Fired – An exhibition of South African ceramics

Ceramic figure of a woman carrying a baby. Sculpted by Nhlanhla Nsudwane and painted by Mickey Chonco, Ardmore Ceramic Studio, KwaZulu-Natal, 2008. Photograph by Iziko Photographer, Carina Beyer.

Ceramics or objects made of fired clay form an important part of the permanent collections of Iziko Museums. The exhibition showcases a selection of these rich and diverse ceramic holdings. The focus is on ceramics made in South Africa from earliest times through to the contemporary, including inspirational examples of ceramics from Asia and Europe. Indigenous southern African pottery was mainly collected during field trips and archaeological excavations. In addition, since the late 1980s, the ceramic collection of particularly the Social History Collections department, was expanded through the purchase of modern and contemporary South African ceramics. The exhibition reveals the beauty, and at the same time, the multi-layered meanings of ceramic works.

International Museum Day Book Sale

Time:10h00 - 15h00

Commemorate International Museum Day at the annual Iziko Museums book sale. A wide range of books, journals, posters and exhibitions catalogues will be on sale.

Iziko What's on

'It's not easy' and 'Walking Man'

Walking Man (2008), by Charles Maggs and It’s not easy (2004), by Ed Young, are videos in which the artists assimilate elements of popular culture, appropriating material from the rich reservoir of visual material provided by the cinematic media and subverting the roles of film icons of movie history.

In It’s not easy, Young re-edits footage from Superman films to refashion the hero into a real man who is wracked by anger, despair and self-doubt and is progressively reduced to a drunken shadow of his former self. The film plays to a soundtrack of the same title by American band Five for Fighting, whose song became a hit anthem in the United States following the attacks of September 2001. Charles Maggs, in Walking Man, likewise isolates and reinterprets material taken from James Bond films, with Roger Moore as the protagonist. Triggering the involuntary memory of the viewer, who never sees his face, the video raises issues around space and time and evokes the concept of the eternal return. The music is a remix of French glitch-pop pioneer O. Lamm’s ‘Bed of the Cylinder in Three Concentric Zones’ by Sutekh.

In 2008, It’s not easy was exhibited at the Hayward Gallery, London, together with work by the Mexican artist, Artemio.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4671
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za.

15 Billion BC

Join us and look back more than 15 billion years in time, to the very edge of the observable universe! Learn about the structure and components of the universe and how to recognise the star patterns we see with the naked eye.

27 June – 15 July

Monday to Friday - 13h00

Suitable for teenagers and adults.

150 Years of the Cape Argus

150 Years of the Cape Argus Cape Town of old: A tram passing the Standard Bank building in Adderley St in 1939, one of the memorable pictures to be featured in the Cape Argus exhibition

One of the biggest and best known daily newspapers in this country celebrates its 150th anniversary with a fascinating exhibition of its photographs, cartoons, front pages and memorabilia.

Through the lenses of its award-winning photographers, the Cape Argus will tell the exciting story of life over the past 150 years, covering the early days, the tragic disasters, the medical miracles, the turbulent 1980s, the Mandela era – depicting the old and new, illustrating the city’s amazing growth, high-lighting the funny side, the birth pains, and the last laughs.

1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective

Introduction

This large exhibition, which occupies the entire Gallery, showcases the history and diversity of modern and contemporary South African art from the time of the formation of the Union of South Africa a century ago to the present.

The exhibition covers the period when modern South African art started to articulate itself in relation to the rest of the world. The selection, primarily from the Iziko South African National Gallery permanent collection is supplemented by works on loan from other public and corporate collections around the country. Audiences can look forward to modern gems and rare treasures by Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern, George Pemba, Maggie Laubser, Gerard Bhengu, JH Pierneef, Durant Sihlali and Dumile Feni. The exhibition acknowledges important developments in local art history such as Polly Street, Rorke’s Drift, DRUM magazine,

Resistance Art, and the rise of South Africa’s energetic contemporary art scene.

A rare overview of South African art. Don’t miss it!

Enquiries

Shameem Adams
Tel: +27 021 467 4663
Email: sadams@iziko.org.za

Curatorial Statement

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.- Mahatma Gandhi

This extensive exhibition, occupying the whole gallery, has been produced to showcase the history and diversity of South African art. It is intended to provide insight into the soul of our complex nation, from the hilltops of the Union Buildings a hundred years ago to the townships of Cape Town today.

The exhibition has two primary aims: one to show works from the permanent collection and secondly to give a survey of the diversity of art production from around the country. It acknowledges important developments in local art history such as the articulation of a modern art movement, Polly Street, Rorkes Drift, Resistance Art, and the rise of South Africa’s energetic contemporary art scene, the subject of much recent attention abroad. 

Art does not exist in isolation and with this in mind the exhibition endeavours to simultaneously reflect on important moments over this period. Tretchikoff’s Herb Seller (1948) − the first time a Tretchikoff has been shown at the National Gallery − is set against the backdrop of United Party and National Party election posters. Willie Bester’s conviction to make art “as a nasty tasting medicine for awakening consciences” hints at the scars of the past that continue to impact on our conditions in the present. At the same time the present has its own challenges, as reflected tongue-in-cheek in Stuart Bird’s Zuma Biscuits (2007). 

While the exhibition aims to showcase prominent artists and some iconic works of art in the permanent collection such as Jane Alexander’s Butcher Boys (1985/86) and Andries Botha’sAlleenspraak in Paradys (1991), many of the loans open a window on some less known artists and pieces such as Jabulani Ntuli’s detailed pencil drawings from the 1940s. 

It is a fact that colonialism and apartheid have robbed generations of black people in this country of their dignity. But it is not all doom and gloom. The emergence of black photographers responding to black conditions in DRUM magazine show a deeper insight and range of emotions in the representation of black people. This is reflected in the humiliation of imprisonment for trivial offences under apartheid at the Old Fort prison in Johannesburg seen in Bob Gosani’s 1954 photo to Ranjith Kally’s depiction of acclaimed visiting musician Tony Scott at Pumpy Naidoo’s Goodwill Lounge jazz club in Durban in 1960. 

Deborah Bell’s Lover’s in the Cinema (1985) speaks on the universal theme of love, something that we can all identify with. Both Brett Murray (Xhosa, 2002) and Sthembiso Sibisi (Going Home, 2005) use humour to comment on the local condition. For locals Ed Young’s Bruce Gordon [Torino] (2005) may have special significance recalling the conceptual piece from 2003, where a bar owner (a found object) was purchased by the National Gallery and the acquisition number tattooed on the artwork (or bar owner’s arm). 

While reflecting on art from around the country during this period it is also important to take cognisance of the perils of nationalism. I am reminded of the graffiti painted on a wall on the corner of Hunter and Cavendish streets in Yeoville, Johannesburg, near where I used to live. It quotes from Nelson Mandela’s 1994 inauguration speech, “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.” Only fourteen years later in 2008, one of the most traumatic events in the democracy has been the xenophobic attacks, which left many bodies in its wake and thousands mentally scarred. With this in mind we have also included a selection from the exhibition US − curated by Bettina Malcomess and Simon Njami − featuring a handful of young artists commenting on the issue and bringing the making of art in this country full circle. 

This exhibition also coincides with a new vision for the National Gallery, one that aims to be more inclusive in the audiences we appeal to, more critical in the selection of our exhibitions and in the work that we acquire, more diverse in the composition and views of the people that make up our committees, and more representative of the diversity of cultures that make up this multifaceted country. And all of this on a national level.

Curator 
Riason Naidoo

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This exhibition would not have been possible without the generous loans and cooperation from the following institutions and individuals:

Durban Art Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Tatham Art Gallery, Pretoria Art Museum, Bruce Campbell-Smith, Killie Campbell Collections (University of KwaZulu-Natal), Standard Bank Gallery, BHP Billiton, Sanlam Art Gallery, Michael Stevenson, Goodman Gallery Cape, Wits Art Museum, University of Cape Town Works of Art Collection, Mayibuye Centre (University of Western Cape), Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, Iziko Museums (Social History Collections), Baileys African History Archive (BAHA), Bailey-Seippel Gallery, Seippel Gallery, Brodie Stevenson, Gallery MOMO, Blank Projects, Heidi Erdmann Contemporary, Stellenbosch Modern and Contemporary (SMAC), Robert Prince, Peter Mckenzie, Pierre Fouche, Leopold Podlashuc, Rhona Dubow, Peter Robin Mills, Chris Ledochowski, Bridget Baker, Mabasa Family, Angela Lloyd-Read, Candice Breitz, Robin Rhode, Rashid Lombard, Rafs Mayet, James Webb, Adrian Kholer, Pierre Fouche, Jenny Altshuler, Jenny Gordon, Dawood Petersen, Omar Badsha, Ed Young, Willie Bester and Lisa Brice. 

A special thanks to Iziko Museums and related departments for funds and skills relocated towards this exhibition: Finance, Institutional Advancement and Human Resources. This exhibition has been a team effort that involved all the curators and staff at the National Gallery. Thanks must go to Pam Warne for her advice on photography and video, Hayden Proud for his knowledge of the collection, and Carol Kaufmann for the beadwork and staffs on display. Robyn Leigh-Cedras for coordinating the numerous loans, and together with Nigel Scholtz and Brian Gwavu, for their tireless efforts in driving around, often to the far corners of the Cape, to collect artworks. William Visagie, Majiet Issacs, Quinton Fortuin and Mnoneleli Mbali all assisted with technical installation and preparation. George Reeves for the design. 

Andrea Lewis deserves special praise for her commitment and enthusiasm and overall coordination of different aspects of the show. Lastly but not least I would like to thank Joe Dolby, who with his years of institutional experience, generous sharing of his knowledge and open mind was a most valuable partner in crime from the beginning of the process − when we travelled around the country together to look at works in other collections − to the final label being placed.

2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition

David Maitland/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008©

“Nothing speaks louder than an evocative photograph that stirs the imagination, tugs at the heart strings and engages the mind” – Mark Carwardine, Chair of the judging panel for the 2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition.

The competition, owned by London’s Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine, is regarded as the international leader in the artistic representation of the natural world. This year the exhibition attracted a record-breaking 32 351 images from 82 countries, from both amateur and professional photographers. The exhibition includes 83 of the very best images, across 17 categories, chosen for their originality, creativity and sheer drama.

The exhibition is brought out by NHU AFRICA and is supported by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and co-funded by Iziko Museums of Cape Town. For more information visitwww.nhuafrica.com.

2012: the end or the beginning?

he famous Mayan Long Count would seem to indicate that, after three failed worlds, we are living in the fourth - and that will come to an end (perhaps) on 22 December 2012. Whether the Long Count defines the end of the world or not, the astronomical calculations that led to it are fascinating and indicate an astounding and accurate observation of those heavenly bodies that form part of the universe around us.

Until 13 April

• Monday to Friday – 14:00 (excluding 6 February, 5 & 21 March)
• Tuesday evening - 20:00 (& sky talk)
• Saturday - 14:30
• Sunday - 14:30
• 21 March – 14:30

Suitable for teenagers and adults.

About Muslim women today

An exhibition About Muslim women today opens on 9 August at the Iziko Bo-Kaap Museum. The museum focuses on the history of the Bo-Kaap as well as the social history of Islam at the Cape.

About Muslim women today explores the everyday lives of Muslim women living in surrounding areas of Cape Town. The project aim has been to give Muslim women a space to take control of the way in which they are portrayed. The content was developed through a consultative process of a workshop, planning meetings and individual contributions. Resulting from this process ten women were selected and interviewed. Although all ten are Muslim, the exhibition explores the idea of multi-facetted individuals and includes aspects of their lives that are not exclusive to being Muslim. 

The women were selected in an informal manner. They were either part of the group that participated in planning the exhibition or known to a member of that group. All the women are active in the the public sphere. Some are career-focused while others are deeply involved in work in their communities. A few managed to combine a career with community involvement. 

The interviews sought to highlight themes about identity and social issues, rather than provide detailed personal histories. Their photographs were taken either at work or at home. In addition to these, photographs from the women’s family albums have been incorporated into the exhibition. The result is an exhibition that focuses both on the private and public spheres. They variously face gender barriers at work and home, deal with social problems in their neighbourhoods and struggle with religious concerns in an imperfect world. 

Also part of the exhibition is a video on a few selected Muslim women produced by Munier Parker, film maker who lives in the Bo-Kaap.

African Dinosaurs

Cast of the most complete skeleton of Heterodontosaurus found to date. Photographs by Iziko Photographer, Carina Beyer.

African Dinosaurs tells the story of dinosaurs from an African perspective. Realistic dioramas of ancient Karoo landscapes with fleshed-up reconstructions of some of our South African dinosaurs help bring the fossils back to life.
 

Enquiries:

Afro-Brazil: African slaves in Brazil

Afro-Brazil is a collaboration between Iziko’s Social History Collections and Art Collections Departments. The exhibition was conceived by Dr Stefan Oschmann, head of the Africa Music Festival in Würzburg. It consists of images of Brazilian slaves of African origin with a contextualising history. The images are reproduced from the cartes de visite of Alberto Henschel and from photographs of Marc Ferrez. The original photographs are in the collections of the Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde, Leipzig and the Instituto Moreira Salles Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. ‘Afro-Brazil’ is supported by the German Consulate in Cape Town.

Enquiries: Fiona Clayton, Tel. 021 467 7219 or email fclayton@iziko.org.za

[Include publication related to this exhibition. File name: Afro-Brazil Saunders Brochure.pdf]

Aircraft Model Building Course

Iziko Museums in partnership with Sakhikamva Foundation invites all aviation enthusiasts and future engineers aged, 8-14 on a 2-day Aircraft Building Course.

Explore the world of aviation, the theory of flight, build aircraft models and design your own aircraft manufacturing company.

Time: 09h00 - 12h00
Cost: R120 for the two-day course
Venue: Iziko South African Museum, 15 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town

Contact Lisa Combrink,
Tel: 021 481 3952
Cell: 083 786 6966
Email: lcombrink@iziko.org.za

Albert Adams Retrospective Exhibition

The first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of works by the renowned and well loved Albert Adams draws from local and international, private and public collections and is curated by Marilyn Martin, Joe Dolby and Andrea Lewis, with invaluable advice and support from Edward Glennon in London. 

Adams was born in Johannesburg in 1929, but grew up in Cape Town. As a young artist he was unable to study at the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Art because of apartheid policies. He was however awarded a scholarship to study at the Slade School of Art in London where he studied from 1953 to 1956. He then enrolled for a brief course of study at the Munich under the internationally renowned artist, Oskar Kokoschka. He returned to Cape Town where he exhibited widely, but in 1960 decided to leave South Africa for good and settled in London. In 1979, he was appointed to the staff of the City University, London, where he lectured in art history for 18 years. After a brief illness, Albert Adams passed away on 31 December 2006.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue.

Alexis Preller: Africa, the sun and Shadows

Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows is a long overdue retrospective of the work of Alexis Preller (1911 –1975). During the course of his 40-year career, Preller concentrated solely on his art, working daily in his Pretoria studio and producing a vast number of exuberantly coloured, imaginative compositions.

Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows showcases a wide selection of the artist’s work, as well as a number of artefacts, documents and photographs relevant to his life. A contribution to understanding Preller as one of South Africa’s pre-eminent artists, and as a pioneer who defined an African style in the 20th century, the exhibition follows the last major exhibition of the artist’s oeuvre – the Retrospective Exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum in 1972. The exhibition is accompanied by Alexis Preller, compiled by art historian, Esmé Berman, and artist, Karel Nel. This comprehensive monograph on the artist consists of two volumes: an extensive biography of Preller and a collection of his works.

Enquiries

Hayden Proud
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4676
Email: hproud@iziko.org.za.

Arab Priest

Sibongile van Damme, CEO SAHRA and Rooksana Omar CEO of Iziko Museums at the launch of the exhibition of Irma Stern’s artwork, ‘Arab Priest’ Photograph by © Bettie Lambrecht

Iziko Museums is proud to partner with the Department of Arts and Culture, the South African Heritage Resources Agency and the Qatar Museums Authority, in hosting Irma Stern’s ‘Arab Priest’ at the Iziko South African National Gallery. One of the most significant works of Stern’s so-called “Zanzibar period” of the 1940s, the opportunity to access this privately owned national treasure is not to be missed.

Enquiries: Shameem Adams 
Tel. 021 481 3974
email sadams@iziko.org.za

ART DECO SCULPTURE LECTURE BY GEOFF BUR

Barry Lecture Theatre, Iziko South African Museum
Thursday 24 th November 17:30
Members R40, Non-Members R60, Students R20
Geoff Burr is the co-owner of Burr & Muir Antiques, specializing in Art Nouveau and Art Deco and 20th Century Design.   He has lectured extensively and has acted as curator and  consultant for exhibitions on Art Nouveau and Art Deco and Art Glass. Art Deco sculpture from the 1920s and 1930s will be covered, with a brief overview of the history of bronze and ivory sculpture and a look at the influences on Art Deco sculpture.  Artists under consideration are  Demetre Chiparus, Ferdinand Preiss, Josef Lorenzl, Claire Colinet, Gerdago and Bruno Zach.

Art from Rorke's Drift

On exhibition is a selection of prints that were acquired in the 1970s, as well as prints and drawings that were acquired in 2006. The latest acquisitions have enabled the Gallery to produce a more representative exhibition of artists who studied at the art centre at Rorke’s Drift in KwaZulu-Natal.

The three tapestries on display highlight the important role that weaving played at the centre. On view are works by artists such as John Muafangejo, Azaria Mbatha, Vuminkosi Zulu, Vincent Baloyi and Selby Kunene.

Enquiries

Joe Dolby
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: jdolby@iziko.org.za.

ART WORKSHOP WITH STANLEY COHEN & VAN ZYL LA GRANGE

Iziko South African National Gallery
Wednesday 13th June
10:00-13:00
Members R130 and Non-Members R160
Limited to 18 people

Well-known art educators Stanley Cohen and Van Zyl La Grange will be holding an art workshop based on exhibitions showing at the Iziko South African National Gallery.  Basic drawing materials will be provided, including paper, but participants must bring a glue stick, special pencils and any other special materials they would like to use.  A further list of materials required may be issued to participants nearer the time.
 

Astronomy of the Great Pyramid

The pyramids of ancient Egypt were literally “stargates” - from where the spirits of dead pharaohs were believed to ascend to the stars. The largest of all pyramids - the Great Pyramid of Khufu - contains an elaborate system of shafts. At the time the pyramid was built, these were directed towards the most important stars in the sky. The planetarium, since it can be set back to ancient times, is the ideal device for demonstrating these alignments - and for exploring speculations.

Until 22 July!

Monday to Friday – 14:00 (excluding 6, 16, 20-24 June)

Tuesday evening - 20:00 (& sky talk) (excluding 21 June)
Saturday - 14:30
Sunday - 14:30
16 June – 14:30

Suitable for teenagers and adults.

Baroque Meets Modern

Children viewing Ferdinand Bol, Portrait of a Woman (17th century) and Paul Emsley, Fatalist II (1984). Photograph by Iziko Photographer, Carina Beyer.

This exhibition is a reconfiguration of the Iziko Michaelis Collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings. The Old Town House has been re-hung to resemble the way in which pictures were hung in Dutch homes in the 1600's. Modern abstractions have also been inserted into this re-hang, reminding us that the mercantile and democratic Dutch of the 17th century were among the first active dealers and collectors who established the broader precedent of the art collector and the art market as we know it today.

Enquiries: 
Hayden Proud
Tel. 021 481 3965
email hproud@iziko.org.za

Beads: Ritual and Ornamentation

The small but rather beautiful ‘Beads: Ritual and Ornamentation’ exhibition features prehistoric and ethnographic beads from southern Africa. Objects on display include Nassarius kraussianus shell beads, dating to 77 000 years ago. These are among the earliest beads discovered anywhere in the world. Prehistoric beads used as grave goods are also shown. More recent beads include colourful neck ornaments, 20th century tortoise-shell cosmetic containers decorated with beads, anisidlokolo (otter-skin cap), iqhina (necklet) and an umtseke (arm ornament) worn by Xhosa diviners.

Two posters, one of men adorned with beads in ritual dancing postures, as shown in a drawing by Elisabeth Mannsfeld of a rock painting in Ngolosa, Eastern Cape (Frobenius Collection), and one of diviners at a ceremony in East London, Eastern Cape (1968), contextualize the exhibition.

Biko: The quest for a true humanity

This travelling exhibition was developed by the Apartheid Museum in Gauteng. Biko: The quest for a true humanity honours the memory of South African political activist, Bantu Stephen Biko, and his death while in police detention in 1977. It examines the African and American roots of Biko's thinking, traces his life and leadership role in the anti-apartheid struggle, and highlights his vision of a new society in South Africa. Pictures, messages from Biko’s friends, Biko’s famous teachings, and stories about his life, are included in the exhibition. Steve Biko is regarded by many as one of the most outstanding intellectuals of twentieth century South Africa. Student leader, philosopher, visionary and revolutionary, Biko made a vital contribution to the struggle against apartheid. His ideas on mobilizing people to resist oppression by encouraging them to develop their own sense of self-worth pioneered the Black Consciousness Movement.

Enquiries: Gerald Klinghardt, Tel. 021 481 3836 or email gklinghardt@iziko.org.za.

Bo-Kaap: Walking and talking our heritage/history

Iziko Summer School 2011 delegates on a walkabout in the Bo-Kaap.

Time: 11h00–13h00
Venue: Iziko Bo-Kaap Museum
Fee: R50
The walk focuses on the architecture of the area, including the oldest mosque and the f irst house, as w ell as the olde st graveyard in Cape Town, where some of the local founders of Islam are buried.

Breaking the Silence: A Luta Continua

A large crowd gathered to attend the opening of Breaking the Silence: A Luta Continua, which took place on 15 July 2006. The event was a gracious reminder of the rights of every human being, through singing, recounting memories and saluting long-gone comrades. In her keynote address, former TRC Commissioner Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela affirmed and encouraged those present, as well as the work of the Human Rights Media Centre.

The exhibition uses media such as scrapbooks, body-maps, photographs, memory cloths, drawings, paintings and art banners to raise awareness of a number of social issues. These include the Khulumani lawsuit against 23 multinational corporations for their role in aiding and abetting apartheid; the unfinished business of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC); and the UN campaign against torture and rights of survivors. The exhibition is the culmination of four years of collaborative work between the Human Rights Media Centre and the Khulumani Support Group – Western Cape.

Enquiries: Wieke van Delen, Tel. 021 467 7203 (office) or email wvandelen@iziko.org.za

Candice Breitz: Extra!

This exhibition was created on the set of the soap opera Generations – the most watched television programme on the African continent. In Extra!, Candice Breitz inserts herself into a number of actual scenes from the series, resonating as a conspicuously white presence amongst an otherwise black cast. The resulting images are simultaneously thought provoking and uncomfortably amusing – raising questions about what it might mean to be white in the context of contemporary South Africa. The tour of Candice Breitz: Extra! to Cape Town is generously supported by the Goethe-Institut, South Africa, and the Standard Bank Gallery.

Enquiries: Pam Warne
Tel. 021 481 3956
email pwarne@iziko.org.za

Cape of Stars

Not only is Table Mountain known for its unique geology and flora, but within its shadows significant pioneering studies have shed light on the nature of the night sky above.                                               

26 March – 9 April

Monday to Friday – 13:00

Suitable for teenagers and adults

Cecil Skotnes: A Private View

Cecil Skotnes is an icon of the South African art world. Admired for his painting, he is well known for his pioneering role in art education in South Africa and for his part in the Amadlozi group that sought to work at the intersection of African and European art. His Johannesburg home was for many decades an ‘open house’ and it became a hub for artists of all generations and from many parts of the city and, indeed, the world. In Cape Town, this spirit of creative hospitality continued. His work has encompassed many media; most recognisably the large coloured wood-panels that grew out of the making of blocks for relief printing, but also portfolios of prints, murals and public commissions, oil paintings, ceramics, tapestries and sculpture.

This exhibition focuses on the more intimate work that is part of Cecil Skotnes’ extensive production – the drawings and cartoons, the watercolours, the prints and the works on paper. They offer an insight into the creative community he was part of, and the way in which he researched his subjects, constructed his own world and helped shape a vibrant period in South African art history. The exhibition includes letters and documents collected over five decades, objects and personal memorabilia, as well as a collection of objects from his home and his studio.

Celestial Clouds – A Celebration of Astro-photography

Images of our Milky Way and neighbouring galaxies reveal astonishing beauty. Aside from the multitude of stars, glowing clouds of gas are seen entangled with labyrinths of dark dust lanes. The clouds are the reservoir of material, from which new stars are formed, and to which old stars expel enriched material. They are fundamental to the existence of stars - and to our own well-being in the universe.

23 July – 4 December

Monday to Friday – 14:00 (excluding 1 Aug, 5 Sep, 7, 28-39 Nov, 1 & 2 Dec)

Tuesday evening - 20:00 (& sky talk) (excluding 6 Sep, 29 Nov)

Saturday - 14:30

Sunday - 14:30

9 August – 14:30

Suitable for teenagers and adults.

Chasing the Devil – the search for Africa’s fighting spirit

Time: 18:30 for 19:00
Venue: Whale Well at the South African Museum
Cost: Members - free of charge; Non-members - a R30 donation
Speaker: Tim Butcher
Topic: Chasing the Devil – the search for Africa’s fighting spirit

Best-selling author (and proud Cape Town resident) Tim Butcher describes a 350 mile trek he made through the jungles of Liberia and Sierra Leone, some of the most war-ravaged territory on the African continent. Following a trail blazed in 1935 by the English author, Graham Greene, Tim gains a uniquely authentic perspective on a troubled region facing up to the challenge of rebuilding’.

Thanks

Maxine

Maxine Davies
Co-ordinator and Administrator
Friends of  Iziko South African Museum
P O Box 61 Cape Town 8000
Telephone             +27 (0)21 481 3913     

(Wednesdays and Fridays only)

Facsimile: +27 (0)21 481 3993
Cell:072 225 6893     
email: samfriends@iziko.org.za

Children's Photography Exhibition

An important component of the Month of Photography event – and one that should not be overlooked - are the children’s photography exhibitions on view at the Iziko South African National Gallery Annexe until 1 November. All work on show is the result of children’s workshops initiated by Cape Africa Platform, Iziko Education and Public Programmes, MoP4, the Greyton Historical Association and ‘Word of Art’. 

Inspired by ‘Kids and Cameras’ projects, the workshops focussed on learners from historically disadvantaged backgrounds.  Further details about the workshops can be found in the Education and Public Programmes section of the website.

My Life 

This photographic project centred on the Grade Five class of Greyton Primêr, a primary school that caters for children who live in Greyton and on farms in the area. After some basic instruction, the thirty-two learners were each given a disposable flash camera and encouraged to document their lives during the following two-week period. This they did with gusto, producing a remarkable set of images.

My Life, Our World

My Life, Our World is a collaborative project between Cape Africa Platform, Iziko Education and Public Programmes and MoP4.

Working with Grade Eight learners, from the Manenberg, Nyanga and Paarl area, this project aims to encourage youth to tell their own stories through the medium of photography.

This programme is inspired by various other ‘kids and camera’ projects e.g.: ‘Somoho Mountain of Hope’ (Soweto), Diana Segal (‘My Life’, youth from Greyton area) and ‘Born into Brothels’ (youth from red light district, India).

Happy Mobiles Project

This project, originally designed by ‘Word of Art’, assists children to produce colourful and interesting mobiles which will be donated to Children’s Hospitals to hang above the beds of patients to create a more cheerful atmosphere in an otherwise fairly bleak environment.

Open for viewing Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm. Closing event: November 1. 

Enquiries

Kathy
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4669
Email: kcoates@iziko.org.za

Ayesha
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4697 
Email: aprice@iziko.org.za.

Clock making workshop

Spring into action and join Iziko Museums for some holiday fun. 
A cool place to explore, art, nature, people and more...

Travel through time and create a unique and personalised timepiece to treasure. Decorate a redundant plastic CD with your chosen theme, colours and clock hand. Learn to attach the mechanism and see your masterpiece come to life. Batteries included.

Time: 10:30am to 1:30PM
Venue: Iziko Slave Lodge, C/O Adderly and Wale St.
Cost: R50 For the class fee including all the materials

Suitable for all ages

For booking and enquiries contact:
Lungi Mvimbi
Tel: 021 481 3823 email: imvibi@iziko.org.za

Lindinxiwa Mahlasela
Tel: 021 467 7239 email: imahlasela@iziko.org.za

COME UP AND SEE OUR ETCHINGS WITH JOE DOLBY

Iziko South African National Gallery
Tuesday 6th September at 11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40
Limited to 10 people

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

The sale of the prints from the Friends portfolio provides an opportune time for a visit to the Print Room to discuss and look at a selection of prints from the Permanent Collection.
The Curator of Prints and Drawings, Joe Dolby, will discuss the history of printmaking illustrated by the prints selected. He will also discuss in detail the prints from the portfolio.

Community Punching Bags

The exhibition, Community Punching Bags, is the outcome of a series of workshops with educators and learners, in collaboration with Johann van der Schijff, artist and New Media lecturer at the University of Cape Town, and Iziko Education and Public Programmes. The project aims to raise awareness around issues often not spoken about in the school environment, such as violence, stereotyping, discrimination, racism, and xenophobia. Walkabouts will be conducted with teachers and learners on weekdays 10:00–16:00, and on weekends by appointment. A workshop will be held during Youth Week.

Enquiries: Kathy Coates 
Tel. 021 481 3954
email kcoates@iziko.org.za
or Lungi Mvimbi
Tel. 021 481 3823 or
email lmvimbi@iziko.org.za

Computer robotics, aviation And electricity holiday workshop

3-day holiday workshop for grades 1-4

• Learn to make crocodiles, boats and tops spin
• learn what makes aeroplanes fly
• Use an electrical kit to make a light glow
• Supervised exploration of the museum

Pluss lots more......

TIme: 9:00 to 12:00 Or 1:00 to 4:00
Cost:R450.00 for 3 day workshop ( includes a healthy shack )
Venue:Iziko South African Museum, 25 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town

Booking and info details:

Email: nomfazi@ortsa.org
Tel: 021 9462214
Web: www.orttech.org.za
Only 18 children per workshop, Receipt of payment will secure your booking.

CULTURAL HERITAGE / CULTURAL IDENTITY

THE ROLE OF CONSERVATION LECTURE BY ANGELA ZEHNDER
Iziko South African National Gallery Tuesday 13th December 11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40

The exceptional conservator Angela Zehnder attended the special international 16 Triennial Conference in Lisbon, Portugal from 19th to 23rd September 2011.  She will present an illustrated talk about the conference,  the  papers  that were given as well as beautiful photographs of Lisbon.  Refreshments will be served.

Dada South?

Founded in Zürich in 1916, the Dada movement rejected traditional artistic and cultural values. Through its radical ‘anti-art’ stance, artists associated with Dada disrupted conventions of the modernist age and had a profound impact on future forms of creative practice. The resurgence of Neo Dada movements in the 1960s rejuvenated these radical ideas. 

Dada’s legacy is one of fierce political potential through radical disruptions of accepted forms. For some South African artists working during the decades of oppression and isolation of the apartheid era (1948–1994), Dada strategies were a significant influence on their resistance tactics, and one which is finding its way back into the expressions of a new generation of young, contemporary practitioners.

Curated by Roger van Wyk and Kathryn Smith, the exhibition draws together works by South African artists dating from the late 1960s to the present, representing a range of avant-garde positions in the aftermath of Dada, including works by Wopko

Jensma, Neil Goedhals, Jane Alexander, Lucas Seage, Candice Breitz and Kendell Geers, among others. In an adjoining space, original Dada works, including films and publications, will be assembled for exhibition in South Africa for the first time.

A series of seminars and public lectures will accompany the exhibition as part of Iziko Summer School 2010.

Dada South? is made possible through a partnership with the Goethe-Institut and the support of the National Arts Council of South Africa, Pro Helvetia, Mondriaan Foundation, Culturesfrance and others. International loan institutions include: Institute For Foreign Cultural Relations, Stuttgart; Berlin Gallery, Berlin; John Heartfield Archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin; Kunsthaus Zürich; De Stijl Archives, Netherlands and Institute for Art History, Den Haag.

Enquiries

Nadja Daehnke
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4673
Email: Andrea Lewis, alewis@iziko.org.za.

Darwin and the Cape

2009 saw the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, as well as the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, On the Origin of Species. His theory on the evolution of life through natural selection provided a scientific foundation for understanding how life diversified on Earth, and it is the theory that holds biology together. Darwin visited the Cape in 1836 on his journey around the world on the HMS Beagle. He corresponded with naturalists at the Cape, including previous staff of the South African Museum.

This exhibition provides an overview of Darwin’s life, his contribution to biology, and his relationship with the Cape.

Enquiries

Olga Jeffries
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3897
Email: ojeffries@iziko.org.za

Davy Dragon goes to the Moon

Davy Dragon finds a strange bug that seems to be lost. He thinks it is a moon-bug and decides to take the bug back to the Moon. But is the Moon the bug’s home? Join us and find out!

Especially for children aged 5 to 12.

Davy Dragon’s Guide to the Night Sky

Saturday - 12:00
Sunday - 12:00 

Especially for children aged 5 – 10

Come and join Davy Dragon while he learns all about the sky above so that he can fulfil his dream of becoming the world’s best flying dragon! This is a playful introduction to astronomy especially for the under 10s. Just right for inquiring young minds.

Davy Dragon’s Guide to the Night Sky

Dis-ease

DIS-EASE, a new generation of video art from the Rijksakademie archives, is a video compilation screening that reflects on the power of the medium, as explored by some 27 artists of 17 different nationalities ranging in diversity from Brazil to Taiwan. The artists produced these works, for the most part, during residencies at the Rijksakademie in the Netherlands. The works carry explicit cultural overtones and idiosyncratic nuances that suggest the artists' origins. But what begins to reveal itself is how globalisation has permeated the very fabric of this so-called 'village'. Gathered under the title 'dis-ease', the videos in this exhibition investigate feelings of unease and disquiet. Durban-based artist and curator, Greg Streak, curated the exhibition on a visit to Amsterdam in early 2008.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za.

Drawing on Madiba: An Exhibition of Zapiro's Work on Nelson Mandela

An exhibition of cartoons by Zapiro pays tribute to Nelson Mandela. The selection of works was first shown at the Nelson Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, and is the last of six exhibitions put together as part of Madiba’s 90th birthday celebrations.

Zapiro’s message in honour of Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday:

“[Mr] Mandela has appeared in my cartoons as the child with the potential to become what he dreams of, as the prisoner embodying a nation imprisoned, as the banned face of the banned struggle, as David slaying the apartheid Goliath, as the bird breaking out of the apartheid cage, as the genie who won’t get back in the bottle, as Moses parting the waters for the masses, and as Moses leading them into the promised land, as the sunrise at the dawn of the new South Africa, as the Colossus bestriding the national landscape, as the architect of democracy, as the rider in the saddle of the GNU [Government of National Unity], as the sculptor hewing racial harmony, as the fireman dousing the flames of crises, as the acrobat anchoring a diplomatic balancing act, as SuperMandela bridging global divides, as Atlas bearing the developing world, as the wind blowing the Springboks to victory, as a jar of Madiba Magic for Bafana Bafana, as the Mandela Bridge spanning the racial divide, as the grandfather dangling the infant nation, as the giant with the massive shoes to fill, as the cowboy and his gal riding into the African sunset, as the tireless globetrotter outpacing all others, as the pioneer pushing open the AIDS secrecy door, as the planet in the fight against HIV/AIDS, as the beaming Nelson atop Nelson’s Column, as the cupid of the divided ANC, as the Conscience of the Nation, as the sun setting on his own era. Happy 90th, Madiba.” – Zapiro

Enquiries

Joe Dolby
Tel: 021 467 4682
Email: jdolby@iziko.org.za

Dungamanzi / Stirring Waters: Tsonga and Shangaan Art from Southern Africa

‘Dungamanzi / Stirring Waters’ is the first exhibition to comprehensively celebrate and showcase Tsonga and Shangaan art - some of South Africa’s finest heritage objects. This groundbreaking exhibition brings an awareness of the creativity and skill found in and around Limpopo Province.

In the past, the voices of artists who created traditional artworks were largely absent from museum and gallery displays. With the input of artist Billy Makhubele, who collected many of the treasured pieces – particularly the fine sangoma items – this exhibition creates a ‘living’ archive. It presents the Makhubele family, whose story is one of resilience and survival through the political climate of the late 19th century and the apartheid era. Their beaded artworks form a permanent record of South African history over the past few decades.

“Dungamanzi / Stirring Waters” is supported by the City of Johannesburg, Johannesburg Art Gallery, National Heritage Council, National Arts Council, Arts and Culture Trust, Wits University Press, Natalie Knight Gallery, Ove Arup, CD Shipping, the Consulate General of Switzerland and Kulula.com.

Walkabouts and tours can be arranged. A catalogue, poster, pamphlet and DVD are on sale at the Gallery Shop.

Enquiries

Carol Kaufmann
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4672
Email: ckaufmann@iziko.org.za.

Ernest Cole: Chronicler in the House of Bondage

Ernest Cole is considered one of the most eminent of South Africa’s photographers. His single greatest achievement was the series of photo essays that was published as House of Bondage in 1967, an indictment of the inhumane conditions under which black South Africans were forced to live under Apartheid during the 1960s.

After fleeing the country with the photographic prints required for his book in 1966, Cole settled in the United States. House of Bondage was banned shortly after it was published and Cole himself became a banned person a year later, forcing him into permanent exile. Outside of South Africa, his images were used extensively by the anti-Apartheid and the American civil rights movements, but within his own country, his work was seen by only the few who had access to smuggled copies of the book. The whereabouts of Cole’s photographic negatives, both for this and a subsequent project undertaken in America with funding from the Ford Foundation, are currently unknown; original prints are rare.

In 2005, Iziko was granted funding by the National Lotteries Board to acquire a small collection of work, possibly made in preparation for the publication of House of Bondage. These are exhibited to honour the magnitude of Cole’s contribution to South African photography and his passionate commitment to documenting the human spirit under Apartheid.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za

Ever Young: James Barnor

James Barnor. Drum Cover Girl Marie Hallowi, Kent (1966). Courtesy of Autograph ABP/James Barnor

This is the first major solo exhibition of work by the Ghanaian photographer, James Barnor, who opened his portraiture studio, Ever Young, in Accra in 1949. During the 1950s, like his contemporaries Seydou Keita in Mali and Salla Casset in Senegal, he captured both the likenesses and aspirations of citizens of a new nation making the transition to independence.

Barnor became a staff photographer for the Daily Graphic newspaper, and later, in 1959, moved to the United Kingdom, where he undertook assignments for DRUM Magazine, largely in the arena of fashion. The DRUM franchise not only spread throughout the African continent, but the magazine and its readership were also part of the rise of ‘Black London’.

Ever Young: James Barnor was researched and curated by Autograph ABP, an agency and archive dedicated to the promotion of culturally diverse photography in London.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3956
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za

Exploring the Wonderful World of Wasps By Dr Simon van Noort

Close-up of the cuticle of the Splendid Cuckoo wasp, Chrysis splendens (Chrysididae).

Time: 18h00–19h00
Venue: TH Barry Lecture Theatre, Iziko SA Museum
Fee: Free
Wasps are super-diverse with almost 20,000 species described from Africa alone, but hundreds of thousands of species await discovery and description, entailing exciting field expeditions into remote areas of this vast continent. The talk showcases the microscopic lives of this biologically diverse group of insects, as well as the fieldwork and research undertaken to discover and document Africa’s wasps. Fascinating biological interactions will be highlighted, including lifestyles on marine parasitoid wasps and fig pollinators.

Fabrications: Drapery and Dress in Works from the Iziko Collection

In many works of art, especially in 17th century Europe’s Baroque era, drapery began to assume a life of its own. While this was true of painting, it became especially apparent in the sculpture of Bernini in Rome. Bernini’s fame was such that the King of France, Louis XIV, wanted to lure him to France to work for him there. Bernini responded to his summons in 1665, but the only well-known result of his visit was an amazing and finely-wrought marble bust of the King, fashioned so that his head and shoulders seem to float on a whirl of drapery, as if on a cloud. The 27-year-old king is represented as young, handsome and majestic. A full-scale replica of Bernini’s famous bust features in this exhibition, courtesy of the University of Stellenbosch’s Fine Arts Department, which houses a collection of plaster casts.

Facing the Past: Seeking the Future - Reflections on a Decade of the Truth and Reconciliation Commis

Paul Stopforth , 1945-, The Interrogators 1979. Mixed media on masonite

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in 1995 to investigate human rights violations committed during the apartheid era. Its guiding principle was the promotion of reconciliation. 

The Commission started its hearings in 1996 and dealt with approximately 21 000 cases of torture and abuse. It is fitting that, a decade later, the achievements of the Commission are recognised and reflected upon. This exhibition does so in a direct and specific way in works such as Four Killed by Kitskonstabels, Grahamstown by Steve Hilton-Barber, The Death of Hector Petersen by Rose Kgoete, and Nineteen Boys Running by Kevin Brand. It also does so through works that deal symbolically with the turbulent events covered by the Commission, such as In Times of Sorrow by Kedibone Sarah Tabane and People’s Messenger by Zwelethu Mthethwa. But the exhibition also deals with works that look to the future, such as Unification by Vuyisani Mgijima and The Road to Democracy by Given Makhubele.

Enquiries

Joe Dolby
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4682.

FILM FESTIVAL

Mandela: Free at Last
Walter Sisulu: Father of the Nation
Comrade Goldberg
Date: Saturday, 11 February 2012
Time: 11h00–15h00
Venue: TH Barry Lecture Theatre, Iziko SA Museum
Fee: Free [Max 100 participants]
Remembering the contribution of Nelson Mandela (on the 22nd anniversary of his release from prison) and others, to our liberation struggle in South Africa.

Finding Meermin

Lines plan of the Hoeker Meermin by J. Vlaming, 1760. Courtesy of the Scheepvaart Museum, Amsterdam

This exhibition focuses on the saga surrounding the slave ship, Meermin. It includes extracts from the newly filmed documentary, “Slave Ship Mutiny”, a touch-screen with a 3D digital model of the ship, as well as educational material. Designed as a travelling exhibition, it will be featured at upcoming events and schools in the region.

The Meermin left Madagascar on 20 January 1766 with 140 slaves. After a few days on the voyage, the slaves seized an opportune moment and revolted, taking over the ship and killing half the crew. The slaves, unable to sail the ship themselves, came to an agreement with the sailors to spare their lives if they sailed the ship back to Madagascar. The Dutch, however, set course for the Cape and eventually reached Cape Agulhas.

After several trips ashore by the slaves and interventions from local Dutch farmers, the ship ran aground.

In 2004, Iziko Museums started a National Lotteries-funded attempt to locate the wreck of the Meermin. Groundbreaking new technology was employed in the search for this enigmatic shipwreck. These included an airborne gradiometer survey and excavation methodologies at the location in the De Mond Nature Reserve on the Cape South Coast. Other aspects of the project included the development of a Waterlogged Objects Conservation laboratory with unique capabilities, including a freeze-drying facility.

Enquiries

Jaco Boshoff
Tel: +27(0)21 467 7204
Email: jboshoff@iziko.org.za

Fired – An exhibition of South African ceramics

Ceramic figure of a woman carrying a baby. Sculpted by Nhlanhla Nsudwane and painted by Mickey Chonco, Ardmore Ceramic Studio, KwaZulu-Natal, 2008. Photograph by Iziko Photographer, Carina Beyer.

The exhibition showcases a selection of Iziko’s rich and diverse ceramic holdings. The focus is on ceramics made in South Africa from earliest times through to the contemporary, including inspirational examples from Asia and Europe. The exhibition reveals the beauty and multi-layered meanings of ceramic works.

Enquiries: 
Esther Esmyol,
Tel. 021 467 7205
email eesmyol@iziko.org.za

FIRED: An exhibition of South African ceramics— Walkabout —

— Walkabout —
This exhibition is dedicated to the art of South African ceramics. Celebrate the joy, beauty and the many-layered meanings of objects made of fired clay. Join us on a walkabout of Fired at the Castle, and explore the historical and cultural connections of ceramic works.

13 May 2012 at 10h00 and 16 May 2012 at 13h00

Venue: Iziko at the Castle of Good Hope,
c/o Darling & Buitenkant Streets, Cape Town
Cost: Free - but booking is essential
For bookings and enquiries please contact Lungi Mvimbi
Tel. 021 481 3823 or
email: lmvimbi@iziko.org.za

For Future Generations – Hugh Tracey and the International Library of African Music

Hugh Tracey recording a Zulu bow player. ILAM photograph.

Pioneer and researcher of African music, and founder of the International Library of African Music (ILAM), Hugh Tracey, conducted field trips into east, central and southern Africa from as early as 1929. During these trips he collected recordings of African musicians in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Moçambique.

This exhibition offers an interactive view into these field trips through audio and visual/video stations containing many examples of the music, songs and stories Tracey collected and films he made. A range of African instruments, a feature on his career in broadcasting, and selections from the research of his son, Andrew Tracey, are on display.

A special focus is on Hugh Tracey’s field research tools and the prototype of the kalimba (a type of African thumb piano) Tracey adapted from the mbira (a wooden board to which staggered metal keys are attached), for use in musiceducation programmes.

Enquiries: Shanaaz Galant,
Tel: 021 467 7214
email:sgalant@iziko.org.za

For Future Generations – Hugh Tracey and the International Library of African Music

Hugh Tracey recording a Zulu bow player. ILAM photograph.

Pioneer and researcher of African music, and founder of the International Library of African Music (ILAM), Hugh Tracey, conducted field trips into east, central and southern Africa from as early as 1929. During these trips he collected recordings of African musicians in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Moçambique.

Forty Years of Friendship: The Friends of the SA National Gallery: 1968–2008

The Friends of the South African National Gallery (FONG) mark their 40th anniversary with this celebratory exhibition of works of art that they have presented to the Gallery’s collections over the past four decades. While the exhibition emphasises exciting, newly-acquired works of contemporary South African art that are being shown for the very first time, it also reveals the quietly supportive role played by the FONG in building a very broad and representative collection for the nation over an extensive period. Without this loyal and proactive support, our collecting activities would have been greatly impoverished.

Gerard Sekoto - From the Paris Studio

Gerald Sekoto, Study for The Donkey Cart, 1946 pencil on paper.

Gerard Sekoto died in Paris on 20 March 1993. In 2000 the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology donated the contents of his studio to the Iziko South African National Gallery. This exhibition consists of a small but choice selection of works on paper and a display of memorabilia. A number of drawings in the exhibition provide fascinating insights into Sekoto’s working methods. One example is the Study for The Donkey Cart, dated 1946, which is a study for the oil painting. The sketch captures the essence of the scene in a few brilliant strokes. A comparison with the final painting shows a number of detailed changes, all of which result in a more taut composition and is evidence of the care and attention Sekoto devoted to the work. Similar examples in the exhibition are the Study for Bernard, the artist’s brother asleep, dated 1945, and the Study for Two Friends, a pencil drawing of 1940.

Enquiries

Joe Dolby

Tel: +27 (0)21 467-4682

Ghoema & Glitter: New Year Carnival in Cape Town

Kaapse Klopse Finals, 30 January 2010. Photograph by Iziko Photographer, Carina Beyer, Iziko Social History Collections.

The Iziko Social History Collections department presents a part of history and culture unique to Cape Town and South Africa. It focuses on how carnival participation has been passed on from generation to generation, while tracing the carnival’s roots and its transformation over the centuries. A striking case study of how social life, politics, identity, popular culture, ritual and negotiating day-to-day life all come together, can be found in the celebration of carnival and in the performances of the Malay choirs, Christmas bands and klopse troupes. The significance of carnival as celebration, as well as the context of changing expressions of identity, are highlighted.

Enquiries:
Katie Mooney
Tel. 021 467 7215
email kmooney@iziko.org.za

Ghoema and Glitter: New Year Carnival in Cape Town

This exhibition by the Iziko Social History Collections (SHC) department showcases a part of history and culture unique to Cape Town and South Africa. It focuses on how carnival participation has been passed on from generation to generation, while tracing the carnival’s roots and its transformation over the centuries. A striking case study of how social life, politics, identity, popular culture, ritual and negotiating day-to-day life all come together can be found in the celebration of carnival and in the performances of the Malay choirs, Christmas bands and klopse troupes. The significance of carnival as celebration, as well as the context of changing expressions of identity is highlighted.

The exhibition draws on Iziko SHC’s new oral history and carnival collections, which are displayed in audiovisual stations, contemporary images and text panels.

Go Bats

How do they fly?

How do they "see" in the dark?

What has batman got to do with them?

Come and discover BATS at the South African Museum, 25 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town. 

New exhibition from 1 November 2001

For more information on bats, visit these bat-related web sites:

• Cape Bat Action Team - Contacts, Projects, Reports, etc.
• Bat Conservation Comes of Age in South Africa
• Bat Conservation International
• The Bat Conservation Trust in the UK
• Effects of Global Change on Bats
• General Bat Information

GUIDED TOUR OF THE NEW IZIKO SOCIAL HISTORY CENTRE

WEDNESDAY 7 SEPTEMBER 2011: 9:45 - 11:30

Members and friends are invited to join a guided tour of the Iziko Social History Centre.

The Iziko Social History Collections Department represents the consolidated diverse collections of the former South African Cultural History Museum, the South African Museum Anthropology collections and the William Fehr Collection from the Castle and Rust en Vreugd. To house them all, the 1930's National Mutual Building, a Herbert Baker inspired building on Church Square, underwent considerable refurbishment for a period of 3/4 years, and is now known as the Iziko Social History Centre. It houses over 200 000 objects in a number of stores with excellent climate control and liberal storage units. In addition there are conservation laboratories including specialist maritime archaeology facilities. Many original features of the building have been retained.

Esther Esmyol and colleagues will give a tour of the new facilities to two groups of fifteen Friends and show some of the highlights and mention some of the challenges of the Department.

REFRESHMENTS: Tea, coffee and biscuits will be served in the first floor boardroom at the end of the tour.

PARKING is not available at the building, but there are a number of parking garages in the area.

MEETING POINT: Meet at 9:45 on Church Square, at the statue of JH Hofmeyer (weather permitting). Alternatively inside the building in the library on the ground floor (former banking hall of the National Mutual Life Association of Australasia), if it rains.

COST: Members - R30; non-members - R45

Book early to avoid disappointment as numbers are limited.

Contact details:
Name: Maxine  
e-mail: samfriends@iziko.org.za           
Number: 072 225 6893

Guided tour of the Western Cape Archives

Date: Friday 19 August or Friday 2 September
Time: 10:00 – 12:00
Venue: Western Cape Archives, Roeland Street, Cape Town.
Cost: Members – R30 and non-members – R45

Bookings on all excursions will only be secured with a 50% deposit.

Situated on the site of the historic Roeland Street jail and a few hundred metres from the Central Fire Station the Western Cape Archives houses volumes going back to Jan van Riebeeck's departure from Holland to colonise the southern tip of Africa, in his own handwriting. Plus hand written records from many of the first towns and dorps where the early Europeans settled. It is interesting to see a volume of the first Dutch East India Company allocation of land to settlers in Constantia, and note that some of the current landowners family ownership dates all the way back to this original allocation all those years ago.

The guided tour will include:
An introductory lecture in the conference room by Mr Jaco van der Merwe who will give an overview of the work done at the Archives and the facilities available to everyone including tracing personal genealogy as well as historical research.
A visit to one of the many stack rooms where old records and books are stored. Handwritten in black ink in a perfect cursive it is interesting to read the 350 year old Dutch sentence construction and word usage.
You will be welcome to stay after the guided tour and try out your new found skills in the library or to return at a later date.
Parking: In Roeland Street outside the Archives on either side of the road or secure dedicated parking is available behind the Archives.

Bookings will be secured with payment in full as usual and confirmation of your transaction to be made by fax or e-mail.
Please confirm your preferred date before making payment. Numbers are strictly limited due to space constraints

Hand of Fatima - Exhibiton by Farideh Zariv

The Hand of Fatima, an ancient motif in northern African and Middle Eastern art and architecture, is rich in meaning. The symbol is also known as khamsa and the Eye of Fatima in Islamic tradition. The Hand of Fatima symbolises divine protection, freedom and peaceful co-existence with others and is used in amulets, jewellery and architectural features. Predating Islam, the symbol has been widely assimilated into Islamic art.

The Iranian-Australian artist Farideh Zariv has, since 1990, collected more than eighty artworks incorporating the Hand of Fatima; collected from Iran, all over the Arabian world and India. Selected pieces will be on display. Also displayed will be multi-media artworks by Zariv that were inspired by the Hand of Fatima. According to Zariv, “…each hand has a message for humankind. The Hand of Fatima is a symbol of that message, carrying spiritual and mystical meanings. This hand could be a hand of light, showing humankind the way to brightness and peace. It could also be a hand, which directs human attention to inner spirituality. In my art I try to convey this message, including the essence of the hand, in the title of each work.”

A DVD on contemporary Iranian paintings will be screened at the Bo-Kaap Museum on 4 and 5 July, 10:00 to 11:00.

Heritage and Oral History Projects Writing Skills

All history learners and educators welcome to attend the workshops focusing on planning and writing a heritage project and planning and conducting an oral history project. 

Dates: June 28, 29 and 30, 2011

Time: 10h00

Age group: From age 15

Cost: Donations only

Heritage Week at Iziko Museums

Download our Heritage week flyer HERE

Download our Heritage week flyer HERE

Home and Away: A Return to the South – Curated for the Ifa Lethu Foundation

The Ifa Lethu Foundation has been instrumental in repatriating South African art produced during the apartheid years that ended up overseas due to the fact that there was no local market for the work of black South African artists at the time.

The exhibition Home and Away: A Return to the South explores this previously lost artistic heritage. Curated by Carol Brown, the show examines the similarities and differences between works produced by South African artists experiencing the oppression of apartheid, and artists from beyond our shores who created works in support of the struggle. Although produced from different perspectives, the two collections are united in their focus on human rights.

The Ifa Lethu works are being shown for the first time in a major exhibition, together with a selection of works from the Art Against Apartheid exhibition housed at the Mayibuye Centre at the University of the Western Cape. The showing of these works, previously exhibited in Parliament, coincides with the university’s 50th anniversary. Some of the artists featured include Joe Tilson, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Robert Rauschenberg, Fikile Magadlela, Dumile Feni and Winston Saoli.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.

Enquiries

Hayden Proud
Tel: (+27)021 481 3965 
Email: hproud@iziko.org.za

Imbacu: Art from the Inside/Outside

This exhibition focuses on artists who were directly and indirectly affected by ‘exile’, both inside and outside of South Africa. Some left due to Apartheid, while others remained internal exiles working within the country. Many went abroad in pursuit of developing their artistic careers.

Stephen Bantu Biko, a founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, died at the hands of the security police in 1977. The 30th anniversary of his death is a point of departure for this exhibition. ‘Imbacu: Art from the Inside/Outside’ features works by Colin Richards, Jane Alexander, Dumile Feni, Ernest Cole and Ronald Harrison.

Enquiries

Loyiso Qanya
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4676
Email: lqanya@iziko.org.za

International Museum Day

International Year of Deserts and Desertification 2006

The United Nations declared 2006 to be the International Year of Deserts and Desertification in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. The year celebrates and urges the protection of the unique ecosystems and cultural diversity of deserts across the world, but also highlights the need for measures against desertification as a threat to global sustainable development.

This exhibition explores the cultural diversity of some of the small but resilient communities living on communal lands in the arid and semi-arid environments of Namaqualand and southern Namibia in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Photographs and artefacts, such as clothing and domestic utensils, illustrate the roles played by communal stock-farming, Christian missions and women in maintaining cultural continuity across generations.

Enquiries

Gerald Klinghardt
Tel: 021 481 3836
Email: gklinghardt@iziko.org.za

Intimate Distance

In a wavering tension between independence and belonging, we dream of an exhaustive understanding and recognition by an other, whilst fearing the loss of independence such intimacy brings. This exhibition explores the inevitability of distance within intimacy, primarily in relation to human interactions, but also as expressed through still-lifes and self-portraits.

Intimate Distance juxtaposes the well-loved paintings and sculptures of modern South African masters with more recent artworks, including videos and photographs.

Enquiries

Nadja Daehnke
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4673
Email: Andrea Lewis, alewis@iziko.org.za.

Intsimbi Beadwork from South Africa

A magnificent collection of South African beadwork from the Völkerkunde Museum in Zurich, returns to South Africa to be exhibited at the SA National Gallery until 12 March 2006.

Enquiries

Carol Kaufmann
Tel: +27 (0)21 467-4672

Invitation Public lecture by Prof. Lee Berger at Iziko Museums

Prof. Lee Berger with skull of a Sediba

Join Prof. Lee Berger, this Saturday, 18 February at 11 am for a public lecture entitled “The new Homo species Australopithecus sediba and the origins of the genus Homo” at the Iziko South African Museum to mark the launch of the exhibition: “The search for our early ancestors”

Discover Australopithecus sediba - the most recent find from South Africa’s “Cradle of Humankind.” This small upright, tree climbing hominin who lived in the African savanna nearly 2 million years ago has some characteristics typical of Australopithecus and others more like those of our own genus Homo, placing it on the cusp of a transition not hitherto observed in our fossil record.

Venue  : The Whale Well, Iziko South African Museum
                25 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town
Date      : 18 February 2012
Time     : 11h00

RSVP to S’thembele Harmans on sharmans@iziko.org.za  Tel: 021 481 3812/13

Invoice: A Survey Show of the Work of Santu Mofokeng

‘Invoice’ is a survey show of the work of Santu Mofokeng, one of South Africa’s foremost photographers and, according to international curator Simon Njami, “one of the most important photographers of his generation”. The exhibition will include photographs from virtually all his major bodies of work produced in the period between 1982 and 2006, and is designed to coincide with the photographer’s 50th year.

Santu Mofokeng’s photographic career started in 1973 when, while still at school, he started working as a street photographer to make money. He subsequently realised photography’s subversive potential when he saw pictures of the June 16 protests in which he was a participant and witness. In the mid-1980s he joined the Afrapix Collective, an independent photographic agency that played a leading role in documenting popular resistance against Apartheid.

From an early stage, Mofokeng exhibited an independent approach and produced images that refused to be overtly political, but nonetheless contained a fundamental political dimension. His deviations from conventional subject matter have included photographic enquiries into spirituality – a continuing interest that produced the extraordinary series Chasing Shadows – and investigations into the meaning of ’landscape‘ in relation to ownership, power and memory.

Mofokeng has received acknowledgement for his photographic work not only locally but also in the international art world. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and has exhibited extensively in Europe and elsewhere.

Recently he participated in the international travelling exhibition, ‘Africa Remix’ (2004-6), and in 2004 was the only South African chosen to participate among ten foremost international photographers such as Sebastiao Salgado, James Nachtwey and Annie Leibovitz, in Beijing’s Forbidden City International Photography Festival. He has had solo exhibitions of his work in New York and Johannesburg.

‘Invoice’ has been realised through partnerships with the Standard Bank Gallery and Gallery MOMO in Johannesburg, and with Autograph ABP, London.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za

Iqholo le Afrika (Her African Pride)

Bushveld blond, Singceni – Swaziland 1949 Watercolour Campbell Collections, UKZN

A Centenary Celebration of the Life and Work of Barbara Tyrrell
Iziko South African National Gallery, Rooms 2 and 3
16 March – 08 July 2012

An exhibition, by curators Vusi Buthelezi and Yvonne Winters of the Campbell Collections at the University of KwaZulu - Natal, celebrates and honours the veteran Durban-born artist and author, Barbara Tyrrell. A selection of over 150 of her highly decorative and accurate visual recordings of southern African costume will be exhibited. Also on display complementing the strong design aspect of her works will be items of adornment and costume from ISANG’s own African art collections. Magnificent examples of beadwork, fertility figures, regalia and gala dress reflecting adult ceremonial attire resonate with her work on many levels.  

Iziko Museums Holiday Program October 2011

Grant's Magic Show

Enjoy an hour of magic and fun filled activity with our young energetic magician.

Date: 3rd & 5th October 2011

Age group: 4-10 years old

Time:11h00

Cost:R10

Puppet Making Workshop

Entertain your friends with a puppet show! Come and learn how to make your own puppets.

Date: 4th & 6th October 2011

Age group: 8-12 years old

Time:10h00

Cost:R10

Booking Najwa Damon 021 481 3817 / 073 596 7574

John H Marsh Maritime Research Centre

The Iziko Maritime Centre provides an overview of shipping in Cape Town. Images depicting Table Bay from the 17th to 20th century give an idea of the development of the harbour. Exhibitions include the earliest existing model of Table Bay harbour, completed in 1885 by prisoners and wardens of the nearby Breakwater Prison, and a collection of ship models and objects associated in particular with the era of mail ships. An exhibition of images, ship models and objects gives insight into the Union-Castle Line and shipwrecks around the Cape coast.

The John H. Marsh Maritime Research Centre provides an archive of nearly 20 000 photographs, depicting 9 551 ships dating from the late 1920s to the early 1960s. An online service for the answering of queries regarding ships and for ordering images of these ships is available at http://rapidttp.co.za/museum/

Enquiries: Thys van der Merwe, Tel. 021 405 2884 or 021 464 1261 or email marsh@iziko.org.za

Jol

The South African slang word 'jol', pronounced 'jawl', both a noun and a verb, means 'a party' or similar social occasion, or 'having a good time'. South Africa's past has been fraught with conflict, culminating in violent political oppression and brutality in response to both colonialism and the State's opposition during the apartheid years. And yet, human beings will always play. Many artists and photographers have responded creatively to social interactions and the personal dialogues within them in spite of and sometimes because of their circumscription by racially determined social structures. The exhibition will include work by Billy Monk and Graham Goddard.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za.

Koeberg Visitors Centre

Date: Wednesday 24 August
Time: 10:00–12:00
Cost: Members: R50; non-members: R60

Bookings on all excursions will only be secured with a 50% deposit.

This outing presents an opportunity to learn more about nuclear energy and the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station. The visit is apt in the light of the recent disaster in Fukushima and given that Koeberg is 9 km away from the Malmesbury faultline. Full details to be advised. Numbers are limited therefore early booking is advised.

LECTURE ON KITSCH, CAMP AND TRETCHIKOFF BY LLOYD POLLAK

Iziko South African Museum
Tuesday 30th August at 17:30
Members R40, Non-Members R60, Students R20

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

Tretchikoff’s paintings – currently on exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery – have led critics to describe them as ‘kitsch’ and ‘camp’, but how do you define these nebulous concepts, and how does Tretchi’s art answer to these definitions?
The lecture will answer these questions, deconstruct Tretchi’s most famous works and contribute to the debate surrounding the exhibition.

LECTURE ON THE CURATE’S EGG HAS HATCHED:

LECTURE ON THE CURATE’S EGG HAS HATCHED: ON THE CHANGING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CURATORS AND ART MUSEUMS BY ANTHEA BUYS
Iziko South African National Gallery
Thursday 28th July at 17:30
Members R40, Non-Members R60, Students R20

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

In Europe and America, the latter half of the twentieth century saw dramatic changes in the roles of curators and directors of art museums. These changes had much to do with the incorporation of the artistic avant-gardes into the art mainstream, but also with a new phenomenon with which museums had to grapple: contemporary art. This presentation will highlight some of the key moments and characters in the recent history of curating, and will show how the radical changes which are shaping the discipline are construed largely in relation to developments in contemporary art. We will consider the influence of biennales, residencies and other sporadic art events on the discipline, and the emergence of non-collecting ‘museums’ and contemporary art institutions. The focus will then shift to South Africa, and we will look at how, in the absence of institutions devoted to showing and mediating contemporary art, art museums are trying to fulfill this role.
Anthea Buys is the newly appointed Curator of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture at Iziko South African National Gallery. Please join us at this welcome opportunity for the Friends to meet her and enjoy this insightful, relevant lecture.

Like Father Like Son? Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2006: Churchill Madikida

Iziko South African National Gallery is proud to host the exhibition of the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2006, Churchill Madikida, previously also the joint recipient of the Tollman Award for a young artist, in 2003. He has in the past, through media including video, photography and live performance, explored the contemporary implications of Xhosa traditions, and the initiation ritual of circumcision in particular. He has also focussed extensively on the impact of HIV/Aids on his own life and that of other South Africans.

Churchill Madikida grew up without his biological father, believing he had died when Madikida was very young. They recently met for the first time in 32 years. Drawing from his own personal experience, the works in this exhibition engage with Madikida’s complex family history and provide an insight into how the absence of his biological father may have shaped his sense of being, his relationships and even perhaps his perception of the world. He attempts to share his struggles in trying to understand and overcome a particular lack, a process that for the artist includes acknowledging the shortcomings and wrongs of the past and in the main offers forgiveness and the suggestion of moving forward.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660

Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke

Peter Clarke. Coming and going (1960). Oil. 511 cm x 409 cm. Private collection.

This is a special celebratory exhibition of the life and work of Peter Clarke (b. 1929), whose career as an artist and poet has spanned six decades. The exhibition charts Clarke’s development as an artist over the apartheid and post-apartheid eras, and his work reflects deeply – and without bitterness – on the societal upheavals and dislocation he has lived through.

Clarke is best known as a print-maker through his sensitive approach to linocut and colour woodblock techniques. This fully-comprehensive exhibition reveals him as a strong painter, a talented draughtsman and a poet of considerable literary achievement. In his images, he has articulated a vision of community life at the Cape that is poignant and even humorous, yet powerful in its sense of form.

Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke

Peter Clarke. Coming and going (1960). Oil. 511 cm x 409 cm. Private collection.

This is a special celebratory exhibition of the life and work of Peter Clarke (b. 1929), whose career as an artist and poet has spanned six decades. The exhibition charts Clarke’s development as an artist over the apartheid and post-apartheid eras, and his work reflects deeply – and without bitterness – on the societal upheavals and dislocation he has lived through.

Lowering the gaze: Impressions of Muslim women in Cape Town

his collection of mainly photographs begins to address the ways in which Muslim women are portrayed in the collections of two national heritage institutions. The images of Muslim women or Cape Malay women, as they are called in the documentation, were collected over several decades by the National Library of South Africa (NLSA) and Iziko Museums. It is argued that they are typical of an ‘orientalising’ paradigm. Looking at the fragments of women’s history uncovered in the NLSA and Iziko archives, it becomes clear to one that the images leave out much more than what they include. 

Muslim women are challenging orientalist and reactionary writings about themselves and reconstructing an alternative paradigm, in which they actively transcend historical and social restrictions. In this way, misconceptions and myths about Muslim women may diminish. 

This exhibition is based on research by Maheerah Gamieldien.

Made in Translation: Images from and of the Landscape

Installation view of Made in Translation: Images from and of the Landscape, Iziko South African Museum. Photograph by Iziko Photographer, Carina Beyer

Paintings and engravings are everywhere in the southern African landscape. They are the creative expressions of ideas that were once alive in the conversations around the campfire and in the rites of passage that marked the milestones of human life. Today these paintings and engravings have become sources of great longing, their meanings elusive; the impulses that gave rise to them often hotly debated.

Rock art copies are seen as acts of translation, primarily translating the ‘unboundedness’ of the paintings as they exist in the landscape, into the framed image of the copy. The exhibition showcases a diverse range of translations including the works of copyists from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. A collection by Leo Frobenius who explored southern Africa with a team of ethnographers and artists between 1928 and 1930 reveals the remarkable large-scale copies his project produced. Included in the exhibition are copies by, amongst others, George Stow, Helen Tongue, Dorothea Bleek, Joseph Orpen and Charles Schunke. It also includes insights of contemporary scholars, historical and contemporary photographs, and translations of San texts and stories.

Curators:

Pippa Skotnes, Director of the Centre for Curating the Archive
Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town
Petro Keene of the Iziko Social History Collections department.

Enquiries:

Sven Ouzman
Tel: +27(0)21 481 3883
Email: souzman@iziko.org.za

Make an Orchid for Tretchikoff

Using the Tretchikoff exhibition as inspiration, learn how to make an orchid using paper – without having to pick a flower.

Conducted by Cait Turner, a skilled prop artist who loves Tretchikoff, as well as flowers.

Age: 14–18 years

Time: 09h00 – 13h00

Venue: Iziko SA National Gallery Annexe

Cost: R50

Make your own Davy Dragon Moon Board Game

Workshops for children during the school holidays!

We start by watching “Davy Dragon goes to the Moon”.  

Ages: 6 to 8 years

Cost: R20 per workshop

Tickets available at the Iziko SA Museum’s main entrance. Please note: numbers are limited, so to avoid disappointment don’t delay.

Mandela: Leader, comrade, negotiator, prisoner, statesman

A groundbreaking exhibition celebrating the life and times of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela opened at the Iziko Slave Lodge on 11 February 2010 to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of his release from prison in 1990. It is set to run for at least a year.

Nelson Mandela was central to every stage of South Africa’s epic struggle against apartheid – from formulating a new approach to the struggle in the 1940s, to leading the mass struggle of the 1950s, from the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe in the early 1960s, to imprisonment for 27 years. He served as the first President of a democratic South Africa, according him the iconic accolade of ‘Father of the Nation’.

The exhibition traces how Mandela built a new nation from the fragments of conflict, making full use of the ‘weapons’ at his disposal: love, persuasion, forgiveness and acute political acumen – with a fair amount of self-deprecating humour thrown in for good measure. It is a rich and nuanced account of the great man’s story. Mandela’s extraordinary life is explored in thematic sections: character, comrade, leader, prisoner, negotiator and statesman. Within each theme, the narrative is presented through visual wall displays, supported by films.

Produced by the Apartheid Museum in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Nelson Mandela Museum and the Department of Education. Support of the Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the National Lottery, is also gratefully acknowledged.

Enquiries: Wieke van Delen, Tel. 021 467 7203 or email wvandelen@iziko.org.za.

Iziko's Education and Public Programmes department have developed a lively educational programme and other youth development programmes to accompany the exhibition.

Mapping Bo-Kaap: History, memories and spaces

Corner of Helliger Lane and Chiappini Street. 2010 Iziko Social History Collections. Photographs by Iziko Photographer, Carina Beyer.

In the Community Hall

This exhibition shows the findings of a mapping survey project undertaken a few years ago. Residents were asked why they enjoyed living in the area, and to identify areas in the Bo-Kaap that have special heritage significance for them. The exhibition summarises the main findings of the survey. It includes a number of historic and contemporary photographs, providing a glimpse into the fascinating history of the Bo-Kaap.

Enquiries:
Paul Tichmann Curator
Tel. 021 467 7215
email ptichmann@iziko.org.za

Marie Koopmans-De Wet Exhibition

Marie Koopmans-De Wet

This house museum was originally built as the home for a well-to do Cape family during the late 18th century. It houses some of the best pieces of Cape furniture and silver in the country, in addition to a priceless collection of ceramics. A household such as this would only have been able to function with its share of servants and slaves, and recent research has brought to light the names and professions of some of these, as well as the kinds of activities they would have pursued.

The house opened its doors as a museum in 1914, after the deaths of its last private owners, Marie Koopmans-De Wet and her sister Margaritha, and is the oldest house museum in the country. Marie Koopmans-De Wet, after whom the Museum is named, was well known during the South African War for her help to the orphans and widows of the Boer republics.

Enquiries

Wieke van Delen
Tel: 021 467 7203
Email: wvandelen@iziko.org.za

Marine Exhibits

World of Water

Depicting life in our oceans. The Sunlit Sea exhibit shows a kelp forest habitat and animals of the Open Ocean including a 4.9 m white shark, a leatherback turtle and a broadbill swordfish. The latest addition is a full sized model of a Giant Squid - Architeuthis, one of the most accurate models available. We have one of the largest collections of giant squid in the world.

Shark World

Shark World is one of the world's best and most comprehensive exhibits on Chondrichthyians - the order of sharks, skates, rays and chimeras - in the world. A key attraction is the life-size, 2+ metre high model of the jaws of the Megatooth Shark, probably the largest predator the world has ever known. An AV centre presents stunning footage of sharks in their natural environments and deals with issues round shark conservation.

Whales and Dolphins

The whale and dolphin exhibit includes 16 casts of whales and dolphins: Humpback Whale, Layard’s Beaked whale, Cuvier’s Beaked Whale, Orca or Killer Whale, Sperm Whale, Pilot Whale, Humpback Dolphin, Bottlenose Dolphin, Heaviside’s Dolphin, Common Dolphin, Dusky Dolphin, Spotted Dolphin, Striped Dolphin, Fraser’s Dolphin, Risso’s Dolphin and the Antarctic Dolphin.

Living Coelacanth

Iziko South African Museum has a beautiful, now iconic, cast of the first living coelacanth discovered. This cast forms the centrepiece of a new display that will include information on the coelacanth’s evolutionary history, its biology – including its special features – as well as audiovisual footage of live coelacanths. Fossilised remains of these fish will also make up part of the exhibition.

Marlene Dumas: Intimate Relations

Marlene Dumas, Martha my ouma, 1984. Oil on canvas. Private collection, The Netherlands.

A graduate of the Michaelis School of Art, University of Cape Town, Marlene Dumas left South Africa in 1976 to do a post-graduate degree in visual art at the Atelier ’63 in Haarlem, Netherlands. She subsequently settled in the Netherlands and now lives and works in Amsterdam.

Dumas has participated in many biennales internationally, and has twice been invited to show at Documenta in Germany. She represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale in 1995. She has also participated in numerous group shows since 1978 and has held solo exhibitions at prestigious venues such as the Tate Gallery, London (1996), the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2001), the Art Institute of Chicago (2003) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2007).

The exhibition covers a broad selection of her work, drawn from private and public collections in Belgium, the Netherlands and South Africa. The artist chose ‘Intimate Relations’ as an appropriate sub-title for the exhibition, as it conveys the curatorial vision and selection of works which focus thinking around issues of what constitutes intimate relations between people, places and paintings.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, edited by Emma Bedford, and includes essays by Bedford, Drs Achille Mbembe and Sarah Nuttall, and a literary response to Dumas’ work by South African author Marlene van Niekerk.

Enquiries

Joe Dolby
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: jdolby@iziko.org.za.

MEET THE ARTIST – MINNETTE VÁRI

Goodman Gallery Cape
3rd Floor, Fairweather House, 176 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock
Thursday 26th April
11:00
Members and Non-Members R20

Minnette Vári was born in 1968 in Pretoria and lives in Johannesburg.  In response to South African history Vári has written a history of herself in relation the trajectory of the end of apartheid followed by the new democracy, one that attempts to recover what is lost, to give shape and voice to forgotten or erased memories.  Her work conflates self and history, examining how identity arises out of the traumatic past. In her videos and drawings, Vári frequently depicts her own body enduring a disfiguring metamorphosis – she merges with and emerges from nature as well as from the concrete architecture of modern cities. The female ‘protagonist’ of her video works is sometimes archetypal and sometimes spectral, a persona who ingests and is ingested by time.

Vári has exhibited her work since the early nineties, participating in such group exhibitions as the Johannesburg Biennale, Memoris, Intimas, Marcas at MUHKA in Belgium, the Venice Biennale, the Seoul International Media Art Biennale, and the Havana Biennale. Her solo exhibitions include Aurora Australis at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, Chimera at Art Unlimited, Basel, Vigil at Serge Ziegler Galerie, New York, and shows in 2008 and 2009 at Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.

Memory and Image Contemporary Art of the !Xun and Khwe

Introduction

Memory and Magic, explores the world view of immigrant !Xun and Khwe speakers, descendants of ancestral hunter gatherers, who sought refuge in South Africa from the brutal trauma of political violence experienced during the Angolan/Namibian/SADF wars of liberation and counter-liberation at the end of the 20th century.

The exhibition draws on works from the private collection of Hella Rabbethge-Schiller of Rosenheim, Germany, all of which have been produced by the artists from the !Xun and Khwe Cultural Project near Kimberley. The works on paper and canvas span a decade of production that has created an international profile for the eleven artists. Stefaans Samcuia is the most recognized artist for his collaboration with Brett Murray on the iconic mural at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. 

This is the most comprehensive collection of !Xun and Khwe contemporary art in existence, and is traveling throughout South Africa. Through the exhibition and publication, the artists have finally been given the recognition they deserve.

The exhibition is a partnership between the Goethe Institute, Iziko Museums, the collector and the artists, and is supported by Commerzbank and CD International Shipping.

A beautifully illustrated catalogue in both soft and hard-cover is available from The Gallery Shop.

Enquiries

Carol Kaufmann
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4672
Email: ckaufmann@iziko.org.za

Opening address

Dear Ms Marilyn-Martin Director of Iziko South African National Gallery
Dear Mrs. Rabbethge-Schiller, owner of the works shown,
Dear Mrs. Kaufmann, curator of this exhibition,
Distinguished artists,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I wish you all a warm welcome to the “Memory and Magic” exhibition. I consider it a great pleasure to have been invited to open this magnificent exhibition of contemporary works of !Xun and Khwe artists here at Iziko South African National Gallery.

Mesdames et messieurs les délégués auprès de la deuxième assemblée générale d’AFRICOM au Cap,

Je vous souhâite la bienvenue à la vernissage de „Mémoire et Magique“, une exposition d’objets d’art contemporains d’artistes des !Xun et Khwe peuples en Afrique du Sud.

J’espère que vous pouvez admirer les peintures réflectant la sensibilité aesthétique et créativité extraordinaires des artistes.

Maintenant, j’essaierais d’élaborer un petit peu sur les objets exposés ici à la IzikoGalérie Nationale d’Afrique du Sud et leurs importance pour la révitalisation de la culture des !Xun et Khwe peuples après des années difficiles pendant lesquelles ils étaient reloquées des territoires des leurs ancestres en Namibie et Angola.

The "Memory and Magic“ exhibition features works by various San artists on paper and canvas from the private collection of Hella Rabbethge-Schiller who over the last decade has gathered some 400 works and, thereby, established the largest and most comprehensive collection of that kind anywhere.

This unique collection reflects the extraordinary aesthetic sensibility and creativity of the artists. By means of their artistic works the San created a new awareness of their own culture while trying to overcome the traumas and deprivations they experienced in the past when they were removed from their ancestral land.

Although the San are since no longer living in nature, they are still people of nature and are intimately familiar with the mythology and rituals practiced by their forefathers. That is why each sketch, print or painting tells a story.

In a number of works the artists depict magic alluding to the San’s world view and inherited belief systems influencing them.

The themes that are depicted in the works range from plants, animals, everyday life, war experiences, memories of the good life they lived in their ancestral lands in Namibia and Angola before the wars, their traumas during the wars to abstract and symbolic designs. Often dreams are the artist’s source of inspiration.

Through Hella Rabbethge-Schiller’s investment in the livelihood and skills development of the artists she is helping to preserve the San’s new form of art and culture. Being aware of the fact that her collection forms an important part of South Africa’s cultural heritage she carefully preserves and promotes it while it is abroad. This is a valuable initiative as such even more so as only a few works can be found in local or a small number of corporate collections like the William Humphries Gallery, MTN, De Beers, Cape Town International Convention Centre or World Bank.

With this exhibition the San work of art is returning to its country of origin where it finally belongs according to Hella Rabbethge-Schiller. By doing so the exhibition builds a bridge between Germany and South Africa.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me finish by expressing my appreciation and sincere gratitude to all those who have been involved with this exhibition. An ambitious exhibition like this would not have been possible without their aid, cooperation and support.

It is a great pleasure for me to mark this fruitful cooperation by officially opening the exhibition “Memory and Magic” for you to enjoy.

Thank you for your attention!

Meteorites

An open display featuring three large iron meteorites.

Microfossils: Zooming in on the world of sand-sized fossils

Foraminifera microfossils from the Namibian coast

By Eugene Bergh

The public lecture on microfossils explores a world unseen to the naked eye. Microfossils are the remains of small animals or organisms that require microscopic imaging to view their detail. These fossils provide scientists with valuable knowledge into climatic, oceanographic, pollution and other environmental studies. Their importance in understanding ancient global processes can help us determine where the Earth is heading. This lecture provides brief glimpses into their world and the secrets they can reveal in unravelling past Earth processes. The presentation also explores how scientists use these fossils to conduct valuable research and answers the question of why we should care.

                   
Foraminifera microfossils from the Saldanha Region

Mineral Mania

Some of the most beautiful awe-inspiring natural minerals, including those from Earth and outer space will be part of our new exhibition 'Mineral Mania'. This exhibition, in collaboration with the University of Cape Town, also will show the dependency of our technology on minerals and mining. It will run concurrently with Summer School, which will include a series of lectures on 'Metals from Earth and Space'.

Common uses of minerals

Without mining none of the everyday products we take for granted would exist. If you look beneath the surface, you’ll find that mining has something to do with just about every thing we use.

Your house comes out of a mine

The majority of the raw material used in building your home was furnished by the mining industry.The foundation is probably concrete (limestone, clay, shale, gypsum, and aggregate mining).The exterior walls may be made of brick (clay mining) or stone (dimension stone mining). The insulation in the walls may be glass wool (silica, feldspar, and trona mining) or expanded vermiculite (vermiculite mining). The interior walls are usually wall board (gypsum mining). The lumber in the structure will be fastened with nails and screws (iron ore mining and zinc mining). If the roof is covered with asphalt shingles, the filler in the shingles is from a variety of coloured silicate minerals from mining. Your fireplace is probably of brick or stone, lined with a steel box (iron ore mining).

Your sewer piping is made of clay or iron pipe (clay mining or iron ore mining). Your electrical wiring is of copper or aluminum (copper mining or bauxite mining). Your sanitary facilities are made of porcelain (clay mining). Your plumbing fixtures are made of brass (copper and zinc mining), or stainless steel (nickel and chrome mining). Your gutters of galvanized steel (iron ore mining and zinc mining). The paint is manufactured with mineral fillers and pigments (from minerals obtained by mining). Your windows are made of glass (trona, silica, sand, and feldspar mining). Your door knobs, locks, and hinges are of brass or steel (copper, zinc, and iron ore mining). And finally your mortgage is written on paper made from wood or cloth fibers, but filled with clay (from clay mining).

Your car

About 100 000 passenger cars are assembled in South Africa each year. Each car is made up of about 15 000 parts, all of which require natural resources to make.

The average car weighs about 1 metric tonne (1000 kg). Of that approximately half is steel (a combination of iron, carbon and manganese), 50 kg are aluminium, 10 kg copper and 5 kg zinc. The bright plating on bumpers, etc, contains chromium as well.

The automotive industry uses almost a fifth (20%) of South Africa's steel production.

Since new air pollution laws have come into effect in many First World countries, about 1000 kg of platinum and associated elements are used annually for making automotive catalytic converters. 80% of the platinum comes from South African mines.

To make car parts and to assemble the final products, a lot of specialized tools are required. If it were not for metals such as chromium, nickel, titanium and vanadium, all of which are mined in South Africa, machine tool supplies to the automotive industry (worth more than R20 billion annually world-wide) would not exist.

The glass in the windows of a car is made from silica sand and limestone, both of which are mineral commodities which are mined in the Western Cape Province.

Even the plastics in a vehicle are made from petroleum, which is a non-renewable resource. At the Sasol plants in Sasolburg (Free State Province) and Secunda, coal is converted to a whole range of plastics, some of which can be used for vehicle parts and upholstery.

The petrol or diesel, oil, grease and other lubricants required for operation of a vehicle are all petroleum derivatives and would not exist if no oil was produced. Some cars are adapted to run on methane gas, which is mined off the South African coast near Mossel Bay. Sasol produces about 3% of South Africa’s oil from coal.

The smooth ‘tarmac’ roads we all drive on could not be built without commodities like tar, gravel, and cement. Road gravel is produced in many open quarries in the Durbanville region.

THEREFORE, the next time you drive your car, remember that MINERAL RESOURCES dug from the earth make it possible.

Your bicycle

Did you know that without mining the bicycle would never have been made? In fact, without mining none of the everyday products we take for granted would exist. North America is the greatest consumer of minerals on earth. Each year, the average U.S. citizen uses 18,160 kilograms of minerals. If you look beneath the surface, you’ll find that mining has something to do with just about every thing we use.

Your computer

Did you Know? It takes more than 33 elements and minerals to make a computer!

Those vital computer ingredients consist of: aluminum, antimony, barite, beryllium, cobalt, columbium, copper, gallium, germanium, gold, indium, iron, lanthanides, lithium, manganese, mercury, mica, quartz crystals, rhenium, selenium, silver, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, tungsten, vanadium, yttrium, zinc and zirconium.

And, we can’t forget the petroleum industry’s role in the computer. Many of the components noted above are housed in plastic!

How a pencil is made

A pencil is manufactured from natural earth materials. It is made primarily of a wood cylinder with a graphite core that we call "lead". The wood is usually from cedar trees harvested from forests, primarily in the United States. The graphite is mined from various localities, including Canada and Puerto Rico and is reinforced with clay mined mostly from the southeast United States. The eraser is made from soybean oil farmed in the southern United States and from latex extracted from trees in South America. The eraser is reinforced with pumice mined largely in North America as well as sulfur, calcium and barium from various localities. The metal band is aluminum or brass (copper and zinc) which are mined in many countries around the world. The paint that coats the wood and the lacquer to make it shine are made from a variety of different minerals and metals, as is the glue that holds the wood together.

Links to geological websites:

• Department of Geology at UCT, numerous links to geological web sites
• Department of Geology at WITS, numerous other geological links
• Geological Society of South Africa
• American Federation of Mineralogical Societies - links to amateur geology, mineral, gem cutting societies in the USA, masses of useful information about mineralogy, collecting, and gem cutting, and news about spectacular mineral finds worldwide. Scan down the page to the link to the most recent find of a gypsum crystal cave in Spain. It is incredible!

Mixed media art workshop

Spring into actionand join Iziko Museums for some holiday fun.
A cool place to explore, art, nature, people and more...

Travel through time and explore the toys, instruments, ceramics, glass and silver objects at the Iziko Slave Lodge. Paint, draw, collage and create an interesting artwork inspired by these treasures.

Time: 10:30am to 1:30 pm
Venue: Iziko Slave Lodge, C/O Adderly and Wale St.
Cost: R30per workshop including all the materials

Suitable for all ages

For booking and enquiries contact:
Lungi Mvimbi
Tel: 021 481 3823 email: imvibi@iziko.org.za

Lindinxiwa Mahlasela
Tel: 021 467 7239 email: imahlasela@iziko.org.za

Museum Training for the Youth

Iziko Museums is offering a sponsored three-week Museum Training for Youth Programme, which includes theory, practical, and museum project work. The trainee will receive training in museology. Applicants must have a matric certificate and an interest in working with diverse museum audiences and in a museum environment. The 30 successful applicants are required to attend all daily sessions, from 14 May to 1 June 2012. Please note that only a transport allowance will be offered.

• Covering application letter
• A signed CV (with names and contact details of two referees) 
• Certified qualification certificates 
• Certified copy of ID

To : The Human Resources Department: Ms A Mars, PO Box 61, Cape Town 8000 or delivered to the HR Department at Iziko SA National Gallery Annexe, St John’s Road, Cape Town. Preference will be given to candidates from the designated groups.

Negotiating Reality: The Photographic image in a virtual, conceptual and actual environment

The 2010 World Press Photo exhibition.

A series of Masterclasses, talks, walkabouts and panel discussion using the 2011 World Press Photo exhibition which showcases at the Castle of Good Hope between 26 January and 17 February, as a springboard to think and talk about making images in our current environments. Discounts can be negotiated. Please contact Jenny Altschuler. Series designed and led by Jenny Altschuler. 

Masterclass C 1: Making images for virtual, conceptual and actual environments: talking about and creating images, Jenny Altschuler. Up to 15 participants will be accepted. Participants are required to bring their own digital camera.

Date: 6–9 February
Time: 09h30–17h00 Break at 12h30 – followed by afternoon shoots
Venue: Castle of Good Hope
Fee: R500 (4 days)

Conversations with Mike Hutchings C 2: Established photographer, winner ‘Sport’ category World Press Photo 2011
Date: 7 February
Time: 13h00–14h30
Venue: Castle of Good Hope
Fee: R40

Reading Texts C 3: Pinpointing and discussing a few important texts on photography - led by Andrew Lamprecht. Up to 20 participants will be accepted.
Date: 8 February
Time: 13h00–14h30
Venue: Castle of Good Hope: Recruitment Centre
Fee: R50

Panel Discussion C 4: The documentary image: writhing or thriving
in virtual, conceptual and actual environments. Chair: Sean O’Toole.
Date: 10 February
Time: 12h30–14h30
Venue: TH Barry Lecture Theatre, Iziko SA Museum
Fee: R40

Masterclass C 5: Jodi Bieber - Established photographer - Overall Winner World Press Photo 2011- Bieber will critique and review portfolios. Up to 15 participants will be accepted.
Date: 13–15 February
Time: 09h30–17h00
Venue: Castle of Good Hope
Fee: R600 (3 full days)

Conversations with Jodi Bieber C 6
Date: 11–17 February
Time: 13h00–14h00
Venue: Castle of Good Hope: Recruitment Centre
Fee: R30

Date: 13 February
Time: 13h00–14h30
Venue: Castle of Good Hope
Fee: R40

Walkabout of World Press Photo 2011 C 7
Date: 11–17 February
Time: 13h00– 14h00
Venue: Castle of Good Hope
Fee: R30, free Saturday and Sunday

For further information on all events and applications to Masterclasses, email sacentrphoto@iafrica.com or Tel. 082 935 5522.

Neither Man Nor Stone

Moshekwa Langa, Untitled (Skins) 2005 Mixed media drawing installation (installation view)

Neither Man Nor Stone is a curated exhibition of works from the Iziko South African National Gallery’s Permanent Collection, plus a small number of loaned works. The exhibition explores the relationship between humans and animals in South African art, with a focus on the ways in which this relationship has been represented by artists since the 1980s.

New Year Carnival and the Alibama

New Year Carnival and the Alibama is a new exhibition introducing the history of Cape Town’s New Year carnival. In particular, the stories behind the famous Afrikaans song, ‘Die Alibama’, sung in Cape Town from the second half of the 19th century, are explored. It is traditionally sung by Klopse and Nagtroepe (Malay Choirs) and played to a ghoema (drum) rhythm. The exhibition features the flag of the Confederate States of America flown on the steamship CSS Alabama. The flag was donated to Iziko Museums in the 1920s.

Enquiries: 
Paul Tichmann Curator
Tel. 021 467 7215
email ptichmann@iziko.org.za

Alabama Flag

Norfolk Island Pine

Noteworthy events during the lifetime of this tree, planted about 1850 in the Public Gardens. Tree struck by lightning, felled and removed 1939.

CROSS-SECTION THROUGH NORFOLK ISLAND PINE

Noteworthy events during the lifetime of this tree, planted about 1850 in the Botanic Gardens, now the Public Gardens, Cape Town.

1850

Convict ship dispatched from Cape to Van Diemen's Land as a result of local anti-convict agitation.

Heerengracht renamed Adderley Street, after British M.P. Mr Adderley, who championed agitation against importation of convicts to the Cape Colony.

1851

First oranges exported to England; made possible by steamship service.

1852

No. 1 Reservoir built below Camp Street.

1854

First Cape Parliament sat in The Lodge de Goede Hoop, Cape Town, on 30th June.

Gold discovered in Transvaal.

Cape Commercial Bank opened.

1855

South African Museum reconstituted.

1856

Open canal in Adderley Street covered.

Wood street-paving introduced.

1857

Earthquake in Cape Town on 14 August.

Vlei on Green Point Common used for boating and model boat races.

Monthly mail service to England undertaken by Union Steamship Company; voyage took 42 days.

St Mary's Cathedral in Roeland Street completed.

1858

Strand Street macadamized.

1859

Construction commenced of Library and Museum Building - now the S A Library - in the Company's Gardens.

Construction on first railway, from Cape Town to Wellington, started.

1860

Visit of Prince Alfred to the Cape. This was the first royal visit to the Colony.

First barrow of soil tipped by Prince Alfred for the construction of Table Bay Docks on 17 July.

No. 2 Reservoir built below Camp Street.

Penny postage introduced for letters within the City.

First telegraph service, a privately owned line, introduced from Cape Town to Simonstown.

1861

First horsetram service introduced between Cape Town and Sea Point.

1862

First sod turned for the railway between Cape Town and Wynberg.

1863

Visit of the privateer Alabama to Cape Town.

Old Synagogue built in St. John's Street, Gardens.

1864

Railway between Cape Town and Wynberg opened.

Noonday gun first fired by electricity.

1865

Sixty people died and 18 ships lost in Table Bay in the great gale on the night of 17 May.

Lighthouse on Robben Island lit for the first time.

Statue of Sir George Grey -- -the first statue in Cape Town --- erected in the Botanic Gardens.

1867

First diamond discovered at Hopetown.

Second visit of Prince Alfred to the Cape.

First Mayor of Cape Town installed.

Severe drought in Cape Town; it did not affect the growth of this tree.

1869

The steamship Great Eastern in Table Bay. A token penny issued by local firm, Marsh & Sons, to mark the event.

Public executions abolished.

1870

Streets lit by gas during winter.

Tinned meats exported experimentally from the Cape.

Alfred Docks opened on 17 May.

1872

Responsible government granted to the Cape Colony.

1873

University of Cape of Good Hope, the fore-runner of University of South Africa, founded.

Visit of HMS Challenger to Cape Town during marine research expedition around the world.

1874

Foundation stone laid of present Houses of Parliament.

Construction of Molteno Reservoir commenced.

1877

Fist South African International Exhibition held in Cape Town.

1878

Arrival of first telephones.

1879

Metropolitan Church built on Greenmarket Square.

1880

Pillar boxes introduced in Cape Town.

1881

Bursting of newly completed Molteno Reservoir floods Cape Town.

1882

Robinson Graving Dock constructed.

1883

Standard Bank Building in Adderley Street opened.

1884

First exhibition of South African products and manufactured goods held in Cape Town.

1885

Telephone exchange opened in Cape Town.

Simonstown Docks taken over by British Admiralty.

1886

First masonry building ,the Colonial Mutual Building, with the first lift erected in Cape Town.

Present Houses of Parliament opened.

Malay cemetries closed on Signal Hill, under protest.

1887

Jubilee of Queen Victoria celebrated and her statue erected in the garden of the Houses of Parliament.

1889

First submarine cable to England was laid.

1890

Railway station (on the present Golden Acre site) rebuilt and extended.

1892

Botanic Gardens ceded to Cape Town Municipality as Public Gardens. Municipal electricity scheme inaugurated.

1893

Commercial Exchange, on site of present OK Bazaars Building in Adderley Street, demolished.

Opening of Opera House on 31 August.

1895

Earthquake in Cape Town on 7 September.

De Waal park, formerly Jubilee Park, laid out.

1896

Streets lit by electricity.

SS `Pieter Faure', Cape Government Marine Survey vessel, commissioned.

1897

First electric-tram service introduced.

South African Museum Building opened on present site.

Old General Post Office---the biggest building in South Africa at the time---opened in Adderley Street, on site of present OK Bazaars Building.

First motor car arrived in Cape Town; driven by J. P. Hess and known as `Coffeepot'.

Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee celebrated.

1898

New Street, formerly Thuyn Street, renamed Queen Victoria Street.

1899

Coat-of-arms, granted to Cape Town by Commissioner-General de Mist in 1804, confirmed by letters-patent.

Fresh-produce marked opened in Sir Lowry Road.

Mount Nelson Hotel opened.

Outbreak of Anglo-Boer War.

1900

City Hall foundation stone laid.

Balloon ascent from Rosebank showgrounds. Aeronaut dropped in Molteno Reservoir, and was drowned.

1901

Visit of Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary).

Foundation stone of new St George's Cathedral laid by Duke of Cornwall and York.

General mourning of Queen Victoria's death.

Last toll gate, in Woodstock, abolished.

1902

Scenic tram service to Camps Bay, via Clifton and Kloof Neck, introduced.

1903

Death of Cecil John Rhodes.

Memorial tablet erected by S A Philosophical Society on site of De la Caille's Observatory in Strand Street.

1904

New Synagogue built in St John's Street, Gardens.

1905

City Hall completed.

1906

First service held in crypt of new St George's Cathedral.

1906/7

First aeroplane demonstrated at the Cape.

1908

First silent cinematography film shown in the Good Hope Hall.

1910

Act of Union of South Africa.

Historical Pageant staged at Cape Town.

Death of King Edward VII.

Pageant, depicting South Africa's history, staged in Cape Town.

1911

Construction of a 300-metres long pier commenced at foot of Adderley Street.

1912

Aerial record established by Mr Driver, by flying over Table Mountain; in a monoplane with Gnome engine and wing membrane of silk.

1913

Koopmans de Wet House opened as a cultural history annexe of the South African Museum.

Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens opened.

Pier opened by Sir Frederick de Waal, Administrator of the Cape Province.

Greater Cape Town formed by amalgamation of the suburban municipalities, with the exception Wynberg, with Cape Town Municipality.

1914

Municipal Orchestra (later Cape Town Symphony Orchestra) founded.

Captain Scott died in the Antarctic. (Cape Town was the refit station for his expedition's ships). (Argosy monument at lower end of Adderley Street.)

1916

The Slave Tree, an old fir-tree on Church Square, removed.

1917

The Michaelis Collection in the Old Town House, officially opened.

1920

The Government's Fisheries Survey vessel, SS Pickle, commissioned. Death of Olive Schreiner in Cape Town.

1922

First wireless broadcast in Cape Town by Mr Streeter.

1923

Carrilon installed in City Hall.

First Union coinage in Cape Town.

1924

First official broadcast by Cape Town Broadcasting Company, from Argus Building.

1925

Visit of Prince of Wales to South Africa; laid foundation stone of new buildings of University of Cape Town, in Rondebosch.

Afrikaans declared an official language.

1926

Capt. Scott's ship Discovery, reconditioned for research on whales and Antarctic marine biology, visited the Cape.

1927

African Broadcasting Company founded.

1928

First `talkie' film shown in the Astoria, Woodstock.

Wynberg Municipality amalgamated with Greater Cape Town.

1929

Table Mountain Cableway opened.

The `great depression'.

1930

Camps Bay scenic tram route closed.

RRS Discovery II, whaling and Antarctic research ship, refitted in Cape Town.

SA National Gallery opened.

Delville Wood memorial and garden in Company's Garden opened

1931

The Government's Fisheries vessel, RV Africana, commissioned.

1932

New wing of SA Museum, housing Ethnology and Mammal galleries, opened.

1934

Cape Archives transferred to former university building in Queen Victoria Street.

1936

Death of king George V.

Present South African Broadcasting Corporation founded.

1937

Opera House closed on 7 January and demolished to make way for present General Post Office.

Coronation of King George VI.

1938

Pier demolished for reclamation of Rogge Bay and construction of Duncan Docks.

1939

Tramcars replaced by trackless trams.

The S A Mutual Building, in Darling Street, and the General Post Office, Cape Town's tallest buildings for the next 20 years, nearing completion.

Outbreak of World War II.

TREE STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, FELLED AND REMOVED.

OF FIRED – AN EXHIBITION OF SOUTH AFRICAN CERAMICS WITH ESTHER ESMYOL

The Granary, Castle of Good Hope
Thursday 10th May
11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40, Students R20

Ceramics or objects made of fired clay form an important part of the permanent collections of Iziko Museums.  The exhibition showcases a selection of these rich and diverse ceramic holdings.  The focus is on ceramics made in South Africa from earliest times through to the contemporary, including inspirational examples of ceramics from Asia and Europe.  Indigenous southern African pottery was mainly collected during field trips and archaeological excavations.  In addition, since the late 1980s, the ceramic collection of particularly the Social History Collections Department, was expanded through the purchase of modern and contemporary South African ceramics.  The exhibition reveals the beauty and, at the same time, the multi-layered meanings of ceramic works.
 

Our Place in the Universe

A display depicting a cosmic zoom to view the universe on an ever increasing scale, reaching back to almost the very beginning of our universe.

Our Triumphs and our Tears and Maligongwe: Let us praise the women

The pivotal role that women played in the struggle for democracy has only recently been recognised. For most of the last century, independent, resourceful and determined female leaders and their followers were on the march demanding their rights. Their continued defiance in the face of persecution and hardship challenged the myth of female subservience. And in the course of the struggle against Apartheid, a new gender consciousness emerged among South African women. This forms the background to two exhibitions which have opened, in partnership with the Apartheid Museum, highlighting the role of women in the struggle against Apartheid.

Our Triumphs and Our Tears: An overview of women’s oppression and resistance in 20th century South Africa.

Malibongwe: Let us praise the women: Photographic portraits of veteran women activists by Gisële Wulfsohn, including Albertina Sisulu, Zainab Asvat, Hilda Bernstein, Jeanie Noel and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Enquiries: Wieke van Delen on Tel 021 467 7203 or email wvandelen@iziko.org.za.

Out and about Muslim women

This photographic exhibition explores the lives of ten Muslim women from Cape Town who come from diverse backgrounds. The women reflect on being Muslim and share their dreams and aspirations. Many of the photographs are from the women’s private albums and depict everyday life, social activities and career successes. By offering different perspectives, they challenge stereotypical notions of Muslim women. The exhibition is accompanied by a video produced by Munier Parker.

Pancho Guedes - An Alternative Modernist

Pancho Guedes - An Alternative Modernist

Introduction

Described as an ‘alternative modernist’, Pancho Guedes draws on traditional African skills and motifs in his work. Now eighty-three years old, he has been prolific in terms of output and diversity, both in Africa and internationally. Born in Portugal, Pancho moved to Mozambique as a child and studied in Johannesburg, obtaining his architectural degree from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). He returned to Wits in 1975 and was Head of the Department of Architecture until 1990.

Twenty-five years after the Architectural Association of London exhibited his work, an exhibition entitled ‘Pancho Guedes – An Alternative Modernist’ was commissioned and produced by the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel in 2007. Curated by Pedro Gadanho, this exhibition focused on the nearly twenty-fiveyear period during which he was active in Mozambique, and his extraordinary achievements in more than 500 projects. Pancho’s capacity to seamlessly bring together Europe and Africa, art and architecture, dream and reality, are revealed and further explored in the newly-curated component that introduces work created mostly in South Africa after April 1974. Curated by architects Henning Rasmuss and Dagmar Hoetzel, in consultation with the architect, it is separate yet conceptually linked to the S AM show.

At a time when little attention was paid to the aesthetic production of Africa, Pancho was a promoter and supporter of vernacular architecture and African artists, notably Malangatana Valente and Tito Zungu. Despite this, his work has never been shown in either Mozambique or South Africa.

The exhibitions in Cape Town and Johannesburg are sponsored by Instituto Camões in Portugal, Arup, the Cement and Concrete Institute of South Africa, Business Arts South Africa, Grand West Cultural Heritage Trust, as well as various businesses, architectural practices and individuals. 

Enquiries

Marilyn Martin
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: mmartin@iziko.org.za

Opening address

Thank you for giving me the honour of opening this exhibition. 
I’ve spent a large part of my professional life exploring the permeable boundaries, the bridges and links between art and architecture. All of Pancho’s work demonstrates and celebrates this interconnection; he has made it real and has shown how rich and exciting the fusion can be. It is fitting that the National Gallery host this show – my warm congratulations to its director Marilyn Martin who has succeeded – against some odds, in making this show happen.

I first met Pancho nearly 50 years ago, in what was then Lourenço Marques. I had joined Revel Fox as his first assistant when he opened his Cape Town office, and was due some leave. When Revel heard that Rhona and I were planning a trip up to Mozambique island on a Portuguese tramp steamer he said ‘you must meet Pancho’, whose name was already legendary in our two man office. Pancho was there at the boat to meet us and took us round for a tour of his boldly gestural buildings recently built, and those he was working on (roughly around the time when the Smiling Lion apartment house was conceived). I was struck by Pancho’s passion, his enthusiasm, his visual imagination, his omnivorous appetite for information – and at the end of the day his insistent search for the perfect ice cream. 

Pancho has classified his architectural inventions (his words) ‘ into a number of families and filed them into a more or less definitive catalogue of 25 architectures which are (his) Vitruvius Mozambicanus’. They fulfill the well known Vitruvian virtues of ‘Firmness, Commodity and Delight.’ But don’t let the abundant presence of the latter virtue - Delight - obscure the presence of the other two.

Those exuberantly demonstrative elevations are underpinned by some very rational plans.

And this calls to mind another recollection: Pancho giving a lecture demonstration at an architectural conference in Cape Town in the early 1960s. Imagine a lecture theatre full of largely conservative and skeptical architects listening to Pancho doinglecture theatre: flashing on to the screen a stream of provocative elevations and ending with a final slide that showed a drawing with an apparently abstract pattern of red lines, accompanied by Pancho’s triumphant Annunciation: ‘DRAINAGE PLANS'!!!

So in memory of all that, and in honour of this momentous occasion, Pancho, allow me to offer a little poem in the form of an acrostic on your name: imagine the letters disposed vertically, thus - Acrostic for Pancho

P is for Pancho, poet, provocateur and planner
A is for Architect, modern, of alternative manner 
N is for Narrative, buildings storied, allegorical
C is for Creativeness, coded, metaphorical 
H is for Hortatory, manifestos flown from the mast
O is for Oracle, future from past

G is for Guedes, at 83, buoyantly afloat
U is for Ulysses, captain of his cultural boat
E is for Eclectic, taking here and from there
D is for Dada, architectural cabaret Voltaire
E is for Epigrammatic edifice, made with wit and with guile
S is for Stiloguedes, his seductive panoptic style

Pancho makes his philosophy manifest in many ways . And not the least notable of them is that chosen weapon of the avant garde- the manifesto. And of all his sayings, witticisms, polemics and pronouncements there is one that, above all, encapsulates what his work is all about. It’s on the invitation:

I CLAIM FOR ARCHITECTS THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES THAT PAINTERS AND POETS HAVE HELD FOR SO LONG. 

Not only has he claimed that right ; he has made it into a philosophy whose lexicon includes narratives, fables, foibles, parables, and paradoxes, anarchy and animism. His work is steeped in an understanding of the universal roots of art and architecture, both in its classical Western and African traditions. 
He draws on many sources --from Frank Lloyd Wright to Corbusier and to Louis Kahn; from Bruce Goff to Antoni Gaudi. (It was, after all, Gaudi who warned that to be truly radical, you had to rediscover your roots).

Pancho’s radicalism has been to root this cognitive tree in an African soil, and to graft on limbs which bear distinctivelypersonal fruit: an animated animism, an anthropomorphic humanism. As one of the writers on his work, Timothy Ostler, has quite shrewdly observed Pancho seemed to be talking about his buildings as if they were living personalities . He saw architecture through the eyes of an animist – an animist, that is, who had hitched a ride with African art on its way to being discovered by Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, then stopped off in Vicenza to exhume and revive the body of Andrea Palladio.

I would like to explore this dada connection a little further. Before it was a movement dada was a state of mind – iconoclastic, anarchic, irreverent. It found its initial focus in the cabaret Voltaire in Zurich in 1916.

It’s interesting to note that Pancho hosted one of the original Zurich group of founding fathers of dada - Tristan Tzara - in Lourenço Marques in 1962. This was Tzara’s first trip to Africa in the year before he died; and here he is, the famously irreverent Tzara, being very serious – and recognising the seriousness behind the joker’s mask of Pancho’s work:

One has indeed come to the end of the world, and for me at least to Africa, to find the most ancient, the most archaic things and also- surprisingly though it may seem, the most extraordinary things which were dreamt of thirty or forty years ago ( in Europe) and are now becoming reality on this soil of Africa. Mr Guedes, apart from being a sculptor, considers that painting and sculpture are not solely arts of pleasure, but should be applied to housing, to social life, to spiritual life, to the life of the imagination… He has built some extraordinary houses in Mozambique, a whole architecture of the imagination, which of course links Guedes with the Dadaist and Surrealist schools.

I would like to take this a little further and suggest that there are links between Pancho and that most profoundly thoughtful of the dada pioneers - the man who founded the cabaret Voltaire - the poet Hugo Ball. Ball was the ‘organizer, promoter and primary architect of dada’s philosophical activism’ ; he was to advocate the international destruction of and clearing away of the rationalised language of modernity; his poetry was an attempt to ‘to return to the innermost alchemy of the word’ to invent and discover a language untainted by convention.( these were some of the ‘extraordinary things’ that Tzara was presumably referring to). Ball, in 1916. announced the invention of a new poetic genre,Verse ohne Worte - poems without words, which he calledLautgedichte, sound poetry. And so, on the stage of the cabaret Voltaire, here is Ball, in his pointed witch’s hat, flapping the arms of his cardboard tunic, chanting the sound poem that was to enter art history. I won’t recite all of it, but its beginning started something like this:

Gadji beri bimba glandridi lauli lonni cadori….

And ended in cadences that evoked an imaginary Africa by sound association:

Zimzim Uralla.. zimzim Zanzibar zimzalla zam
Elifantolim brussala bulomen

And then, he tells us, he was carried off stage, like a Magical Bishop.

Ball’s writings show that he was keenly aware of the link between primitivism, magic, word and image. And so is Pancho who has talked and written of architects as “magicians, conjurers, dealers in magic goods, promises, potions”, himself as a “witchdoctor”. I would add - Himself as ArchiDada.

Pancho, too, has found alternatives to the rationalized language of modernity. As Ball made Lautgedichte - sound poetry, so Pancho has made what I will call Bau gedichte - building poetry. He has made, among many other things, a Swazi Zimbabwe-- in his words - ‘ a foolish round house outside the world of money’. He has made a habitable woman, a pregnant building, a hysterical building (his words) - “ lascivious passages, halls of infinitesimal multiplications, visceral buildings turned inside out . We must listen to the voices that speak to all of us”. 

One of the voices that speak to me, is that of the ancient Greek poet Archilochus (Archi as in Architect), who invented a fable about a hedge hog and a fox. (a four- legged fox, that is).

The fox knows many things; the hedgehog knows one big thing. 

His idea was appropriated and developed in our time by the Oxford liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin as a metaphor for different kinds of creative activity: Goethe and Pushkin were foxes; Dostoevsky and Tolstoy were hedgehogs.

I suspect that Pancho combines elements of both fox and hedgehog. He certainly knows many things -- he has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the literature of art and architecture.

But he also knows one big thing: that architecture can be art.

There is a story told about Antoni Gaudi - that after he met his untimely death under the wheels of a tramcar on Barcelona’s Gran Via, (maybe he was pre-occupied in solving problems in his unfinished Sagrada Familia) his circle of friends gathered round to pay tribute. One of them exclaimed “What a wonderful thing it would be if Don Antoni were canonized! Then everybody would want to be an architect”.

Now I don’t have papal authority to do this, but by the power vested in me in declaring this exhibition open, I hereby proclaim Pancho Guedes as the living patron saint of alternative modernism -- of architecture as magical space, of architecture as poetry, of building dreams, and buildings that dream of themselves.

Neville Dubow
Cape Town, May 2008

Past/Present: Andrew Verster

Past/Present is a survey of works by Andrew Verster who turns 72 this year. The exhibition’s point of departure is 1994 – the start of democracy in South Africa – and shows works from that time to the present. The artist places significance on this particular period, as it has been a milestone in his life mainly due to the freedom enshrined in the new Constitution, which gave equal rights to all. Speaking as a gay man, Verster claims that, “For the first time in my life I became legal.” His work reflects a sense of liberation and joyousness, which seems to have recently burst forth.

Curated by Carol Brown, Past/Present is a multi-media exhibition of paintings, drawings, stage sets, costume designs and wax panels that aims to show the diversity and constant creativity of one of the country’s most prolific and respected artists.

Enquiries

Nadja Daehnke
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4673
Email: Andrea Lewis, alewis@iziko.org.za.

Patriarch: Changing Representations of Male Identity in South African Visual Art

"Masculine refers essentially to qualities, characteristics or behaviours deemed by culture or society to be especially appropriate or ideally associated with men and boys."- From Random House Dictionary

Pattern of Beauty

In this exhibition, co-curated by Mahmudah Begum Jaffer, selected artifacts from the Social History Collections of Iziko Museums form part of the display, together with images of decorative art from mosques around Cape Town. Islamic decorative art is mainly expressed in geometric forms in calligraphy, architecture and textile art, as the depiction of human and animal figures is forbidden in Islam. Islamic art reflects unity and the perfection of the proportion and symmetry of God's creation. With contemplation and understanding, these elements all reveal deeper meaning according to the Islamic way of life. Qur'anic calligraphy is regarded as the highest form of Islamic art, and as such, the patterns that illuminate the text carry a high standard of aesthetic harmony and discipline, balance and stability.

Enquiries:
Paul Tichmann Curator
Tel. 021 467 7215
email ptichmann@iziko.org.za

PETER CLARKE AND THE VAKALISA GROUP 1982 – 1994

Members of the Vakalisa Group, Photograph by: Rashid Lombard

Iziko Summer School 2012

Time: 11h00–13h00
Venue: Iziko South African National Gallery
Fee: Free

Members of the Vakalisa Group, of which Peter Clarke was a part, will be sharing their oral histories of the period of 1982 – 1994 as well as offering interpretations of the context that the group was operating under at the time.

It is intended that this panel discussion will add value to the current Peter Clarke exhibition and elucidate his position as a community art originator.

Photography, Diaspora and James Barnor's Transatlantic Archive: A Missing Chapter.

Drum Cover Girl Marie Hallowi, Kent 1966 Autograph ABP

An illustrated talk by Renée Mussai, curator of the exhibition Ever Young:

James Barnor, introducing the photographer's work in the wider context of photographic practice that addresses notions of diaspora, cultural identity and representation in the collection held by Autographer ABP, London. The artist will join the curator for an informal 'In Conversation', followed by a:

Walkabout of the exhibition by James Barnor

All welcome/attendance is free/refreshments.

Ever Young: James Barnor is presented in partnership with Autograph ABP, London 

Picasso and Africa

Woman in an armchair, Summer 1927. Oil on canvas Musée Picasso, Paris. Photo RMN. Jean-Gilles Berizzi © Succession Picasso 2006 – DALRO

One of the most important exhibitions in the history of the Iziko South African National Gallery opens to the public on 13 April after a five-week run at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg. Sponsored by the Standard Bank, the French Embassy and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), it is the culmination of longstanding partnerships formed between these institutions, as well as Iziko South African National Gallery, l’Association Française d’action artistique (AFAA) and Air France. With President Mbeki and President Chirac as patrons, the exhibition has the full support of the French and South African governments.

Picasso never visited Africa and he affirmed that he did not know the continent. His Africa was in his studio, with his friends and fellow artists, with dealers or collectors or ethnologists; in the vitrines of the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro (now known as Musée de l’Homme) in Paris, the quays of Marseilles, in masks, postcards, in his head and in his spirit.

In no other European artist’s career did African art play such a pivotal and historically significant role as in Picasso’s. From the moment that he had his first encounter with African art in the ethnographic galleries of the Trocadéro in June 1907, he had a sense of the objects as charged with emotion, with a magical force capable of deeply affecting us. At the same time he understood the conceptual principles characteristic of classical African masks and figures, and looked carefully at the formal and expressive lessons he could learn. Politically aware, Picasso challenged both Western artistic traditions and colonial exploitation with his admiration for, and appropriation of, African art.

The curators of the exhibition, Laurence Madeline and Marilyn Martin, have explored Picasso’s response and debt to African sculpture through 61 paintings, drawings and sculptures, in four periods of redirection: his advance to a new form of art through Paul Gauguin and ancient Iberian sculpture; the development of his full-blown African period from the summer of 1907 to the summer of 1908; the African links to Cubism, in both its Analytical and Synthetic phases; new directions from the 1930s, when Picasso worked within the ambit of Surrealism. The works are displayed in the presence of relevant African sculptures from South African collections.

In addition there is a selection of 21 works, including three from South African collections and three from the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. A biographical room provides fascinating insights into Picasso’s life and work.

A prestigious book is available in the Gallery Shop, as well as a curriculum-based educational resource for teachers and learners.

Presented in collaboration with the National Picasso Museum, Paris. The education programme has been made possible by a special grant from Business and Arts South Africa (BASA)

Enquiries

Marilyn Martin
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: mmartin@iziko.org.za

Prince Albert

12–14 August
Cost: Members – R1 150; non-members – R1 300

Bookings on all excursions will only be secured with a 50% deposit.

Dr Judy Maguire has once again agreed to show the Friends some of the fascinating geological features and interesting history of this area. Join Dr Maguire and discover the natural wonders of this delightful Karoo town nestled at the foot of the towering Swartberg mountains. More details about this excursion will be available soon.

Random Works? A Selection from the Permanent Collection

The Permanent Collection of the Iziko South African National Gallery has grown substantially from an initial bequest of 45 paintings of European art, presented by Thomas Butterworth Bayley in 1871. Currently, the Permanent Collection comprises of over 9000 works, now focusing on South African art.

The eclectic selection showcases diverse media such as paintings on different surfaces, works on paper, photography, installations, traditional sculpture and contemporary textiles. They provide insight into the diversity of the collection from historical European to traditional and contemporary African and South African art, revealing shifts in emphasis over time.

The random works displayed here are just the tip of the iceberg of the Permanent Collection. The idea was to use the opportunity to showcase a selection of works that had not seen the light of day in a while. In the process of selection several themes arose that were elaborated upon: landscape, death, abstraction, pop, still life and the theme of home. The question is whether the random works work?

Enquiries:

Andrea Lewis 

email alewis@iziko.org.za

Ranjith: Through the Lens of Durban's Veteran Photographer

Ranjith Kally. Home before the storm (1945). Silver print.

Many Durbanites have known Ranjith Kally's work from the social pages of local newspapers for decades, but this 85 year old photographer received scant recognition before his first solo exhibition, which opened in Johannesburg in 2004.

Born in Isipingo, Durban, Kally started taking photographs while working at a shoe factory in Durban. In 1952, he won third prize in an international competition in Japan out of a field of 150 000 entries. His strength in portraiture has enabled him to portray some of the most important and glamorous figures in South African history, including Nelson Mandela, Chief Albert Luthuli, Miriam Makeba and Sonny Pillay.

The exhibition curated by Riason Naidoo, is an acknowledgement of Kally's work since 1945, but also allows us the privilege of reflecting on our fascinating past through the lens of Durban's veteran photographer.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 3956
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za

Reality Check

In 2006, the Iziko South African National Gallery received an invitation from the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, in Germany, to curate an exhibition of Contemporary Art Photography from South Africa. This was exhibited in four German cities, Berlin, Sindelfingen, Bochum and Chemnitz during the course of 2007. Reality Check shows a selection of work from the larger exhibition.

Prior to the 1990s in South Africa, the dominance of politically engaged documentary photography relegated alternative and experimental expressions in the medium to the margins. Current photographic practice reveals both disjuncture and continuity in the documentary tradition, and an engagement with a wide range of concerns and forms. The personal is given new weight, and issues around identity, self-representation and gender are explored alongside landscape and post-apartheid memory. The work of the twelve contemporary photographers and artists on this exhibition provides an indication of the diverse practices through which photographers explore the realities of our radically changing world.

The following are represented on Reality Check: Bridget Baker, Lien Botha, Jean Brundrit, David Goldblatt, Pieter Hugo, Santu Mofokeng, Zanele Muholi, Jo Ractliffe, Mikhael Subotzky, Guy Tillim, Andrew Tshabangu and Nontsikelelo ‘Lolo’ Veleko.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467-4660
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za

Remembering Slavery

The Iziko Slave Lodge has a number of galleries that explore the history of slavery at the Cape. Built in 1679,mthe original building was used to confine men, women and children transported – mainly by the VOC (DutchmEast India Company) – as slaves to the Cape during the 17th and 18th centuries. These unwilling immigrants have contributed to the richness and diversity of South African history, heritage and culture.

Enquiries: Fiona Clayton 
Tel. 021 467 7219
email fclayton@iziko.org.za
 

Revisions: A Narrative of South African Art. The Campbell-Smith Collection

This exhibition highlights one of the most impressive private collections of South African art. Assembled since the mid-1980s, it is a compelling document of the vision and experience of black South African artists from the colonial era, through the apartheid years, the years of struggle and the final emergence of democracy in the post-1994 period.

Richard Long

Richard Long. Karoo Crossing, A Fifteen Day Work in the Locality of Guarrieberg, South Africa (2004)

Renowned British conceptual and land artist, Richard Long, presents a solo exhibition of works made in southern Africa over the last 50 years. Long’s fascination with land and walking translates, in this exhibition, into large-scale installations made using rocks recovered from the Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng, wall-text interventions and photographs.

Enquiries: Anthea Buys,
Tel: 021 481 7234 
email: abuys@iziko.org.za

Richard Long

Richard Long. Karoo Crossing, A Fifteen Day Work in the Locality of Guarrieberg, South Africa (2004)

Renowned British conceptual and land artist, Richard Long, presents a solo exhibition of works made in southern Africa over the last 50 years. Long’s fascination with land and walking translates, in this exhibition, into large-scale installations made using rocks recovered from the Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng, wall-text interventions and photographs.

Romantic Childhood

On the one hand, the invention of photography in the early 19th century spread the notion and ideal of the Romantic child far and wide, and made the conventions of Romantic childhood accessible to all. On the other, it has been largely responsible for the ‘crisis’ that now confronts the notion of ‘ideal childhood’ because of its use in the pornographic industry. Our sense is that childhood ‘innocence’ must be protected at all costs from its influence. At the same time, we are acutely aware that photographs are not necessarily free of sexual messages, especially in an age where advertising makes use of images of children to sell virtually anything. This 1910 image by Arthur Elliott uses nudity to emphasis a state of childhood innocence, but should an adult (male) photographer attempt to create such an image in 2008, serious questions and objections might arise.

Enquiries

Hayden Proud
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4673
Email: hproud@iziko.org.za

SA Science Lens

The SA Science Lens is a unique competition in South Africa that encourages amateur and professional photographers to enter images that give insight into the world of science and technology and the working of nature. The ‘SA Science Lens’ exhibition displays the winning images from this year’s competition. The competition categories were Science in action, Science close-up,Science as art, On my plate (about the food we eat), and I see science and technology (submissions entered by learners). 

Dr Simon van Noort, Curator of Entomology at Iziko, won this year’s ‘Science close-up’ category and was the overall winner of this year’s competition.

The SA Science Lens competition is organized by the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA), a business unit of the National Research Foundation (NRF).

Save Our Seabirds Festival and Exhibition

Sooty Shearwater. Photo by Wilfred Chivell, Gansbaai. Popular winner from last year’s SOS Festival Photographic Competition.

Birdlife South Africa has formed a collaboration with Iziko for this year’s Save our Seabirds Festival (SOS), which runs during National Marine Week. The aim of the festival is to raise awareness of the role of seabirds in marine ecosystems and the threats they are exposed to. The festival includes a varied education programme, as well as three evening public lectures by top seabird experts (Dr Rob Crawford, Dr Peter Ryan and Dr Phil Hockey).

Also on display is an exhibition of photographs resulting from theSave our Seabirds Photographic Competition. Judging by the photographs submitted for the 2009 competition, a display of top class photography that is well worth a visit can be expected.

Enquiries

Olga Jeffries
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3897
Email: ojeffries@iziko.org.za.

Save Our Seabirds Festival and Exhibition

A Gentoo Penguin Pygoscelis papua, breaches the perfectly calm Antarctic waters. Photograph by Jill Sneesby,winner of the 2010 SOS Festival Photographic Competition.

Festival runs 10 to 14 October
Exhibition closes 7 December

Birdlife South Africa has collaborated again with Iziko for this year’s Save Our Seabirds (SOS) Festival, which will run during National Marine Week. The aim of the festival is to raise awareness of the role of seabirds in marine ecosystems and the threats they are exposed to. The festival includes three evening public lectures (starting at 18:30 for 19:00):

Monday, 10 October
“Saving South Georgia’s Seabirds: The greatest island restoration programme ever undertaken” by Prof. John Croxall (Chair of the Birdlife International Global Seabird Programme and former head of the British Antarctic Survey).

Wednesday, 12 October
“Changing fortunes of South Africa’s coastal birds – good, bad and ugly” by Prof. Phil Hockey (Director of the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town).

Friday, 14 October
“From bright pink to black-and-white: How Lesser Flamingos will help save the African Penguin” by Mark Anderson (CEO of Birdlife South Africa). An exhibition of photographs entitled “Oceans of Life” resulting from the Save Our Seabirds 2011 Photographic Competition is also being shown.

Enquiries: Valerie Mienies,
Tel: 021 481 3897
email: vmienies@iziko.org.za

Save Our Seabirds Festival and Exhibition

A Gentoo Penguin Pygoscelis papua, breaches the perfectly calm Antarctic waters. Photograph by Jill Sneesby,winner of the 2010 SOS Festival Photographic Competition.

Festival runs 10 to 14 October
Exhibition closes 7 December

Scratches on the Face

This exhibition, which represented South Africa in a cultural exchange with India in December 2007, is an excellent introduction to South African art and history for any visitor. Drawing on the Iziko Art and Social History Collections, it maps out in the broadest terms the major themes in the struggle for liberation and survival and how these have marked the ‘face’ of the country in both literal and metaphorical terms. Works of art from pre-colonial times and examples of South African contemporary art are on display.

A splendid illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibition, jointly published by Iziko Museums of Cape Town and the University of South Africa Press.

Enquiries

Hayden Proud
Te: +27 90)21 467 4676
Email: hproud@iziko.org.za.

Second to None: Celebrating 50 Years of Women's Struggles

Purge and Stepping into Self (2005) by Nandipha Mntambo

Some 20 000 women made their way to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9 August 1956, protesting the government’s pass laws. 2006 marks the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the event. In commemoration of this event, ‘Second to None’ asserts women’s power to action and explores the ongoing struggle for personal freedom in the public domain.

For this exhibition, contemporary art is drawn from both the Iziko South African National Gallery holdings and from independent sources. The works chart ways to negotiate issues linked to individual and collective identity, race and gender. The exhibition includes established artists such as Helen Sebidi, Penny Siopis, Noria Mabasa, Tracey Rose and Berni Searle. It also presents a new generation of artists such as Keorapatse Mosimane, Bridget Baker, Zanele Muholi and Lolo Veleko.

Enquiries

Tel: +27 (0)21 4674674 or +27 (0)21 4674660

Separate is not equal: The struggle against separate schooling in America

The exhibition deals with segregation in schools in the United States during the 1960s. Using personal experiences, informative texts, images, a map of the United States indicating the locations of five significant court cases involving the issue of segregated schools, classroom desks, and a timeline, this exhibition raises visitors’ awareness of the struggle of African Americans against separate schooling. The parallels with Apartheid in South Africa are obvious.

Audiovisual material enhances the experience. Strange Fruit, sung by Billy Holiday, mourns the shameful lynchings of the South. You will meet Reverend De Laine and his family, victims and survivors of the struggle. Watch Martin Luther King Jr delivering his famous "I have a dream" speech  and write your comments on the chalkboard.

Separate is not Equal is a partnership between Iziko Museums of Cape Town, the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, the United States Consulates in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the Smithsonian Institute.

An education tour of the exhibition is highly recommended for social science/ history learners, grades 7–12. To book contact Lungi, Tel. 021 481 3823.

Exhibition enquiries: Thijs van der Merwe, Tel. +27 021 467 7201 or email tvandermerwe@iziko.org.za

Shoreline – an exploratory journey around the South African coast:

LECTURE PROGRAMME
Lectures are held in the TH Barry Lecture Theatre at Iziko South African Museum at 19:00 unless otherwise advertised. There is no charge for members, on presentation of their membership cards with the 2011 sticker; visitors pay R30.

Shoreline – an exploratory journey around the South African coast: the weird, the wonderful and the grotesque!
Speaker: Dr Eleanor Yeld-Hutchings

• Tuesday, 30 August
• Time: 18:30 for 19:00
• Venue: TH Barry Lecture Theatre, ISAM
• Cost: Members free, non-members R30

Bookings on all excursions will only be secured with a 50% deposit.

During 2008 and 2009 Dr Yeld-Hutchings had the privilege of being part of the crew that filmed Shoreline – an SABC2 documentary series. This journey took the team from the border of Namibia around the coast to the border of Moçambique. Along the way they explored some of the amazing facets of South African coastal biology and ecology. This was a particularly fascinating journey for a biologist to see the coast and to meet the scientists and people involved in diverse research projects and in some cases to actually participate in the ‘hands-on’ research. The variety and diversity along our coastline is astounding.

Three aspects that stood out for Eleanor were the weird world of the mangroves; the wonderful turtles of Sodwana Bay; and the grotesque fish parasites – the tongue replacement isopod.

This talk will explore the biology of these three aspects in more detail than was possible in the time allotted to each episode of Shoreline, and includes some of the results that have emerged from recent research.

Siliva Zulu

Lidio Cipriani. A bride being prepared for her marriage dance, near Eshowe (1927). Photograph © Prof. Jacopo Moggi Cecchi

This exhibition, undertaken in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Culture, showcases photographs taken in 1927 by the controversial Italian anthropologist, Lidio Cipriani (1892–1962), during the shooting of the film Siliva Zulu near Eshowe in KwaZulu-Natal. This is probably the first film in South African cinematic history in which the leading actors and supporting cast were all African. The Italian director, Attilio Gatti, employed Cipriani as his advisor on Zulu culture, to produce a story that combined romantic love, betrayal and witchcraft with glimpses of indigenous rural life. Though Cipriani’s photographs depict the local Zulu actors, who in the film ‘act’ themselves, and traditional characters in Zululand, they were later captioned and presented by Cipriani as authentic ethnographic documentation.

The exhibition also looks at stories behind the making of the film and the photographs, including the forms of colonial representation, scientific racism and Fascist ideology that emerge in Cipriani’s anthropological work and his photographic records.

Enquiries

Gerald Klinghardt
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3836
Email: gklinghardt@iziko.org.za

Silly Solly and the Shooting Stars

Solly Snail wants to be chosen for his garden's soccer team and thinks up ways to become a speedier snail, so that he will be chosen. He decides to ask a shooting star to help him, but does his plan work and will he be chosen for his garden's soccer team? Join him on his quest and find out for yourself!

24 March – 9 April
Monday to Friday: 11:00, 12:00 & 15:00
Saturday – 12:00 & 15:30
Sunday – 12:00 & 15:30

Especially for children aged 5-12

Silly Solly and the Shooting Stars

Solly Snail wants to be chosen for his garden's soccer team and thinks up ways to become a speedier snail, so that he will be chosen. He decides to ask a shooting star to help him, but does his plan work and will he be chosen for his garden's soccer team? Join him on his quest and find out for yourself!

24 March – 9 April
Monday to Friday: 11:00, 12:00 & 15:00
Saturday – 12:00 & 15:30
Sunday – 12:00 & 15:30

Especially for children aged 5-12

Singing the Real - A Exhibition of Contemporary Irish Art

Nick Miller, Masonite on Shannon, 2006. Oil on linen, 168 x 214 cm.

This exhibition, organised by the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in Dublin, is the first in an exchange between the RHA and Iziko South African National Gallery. Rather than curate a catch-all group exhibition that touches on the range, vitality and diversity of art in Ireland, curator Patrick Murphy decided to direct the exhibition towards a specific theme, looking at artists who employ scientific method or subject.

The strategy is to present an exhibition that addresses some of Ireland’s current social dilemmas and, in doing so, to offer South African viewers an opportunity of deepening their knowledge of, and friendship with, Ireland. The exhibition includes new media works, installations, photographs, drawings and paintings by ten artists, whose ages range from the late twenties to the mid-seventies. They evoke a range of scientific thought and methodology from astrophysics to thermodynamics, from meteorological observation to chemistry and environmental science. Messages about the degradation of the landscape, environmental pollution and global warming are subtle, yet ubiquitous. The exhibition is supported by Culture Ireland.

Enquiries

Marilyn Martin
Email: mmartin@iziko.org.za

Joe Dolby
Email: jdolby@iziko.org.za

Pam Warne
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660.

Sir Abe Bailey Bequest

Sir Abe Bailey

Numbering over 400 items including paintings, prints and drawings, the Sir Abe Bailey Bequest is the largest bequest held at the SA National Gallery to this day. It also constitutes one of the largest collections of British sporting art held by any public art museum in the world. The Sir Abe Bailey Trust has remained actively involved in its maintenance, and in more recent years has made substantial contributions to ongoing conservation work on the collection. This provides funding for the conservation work to be carried out on the paintings, frames and work on paper. 

SkySkan Digital Sky 2 demo

Iziko Skyskan full dome. Photo Jack White

Saturday – 13:00
Sunday – 13:00

For teenagers and adults

Entertaining, Educational and inspirational - join one of the Sky Skan experts and get transported on a journey through space and time as we explore the digital universe.  

SkySkan Digital Sky 2 demo

Slave Origins – Cultural Echoes

The range of objects displayed in this exhibition at the Slave Lodge – including puppets, furniture, weapons and fashion objects – reveals in a general sense the rich diversity of cultural backgrounds of the slaves transported to the Cape during the 17th and 18th Centuries.

These objects are not from the period of colonial slavery, but reflect how customs and traditions are passed down from one generation to the next and adapted for different conditions.

The VOC (Dutch East India Company) maintained a settlement at the Cape to support its profitable Asian trading operations. Nearly all the men, women and children were from regions around the Indian Ocean, including present-day Madagascar, Mozambique, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesian islands such as Sumatra, Java, Bali, and Timor.

Enquiries

Gerald Klinghardt
Tel: +27 (0) 21 481 3836
Email: gklinghardt@iziko.org.za

Sounds and Silences from a San Archive

Dorothea Bleek with rock painting copy by George Stow. University of Cape Town achive

Sound and Silences from a San Archive is an exhibition of Iziko Social History’s archive of /Xam and other San ethnography, artefacts, rare wax cylinder sound recordings, drawings, and memories collected by Wilhelm Bleek, Lucy Lloyd and especially Dorothea Bleek between 1856 and 1947 from their /Xam and other San teachers. This archive has revolutionised our understanding of San life past and present.

Sounds and Silences from a San Archive

Dorothea Bleek with rock painting copy by George Stow. University of Cape Town achive

Sound and Silences from a San Archive is an exhibition of Iziko Social History’s archive of /Xam and other San ethnography, artefacts, rare wax cylinder sound recordings, drawings, and memories collected by Wilhelm Bleek, Lucy Lloyd and especially Dorothea Bleek between 1856 and 1947 from their /Xam and other San teachers. This archive has revolutionised our understanding of San life past and present.

South African Post Office's 8th Definitive Series of Stamps on Beadwork

Beadwork ladybird, Iziko Collection, from 8th Definitive Series of stamps, South African Post Office

Iziko Art and Social History Collections departments have collaborated on this groundbreaking project since its inception seven years ago, when former Director of Iziko Arts Collections, Marilyn Martin, first suggested using beadwork to the SAPO design committee.

The beadwork pieces used in the design of the stamps - all from Iziko's Collections - are on show in Bertram House together with the philatelic series consisting of stamps, fist day covers, airmail letter cards and a beautiful commemorative book designed by the SAPO and written by Iziko staff. through this series of stamps on beadwork, the aesthetic achievements of South Africa women will be flying all over the globe as ambassadors for our country and continent.

Enquiries

Wieke van Delen
Tel: 021 481 7203
Email: wvandelen@iziko.org.za

Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2009 Nicholas Hlobo: Umtshotsho

The Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art 2009 has been awarded to Nicholas Hlobo. This exhibition began its year-long tour at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, in July 2009 and travelled to various major centres around South Africa before ending its run in Cape Town in August 2010.

Nicholas Hlobo presents a major new sculptural installation in his solo exhibition, Umtshotsho. Hlobo draws strongly on his Xhosa heritage in his work, invoking the rich idioms of the Xhosa language and exploring how traditions evolve in changing times. Of equal interest to Hlobo are his own sexual identity, and his place as a gay man within Xhosa culture. Where his previous shows have looked at ideas surrounding birth and sex, in this exhibition Hlobo takes as his theme the rituals that accompany the transition from youth to adulthood.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4671
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za and Andrea Lewis, alewis@iziko.org.za.

Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2007 Pieter Hugo: 'Messina/Musina'

‘Messina/Musina’ is the body of work that the photographer Pieter Hugo produced as Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year in 2007. The title reflects the transitional character of the community that the works represent. Formerly known as Messina, the town was renamed to correct a colonial misspelling. It lies on the highway that runs from South Africa to Zimbabwe and Zambia and attracts truckers, migrant labourers for the diamond mine and farms in the area, refugees and smugglers from neighbouring countries, and a concomitant military and police presence. European and American tourists are also drawn to local game hunting. A community constantly in flux, Hugo found that many of those he had photographed had left the area a year later.

Using a large-format camera, a slow process that demands a close interaction with the subject, and referencing the aesthetic of the commissioned family portrait, Hugo considers difference and sameness between individuals and groups.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za.

Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2011: Nandipha Mntambo

Nandipha Mntambo. Lelive Lami (2007). Cowhide, cow’s tails, resin, polyester mesh, 80cm x 290cm x 200cm

Recipient of the 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art, Nandipha Mntambo, will hold a solo exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery.

A graduate of the Michaelis School of Art at the University of Cape Town, Mntambo is widely known in South Africa for her sculptures made using cow-hide, and physical forms characteristic of bulls. She sees this thematic ground as a rich starting point for challenging common societal assumptions regarding gender and power.

Of winning this prestigious award, Mntambo says, “At this stage of my career it is a great affirmation of my achievements within my art practice. My hope is that the scope of my art creation would be increased.”

The award allows the winning artist to produce a new body of work and a catalogue, which, after a launch exhibition at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, will travel to selected institutions within South Africa.

Enquiries

Anthea Buys
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 7234
Email: abuys@iziko.org.za

Stephen Shore: Colouring American Photography

The first solo exhibition in South Africa of the work of American photographer, Stephen Shore, is a component and highlight of MoP4, Cape Town’s Month of Photography. The exhibition focuses on two of Shore’s seminal series: ‘American Surfaces’ and ‘Uncommon Places’, but includes a selection from the ‘Amarillo postcard series’ along with more recent work such as Shore’s ‘ibooks’, which use print-on-demand digital technology.

Stephen Shore’s early photography, from the 1970s, was amongst the first colour photography to be included within the canon of art. He was the youngest person and the first living photographer to hold a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the age of twenty-four. Shore’s images documenting the cultural landscape of the 1970s and 1980s in his travels across America richly demonstrate the tempo, palette and artifacts of the time. Although seemingly taken in a snapshot style, reflection reveals that they are carefully constructed compositions in which he transforms the mundane and inconsequential through a process of ‘conscious attention’. While his early work was roundly condemned by contemporary critics for its sharp deviation from the black-and-white art photographic conventions of the time, it is now regarded as having had a significant impact on the trajectory of contemporary photography and has influenced countless photographers, from Andreas Gursky to Nan Goldin.

This exhibition was organised and sponsored by the Roger Ballen Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting the education of photography and focuses on bringing the work of international photographers to South Africa.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4671
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za.

Stone Bones of the Ancient Karoo

This exhibition has been 250 million years in the making. It features the fossilised skeletons of long-extinct reptiles that ruled the land areas of the world some 50 million years before the dinosaurs. Highlights include five large fossilised skeletons of mammal-like reptiles, supported by graphics portraying what they might have looked like in the flesh. Two walk-round dioramas called “Scavengers” and “Grubbers” feature finely sculpted life-sized models of these animals in scenarios that have been reconstructed from the actual fossils on display.

Story Telling: Feast of the Orange Leaves

Listen and participate in the story of Faried and his first feast of the orange leaves including a walkabout of the area.

Date:  July 5, 2011

Time: 10h00

Appropirate for all ages

Cost: R15.00

Strengths and Convictions: The Lives and times of South Africa's Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, Albert

Strengths and Convictions consists of films, photographs and contemporary works of art by South African and international artists. It is constructed around a timeline of 100 years of South African history, and visual art is used as a matrix for the life and times of the four laureates. 

Visitors can expect an exhibition with three distinctive but interrelated parts: a collection of photographs portraying the four laureates, a large collection of contemporary artworks, and seven short films that contextualise the lives of the laureates. 

A fully illustrated publication with essays by the author Antjie Krog, Justice Albie Sachs, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, andthe exhibition curator, Gavin Jantjes, accompanies the exhibition. Relevant seminars and cultural events for schools and visitors are planned around the exhibition.

Strengths and Convictions has been developed by the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, in collaboration with the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town.

Enquiries

Joe Dolby
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4682
Email: jdolby@iziko.org.za.

STUDIO VISIT – BAREND DE WET

Top Floor, 48 Albert Road, Woodstock
Saturday 14th April
14:30
Members R30, Non-Members R40

A mythical figure in the South African art world with a career straddling nearly thirty years, Barend de Wet is essentially a conceptual formalist.  His oeuvre encompasses traditional media, craft skills and fanatical hobbyism that manifests in acts of playful and witty sculptures, ‘knitted paintings’, performances and productive collaborations.  From being a model for Issy Miyake, beekeeper, world record holder in yo-yoing, serial tattooist, and innate exhibitionist, De Wet exemplifies his motto that “art is life and life is art” and that any and all material matter, whether it be canonical art works or crocheted yarns, offer creative possibilities for transformation.  De Wet officially resigned from the art world in 1996 with the announcement of the birth of his son.  During 1998 he established the Museum of Temporary Art at his hotel, The Grand, in Observatory.  Here he continued his obdurate battle against the intellectualisms of art, favouring honest gestures imbued with visual puns and Duchampian mischief.  Barend de Wet’s work is represented in numerous public collections in South Africa and abroad.
 

Subtle Thresholds: The Representational Taxonomies of Disease

This exhibition by artist, Fritha Langerman, is primarily concerned with the visual representation of disease. It draws on the collections of the Iziko South African Museum, the University of Cape Town, the Wits Adler Museum, and includes new works by the artist.

Situated in the gallery between the social history and natural history displays, the exhibition aims to create a conceptual bridge between the two areas within the museum by presenting a complex visual network of the inter-relationships between
zoological, human and microbial worlds. In doing so, Subtle Thresholds seeks to expose some of the cultural and historical mythologies that have contributed to the perception of disease as a state of otherness and separation.

Enquiries

Olga Jeffries
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3897
Email: ojeffries@iziko.org.za

SUTHERLAND EXCURSION

Led by Prof. Brian Warner
Date: 25–26 February 2012
Fee: R950 [Max 25 participants]
At 12h00 midday on Saturday, 25 February, participants meet in the car park at Matjiesfontein, outside the coffee shop. We will leave for Sutherland in convoy at 12h15, stopping en route for a short talk on the geology of the Karoo. We meet briefly at the Sutherland Hotel before going to the observatory.

There will be a conducted tour of the observatory, lasting about two and a half hours, visiting three of the telescopes, including the largest (SALT). After dinner, and weather permitting, we will go back to the observatory to use the visitors’ telescope.

After breakfast on Sunday morning there is no set programme. During the drive back to Cape Town, a visit to the museum at Matjiesfontein is highly recommended.

Tatamkhulu Afrika

Mogamed Fu’ad Nasif – John Carlton – Jozua Joubert – Ismail Joubert - Tatamkhulu Afrika: One man with five names, all legally adopted, tells the story of a man’s journey in search of identity, social justice and religious truth. Tatamkhulu Afrika wrote four novels, one novella and nine volumes of poetry. He won every literary prize for which his work was eligible. He served in the Union of South Africa Defense Force and Umkhonto we Sizwe. He lived as philanthropist, ascetic and founded al-Jihad, a welfare organization.

Iziko Museums, together with the National English Literary Museum and al-Jihad put together an exhibition in memory of a remarkable man.

Taxidermy Course

Date: 27 June - 1 July
Time: 08:00 - 16:00
Venue: Iziko South African Museum Workshop

Enquiries:

Lisa Combrink, Tel. 021 481 3952 or email lcombrink@iziko.org.za
 

The Art of the Relief Print

This exhibition, drawn from the Permanent Collection, traces the history and development of relief prints, and provides insight into how they are made and produced. Included in the exhibition are outstanding examples of woodcuts, wood engravings and linocuts. Some of the earliest prints on display include woodcuts by Michael Wohlgemut (1434–1519), Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) and Lucas Cranach (1472–1553). Works by contemporary artists like Peter Clarke (b.1929) and Alice Goldin (b.1925) are also on display, as well as a representative selection of relief prints by artists associated with the Rorke’s Drift art centre. The art of the traditional Japanese woodcut is illustrated by a selection of works by, amongst others, Utamaro and Hiroshige.

Enquiries

Joe Dolby
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4682
Email: jdolby@iziko.org.za

The Boonstra Dioramas

Evidence of life in the Karoo from 300 million years ago; dioramas of ancient Karoo reptiles; fossil mammals of the Cape four million years ago.

The Cold Choice: Operation Hunger – Photographs by Struan Robertson

Struan Robertson. Solomon Louw, trekarbeider (itinerant farm worker), with his donkeys, outspanned at Salt Lake near Kimberley, Northern Cape Province. 11 February 1993.

The photographs by Struan Robertson (1927-2011) in this exhibition, are the result of his four years of travel and documentation in South Africa with Operation Hunger. The photographs are a record of rural poverty in South Africa during the 1980s at the height of apartheid, and the everyday battles by rural people to survive, and triumph, if in small but important ways. Robertson’s photographs, however, not only document heartrending examples of poverty – he certainly does this – but he uses his skill to create thoughtprovoking images that are evocative of the harshly beautiful environment of rural areas and people’s relationships to their environment.

Struan Robertson is a neglected artist in the history of South African photography. The Cold Choice, curated by the Bensusan Museum of Photography in Johannesburg, is the first exhibition of his work to be mounted by major museums in South Africa. The exhibition is curated by Dudu Madonsela of the Bensusan Museum.

Enquiries: Fiona Clayton,
Tel: 021 467 7219
email: fclayton@iziko.org.za

The Daimlerchrysler Award for South African Architecture

Heinrich Wolff (37), winner of the 2007 DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Architecture.

The DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Architecture, won by Heinrich Wolff in 2007, is the seventh Arts Award bestowed by DaimlerChrysler. The company has, since 2000, sponsored different art disciplines and recognised artists within the fields of contemporary art (Kay Hassan), jazz (Themba Mkhize), sculpture (Jane Alexander), choreography (Sbo Ndaba), creative photography (Guy Tillim) and poetry (Gabeba Baderoon). All the visual arts recipients’ work has been showcased at Iziko SA National Gallery.

The exhibition, which was previously shown in Berlin, Johannesburg and Durban, features the works of the young architects nominated for the award.

Heinrich Wolff (37) became a partner in Noero Wolff architects in 1998. Over the past nine years he has been involved in teaching design, construction and theory at various universities. He says: “I grew up on the privileged side of an unfair society and I feel compelled to contribute in effort and in ideas to the physical and intellectual reconstruction of the country. For me this means purposefully engaging in projects that go across boundaries of race, income group, received or constructed culture or historical categories. It would be unsatisfactory to think that great architectural opportunity would lie only with wealthy clients or international commissions where South African social-economic realities do not exist.”

Enquiries

Marilyn Martin
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: mmartin@iziko.org.za.

The Everyday and the Extraordinary: Three Decades of Architectural Design by Jo Noero

The Everyday and the Extraordinary celebrates the architectural career of South African-born Professor Jo Noero. Internationally renowned in the world of architecture, Noero’s work is firmly grounded in social conscience and he is principally known for projects such as the Red Location Museum of Struggle in Port Elizabeth, the Soweto Careers Centre and the Duduza Resource Centre. The exhibition is organised around three decades of practice from the 1980s to the first decade of the 21st century. Each decade is defined by the social and political context of that time: The 1980s was a period of uncertainty and upheaval, the 1990s a period of transition and the first decade of the 21st century a period of transformation. In its deepest sense, Noero’s work is a mirror of our times. The show encompasses original drawings, physical models, text and images, and is accompanied by a catalogue.

The Giant Squid: Architeuthis

Introduction

The giant squid, one of the last great mysteries of the sea, has not yet been seen alive. A creature of myth and wonder, an early specimen was described as a merman or sea monk in 16th century Denmark.

Largest of all the animals without backbones, it is a mollusc and is related to the octopus and cuttlefish, as well as garden snails, slugs, oysters and mussels.

Habitat

Giant squids are found in all three oceans, mainly in cooler temperate waters. Until recently their natural habitat was unknown as they were found mainly from strandings and from the stomachs of sperm whales. Giant squids are apparently not as rare as previously thought; with improved fishing techniques and larger trawls, giant squids are now being caught in trawls, presumably in their natural habitat. Off the West Coast of southern Africa they have been caught along the continental slope at depths of 360 m to 620 m and in a midwater trawl between 18 and 95 m over 4300 m total depth.

Place in the food web

The main predators of giant squids are sperm whales. They are also occasionally eaten by the Portuguese shark (Centroscymnus coelolepis), the blue shark (Prionace glauca) and the bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus). Juvenile giant squids have been found in the stomachs of lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox).

Prey

Like all cephalopods, giant squids are carnivorous, feeding on crustaceans, fish and other squid. They have a pair of beaks and a radula, for biting and rasping prey into small pieces.

Prey species recorded from Architeuthis stomachs  thus far are both benthopelagic (Nephrops, Eledone, macrourid fishes, possibly the orange roughy) and pelagic ( onychoteuthid, histioteuthid and ommastrephid squids, Trachurus, Micromesistius) and include fast-swimming fish and squids.

Eggs and juveniles

Giant squid eggs are very small, less than 2 mm long, and very numerous. A large female may spawn as many as 10 million eggs. Only a few juveniles have ever been found, the smallest had a mantle length of only 10 mm. The changes in shape with growth are quite dramatic but the rate of growth is unknown. Squids generally have short life cycles and rapid growth and it is possible that a mature giant squid may be only a few years old.
Size

The giant squid may reach a  considerable size. The largest ever measured was stranded at Lyall Bay, New Zealand in 1887 and had a total length of 17.4 metres, made up mostly by the 15 metre tentacles. However, the mantle length of this animal was only 1.8 m, which is a bit smaller than  the model on display in the South African Museum. The largest giant squid in terms of mantle length (2.8 m) was also stranded at Lyall Bay, New Zealand, in 1878.

Jet locomotion

Like most cephalopods, the giant squid swims by jet propulsion. Water drawn into the mantle cavity is forcefully expelled through the flexible funnel, which can move the squid in any direction.

Myths and legends

Influencing the movers and shakers in high places, and terrorising the plebs.

Still one of the last great mysteries of the sea, the giant squid has not yet been seen alive. A creature of myth and wonder, an early specimen was described as a merman or sea monk in 16th century Denmark.

In about 1550 a curious sea-creature, reminiscent of a monk and very large (2.5 m long), was caught in Danish waters and taken to the King. At that time Denmark had recently undergone the Reformation and the establishment of the Protestant church. Monks were not very popular, so the King ordered that the abominable creature be buried, lest it provide a fertile subject for offensive talk! But first the King had the sea monk illustrated and sent to Conrad Gesner in France, for inclusion in his big work on fishes, Libri de piscibus marinis, published in 1554.

Another account of the sea monk reports that the drawing was sent to the Emperor Charles V in Spain. As a result King Christian was included in the 1550 alliance between the Emperor and the Scots. The nobleman who handed over the illustration to the Emperor gave a similar one to the illustrious Queen Margreta of Navarre, who gave the figure to Rondelet. The sea monster was also reported and illustrated in France (in 1553) by Belon, who apparently had independent sources. In Zürich (in 1558), Gesner received a drawing and description very similar to those of Rondelet. Gesner also received another drawing of the monster from an independent source. This report said that the King had sent the drawing to the Duke of Mecklenburg, from whom a drawing reached the Council in Lüneburg. So the Danish Sea Monk was known all over Europe.

The sea monk was described as having a human head, shaven like that of a monk. Its clothes were made of scales, like a monk's cloak. It had two long fins instead of arms and the lower part ended in a broad tail.

In a popular lecture to the Danish Natural History Society in 1854, the eminent biologist Japetus Steenstrup showed that the sea monk was actually a squid. Furthermore, the large size of the sea monk indicates that it must have been a giant squid - Architeuthis.

In 1980 this popular talk of Steenstrup's was translated and published in English by J. Knudsen of the Zoological Museum, Copenhagen, and M.A. Roeleveld of the South African Museum.

Reconstructing the Soetwater giant squid

An important addition to our Aquatic World gallery was to have an example of a giant squid. It was decided that a model would be built based on a mature female with a mantle (body) length of 1.85 meters. This animal was stranded at Soetwater, near the Slangkop lighthouse at Kommetjie, after a storm in March 1991. The museum's taxidermy section would undertake the model and that it would have to be as accurate as possible based on the latest squid findings and research. As luck would have it the museum has a resident squid specialist who would  provide the necessary scientific background and expertise.

Reconstructing the Soetwater giant squid involved a lot of research to fill in the details that were lost due to damage of the specimen. Sources of information included records and photographs of other specimens collected in recent years. Still, none of the South African giant squids had intact tentacles, which may reach a length eight times that of the mantle. Even the eight shorter arms were incomplete in all our specimens.

For information on the tentacles, specimens were examined in other museums overseas. Architeuthis tentacles seen in museums in Denmark and Norway were photographed and measured, reconstructed and enlarged to a size appropriate for our large female.

We also delved into the literature, going back to the 1880s, for details and reconstructions of animals stranded in places as remote as Newfoundland and New Zealand, and found that many of the drawings and models of giant squids are inaccurate. Most models show arms that are too thin, the funnel too far forward, eyelids the wrong shape and inaccurate anterior mantle margin and head shape. We also had to take some guesses, as the eyeballs collapse and the head sags after death.

Our first step in constructing the model was to draw scaled-down drawings of a reconstructed Architeuthis, based on measurements taken from the Soetwater female.

This prompted questions such as:

"Is the mantle round in cross section?" We decided that a slight oval, wider than high, would look more natural than completely round.

How wide are the arms, and what is their shape in cross section?" Compare photo of sectioned specimen, same view of model and Wechsler 1999, fig. 4.

"Which way should the funnel point? i.e. is the squid hovering, going forward or back, fast or slow, catching prey or cruising or just hanging there?" We wanted to make as few assumptions as necessary, so the funnel points down as the squid is hovering and gently breathing in and out.

"Where is the eye placed in relation to the arms - how high and how far forward?"

"How long are the arms and tentacles?" The arms are about the same length as the mantle, or slightly longer, which is very long compared with most other squids. The two longer tentacles vary between º x and 8x the mantle length, so we made ours long enough to fill the space available - 7.15 metres and at 3.86x mantle length, well within the range. The total length of this model is 9.3 metres.

Text by Martina C Roeleveld

The Indian in DRUM magazine in the 1950s

This exhibition, curated by Riason Naidoo, focuses on the representation of the Indian community in South Africa. Indians arrived as indentured labourers between 1860 and 1917 to work on the sugar cane fields. This show reveals identities that have been suppressed in official and popular presentations of this community, via the DRUM magazine archives from the 1950s. The photographs give glimpses of an ‘Indian underworld’ – shantytowns, bohemian jazz clubs and movie houses, cosmopolitan political activists, masculine identities and notions of ‘modern Indian’ women. It acknowledges previously unknown South African photographers, such as Ranjith Kally and GR Naidoo, who were based at DRUM’s Durban office.

Enquiries:

The Journey of Clay: From Beads to Necklaces

Make your own beads with clay and design your own jewellery.

Ages: 6–10 years

Date: July 4, 2011

Time: 10:00

Venue: Iziko Slave Lodge

Cost: R30

The Kopanang Universe Canticle

Sibongile. Our Sacred Earth is Dying - Extinction of the Species (Section of the Kopanang Universe Canticle).

The Kopanang Universe Canticle is series of panels measuring over 32.5 metres in length, detailing the unfolding of evolution through painstaking, exquisite, hand embroidered stitches. It was created by 17 women from the Kopanang Community Trust, who live in a community 55km southeast of Johannesburg. The Kopanang Universe Canticle has toured extensively around the USA and within South Africa, and was exhibited recently at the Origins Centre at Wits University. It presents a wonderful and thought-provoking view of the history of life, the development of human society, and our connection with the universe.

Enquiries

Valerie Minies
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3897
Email: vminies@iziko.org.za.

The Last Voyage of the Mendi: Death in Foreign Waters

During the First World War, the cargo vessel Mendi was converted to a troopship. In 1917 she carried a group of the South African Native Labour Contingent to help with the war effort in France. On the final leg of her voyage she was accidentally rammed by the British cargo vessel Darro on 21 February 1917. She sank within 20 minutes. Six hundred and seven of the black troops on board died in the icy waters of the English Channel.

The exhibition sketches the background to this disaster and what it was like on board the vessel for the troops. Stories of bravery abound and echoes of this are still visible today. We also show what the wreck looks like today and highlight some of the recoveries from the wreckage. Acknowledgement is due to Wessex Archaeology, a British company that provided photographic material as well as information.

Enquiries

Thys van der Merwe, Tel: 021 405 2884 / 021 464 1261, email: marsh@iziko.org.za.

The Lie of the Land: Representations of the South African Landscape

Over the centuries, landscape art in South Africa has been used as a vehicle to express a relationship not just to particular locations, but also to a range of ideas and issues that such scenes might  represent, for example ‘nature’, ‘the environment’, ‘the nation’, even ‘divinity’.

This exhibition draws on the rich archive of landscape representation, both artistic productions, such as paintings in different media, photographs and occasionally sculptures, and the scientific forms which include maps and  charts. It suggests ways in which this extraordinarily varied material may be understood. The exhibition  is curated by Professor Michael Godby and will be accompanied by a catalogue.

Enquiries

Hayden Proud
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4676
Email: hproud@iziko.org.za.

The Michaelis Collection

Frans Hals (1582-1666). Portrait of a Woman. Oil on canvas. Iziko Michaelis Collection

A fresh and full installation of the Iziko Michaelis Collection, Cape Town's famous collection of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, is now on view.

The rehang not only seeks to emulate the sense of abundance of pictures in Dutch homes of the 1600's but also poses questions about the art-historical relationships of the "baroque" and the "modern" through the deliberate insertion of twentieth-century hard-edge and painterly abstract paintings among pictorial groupings.

Enquiries

Hayden Proud
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3965 
Email: hproud@iziko.org.za

The Sasol Wax Art Award 2007

The prestigious Sasol Wax Art Award is aimed at established professional artists who are required to use this material as part of their process, medium or concept for their works.

The award for 2007 went to Walter Oltmann for a metal cast installation, using the lost wax method. Choosing to title his work ‘Unearthing’, Oltmann observes that this, “underpins the notion of uncovering or bringing to light by digging, searching or discovery. It reflects the post-Apartheid era impulse to uncover our history. The hands with dowsing tools suggests practices associated with finding water and settlements as much as digging and mining; as a means of survival, as well as exploiting the land for its riches and also denying access and agency to others”.

The 2007 Sasol Wax Art Award exhibition also includes the work of finalists Wayne Barker, Usha Seejarim, Andrew Verster and Sue Williamson. Barker’s investigations into the activities of bees have led to an installation that is, “a discovery of the possibility of healing with nature and ultimately, the whole of society”. Sue Williamson’s split screen video explores the secret world of waxing behind the beauty parlour door. A recreation of a bedroom and a bathroom in fragile wax paper, by Usha Seejarim, suggests a dream-like world and, “our own transience as human beings”, while Andrew Verster explores ritual and body markings in his powerful installation of suspended panels constructed from layers of tissue paper held together by wax.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za.

The Sky Tonight

An interesting live lecture on the current night sky is presented every Saturday and Sunday. You will receive a star map and be shown where to find the constellations and planets that are visible this month.

Saturday - 13:00
Sunday - 13:00

Suitable for teenagers and adults.

Read more about The Sky Tonight.

The Sneeze 80 X 80: A Featur(ed) Film

'the sneeze 80 x 80', excerpt by David Burrows – UK – ‘King becomes cock’, 2004.8.

Conceived and produced by the artists Peter Lloyd Lewis (UK) and Natasha Makowski (USA), ‘the sneeze 80 x 80’ presents one complete work by 80 international artists representing 29 countries and five continents. The random programme allows for only one showing of each piece of 80-second footage in each presentation and an infinite interpretation of the various juxtapositions. The project pays homage to Thomas Edison’s innovative kinograph film of a sneeze, a random and connective act. Acknowledging the importance of the event in moving image history, the project explores the relationship between video art and feature film. It highlights the connections being made between artists and their work through the questioning of hierarchies, the exploration of narrative and the creative use of time structure.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za

The Spirit of Carnival Sing and Dance

Heat up your bodies with this singing dancing and drumming session. Live the rhythm and beat and with others write and compose your own song. Welcome to Cape Town ….

Dates:  7, 12 and 13 July 2011
Time: 10h00

Age: 8 years and older 

Cost: R10

The Tropics: Views from the Middle of the Globe

Paradise or threatening jungle; place of refuge or place of damnation? This exhibition investigates the myth of 'The Tropics' through the juxtaposition of contemporary and pre-modern artworks. Curated by Prof Dr Viola König, Dr Peter Junge and Alfons Hug, and brought to the Iziko South African National Gallery by the Goethe-Institute, this exhibition will, for the first time, show rare pre-modern art from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum, in South Africa. The contemporary component of the exhibition includes photography, video-works and paintings from Germany, Spain, Brazil, Great Britain, Vietnam, Indonesia, Peru and South Africa.

Enquiries

Nadja Daehnke
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4673
Email: ndaehnke@iziko.org.za

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4671
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za.

THE VENICE BIENNAL

A TWO LECTURE SERIES BY MARILYN MARTIN
Barry Lecture Theatre, Iziko South African Museu
Thursday 27th October & Thursday 10th November 17:30

Cost to attend series of two lectures:
Members R60, Non-Members R100, Students R30
Cost to attend one lecture:
Members R40, Non-Members R60, Students R20

1. ILLUMInations – OLD PATINA, NEW ART Thursday 27th October,  17:30

The core exhibition, curated by Bice Curiger in the Giardini and Arsenale for the 54 th Venice Biennale, features three paintings by the 16 th century Venetian master Jacopo Tintoretto, an unusual point of departure for the kind of contemporary, cutting-edge works of art expected of a biennial.  Curiger’s intention was to evoke the notion  of artists as a source of enlightenment and  in order to demonstrate this, she selected 82 artists, including work by  South Africans  David Goldblatt and Nicholas Hlobo.  The success of  ILLUMInations  will be evaluated in an illustrated lecture by Marilyn Martin.

2.  IN THE NATIONAL PAVILIONS – WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE CONTROVERSIAL SOUTH AFRICAN PAVILION
Thursday 10 th November,  17:30

This illustrated lecture will focus on the work of some of the artists selected for the 28 permanent national pavilions and the ways in which different countries and artists responded to Curiger’s theme.  The South African pavilion and the three participating artists – Siemon Allen, Lindi Sales, Mary Sibande – will be discussed.

The World’s Oldest Chemistry Set? New Discoveries from Blombos Cave

Rock Art Gallery Ongoing “What makes us human?” This topical question receives some answer in the form of two unique 100 000-year-old ochre preparing kits from Blombos Cave, South Africa. This remarkable archaeological discovery is the oldest known evide

Rock Art Gallery  Ongoing

The World’s Oldest Chemistry Set? New Discoveries from Blombos Cave

The Blombos ochre preparing kit (Tk1 S1) consists of an abalone or ‘perlemoen’ shell, a seal shoulder blade, bone fragments and ochre fragments obtained from at least 20 km away. Image Francesco Derrico & Chris Henshilwood.

Rock Art Gallery  Ongoing

Tretchikoff: The People's Painter

Tycho to the Moon

Saturday – 11:00, 12:00, 15:30
Sunday – 11:00, 12:00, 15:30         
Monday to Friday – 15:30 

Tycho to the Moon

Unconquerable Spirit: George Stow and the Rock Art of the San

George Stow was a Victorian man of many parts – poet, historian, ethnographer, artist, cartographer and prolific writer. A geologist by profession, he became acquainted, through his work in the field, with the extraordinary wealth of rock paintings in the caves and shelters of the South African interior. Enchanted and absorbed by them, Stow set out to create a record of this creative work of the people who had tracked and marked the South African landscape decades and centuries before him.

Stow’s paintings are interpretations of the art of the San, informed by his own understanding of a particularly turbulent time in South African history and his sense of the tragic demise of the San way of life. This exhibition celebrates his pioneering achievement and reminds us, too, of the richness of the imaginative universe of the San.

A collection of his interpretations of rock art, a selection of his geological maps, documents and field notebooks, some of his poetic works, quotations from his writings on the San and their history as he recorded and interpreted it, as well as some contextual material from the Bleek and Lloyd archive are displayed. The exhibition brings together works from the Iziko South African Museum, the National Library of South Africa and the of Cape Town (UCT). It is curated by Pippa Skotnes and her team at the Centre for Curating the Archive, Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT. A new publication on Stow will be launched at the exhibition.

Enquiries

Petro Keene
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3883
Email: pkeene@iziko.org.za.

US

US owes its genesis to the devastating xenophobic attacks that occurred in South Africa in 2008. It was created in an effort to explore what binds communities, as well as the complexities of difference. As the title suggests, the focus is on the ‘us’, rather than the ‘them’, which typically refers to the marginalised and unwanted ‘other’. Included works contemplate the shifting constellation of self, nation, place and culture.

Curated by Bettina Malcomess and Simon Njami, the exhibition features work by both younger and more established local and international artists including Andrew Putter, Bili Bidjocka, Donna Kukama, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Mikhael Subotzky, Justin Brett, Frances Goodman, the Gugulective, and others.

Enquiries

Andrea Lewis
Email: alewis@iziko.org.za

Virtual Earth

Installation view of Virtual Earth, Iziko South African Museum. Photograph by Iziko Photographer, Carina Beyer

Virtual Earth takes the form of a Gaiasphere, an interactive digital theatre housed in a large (3.2 m diameter) back-projected hemisphere with which animations of changes happening on the earth’s surface can be shown. From a touch screen you will be able to select different views of our changing earth, such as the earth at night, ozone hole evolution, earth surface temperatures, earth core structure or interactive atmospheric predictions. Further animations will be developed in the future. Virtual Earth will enable a better understanding of climate change within a global perspective, and is funded by the Lotteries Board.

Enquiries

Olga Jeffries
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3897
Email: ojeffries@iziko.org.za

VISIT TO !KHWA TTU

R27 West Coast Road (near Yzerfontein)
Saturday 19th May
11:00
Members R150, Non-Members R175, including lunch

!Khwa ttu Centre for San Culture and Education situated one hour’s drive from Cape Town in a spectacular West Coast setting has been dedicated to the culture and heritage of the San people of southern Africa since 1999.  !Khwa ttu is based on the theme “A celebration of the San culture, present and past, for a better future”.  Its mission statement includes as primary objectives to restore the heritage of the San, to educate the general public about the world of the San and to provide training to the San in various areas. 

On arrival drinks will be offered and there will be a welcome and introduction by the Chairman, Hans-Heinrich Kuhn, and the CEO, Michael Daiber.  This will be followed by a guided tour through the exhibition “Once upon a time” is NOW, San Stories and Survival.  Lunch will then take place at !Khwa ttu’s restaurant.  For those still going strong after lunch another guided tour will take place.

VISIT TO SANLAM ART GALLERY

2 Strand Road, Bellville
Wednesday 14th September at 10:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40
Limited to 20 people

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

The Sanlam Art Collection, a corporate collection of more than 2,000 works that was established in 1965, contains works by South African artists comprising paintings, drawings, graphics and sculpture. The collection represents an overview of South African art from the late Eighteenth Century to the present. Visitors will be able to see work from artists such as Irma Stern, Maggie Laubser, Alexis Preller, Thomas Bain, Willem Boshoff, Duran Sihlali and many others. Sanlam continues to acquire work from emerging artists to broaden the representative character of the collection.

Enquiries
For membership or general enquiries please contact Lizzie O’Hanlon, Tel. 021 481 3951, (Tuesday to Thursday 10h00 –  14h00) or email sangfriends@iziko.org.za.

Visual Trajectories - Art from India

This exhibition is a manifestation of the agreement on cultural cooperation between the governments of India and South Africa, with Iziko South African National Gallery and the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in New Delhi as nodal agencies. It will be hosted in Cape Town, Pretoria and Durban in 2006, and in 2007 an exhibition from the Iziko SANG collection will travel to three cities in India.

The confluence of tradition and personal aspects of representation intermingle in Visual Trajectories to produce a unique and distinctive pictorial language that documents and marks the evolution of visual arts in India during the last 150 years. The exhibition documents some of the leading schools of thought since the early 20th century, but also accords due notice to the unknown Indian artists of the 19th century.

Enquiries

Hayden Proud
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4673

Voices of the Ancestors

This exhibition of sound instruments from south, east and central Africa draws on the collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery and the large holdings of its Social History Department. Many of these instruments have not been exhibited to the public before and some are virtually unknown today. Over 100 works have been selected for their aesthetic and visual qualities. Although there is a special emphasis on their function as instruments of ritual or prestige, some were made simply to play alone or to entertain. The title of the exhibition refers to the belief that in certain contexts the spirit world can be accessed through music.

Using original research collected by Professor Dave Dargie in the 1970s, Swiss musicologist, Susanne Tassé Tagne, compiled this programme. Voices of the Ancestors is unique in that it presents material showing the actual performance and sound of instruments in situ. Visitors can interact with the specially designed website on a touch tone screen – hear the sound of some of the musical instruments shown in the exhibition, learn about the categories of musical instruments, and locate their origin in Africa. Additional unique archival material can be seen in the short DVD, Drumming in Zimbabwe recorded by Dr Diane Thram, Director of the International Library of African Music.

Enquiries

Carol Kaufmann (curator)
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4672
Email: ckaufmann@iziko.org.za.

Kathy Coates (tours)
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4661
Email: kcoates@iziko.org.za.

Walkabout and the Closing Ceremony of Ever Young: James Barnor

James Barnor, Eva, London 1960’s © James Barnor / Autograph ABP

The CEO of Iziko Museums, Ms Rooksana Omar, cordially invites you to a walkabout by the photographer, James Barnor - in conversation with Paul Weinberg - and the closing ceremony of the exhibition.

RSVP Kathy Coates email: kcoates@iziko.org.za or 
Tel: 021 481 3954

WALKABOUT BY PETER CLARKE OF HIS RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION LISTENING TO DISTANT THUNDER

Time:11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40, Students R20

This fully comprehensive exhibition reveals Peter Clarke as a strong painter, a talented draughtsman and a poet of considerable literary achievement.  Through this exhibition, Listening to Distant Thunder, and its accompanying book authors and curators Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin pay tribute to one of Cape Town’s most significant artistic sons.  Peter Clarke will lead the walkabout and talk about the background to the works and share some of his delightful anecdotes.
 

WALKABOUT OF BAROQUE MEETS MODERN BY THE CURATOR HAYDEN PROUD

Iziko Old Town House
Greenmarket Square
Thursday 8th September at 11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

This exhibition is a reconfiguration of the Iziko Michaelis Collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings. The Old Town House has been re-hung to resemble the way in which pictures were hung in Dutch homes in the 1600's. Modern abstractions have been also been inserted into this rehang, reminding us that the mercantile and democratic Dutch of the 17th century were among the first active dealers and collectors who established the broader precedent of the art collector and the art market as we know it today.

WALKABOUT OF CANDICE BREITZ: EXTRA!

Iziko South African National Gallery
Saturday 28th April
11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40, Students R20

South African born Candice Breitz, who now lives and works in Berlin, is an internationally renowned artist who has exhibited her photographs and video installations worldwide. Breitz’s exhibition takes its name from Extra! (2011), a single-channel video installation and series of photographs created on the set of the soap opera Generations. The most watched television programme on the African continent, Generations seeks to paint a picture of the country’s emerging black middle class against the backdrop of the media industry.

In Extra!, Breitz inserts herself into a number of actual scenes from the series, resonating as a conspicuously white presence amongst an otherwise black cast. The resulting images are simultaneously thought provoking and uncomfortably amusing - implicitly raising questions about what it might mean to be white in the context of contemporary South Africa.  Extra! is being shown for the first time in this travelling exhibition that commenced at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg.  The exhibition also includes Factum (2010), a series of dual-channel installations, each of which juxtaposes the testimonies of a pair of identical twins.

WALKABOUT OF COURAGE OF ||KABBO BY NADJA DAEHNKE

Michaelis School of Fine Art
Hiddingh Campus, Cape Town
Friday 19th August at 11:00
Members and Non-Members R20

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

In 1911, an extraordinary book was published by George Allen and Company, London. It was edited by Lucy Lloyd and contained a small selection of the many thousands of pages of |xam and !kun texts that she and Wilhelm Bleek recorded in the 1870s and 1880s in Cape Town, South Africa. The book was titled Specimens of Bushman folklore. In many ways it owes its existence to the courage of ||kabbo, a prisoner released from the Breakwater Convict Station, who sacrificed the freedom of his final years to teach Bleek and Lloyd his language.
To commemorate the publication of this remarkable work a conference will take place from 17-20 August 2011 to acknowledge the influence of the book and the |xam and !kun texts it contains, and the research that has made use of the Lloyd and Bleek archive or otherwise given a voice to ideas that might have remained unknown and unheard.
An exhibition will open on the first night of the conference that will engage with the difficulties of understanding oral literature through writing and with the active curation of archives, and will commemorate the landscape and lives of those who created the archive, and celebrate the achievement of the publication ofSpecimens of Bushman folklore.
The exhibition will include prints and photographs by Pippa Skotnes and Stephen Inggs, as well as images from the Bleek Lloyd archive, the English and |xam dictionary from that archive, and the drawings and watercolours by some of the |xam and !kun individuals who worked with Bleek and Lloyd.
 

WALKABOUT OF EAT ME BY STORM JANSE VAN VUUREN

Goodman Gallery
3rd Floor, Fairweather House, 176 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock
Friday 26th August at 11:00
Members and Non-Members R20

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

“I am only interested in what’s not mine. The law of men. The law of the cannibal.” – Oswald de Andrade, from the Cannibal Manifestor, 1928.
Eat Me has not much to do with food. Instead it explores relationships between works by artists that mines recent art history and popular culture, through cannibalistic processes of referentiality and consumption to uncover new directions and meanings, either critically or aesthetically. In theoretical explorations by art historian Paulo Herkenhoff, and to some extent Augustus Klotz, cannibalism is seen as a philosophical process of renewal and regeneration, as well as a form of cultural emancipation.
 

WALKABOUT OF IQHOLO LE AFRIKA:

A CENTENARY CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE AND WORK
OF BARBARA TYRRELL WITH ANDREA LEWIS
Iziko South African National Gallery
Sunday 27th May
11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40, Students R20

This exhibition is a re-evaluation of Barbara Tyrrell’s work by curators Vusi Buthelezi and Yvonne Winters of the Campbell Collections of the University of KwaZulu Natal.  A selection of over 150 of Tyrrell’s highly decorative and accurate visual recordings of southern African costume will be exhibited for the first time at the Iziko South African National Gallery.  Tyrrell initially trained as a fashion designer and it is this aspect that drove her to record in minute detail the colour and form of each element of ceremonial attire she observed, worn daily by people around her in early 20th Century South Arica.  In 2008 the President of South Africa affirmed her contribution to the heritage of South Africa by bestowing on her the Order of Ikhamanga Silver (OIS).  Complementing the strong design aspect of Tyrrell’s works in watercolour and pen and ink – they can be compared to fashion plates – will be items of adornment and costume from ISANG’s own collections of African art.
 

WALKABOUT OF NIGERIAN TEXTILES AKOJO TO LEWA‘BEAUTIFUL COLLECTION’ BY JACKY FOLLEY

Casa Labia
192 Main Road, Muizenberg
Saturday 16th July at 11:30
Members R30, Non-Members R40

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

Nigeria connects this latest exhibition of textiles, paintings and original book illustrations at the Casa Labia Gallery. The Nigerian textiles, under the title Akojo to Lewa (Beautiful Collection), form part of the late designer Judith Gabrielle Appio’s collection. Appio was born in Lagos in 1956 and studied Interior Design at Kingston University, London and French at the Sorbonne. She returned to her place of birth and travelled to remote areas of West Africa, building up an extraordinary collection of fabrics and ceramics.
Polly Alakija’s paintings and illustrations both complement and act as a counterpart to the textiles. Born in the United Kingdom, the well-known painter, interior designer, illustrator and writer of children’s books studied art at Oxford Polytechnic and is a qualified Montessori teacher. Alakija moved to Nigeria in 1989, where she works and to Cape Town in 2005. Also on display is Alakija’s collection of Nigerian robes.
Anyone wishing to book for the Café at the Casa Labia should call 021 788 6062.
 

WALKABOUT OF RANDOM WORKS? BY ANDREA LEWIS & ANTHEA BUYS

Iziko South African National Gallery
Sunday 24th July at 11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40, Students R20

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

The Permanent Collection of the Iziko South African National Gallery has grown substantially from an initial bequest of 45 paintings of European art, presented by Thomas Butterworth Bayley in 1871. Currently, the Permanent Collection comprises of over 9000 works, now focusing on South African art.
The eclectic selection on Random Works? showcases diverse media such as paintings on different surfaces, works on paper, photography, installations, sculpture and contemporary textiles. The works provide insight into the diversity of the collection from historical European to traditional and contemporary African and South African art, revealing shifts in emphasis over time.
The random works displayed here are just the tip of the iceberg of the Permanent Collection. The idea was to use the opportunity to showcase a selection of works that had not been seen publicly in a while. In the process of selection several themes arose that were elaborated upon: landscape, death, abstraction, pop, still life and the theme of home. You will be invited to consider whether the random works work?
 

WALKABOUT OF RICHARD LONG EXHIBITION WITH ANTHEA BUYS

Iziko South African National Gallery Sunday 4th December 11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40

Renowned  British conceptual and land artist Richard Long presents a solo exhibition of works made throughout the last 50 years.  Long’s fascination with land and with walking translates in this exhibition into large scale installations made using rocks recovered from the Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng, wall text interventions in the gallery and photographs.

WALKABOUT OF RUSSIAN POSTERS EXHIBITION WITH JOE DOLBY

Iziko South African National Gallery Sunday 27th November 11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40

In 1954 the library contents of the Cape Town branch of the Friends of the Soviet Union were donated to the South African Library.  A librarian  suggested that the posters should be offered to the South African National Gallery and in 1991 they were duly presented. The posters are the famous TASS WINDOWS which were produced and printed shortly after the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany in 1941. They are the direct descendants of th

WALKABOUT OF THE ALUMNI AUCTION EXHIBITION BY NADJA DAEHNKE

Michaelis School of Fine Art
Hiddingh Campus, Cape Town
Friday 15th July at 11:00
Members and Non-Members R20

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

In July 2011 the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, will host a fundraising exhibition and auction of work of its
prestigious alumni and current staff, in aid of bursaries and scholarships at the university. The exhibition and auction will feature over 80 artworks, celebrating and recognising Michaelis graduates who have achieved noteworthy careers as artists in both the local and international art worlds. This is an unique opportunity to gather together the work of so many Michaelis School of Art alumni, with luminaries of the art world such as Jane Alexander, Brett Murray, Mikhael Subotsky, Gavin Jantjes, Barend de Wet, Hasan and Husain Essop, Bongi Bengu and Ed Young, amongst others.
After an initial opening on the 12th July, giving viewers a chance to engage with the work on display, there will be an auction presented with Strauss & Co. auctioneers on July 20th, where potential buyers will have the opportunity to invest in works. Nadja Daehnke, Curator of the Michaelis Galleries, will curate and organize the exhibition, which will be accompanied by an exhibition catalogue.

WALKABOUT OF TRETCHIKOFF: THE PEOPLE’S PAINTERBY THE CURATOR ANDREW LAMPRECHT

Iziko South African National Gallery
Sunday 7th August at 11:00
Members R30, Non-Members R40, Students R20

PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL FRIENDS’ EVENTS MUST BE BOOKED AND PAID FOR IN ADVANCE

While Vladimir Tretchikoff (1913-2006) is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s most controversial artists, much maligned in the 1960s and onwards by several members of the established arts community, there can be no doubt that he has become a cultural icon and his images remain favourites of many South Africans. Despite this, there has been almost no serious assessment of Tretchikoff’s legacy.
Tretchikoff: The People’s Painter exhibition aims to examine Tretchikoff anew and place him in contemporary perspective. Many iconic works such as Chinese Girl and The Dying Swanare on display.
 

WALKABOUT OF WINGS OF THE SHECHINAH

WALKABOUT OF WINGS OF THE SHECHINAH – THE SCULPTURAL ART OF HERMAN WALD WITH THE CURATOR HAYDEN PROUD
Jewish Museum, Hatfield Street, Gardens
Sunday 22nd April
11:00
Members R40, Non-Members R60
includes entrance fee

Herman Wald (1906 - 1970) was a South African sculptor who was born in Hungary and studied in Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, Paris and London. He moved to South Africa in 1937 where he lived and worked until his death in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Wald was responsible for several large public works in South Africa, at least two of which are highly popular and of significance: the Memorial to the Six Million in West Park Jewish Cemetery and Stampede: The Impala Fountain in Memory of Ernest Oppenheimer in central Johannesburg. Wald made almost 400 other works, the subjects of which include the Bible, Africa, the Jews of Eastern Europe, portraiture, love, the family and various anti-war themes. He made works for public spaces, homes, synagogues and theatres in a wide range of media. While South Africans are familiar with other Jewish sculptors such as Lippy Lipshitz, Moses Kottler, Herbert Meyerowitz and Solly Disner, little attention has been paid to the work of Wald until now.
 

We are Astronomers

Saturday – 14:30, 16:30
Sunday - 14:30, 16:30
Monday to Friday – 14:00

For teenagers and adults

Today’s astronomer is not the lone observer of past centuries. We Are Astronomers reveals the global collaboration, technology, and dedication required to answer the unresolved questions of the Universe.

We are Astronomers

Whale Well

A unique collection of whale casts and skeletons, to be seen from all floors; includes a 20.5 metre blue whale skeleton.

What we see

Following the virtual disintegration of the indigenous peoples of southern Africa by the end of the nineteenth century, anthropologists, anticipating their imminent 'extinction', were eager to catalogue the culture and physical details of these 'inferior races'. In 1931, Hans Lichtenecker set out to produce images of Namibia's indigenous people. Scientifically justified in his bid to document Namibian 'races', he produced life-casts and skin colour samples, took photographs and made voice recordings on wax cylinders. The casts and photographs now form part of the collection of the National Museum in Windhoek, while the Phonogram Archives in Berlin, Germany, retains the recorded voices. Based on the research of Dr Anette Hoffmann, What we see criticises racial stereotyping by interrogating these distorted 'scientifically generated' images.

Enquiries: Fiona Clayton, tel. 021 467 7219 or email fclayton@iziko.org.za

When Clay met Fire: The Story of Ceramics

Visit the ceramics gallery and get inspired with the beauty of clay. Express yourself by creating beautiful artwork with ceramic tiles in the form of mosaics.

Date:  8th, 11th, 14th July 2011       
Time: 10h00

Age Group: 10 years and older

Cost: R75

Who built Cape Town?

Installation view, Who Built Cape Town?. Photograph by Iziko photographer Carina Beyer

The city of Cape Town was built over almost three centuries of colonial rule.

This exhibition explores early expansion of the city, racial discrimination even prior to apartheid, and working life in the city. It is dedicated to the slaves, convicts and free workers who built the city.

It features items from Iziko Social History Collections department's Permanent Collection, as well as large format photographs from the E van Z Hofmeyer & Lüchoff Collection.

Enquiries

Paul Tichmann Curator
Tel: +(0)21 467 7215
Email: ptichmann@iziko.org.za

Why Collect? New Acquisitions made by the Iziko Art Department, 2005–2006

Noria Mabasa. Maquettes for the Nobel Square Commission (2003). Baked clay. Presented by the V&A Waterfront Management, 2005.

Using the acquisitions made by the Iziko Art Collections Department over 2005 and 2006, this exhibition highlights and reveals the manner in which Iziko has continued to add to its holdings despite the adverse financial circumstances affecting the development of its collections. A great debt is owed to those benefactors and donors who have supported us in holding fast to this important aim. Highlighted here is an important donation received from the former management of the V&A Waterfront, which, together with the Western Cape Provincial Government, sponsored a project to erect a monument to South Africa’s four Nobel Peace Prize laureates - Chief Albert Luthuli, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk. These maquettes by Noria Mabasa are an important addition to our collection of her work.

Enquiries

Hayden Proud
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4673

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007

Frog refuge. Ines Labunski Roberts / Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007 ©. The Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is an international showcase for the very best photography featuring natural subjects. The Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine, two UK institutions that pride themselves on revealing and championing the diversity of life on Earth. The exhibition, brought to South Africa by NHU AFRICA, is sponsored by Animal Planet.

Wildlife photographers worldwide aspire to be placed in this competition. Each year thousands of entries are received and judged by a specially selected expert panel. Professionals win many of the prizes, but amateurs succeed too. Achieving the perfect picture is down to a mixture of skill, vision, originality, knowledge of nature and luck.

From vivid, colourful landscapes, to intimate portraits of animal behaviour, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition offers an extraordinary insight into the beauty, drama and diversity of the natural world.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009©

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is an international showcase for the very best photography featuring natural subjects. The competition is owned by two UK institutions that pride themselves on revealing and championing the diversity of life on Earth – the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine – and is brought to South Africa by NHU AFRICA.

Being placed in this competition is something that wildlife photographers, worldwide, aspire to. Professionals win many of the prizes, but amateurs succeed too. And that’s because achieving the perfect picture combines skill, vision, originality, knowledge of nature, and luck.

Each year thousands of entries are received and judged by a specially selected expert panel. The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition offers an extraordinary insight into the beauty, drama and diversity of the natural world.

Enquiries

Olga Jeffries
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3897
Email: ojeffries@iziko.org.za

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010

Oil beetle. © Juan Jesus Gonzalez Ahumada / Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010.

This exhibition showcases the very best photography featuring natural subjects. The competition is owned by two UK institutions that pride themselves on revealing and championing the diversity of life on Earth – the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine – and is brought to South Africa by NHU Africa.

Being placed in this competition is something that wildlife photographers, worldwide, aspire to. Professionals win many of the prizes, but amateurs succeed too. And that is because achieving the perfect picture combines skill, vision, originality, knowledge of nature, and luck. Each year the thousands of entries are judged by a specially selected expert panel. The exhibition offers an extraordinary insight into the beauty, drama and diversity of the natural world.

Enquiries

Olga Jeffries
Tel: +27 (0)21 481 3897
Email: ojeffries@iziko.org.za.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011

Installation view of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010 at the Iziko South African Museum. Photograph by Iziko Photographer, Carina Beyer.

Iziko is once again able to host this world-class exhibition that showcases the very best natural history photography. The competition is owned by two UK institutions that pride themselves on revealing and championing the diversity of life on Earth – the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine – and is brought to South Africa by NHU AFRICA in partnership with Iziko Museums.

Being placed in this competition is something that wildlife photographers, worldwide, aspire to. Professionals win many of the prizes, but amateurs succeed too. And that is because achieving the perfect picture combines skill, vision, originality, knowledge of nature, and luck. Each year the thousands of entries are judged by a specially selected expert panel.

The exhibition offers an extraordinary insight into the beauty, drama and diversity of the natural world.

Enquiries: Valerie Mienies,
Tel: 021 481 3897
email: vmienies@iziko.org.za

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011

Installation view of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010 at the Iziko South African Museum. Photograph by Iziko Photographer, Carina Beyer.

Iziko is once again able to host this world-class exhibition that showcases the very best natural history photography. The competition is owned by two UK institutions that pride themselves on revealing and championing the diversity of life on Earth – the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine – and is brought to South Africa by NHU AFRICA in partnership with Iziko Museums.

William Fehr Collection

Cape Town businessman, William Fehr (1892–1968), first loaned this collection of oil paintings, furniture, ceramics, metal and glassware for public exhibition at the Castle in 1952. In 1964, the South African government purchased the collection. In the following year Fehr donated his collection of artworks on paper. The objects in the William Fehr Collection date from the 17th to the 19th centuries and reflect the furnishings of well-to-do, mainly Cape urban households. One of the remarkable aspects of the collection is the large number of oil paintings that portray views of the Cape colonial settlement and Table Bay maritime scenes.

Though these art works reflect a colonial worldview, they are fascinating reflections of life at the Cape and the people – free and otherwise – who lived and worked here in earlier centuries.

Enquiries 

Esther Esmyol
Tel: 021 467 7205
Email: eesmyol@iziko.org.za

Read more about the collection

William Kentridge: 'I am not me, the horse is not mine'

William Kentridge’s multi-channel projection installation of eight film fragments, entitled I am not me, the horse is not mine, was first presented to international acclaim at the Sydney Biennale in June 2008. The work is based on the absurdist short story, The Nose (1837), by Nikolai Gogol, in which the pompous government official, Kovalyov, wakes up one day to find that his nose has taken on a life of its own and gone for a walk around the city of St Petersburg. In a sequence of comical scenes, the main character attempts – with increasingly ridiculous efforts – to chase after his nose, recapture it and stick it back on his face.

I am not me, the horse is not mine stems from the artist’s ongoing interest in the roots and development of modernism: a mixture of the absurd, the self-reflective (and the ‘self-divided’) and its many forms of fragmentation. It also deals particularly with Russia’s response to modernism in the 1930s and the histories and terrors of oppression. This exhibition was made possible by the Goodman Gallery.

Enquiries

Pam Warne
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4671
Email: pwarne@iziko.org.za.

Wim Botha: Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2005

Wim Botha’s traveling exhibition began its year-long tour at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and will end at the Standard Bank Gallery in July 2006. Botha works in multiple media, with sculptures, etchings, paintings and drawings all forming part of his intricate installations. These reflect on and subvert the symbolic imagery of power, religion and art history. By visually interfering with venerated forms of art, artefact and decoration, the artist offers questions related to the underlying implications of systems and structures that attempt to define who we are. In several of his installations this subversion alludes to the systemic decay inherent in symbolic representations related to power. This is coupled with a reconstructive desire, simulating found imagery in an altered way that allows the possibility of a revision of our assumptions. Included in Botha’s Standard Bank Young Artist exhibition is the Mieliepap Pietà, a life-size mirrored replica of Michelangelo’s original, modelled in maize meal and epoxy resin. The sculpture was first exhibited at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York in 2004, as part of the group exhibition Personal Affects: Power and poetics in contemporary South African art, where it alternately offered subtle comment on western traditions and was appropriated by worshippers as part of the fabric of the church.

Windows on War - Russian posters from World War II

M. Cheremnykh (1890-1962). TASS WINDOW No. 1112. A Resounding Success, (6 December 1944).Text: Nina Cheremnykh (Dates unknown).

This exhibition of TASS WINDOWS posters provides a vivid picture of the course of the Second World War from the perspective of the Soviet Union. It shows in graphic detail the early years of resistance and survival, the Siege of Leningrad between 1941 and 1944, and the Battle of Stalingrad from 1942 to 1943. It demonstrates the change of the tide of the War in favour of the Soviet Union and, finally, victory, symbolised by the capture of Berlin in 1945.

Windows on War - Russian posters from World War II

M. Cheremnykh (1890-1962). TASS WINDOW No. 1112. A Resounding Success, (6 December 1944).Text: Nina Cheremnykh (Dates unknown).

This exhibition of TASS WINDOWS posters provides a vivid picture of the course of the Second World War from the perspective of the Soviet Union. It shows in graphic detail the early years of resistance and survival, the Siege of Leningrad between 1941 and 1944, and the Battle of Stalingrad from 1942 to 1943. It demonstrates the change of the tide of the War in favour of the Soviet Union and, finally, victory, symbolised by the capture of Berlin in 1945.

There is also a display of commercially printed posters published during the Second World War in the Soviet Union, and a display showing the supportive relationship between the Soviet Union and South Africa from 1941 to 19450 – a relationship that ended dramatically with the coming to power of the National Party in 1948.

Enquiries: 
Joe Dolby
Tel. 021 481 3966
email jdolby@iziko.org.za

Women for Children

Published by Art for Humanity and launched in 2006, the ‘Women for Children’ portfolio consists of a collaboration of 50 women artists and poets, 46 of whom are South African, on the issue of children’s rights and welfare. Each print is accompanied by a poem in dialogue with the art communicating a strong message of the rights of our children.

Wonderful World of Wasps

Fig wasp pollinators (Courtella species) entering Ficus modesta. Photograph by Simon van Noort

This exhibition showcases the diversity of wasps from a structural as well as a biological perspective. The species-rich insect group, Hymenoptera, which includes wasps, ants and bees, encompasses a vast range of lifestyles, from primitive plant feeding species, through to parasitoids and predators. The 5000 or so South African species play valuable roles in all ecosystems, providing important pollination services, controlling insect populations, and recycling nutrients.

Wonderful world of wasps includes over 100 photographs illustrating the spectacular diversity of form, colour and biology present in this group of ecologically and economically important insects. Three intricate interactions are featured in detail: the pollination of figs by tiny fig wasps; Africa’s only marine wasp that parasitises intertidal spider eggs; and plant modifying gall wasps with their associated suite of parasitic wasps.

Enquiries

Valerie Mienies
Tel: 021 481 3897
Email: vmienies@iziko.org.za

Wonderful world of wasps

The intimidating face of a paper wasp (Belonogaster, Vespidae) warns potential predators not to mess with her nest. Part of Wonderful world of wasps. Photograph by Simon van Noort.

This exhibition explores the diversity of wasps from a structural as well as a biological perspective. Wonderful
world of wasps includes over 100 photographs illustrating the spectacular diversity of form, colour and biology
present in this group of ecologically and economically important insects.

Enquiries: Simon van Noort
Tel. 021 481 3865
email svannoort@iziko.org.za

Wonders of Nature

The exhibition comprises a selection of 20 objects highlighting the beauty and diversity of natural forms across space and time. Amongst others, fossilized freshwater fish from the Triassic period, ammonites from the Jurassic, and the petrified skull of a 250- million-year-old mammal-like reptile contrast starkly with the more recent antlers of a moose, a whale skull and vertebra, the shell of a giant clam, a turtle carapace and a piece of chalice coral. Older, and even more enduring, are giant twinned quartz crystals from Namaqualand, and an iron meteorite that may date back to the beginning of the solar system.

Work by Willie Bester

This exhibition is the result of collaboration between the Iziko South African National Gallery and the town of Montagu in the Western Cape. Bester’s solo show formed the highlight of celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Old Mission Church building in Long Street in Montagu in November 2007, after which it moved to the Gallery.

The exhibition comprises sculpture and paintings, and of particular interest is the series of Montagu portrait studies. A 40-page, full-colour catalogue, published for the occasion by Goodman Gallery Editions, accompanies the exhibition. The catalogue is available from the Gallery Shop and the Goodman Gallery Cape.

Enquiries

Marilyn Martin
Tel: +27 (0)21 467 4660
Email: mmartin@iziko.org.za.

Works by Andrew Murray (1917-1998)

Complementing the taste sensations at this venue is a small but charming display of works by Andrew Murray, presented to us by Desmond McLoughlin. One of South Africa’s best-loved naïve artists, Murray established an international reputation for himself after he left the country in 1969.

Youth Climate Change Indaba

The effects of ‘global warming’ and climate change.

Time: 10h30–16h00
Venue: Iziko South African Museum
fee: Free
Young people showcase solutions to climate problems facing our youth in South Africa. Led by the British Council Youth Empowerment Project under the theme, “Young Climate Change Champions”, in partnership with the Khayelitsha Museum.