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. 021 467 4660, or email pwarne@iziko.org.za

CECIL SKOTNES: A PRIVATE VIEW
17 APRIL UNTIL 8 JULY 2008
Rooms 4 and 5

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.

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: 021 467-4660, e-mail: pwarne@iziko.org.za

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. 021 467 4672 or email ckaufmann@iziko.org.za.

MESSINA/MUSINA
STANDARD BANK YOUNG ARTIST FOR VISUAL ART 2007: PIETER HUGO
UNTIL 4 MAY 2008

‘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. 021 467 4660, or email pwarne@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. 021 467 4660, or email pwarne@iziko.org.za.

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. 021 467 4673

WORK BY WILLIE BESTER
UNTIL 13 APRIL 2008

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. 021 467 4660 or email mmartin@iziko.org.za.

THE DAIMLERCHRYSLER AWARD FOR SOUTH AFRICAN ARCHITECTURE
26 JANUARY – 30 MARCH 2008
Room 10

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. 021 467 4660 or email mmartin@iziko.org.za.

MARLENE DUMAS: INTIMATE RELATIONS
UNTIL 13 JANUARY 2008
Liberman Rooms 4 & 5

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 at Tel. 021 467 4660 or email jdolby@iziko.org.za.