Entries (RSS) Revisions: Expanding the Narrative of South African Art
This book “With its principal focus on work by black South African artists” active between the 1920s and 2004, the private collection of over 470 works assembled by Bruce Campbell Smith is arguably unique and perhaps the most impressive of its kind outside of any public institution. It constitutes a rich, albeit selective, chronicle of this particular collector’s personal collation of objects representing South African endeavour in the visual arts over a period of some eighty-odd years. The collection presents a range of images – including some of undoubted, if not iconic, importance – ranging from the colonial and apartheid eras to embrace the first ten years of the new democratic order. Hayden ProudThe Black artists whose work appear in this book, date from the late 19th century to the last decade of the 20th. They lived through and experienced South Africa’s most degrading as well as her most uplifting historical moments. Their work depicts the sensibilities of communities in transition: from pre-colonial pastoral life to life in the cities; from pre-industrial society to one dominated by industry; from the paternalism of the Union government to the studied repression of the 1960s and ’70s; from the brutalities of apartheid to the high hopes of a young democracy. The works on display are as significant a historical record as any other rendered in the written word or in music – Dr Pallo Jordan – Minister of Arts and Culture ReVision restores the visibility of a host of marginalized and under-represented South African artists. Most of the artists featured in this book where not represented from two of the best known books on South African art, namely Gavin Younge’s Art of the South African Townships (1988) and Sue Williamson’s Resistance Art in South Africa (1989). ReVisions is a worthy successor to the Neglected tradition exhibition and serves as an indispensable overview of the creative energies of this country’s artists’ heritage. Brilliantly illustrated in full-colour with a foreword by the minister of Arts and Culture, essays and biographies by the editor Hayden Proud, Ivor Powell, Rayda Becker, Joe Dolby, Elza Miles, Mario Pissarra, Gabisile Ngcobo and Mduduzi Xakaza. Perceptiveness, intuition and concern guided Bruce Campbell Smith over a period of 20 years to bring to light the uniqueness of works by many an artist whose creativity may have been lost to oblivion. ReVision is more than a celebration: it is a tangible testimony of a venerable and rich legacy of our artists’ achievements. |
