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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 08 2012 06:38 | LAST UPDATED Feb 08 2012 06:38 |
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Riason Naidoo's decision to remove paintings by renowned British artists Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds that have hung in South Africa's National Gallery for 63 years has provoked a fierce backlash, with one magazine fuming that the museum's reputation has been "trashed". In his first major interview since the row erupted Naidoo, the first black director of the collection in its 139-year history, suggested that the hostile reaction to the five-month show, an overview of a century of South African art, could in part be racially motivated. "South Africa's art world has been largely white," he said. "Cape Town is known to be quite colonial. Apart from being a new director, I'm also the first black director in a museum. "There are a number of firsts in putting this exhibition on and there is bound to be reaction from certain conservative quarters to change." Reacting to a withering review in the influential Art Times, he said: "It has a specific agenda, whatever that is. But I did get feedback from many elderly white women from affluent areas who … congratulated us on the show." Controversy centred on the Sir Abe Bailey bequest, one of the biggest collections of British sporting art. Mining magnate Bailey donated more than 400 works to the gallery, where they went on display in 1947, on condition that some were always on show. About 80 were hanging in two rooms, including many images of horses and hunting in 19th-century Britain, when Naidoo got permission from the Sir Abe Bailey Trust to take them down. "It's a kind of colonial English collection. It wasn't really showcasing any aspect of South African culture that was unique to the history of this period," Naidoo said. He replaced them with contemporary works such as the photographer Mikhael Subotzky's images of the Ponte City building in Johannesburg.  CONTINUES BELOW Naidoo insisted he was not trying to deny the influence of British painters on South Africa and would draw on the Bailey bequest for an exhibition next month. Gabriel Clark-Brown, the editor of Art Times, said: "He rushed this show and compromised the curatorial professionalism the National Gallery is known for. It doesn't hang together as a show." -- © Guardian News & Media 2010 TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
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