Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
same mdlulilatest news & developments
Pablo Picasso’s Buste Modern Style.
AFRICAN ART HISTORY

When art returns, who does it belong to?

As masterpieces by William Kentridge and Pablo Picasso return to Johannesburg, Homecoming becomes less about art on walls and more about who gets to claim it

  • Lesego Chepape
8 min read
Hasan and Husain Essop’s Facing Giblah, 2010, inhabits the mode of self-portraiture, accounting for several photographs in this Standard Bank Gallery exhibition.
ANDREW TSHABANGU

‘Photographs In Our Mother Tongue’: The new South Africa under scrutiny

A retrospective of photographic works at the Standard Bank Gallery offers a snapshot in time

  • Nolan Stevens
5 min read
Nontsikelelo Veleko’s Lesego, Miriam Makeba Street, Newtown, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2008
ANDREW TSHABANGU

‘Photographs In Our Mother Tongue’: The new South Africa under scrutiny

A virtual retrospective of photographic works at the Standard Bank Art Gallery offer a snapshot in time

  • Nolan Stevens
5 min read
Accessible: Artworks such as Soweto at Dawn by Charles Nkosi form part of the Black Aesthetic exhibition.
ART CRITICISM FOR WHOM

Black Art: Its place in the sun

Visual arts in South Africa has had a reputation for elitism — until now

  • Same Mdluli
7 min read
‘The Poet’ by Nathaniel Mokgosi is being showcased at ‘A Black Aesthetic: A View of South African artists (1970-1990)’. During a walkabout Dr Same Mdluli noted that the preservation and maintenance of artworks is an overlooked field.
ART CONSERVATION

South African art yearns for caring conservators

“We live in a culturally rich space, yet most of the time our preservation of it is poor.”

  • Youlendree Appasamy
4 min read
‘New Brighton, Port Elizabeth’ by George Pemba can be seen at a period-crossing exhibition at the Standard Bank Art Gallery until April 18. (George Pemba/Standard Bank Gallery)
ATHI MONGEZELELI JOJA
Video

A Black Aesthetic lacks rigour

A Black Aesthetics as being uninventive and politically questionable

  • Athi Mongezeleli Joja
8 min read
All the works on display are crafted from different types of wood sourced by the artists from their respective immediate environments.
LIMPOPO

Exhibition toasts SA sculpture world’s ‘stars of the north’

Instead of overanalysing the context from which these Limpopo artworks sprung, we should enjoy them for their individual merits.

  • Same Mdluli
7 min read
Johannes Segogela’s work has been shown in exhibitions and festivals worldwide
ARTISTS

Art and the grey area of ‘betweenness’

Institutions need to engage more rigorously with "rural" artists such as Johannes Segogela and Jackson Hlungwani, writes Same Mdluli.

  • Same Mdluli
8 min read