. The popular arts have played an equally important role -- graffiti, peace parks, T-shirts, posters. The white artists, most of whom are formally trained, take an intellectual approach to resistance, while the black artists, most of whom are self-taught or informally trained in workshops and community arts programs, express a more visceral "frontline" urgency in their work. Illustrated in color. Vignettes of text allow each artist to say something about his vision and purpose.

Reviewed by A. du Plessis, "Two more or less glossy books: problems in art documentation of the Eighties" South African journal of art and architectural history (Pretoria) 2 (3 and 4): 102-107, 1991. Du Plessis takes Williamson to task for a superficial, pandering, and unscholarly treatment of an important subject. While commending the attractive reproductions of art, he finds little else to praise. The criteria for including artists, the implicit nature of "resistance art" within the South African context, and the impressionistic tone of her commentary are all challenged by du Plessis. Ultimately her book "perpetuates the meaningless quest for identifying a `national identity' of South African art" (page 105).

Also reviewed by Andries Walter Olphant, "Resistance art by Sue Williamson," Staffrider (Johannesburg) 9 (2): 89-92, 1990; by Mary Molinaro in Art documentaion (Tucson) 9 (3): 154-155, fall 1990; by Janet L. Stanley in African book publishing record (Oxford) 16 (4): 241-242, 1990.


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Younge, Gavin, 1947- Art of the South African townships. New York: Rizzoli, 1988. 96pp. illus. (pt. color). N7394.H66Y68 1988X AFA. OCLC 17952862.

Younge's book, which is timely, well-illustrated and attractively produced by an international art publisher, has been disappointingly reviewed in part because of a missed opportunity. It is also criticized because Younge's category "township art" is problematic and politically fraught, and he includes a number of rural-based artists. It is also limited primarily to artists in the Cape area without explaining why other "township" areas, like Johannesburg, are excluded. Still, the visual catalog provided here is valuable exposure for artists whose work has not been widely seen or documented. Most of the art works illustrated date from the 1980s. The political and social context within which black South African artists work necessarily defines the content of that work, and this comes across clearly. Younge's text covers: Township art and politics; Art training and "Bantu education"; Township life and art; and Artists and the struggle.

Artists featured: Phatuma Seoka, Noria Mabasa, Titus Moteyane, Johannes Maswanganyi, Tito Zungu, Nelson Mukhuba, Zamokwakhe Gumede, Tommy Motswai, Derrick Nxumalo, Bernard M. Tshatsinde, Johannes Phokela, Billy Mandindi, Mpolokeng Ramphomane, Emile Maurice, Randy Hartzenberg, Craig Masters, Luthando Lupuwana, Madi Phala, Mboyi Moshidi, Paul Sibisi, David Hlongwane, Hamilton Budaza, Sfiso Mkame, Sam Nhlengethwa, Peter Clarke, Avashoni Mainganye, Nat Mokgotsi, Sydney Holo, Thamsanqwa Mnyela, Jackson Hlungwane, Jim Ngumo, John Muafangejo (Namibia). There is also a brief section on house painters.

Reviewed by Charles Ben Pike in African arts (Los Angeles) 22 (4): 83, August 1989; by Frieda Harmsen in South African journal of cultural and art history (Pretoria) 3 (3): 284-286, July 1989; by Anitra Nettleton in South African journal of cultural and art history (Pretoria) 3 (3): 287-290, July 1989; by Amanda Jephson and Nicolaas Vergunst, "Imijondolo: black and white in gold," ADA: art, design, architecture (Cape Town) no. 6: 46, [1988]; by Jacques Alvarez-Pereyre in Third world quarterly (London) 11 (3): 263-266, 1988.

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