This year’s Vita fine art awards are in a state of post-Steven Cohen politeness, but they’re still the best we’ve got
Kathryn Smith
Urban Futures 2000 and the 13th international Aids conference in Durban aside, July is the month when aspiring artists seeking acknowledgement, a small taste of almost-celebrity and perhaps a bit of cash to stock the garret, are presented with several vehicles to display their talents.
The Absa Atelier Awards will be announced on July 12, Kempton Park/Tembisa was presented on July 1 and the Sasol New Signatures will be on July 26. But it’s the FNB Vita Art Prize that still retains the reputation of being our most prestigious art award.
The FNB Vita has existed in its current form since 1997. Previously the Vita Art Now, it had a rather complicated and opaque judging system that saw a posse of “in-the-know” culture-mongers trawling our galleries and awarding quarterly awards and an overall annual prize. But in the spirit of radically changing constitutions, a fair amount of critiquing of the “old guard” and a prescription written up for more democratic transparency, the time was ripe for a change.
So under the guidance of Sandton Civic Gallery curator Natasha Fuller, it metamorphosed into a somewhat poor relative of London’s hyped-to-the-hilt Turner Prize and sought public nominations to get an added sense of what was being seen and appreciated. A maximum of six artists are selected on the basis of a consolidated body of work exhibited locally or internationally during a calendar year, and only exceptional emergent artists are considered.
But given that most galleries in this country, be they national, civic, academic or private, see little of the so-called “public”, this exercise is not as effective as it could be. Glaring omissions present themselves this year, like Jane Alexander for Bom Boys and Lucky Girls (Irma Stern Museum), and what of Stephen Hobbs’ Torque of the Town (Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet)? And I’m sure there are more – excellent individual works on group shows notwithstanding. To the sensation seekers out there, this year’s four nominated artists may seem rather tame.
Terry Kurgan, Berni Searle and Hentie van der Merwe all work in photo-based media and newcomer Claudette Schreuders produces carved and painted wooden figures. The pervading sense of post- Steven Cohen politeness took root last year when Jo Ractliffe’s sublime four- monitor video piece was declared winner.
Whether or not this is directly attributable to a new selection panel for 2000 (Willem Boshoff, Julia Charlton, David Koloane, Pat Mautloa and Clive van den Berg) would be premature to say.
The fact that all the judges are (still) Johannesburg-based seems to bespeak something of the “centre” not bending quite far enough towards old “peripheries”, but on the upside, three of the four nominated artists are women and two are Cape Town-based, giving Gauteng audiences the opportunity to familiarise themselves with some truly arresting work.
Kvetches aside, the Vita is still the most successful when it comes to engaging with the complex requirements of contemporary art-making. Nominated artists receive production budgets from First National Bank, augmented again this year by the Goodman Gallery. And the French Institute of South Africa joins forces with the equally proactive MTN Art Institute to produce a resource catalogue and education programme, complete with artists’ posters and suggested workshop and classroom activities.
This year’s exhibition also promises to raise some timeous and pertinent issues about the global “expectations” of the kind of art that emerges from Africa.
The winner will be announced at the Sandton Civic Gallery on Tuesday July 18 at 6pm.