Constructure

1915-2015

100 years of the JAG building and its evolution of space and meaning

Editor:

Tracy Murinik

CONSTRUCTURE

100 years of the JAG building and its evolution of space and meaning

Editor: Tracy Murinik

Published by the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

PO Box 30951, Braamfontein, 2017, Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa

T: +27 (0)11 725 3130 www.joburg.org.za

Sponsors: Friends of the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

With special thanks to Jack Ginsberg, Navin Mudaly, Marianne Fassler and Eben Keun. Sincere thanks also to Nigel Carman, and to David Krut Publishing.

Project director: Antoinette Murdoch

Editor: Tracy Murinik

Project team: Jacques Lange, Karuna Pillay

Contributing authors: David Andrew, Jo Burger, Jillian Carman, Julia Charlton, Reshma Chhiba, Natasha Christopher, Lorraine Deift, Bongi DhlomoMautloa, Nel Erasmus, John Fleetwood, Raimi Gbadamosi, Louis Grundlingh, Stephen Hobbs, Rochelle Keene, Clive Kellner, David Koloane, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Donna Kukama, Terry Kurgan, Same Mdluli, Antoinette Murdoch, Musha Neluheni, Nontobeko Ntombela, Jo Ractliffe,

Usha Seejarim, Christopher Till, Philippa van Straaten and Koulla Xinisteris.

Image researcher: Tara Weber

Research assistant: Karin Tan

Interpretive graphic maps: Karin Tan

Photography: David Ceruti, with additional images by John Hodgkiss, and archival material.

John Hodgkiss (1966-2012) is fondly remembered and acknowledged on this occasion for his valuable contribution towards the documentation of the Gallery, its collections and exhibitions, which he so beautifully photographed over many years.

Sincere thanks to Wits Historical Papers and MuseumAfrica for use of additional archival images, resources and scanning.

Design: Bluprint Design

First published in 2015 on the occasion of the celebration of the centenary of the Johannesburg Art Gallery Lutyens building.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing by the publisher and copyright owners.

Works of art reproduced in this publication have either been shown at, or are from the collection of the Johannesburg Art Gallery. All efforts were made to gain permission from the artists or copyright owners.

ISBN 978-0-620-68116-2

Curatorial as Education: A Few Notes on the Role of Education within the Context of a Museum

Nontobeko Ntombela

Timeline of JAG Directors and Chief Curators Over the Past Century

Lady Phillips and Lutyens' Mistress

Dorothee

Usha

Musha

LEFT: Portrait of Sir Edwin Lutyens by Lawrence Josset (1935). TOP RIGHT: Lutyens’ Drawing No. 3, showing the south elevation of JAG, 1911. SECOND ROW RIGHT: Lutyens’ Drawing No. 6, showing the south elevation, 1911. ABOVE: The Lutyens building was declared a national monument in 1993. ©David Ceruti. THIRD ROW LEFT: Lutyens’ Drawing No. 1, showing the ground plan of JAG, 1911. THIRD ROW RIGHT: Lutyens’ proposed layout of Joubert Park and Union Ground spanning over the railway cutting. BOTTOM ROW LEFT AND RIGHT: Meyer Pienaar and Partners’ plans for the 1980s extensions, May 1983.

TOP

TOP ROW LEFT: Plaque in honour of Lady Phillips, unveiled in 1931. ©David Ceruti. TOP RIGHT: JAG façade floodlit for the celebration of Johannesburg’s Golden Jubilee, 1936. SECOND ROW LEFT: JAG building prior to 1939. SECOND ROW CENTRE: JAG building after 1939. SECOND ROW RIGHT: Construction view of the Meyer Pienaar extensions. THIRD ROW LEFT: Flower clock to the north side of JAG. THIRD ROW CENTRE: Meyer Pienaar architectural model. BOTTOM LEFT: ©David Ceruti’s panoramic façade matched proportionately to Lutyens’ original 1911 plans (2015).

TOP ROW LEFT: School group visiting the Gallery, 1971.

TOP ROW CENTRE: Van Riebeeck Festival Exhibition, 1952.

TOP ROW RIGHT: Holiday theatre workshop at the Gallery, 1978. SECOND ROW LEFT: School group in front of Anton van Wouw sculpture, date unknown. SECOND ROW CENTRE: Theatre workshop, 1978. Children posing as the painting Cuckoo! by John Everett Millais. SECOND ROW RIGHT: Holiday children’s workshop at the Gallery, with children imitating statues in the sculpture garden. THIRD ROW LEFT: Delton fashion campaign, ‘The art of dressing’ with models posing in front of Picasso’s Tête d’Arlequin. BOTTOM ROW LEFT: Walter Battiss in front of a Henry Moore sculpture. BOTTOM ROW CENTRE: Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa, member of the Art Gallery Committee.

JAG would not be the vibrant institution it is today without its dedicated staff (photographed 2015). Image ©David Ceruti.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Antoinette Murdoch, Chief Curator and Head: Johannesburg Art Gallery

During the last six-and-a-half years I have had the opportunity to manage not one, but two centenary celebrations at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. The first was the centenary of the Gallery’s Foundation Collection, celebrated on 29 November 2010. In what was perhaps an indication of the City’s (and the country’s) priorities of the time – namely South Africa’s staging of the FIFA World Cup – Joubert Park happened then to be clean, neat and green, with working fountains and some of its former glory restored. At JAG itself, an influx of international visitors could be gauged through entries in our visitors’ books, and all was swathed in excitement and optimism. The book we released to coincide with the celebrations documented the event and collection handsomely.

This year marks the second centenary in my time at JAG, that of the magnificent Lutyens building, on 20 November 2015. This edifice was built especially to house the Foundation Collection, put together by Sir Hugh Lane. The events that have been organised around this auspicious occasion include a total of six exhibitions, a variety of ancillary programmes, and this commemorative investigation of the history and role of JAG over the last hundred years.

The six exhibitions cover a wide range of historical periods, through various media, and showcase the incredible work contained in the Gallery’s holdings. A feature of this powerful and impressive programme is the breadth of artists it represents, as well as the historical and aesthetic importance

of their works on show as acquired by the many astute JAG curators over the years.

A celebration of this nature must also acknowledge some of the people who have been influential for me in a personal and professional capacity.

I would like to thank Jo Burger, my JAG mother, and one of the country’s most brilliant librarians. She is my friend and my support. I have been able to cry on her shoulder and share ideas for the last six-and-a-half years; but she has also helped many more people – artists, researchers, writers – for a lot longer than that, in her capacity as custodian of the JAG Archives.

During the compilation of information for this book, Jo has been suffering from a severe hip problem. Yet, it is typical of her qualities as a person that she stayed on her feet and went out of her way to help all the researchers.

To the rest of my staff, especially Musha Neluheni, Tara Weber and Philippa van Straaten, who all have their hearts in it, with a great passion for JAG and their work here, I would like to thank them for going the extra mile. Tara’s contribution in sourcing images and captions for the book has been invaluable.

Stephen Hobbs deserves a special mention, despite not being officially attached to JAG. While also being a sympathetic ally for me, he designed and staged an exhibition, JAG/SNAG, which drew the attention of the Section 79 Committee to some of the staff vacancies at the Gallery that urgently needed to be filled.

Thanks are also due to Alba Letts, then Deputy Director of Arts and Culture, for her institutional support, which is detailed in my Vision Statement (pp 178-9).

There are other groups and people in the wider JAG family who have made important contributions over the years. These include the JAG Art Gallery Committee, as well as the restructured Friends of JAG organisation, often spearheaded by the wonderful Marianne Fassler, for their wonderful work done to raise money and awareness for the Gallery. In recent times Eben Keun has added marketing and social media expertise to our efforts to keep the Old Lady afloat.

A vital part of the Centenary celebrations for the Gallery is this book itself. Constructure was, from the beginning, meant as both an historical overview of the Lutyens building and the development of the extended Gallery space, as well as a critical and theoretical investigation of the institution of the Gallery, its rationale for existing and its curatorial approaches over the years. The book engages freely with all of the very current debates around institutional memorials

and monuments in South Africa, and engages also with the idea of a colonial history, which I have certainly attempted, in my time at JAG, to engage with critically, and to call into question through staging oppositional art and discourses within the institution itself. There are thus sections in the book that deal with an historical overview of the institution, a section on critically engaging with the physical context of the Gallery’s surroundings and the changing social nature of the space; an overview of key exhibitions; and a closing section looking to the future and the ongoing space that JAG will continue to fill in the city’s identity. I‘d like to thank Tracy Murinik for her efforts in pulling together the book as editor, to Jacques Lange for his thoughtful and beautiful design, and all the contributors for their thinking and engagement.

Lastly, on a personal note, being head of JAG is onerous, not least because it is a key space for contestation about the nature of cultural history and identity in Johannesburg and, symbolically, in South Africa too. I could not have made it, or even lived and breathed, were it not for my two daughters, Zoey and Mia.

Antoinette Murdoch

Antoinette Murdoch is the Chief Curator and Head of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (since 2009), and an artist. She hold a Masters in Fine Art degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. Formerly the CEO of the Joburg Art Bank, she also serves on the South African Museums Association (SAMA) North Committee. In December 2013, she was named one of the top 50 Movers & Shakers of the South African Art World by Art Times magazine.

INTRODUCTION

Tracy Murinik, Editor

Constructure: 100 years of the JAG Building and its Evolution of Space and Meaning

Before a building exists as a structure, it exists as a series of ideas – a confluence of needs, desires, imaginings, beliefs and intentions expressed by those who commission the project, combined with those of the architect/s and contractors that develop the project into something that physically exists. Embedded in these expressions, from both sides – and through the evolution of concept to material form –are distinguishing traces of who all those individuals are – the ethos of their time period, their identities and identifications – aesthetic, ideological. As much as buildings are physical demarcations of space, defining their edges, again aesthetically, conceptually, often socio-politically; they are also containers and passages – for those (and those objects) who live, work, or exist there; and for those (and those objects) that visit or make their way through them. Each of these moments – of everything that ever happens in and around a building; of anyone that ever enters or exits it – becomes part of that building’s history, and of its accumulated meaning.

So setting out to tell the story of a building that has stood for a hundred years is a complex undertaking, as ultimately that narrative does not exist in the singular. There are many stories, and not all of them may be told here. This book sets out to tell some of those stories – selectively, of course, as is inevitable; since the act of conceptualising, compiling, editing and designing to bring about a publication is similarly invested with the intentions and expressions of those who work on it, and the choices they make. In this instance, there has been a very considered process that has been followed to reach these final selections, from an initial directive and brief, to a process of interpretation, consultation and an accumulation of ideas and positions that seek to represent a complex range of narratives that in their own particular moments represent aspects of the myriad narratives that exist; and that together, and in relation to one another, provide a broad and complex context both of Johannesburg, and of the Johannesburg Art Gallery’s century-long existence. As selected moments, they nevertheless provide eloquent voice to a number of positions that are part of the narratives that represent a long history of investment in what the Gallery is, means, and sets out to be and do.

The neologism: ‘constructure’, presented itself as a means to stress this complexity; to draw attention to the often

misconstrued perception of a built space being a simply benign vessel for whatever happens to take place inside it; to acknowledge that every aspect of a built space is a multidimensional construct, and where the construction of that space may be read beyond the fact of the building and its legacy to include a history of its surrounding context, its patrons and its audiences. A space is always in the process of being made meaningful, through whoever inhabits it and directs its functions or informs its meanings at a particular time.

The early history of, and just predating, JAG is fascinatingly described in the first section of this volume by Louis Grundlingh (pp 34-43), who explores the context of Johannesburg at that point in time, and specifically of how Joubert Park became a key leisure site in the young city and was a “significant spatial marker” of changes to Johannesburg’s developing sense of identity, especially after the South African War when governance shifted from the ZAR to a British governmental system. Grundlingh traces the aesthetic and aspirational impact that this had on the City Council, and the steps they took to “create and give material form to Victorian and Edwardian concepts of identity, class and ‘respectability’”, decisions that ultimately shaped the “civic and cultural life of [the already] class- and racially divided city”.

Jillian Carman, in detailing the architectural history and development of JAG’s original Lutyens building in Joubert Park (pp 16-33), which opened in November 1915, similarly provides clues of the underlying desires and ‘internationalist’ aspirations that enabled Florence Phillips, her Randlord husband, Lionel Phillips, Anglo-Irish curator, Hugh Lane, together with other Johannesburg Randlords, and the City’s mayor, to drive the construction of the art gallery, and to make the selection of Edwin Lutyens as its architect, despite huge local opposition to his appointment. Carman importantly describes Lutyens’ personal motivations for finally taking on the project, which included his eagerness to intervene in such a young city (Johannesburg then not yet 30 years in the making), not only in terms of designing a museum, but with a view to substantially envisioning plans for its surrounding areas as well – thereby extending his reach into the city’s spatial planning – including Joubert Park, and then traversing the railway line further south into the city. Carman mentions the concept of the ‘City Beautiful’ – an international movement of that time – which Lutyens keenly followed, and which shaped his visions for the development of that part of the city, again through looking to emulate classical features of Europe into this developing “New Country”. The implications of these desires and aspirations inform the beginnings of JAG’s story, contextualising its establishment as a part of a colonial project and vision, as well as fulfilling the desires and personal motivations of the various people involved. These positions also inform the starting point of the city’s inhabitants’ engagement with this building. These histories remain relevant to the reading of JAG as an institution, still.

The second section of Constructure provides a vast overview of all of the exhibitions ever hosted at JAG over a hundred years – an intriguing narrative in its own right of the shifting focus, representation and activities of JAG over a century. This section also features more detailed texts and information on selected seminal exhibitions, especially over the past 30 years, that critically consider and demonstrate shifts in JAG’s exhibitions and collecting policies over these years, and additionally speak to shifts in concepts of curatorial roles over this period, towards exhibition-making as a self-consciously authorial act – of exhibition ‘as text’, as Kellner describes in his essay (pp 96-100); or entering into areas of political redress and revision, such as Same Mdluli (pp 90-93) explores in her essay on TheNeglectedTradition: TowardsaNewHistoryofSouthAfricanArt(1930-1988), where she argues the significance of that groundbreaking exhibition as being not only about “reparation of an imbalanced historical account”, but critically “as ‘a catalyst’ for further investigation on some of the artists it featured”.

The third section, ‘New Engagements’, takes its cue from observations such as Mdluli’s, in that it looks to JAG’s contemporary strategies and responsibilities of making itself relevant – both in terms of its collections and exhibitions policies, and critically in terms of engaging its physical position in the inner city – in relation to Joubert Park, the area’s daily residents, its audiences (existing, once-existing, and still desired) and its self-definition as a museum and cultural educational institution in post-apartheid South Africa. ‘New Engagements’ considers several key projects over the past fifteen or so years that, both from within JAG, as well as externally through members of the arts community, have worked to consider ways of shifting the awkward and in

many ways unrealised potential of the relationship between JAG and Joubert Park and its surrounds. Also critically considered here is the question of JAG’s role as a space of education, which Nontobeko Ntombela (pp 130-143) incisively poses. Ntombela considers the need for education to be “an active tool towards addressing issues of past imbalances through the museum’s collecting and display strategies”, and for education to be a central facet of curatorial production within the museum context. Pointing out that an institution like JAG “remains a paradox in a place that is fast rejecting its relevance and reasons for existing (whether politically, financially or ideologically”, she asks the question, “how can art collections help us pose questions of new histories and new modalities of display towards better serving its increasingly complex society?” and proposes that “given the shift in artistic and curatorial practices, the role of education within art collections has equally needed to change in order to challenge complexities, contradictions and burdens of cultural, political and social histories carried by these institutions”.

Constructure’s last section speaks to the changing institutional vision for JAG over the years. To begin with, it includes commentaries by five of the six JAG directors/chief curators who have steered JAG since the 1960s, as well as texts by current and previous members of the Johannesburg Art Gallery Committee. It then continues into an edited transcript of a frank conversation (pp 186-193) held amongst several members of the Johannesburg arts community who are, or have been, somehow involved with or invested in the practices of JAG over the years. The conversation was held in acknowledgement of the fact that JAG in many ways is, and always has been a contradictory space – built and

having evolved in an ideologically contradictory and violent city and country, to mean contradictory things to various inhabitants of the city over the past century – despite many engaged and successful moments in the Gallery, especially over the past two to three decades, that have purposefully challenged those contradictions. The conversation was intended to propose solutions to JAG’s challenges, and revolved around developing a type of collective vision going forward for the Gallery; and of how to consider possibilities that transform this space into something that finds meaning with a greater constituency of the city on a sustained basis; to rethink what the model of a museum might be in South Africa – that is structurally and functionally relevant, as Donna Kukama offered in this discussion. Also acknowledged in this session was that in spite of standing for a hundred years, JAG’s sustained existence has never, in fact, been a given (since its very early years there have been repeated plans to sell, move or close the Gallery), and nor is it now. As has been the case recently of questioning the implications of some historical (especially colonial) structures, and their sustained ideologically imprinted connotations, through calls and activist movements such as #rhodesmustfall, there have been similar intimations around the possible fate of institutions like JAG. To date, however, JAG is a space that, although contested, has not been allowed to die for a hundred years.

Included in the front of this book are wonderful interpretive architectural plan overlays by Karin Tan, who visually and graphically plots the structural and contextual shifts historically to the JAG building and its surrounding areas. On pages vi-vii is a seemingly light and quirky interpretive intervention onto one of the earliest surviving plan drawings

of Joubert Park, onto which the Gallery and other surrounding locations are marked, but which include quite searing moments of context, such as JAG’s proximity to the Drill Hall, for example, where the Treason Trial took place just up the road in 1956, while JAG continued to function as it always had; and the inclusion of the prettily plotted reference to Artists Under the Sun on the Park lawns – that David Koloane refers to in his essay (pp 182-184) – which was an ingenious play of activism and professional ingenuity by some black artists, beginning in the 1960s, who showed and sold their work in the Park, directly in front of the municipal gallery that mostly ignored their existence.

Amongst the interpretive maps at the front of this book are also two whimsical takes (see pg v) on JAG’s existential irony that reference several of the suggestions over the years for JAG to move elsewhere – one has the Lutyens building develop an assortment of animal legs, as it begins to make its way towards the zoo; while the other, haunted by lurking giant construction cranes overhead, appears to get the message and starts to makes its way on human legs towards Newtown, where the Turbine Hall was once a potential relocation site for the Gallery.

The rather bizarre joke of this solid historical monument never, in fact, being particularly secure – structurally, geographically, financially, or ideologically – is ironically, I feel, perhaps one of its most promising features as we look beyond this centenary. For, if JAG is able to commit to ongoing flexibility, at all levels, then with every positive thing that it already has going for it – its extraordinary art collections, beautiful spaces, and the desire by so many arts interested citizens still for it to continue its transformation

into a space that is open, self-sustained, and of value to continue learning from and experiencing, with relevance to broad-ranging audiences – then JAG will have every reason and relevance to continue its life in this city, with a wealth of potential to teach us our history, to creatively engage our present, and – as one of those who believes in what such creative realms can offer – to transform our city’s future, or at least some of the ways in which it is able to reflect back upon itself and the world it exists in.

Tracy Murinik

Tracy Murinik is an independent art writer, curator, editor and occasional filmmaker based in Johannesburg. She has written, published and edited extensively on contemporary art from South Africa and the continent.

Construction of the Art Gallery, 1913.

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

“Middle class reﬁnement at the turn of the century included admiration for music, nature, art, a library, a museum and facilities for horticultural displays. Citizenship and respectability were, after all, intimately entwined with cultural beliefs … Joubert Park … was meant to be more than a ‘beautiful garden’ ... The Park shared – in an integrated way – its landscape with the bandstand, conservatory, and the Art Gallery, and even included plans for a memorial site and an amphitheatre. The city fathers believed that these structures would become the showcase for the city, more or less similar to what the Smithsonian Institute is for Washington DC, as the USA’s capital.”

Louis Grundlingh (p 38)

“The founding of the Johannesburg Art Gallery can be linked to the ambitions … to assert the superiority of British culture, to consolidate the cultural infrastructure of an emerging civil society and to demonstrate the commitment of the typical British tradition of philanthropy.”

Louis Grundlingh (p 39)

LUTYENS IN JOUBERT PARK

Jillian Carman

When Edwin Lutyens received a telegram from Hugh Lane 12 October 1910 (NL 5073) asking him to come to Johannesburg to design an art gallery, he declined, although it “gave me a most exciting turn”. Undeterred, Lane sent a second telegram a couple of weeks later to Rome, where Lutyens was planning the British Pavilion for Rome’s International Exhibition of 1911. This time Lord Curzon and the British Ambassador, Sir Rennell Rodd, persuaded him to accept. He immediately booked a cabin on the Saxon, departing 19 November, “& here I am [back in London] tearing about & working all night to get clear & away” (2 November 1910, NL 5073).

This seizing of opportunity and impulsive decision-making is typical of how the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) came about, both in the creation of its collection (1909-10) and of the building which came to house it (1915). Florence Phillips,1 wife of Randlord Lionel Phillips, was the principal driver of the project. Hugh Lane, an Anglo-Irish art dealer, became her willing conspirator. Chance encounters and quick, possibly rash, but ultimately brilliant decisions happened in a unique space in time that was unencumbered by obligations to committees, wider consultation and due process. These obligatory restraints may have emerged pretty quickly, especially with regard to the collection’s building and the official appointment of Lutyens, but in the meantime Lane, enabled by Florence, and using funds from mineowners, operated as a fairly free agent-curator, whose decision to approach Lutyens as architect was endorsed by

his close circle of acquaintances and was unchallenged at the time. The result was an extraordinary collection within a unique building, Lutyens’ only museum in a long and illustrious career. But it nearly didn’t happen. In a cliff-hanger way typical of JAG’s founding, the publicly unpopular choice of Lutyens as architect would not have been approved at a “lively” council meeting of 26 April 1911 were it not for the mayor’s casting vote (RandDailyMail, 27 April 1911). Dublin, whose gallery of modern art had also been founded by Lane (1908), was less fortunate. Lane’s choice of Lutyens as architect was refused by the Dublin Corporation in April 1913 (Dawson 1993:24-27).

The decision to found a gallery of modern art in Johannesburg was made spontaneously by Florence and Lane when they met in April 1909 and bought the first three paintings for the collection. Florence, in fact, was in England to source items for an arts and crafts exhibition proposed by the Johannesburg branch of the South African National Union (SANU). A permanent collection of educational items was a hoped-for outcome, not a gallery of modern art, which was certainly not part of the SANU project. The background story is given in Gutsche (1966), Carman (2006) and One HundredYearsofCollecting (2010), JAG’s book to celebrate the opening of the collection in temporary premises on 29 November 1910. Constructure celebrates the centenary of the opening of JAG’s permanent Lutyens home in Joubert Park in November 1915. Though the building is the focus, collections, exhibitions, activities, civic life, historic contexts

and more are inextricably bound with it, and are explored in other parts of the book. In this chapter, I focus on the Lutyens building and the stages of its construction, with a brief mention of the Meyer Pienaar and Partners 1986 extensions.

The story of a home for the collection is long, complicated and without a neat ending. The first home was temporary: the South African School of Mines and Technology, where the collection opened on 29 November 1910. (Fig 1) It remained here until it was moved into “the portion of the [Lutyens] building that has been erected” (council minutes, 21 Sept 1915), opening without ceremony in November 1915 (McTeague 1984:143). The building was incomplete and remained so, even when two Lutyens-designed wings, extending to the east and west along the southern railway side, opened in 1940. It was still unfinished until 1986 when the Meyer Pienaar extensions opened, a metaphorical completion of Lutyens’ original intentions in the way their design closed the inner courtyard with a north wing, and balanced the 1940 extensions with wings to the west and east along the northern park side. Unfortunately, after nearly 30 years, the Meyer Pienaar extensions have developed into a troubled and incomplete space. But despite the grave structural problems, this can be considered an advantage, lending possibilities for experimentation, which a finite building would have curtailed. Exciting projects associated with the space are discussed elsewhere in this book.

The Randlords were initially reluctant to commit funds to a museum which did not yet have a home. The mine-owner Otto Beit, for example, a major early supporter of the project, emphasised the importance of prior accommodation. Lane, lamenting the lack of forthcoming funds, wrote to Florence in November 1909: “Mr Beit I think is determined not to spend anything till the conditions he made are complied with” (JAG, Hunt Collection). But this did not stop the two from disingenuously announcing in The African World, 9 October 1909, and elsewhere, that Jan Smuts (Transvaal minister of education and colonial secretary) and Louis Botha (Transvaal premier) had agreed to find accommodation for the collection during their visit to England, July to August 1909 (Carman 2006:147-150). This seems to have been no more than a ploy to get reluctant Randlords, specifically Otto Beit, to commit funds to the proposed gallery.

Finding accommodation, or at least the promise of a municipally funded building in a public space, was crucial, and Lionel took the lead on his return to Johannesburg from England in late 1909. He had his own agenda in desperately wanting the JAG project to succeed. He was so far the only Randlord who had committed money to what probably seemed a dodgy plan, and he could not afford to carry it alone. He was far less wealthy than his mining colleagues, and was considered by management to be over-lavish and careless with his personal finances, not helped by his impulsive wife (who admitted she had no idea about money), nor by her collaboration with an art dealer who was probably on the make.

Lionel proposed a bizarre solution to a seemingly intractable problem: combining two projects with which he was engaged, JAG and the Rand Regiments Memorial (RRM). The latter, coordinated by the RRM Committee, aimed to build a memorial to the Anglo-regiments on the Rand who had

died in the South African War of 1899-1902. Like the JAG project, the RRM Committee was seeking a site. Unlike JAG, it had start-up funds for a building. Lionel and the chair of the RRM Committee, proposed at a council meeting, 30 December 1909, that the already-advanced project for the RRM, and the more recent project of an art gallery, should be combined and that the memorial, while retaining its commemorative nature outside, should accommodate an art gallery inside. Fortunately this did not come to fruition, and negotiations for accommodation continued. Finally, a commitment was made. At a council meeting of 1 June 1910, temporary accommodation at the South African School of Mines and Technology was offered, and

council agreed to match a donation from the government for the purpose of building an art gallery. Shortly afterwards a management committee in charge of the gallery project was put in place, comprising Florence, Howard Pim, Harry Hofmeyr (as representative of the Johannesburg town council) and FV Englenburg (asked by Smuts to represent the government).2 Unfortunately, no records of their deliberations have survived.

After voting money towards a building, the council thereafter showed an almost paralytic indifference, apart from agreeing to a site on the southern side of Joubert Park and deciding not to pursue a plan to cover the railway cutting

FIG 1: The opening of the Johannesburg Art Gallery collection in the South African School of Mines and Technology, 29 November 1910. The Duke of Connaught is in the carriage, Florence Phillips is standing in the centre of the group on the steps and Hugh Lane is to the right of the group. ©MuseumAfrica.

to the south (council minutes, 15 August 1910). If there was a public debate about the appointment of an architect at this time, or the holding of an architectural competition (as some authors have claimed), there is no official record.

The Association of Transvaal Architects apparently sent a letter in August 1910 to the council with reference to the proposed erection of an art gallery. This was referred to the Art Gallery Management Committee and there is no further information about it. When the draft deed of trust was tabled at council on 25 October 1910, the minutes noted that council was “about to erect and provide a building to be used and employed as an Art Gallery and Museum of Industrial Art ... and for other purposes” and that the temporary accommodation was due to be vacated in early 1911. There are no further details.

At a meeting in November, by which time Lutyens was already aboard the Saxon en route to South Africa, with the lure of the art gallery and a number of other commissions, the town engineer suggested that his department draw up plans for the art gallery building for submission to Lane. This was not agreed to. The motion that designs for the art gallery should be invited from architects other than Lutyens was defeated at a council meeting of 12 December 1910, attended by Lane and Florence, but not by Lutyens, by now in Johannesburg, who wrote to his wife “there seems to be a good deal of opposition on the Municipal Council to anything being done by anybody but a Johannesburg Architect” (12 Dec 1910, RIBA, Lutyens papers). It was resolved at this meeting that a sub-committee be appointed to confer with Lutyens around the design for the art gallery building and layout, with power to act.

Lutyens seems to have irritated a number of people during his three weeks in Johannesburg with his irreverent, often

puerile humour, and his insensitive pontifications on local architecture (Ridley 2003:199). He asked Howard Pim, a supporter of the gallery project, if he had any ‘Pimples’, and must have infuriated local architects with an interview in which he gave his “impressions of our work, his advice about the directions of its development, and his criticisms of our aims and aspirations”, implying that South Africa is doing rather well, but could do far better, and “should give birth to a school of architects in the future to equal any that has been built in the past” (RandDailyMail, 21 December 1910). Trouble was already brewing, and came to a head in early 1911. The municipal council’s general inactivity in response to the Association of Transvaal Architects’ complaints hardly helped. A protest meeting in February 1911, acrimonious exchanges of letters in the press, council meetings – all attest to the opposition to the appointment of a foreign architect, the fact that there was no competition, and the deception of the donors who now claimed that a condition of their gift was the appointment of an architect of their choice (Carman 2006:243-252). As mentioned at the beginning, Lutyens was officially appointed only because the mayor used his casting vote to support the decision – and because it had been agreed that a local architect, Robert Howden, would supervise the building plans, with Herbert Baker as honorary advisor (McTeague 1984:143).

Lutyens had in effect already got the job in December 1910 from his circle of supporters when he was in Johannesburg. While there, he worked on preliminary designs for JAG and the RRM, sharing his ideas with Herbert Baker. His proposals were adopted by both the Gallery and Memorial Committees (Hussey 1989:208-210). He probably worked further on his designs during the nearly three weeks voyage back to England. Intriguingly, Hugh Lane returned to England on the same ship, which departed from Cape Town on 28 December 1910, but there is no surviving evidence that they

discussed the Gallery plans, although they are most likely to have done so (Gutsche 1966:164).

In Johannesburg, Lutyens closely examined the sites for the two buildings: Joubert Park for JAG, and “a piece of ground north of the Zoo as a site for the Rand Regiments Memorial” (council minutes, 5 March 1912, referring to an earlier resolution of 25 October 1910). In his daily diary-like letters to his wife during December, Lutyens frequently mentions going to Joubert Park, the RRM Eckstein Park site “where the Duke of “Cannot” [Connaught] laid a foundation stone [30 November 1910] in an impossible place”, discussions with an archdeacon about a church and its “new site [which is] far better & works in with my picture gallery etc. so as to make a bit a [of?] town planning on a big scale”. He describes having a chance at a dinner party “of giving my real views on town planning & the real opportunity ... here with a 26 yr. old city” and comments “I must get the designs made [?] before I go for the following its extensions, the laying out of Joubert Park & a wide bridge across the Railway & connect the ... ground with it” (12-18 December 1910, RIBA Lutyens letters). His interest in town planning is evident, as noted in an interview in the Rand Daily Mail, 21 December 1910, headlined “Making a city – How to beautify Johannesburg ...”, where there is brief mention of his town planning work in England, such as at Hampstead Garden Suburb.

Lutyens attended to the plans for the RRM more promptly than he did JAG’s plans, and the memorial was completed towards the end of 1913. Its position on a raised promontory complemented Lutyens’ design of five long vistas radiating out from the RRM, a dramatic feature which has been preserved until today (Keene 1986:84). Despite the different purpose of the memorial, and that it was not an enclosed space (once the idea of housing an art gallery

inside it had been discarded), there are some structural similarities between it and JAG. (Fig 2) For example, the smaller side arches on the RRM are remarkably similar to the arches on the square sides of the JAG portico, with a keystone at the apex and an architrave connecting the base of the arches on either side of the square piers. But a key similarity is the lay-out – the town planning – of which the buildings are a part. Unfortunately, apart from the RRM vistas, Lutyens’ plan for the RRM of balustrades, plinths with sculpture, and steps leading to the main archways, was discarded in the final realisation. JAG was also to have a defined context with the building as the focal point of a large and elaborate park, extending over the railway cutting and into the old Union Grounds to the south (see pgs vi-vii). But the design was not implemented, the plan to bridge over the railway cutting was never realised, and the cutting remains uncovered to this day. The surviving design, however, is of great importance in that it documents a growing movement of which Lutyens was a participant – the concept of the ‘City Beautiful’. Mervyn Miller (2002) describes the Joubert Park design in terms of the City Beautiful international movement of that time. He cites as a landmark in British civic design the Royal Institute of British Architects’ International Town Planning Conference of 10-15 October 1910, which Lutyens attended and where Baker displayed his Union Buildings plan. He believes the City Beautiful displays, particularly Daniel Burnham’s plans for Washington and Chicago, “opened Lutyens’s eyes to the power of the Grand Plan” and that this surely created, in Lutyens’ mind at least, “a broad agenda for his forthcoming work in Johannesburg.” (Miller 2002:164).

Lutyens had been working in this idiom for some time, though mainly on a domestic scale in collaboration with the garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, with the house being integral with its garden surrounds (Miller 2006:117-119). In

1906 he became involved in one of the leading garden city projects of the time, Hampstead Garden Suburb, for which he produced plans for the central square and designed St Jude’s Church and the Free Church, shortly before and during his involvement with JAG (Miller 2006:117-137) .

Miller (2002:165-66) analyses in detail Lutyens’ designs for Joubert Park and the Union Ground beyond the bridge over the cutting. Lutyens planned the resiting and redesigning of St Mary’s Cathedral as part of the Union Grounds, hence the many meetings with the archdeacon described in his letters to his wife. Despite intense lobbying, he did not get the commission. For years the sketches for the church (Miller 2002:Fig 7) were not identified with Lutyens’ Johannesburg park designs, until Miller made the discovery some years back.3

After he was officially appointed, Lutyens’ designs for JAG seem to have languished, to the concern of those back in Johannesburg. He finally supplied foundation plans (see pg 5) just in time for the laying of the foundation stone on 11 October 1911 by the mayor, HJ Hofmeyr. Today the stone is at the north entrance of JAG, moved here during the Meyer Pienaar extensions of 1986. Its weathered sandstone inscription and vandalism have rendered it virtually illegible. (Figs 3, 4)

The working drawings, which Joseph [JM] Solomon evidently helped to complete when he joined Lutyens’s office, only arrived two months later. During 1912 the drawings were adjusted with a view to tendering for certain sections that could be completed sequentially. Council, at its meeting of 17 July 1912, approved proceeding with the erection of only a portion of the Gallery, and asked for tenders. At

FIG 2 (LEFT): Rand Regiments Memorial. Photograph Ditsong Museums of South Africa, National Museum of Military History, Johannesburg. FIG 3 (TOP RIGHT): Foundation stone, 11 October 1911. FIG 4 (BOTTOM RIGHT): Foundation stone, 2015. ©David Ceruti.

its meeting of 18 February 1913, council approved the tender of A Gill for erecting the building in in Elands River stone, and a contract was finally signed on 20 February 1913 to build part of Lutyens’s original plan: the large south gallery, with wings extending northwards on the east and west sides (Carman 2006:251). (Fig 5-7)

After various delays the collaborating architect, Robert Howden, reported to council on 21 September 1915 that the contractor had completed “the portion of the building that has been erected” at a total cost of £48,682.13s. The artworks were moved from the South African School of Mines and Technology to the new building during October 1915, and shortly thereafter opened to the public. Florence declined the mayor’s invitation of 13 October 1915 to open the collection, setting out her reasons in a letter that she forwarded to the press for publication. The council, she alleged, had not fulfilled its obligations, despite repeated requests from the Art Gallery Committee. It had refused to

upgrade the post of curator from a temporary part-time one, to a permanent one with adequate salary and a suitable man in the position. It had refused to delay the opening until a large number of items, at present stored at the Tate in London, had arrived. The Museum of Industrial Art had not been realised. The art school had survived thus far through private generosity. And, against the architect’s wishes, the new building had been constructed in expensive stone instead of plaster and cement, with the result that there were no funds to finish it and “many of the objects for which it was designed will not be fulfilled” (Carman 2006:251).

Lutyens’ South African venture is often seen as a light interlude, almost an amusement, during a major career that spanned New Delhi, Britain, Europe and Washington. The two Johannesburg projects were small-scaled compared to Lutyens’ other magnificent public buildings and memorials, and the impulsive South African visit suggests an air of levity. But both structures are seminal in Lutyens’ career. The RRM

FIG 5 (TOP LEFT): Construction site, 1913. FIG 6 (TOP CENTRE): Completed south façade, 1915. FIG 7 (TOP RIGHT): Drawing by W Brigham of south façade and north extending wings.

©Collection MuseumAfrica, Johannesburg. FIG 8 (BOTTOM LEFT): St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden (1631-8) by Inigo Jones.

©Steve Cadman, Wikimedia Commons. FIG 9 (BOTTOM CENTRE): South façade entrance, 2015. ©David Ceruti. FIG 10 (BOTTOM RIGHT): Portal roof showing parapet termination at left.

arch is a prototype for the later war memorials in New Delhi and northern France (Hopkins & Stamp 2002). And JAG,

apart from being the only museum Lutyens ever built, was intricately bound to Lutyens’ first major institutional project: the British School in Rome. JAG was bracketed between the two stages of the British School development: the temporary British Pavilion for the 1911 International Exhibition in Rome, and the subsequent permanent building on the pavilion site, which was donated by the Syndic of Rome. The person who motivated for the permanent building in April 1911 was the British Ambassador Sir Rennell Rodd, who had persuaded

Lutyens in early November 1910 to go to South Africa (Hopkins 2002:69-70).4 Amongst the preliminary sketches (1910) for the pavilion are smaller-scale drawings, which show remarkable similarities to the JAG design, suggesting a close association in Lutyens’ mind of the two projects. He was convinced that pure classical architecture was essential for a New Country which did not, as yet, have examples to emulate (Hussey 1989:208-209). Linking the JAG project with one based in the heart of ancient Rome would not have been surprising.

Lutyens was apparently instructed by the Board of Trade, which was responsible for organising the temporary British Pavilion at the Rome International Exhibition, to use Christopher Wren’s (1632-1723) St Paul’s Cathedral as the template (which, he told Herbert Baker, he adapted into something more original, without the Board even noticing) (Hussey 1989:208-209). The portico at the British School gives a nod to the upper floor of St Paul’s grand double-floor entrance, in a more simple way. It too has six paired Corinthian columns and a triangular pediment with mutules (small flat blocks) on the underside of the pediment slopes and the cornice, which extends back from the pediment and along the side walls. The pediment at the British school, however, is empty of Wren’s elaborate decorations. JAG’s portal is deeper in proportion to the rest of its façade, much more simple and on a smaller-scale. Like the British School it has an empty pediment and a cornice with mutules, which recedes back to and along the flanking walls, turning the corners for a short space. The mutule cornice is resumed shortly before the north ends of the two 1915 east and west wings, as can be seen in this photograph of excavations for the 1986 extensions. The principle difference between the British School portico and JAG’s is the use at JAG of two columns with simple Ionic capitals and bases, situated between two square corner piers, a type known as distyle in antis. The piers each have large arches on the side. A similar

portico was used by Inigo Jones (1573-1652), England’s first classical architect, at St Paul’s church in Covent Garden, London. (Fig 8) Lutyens knew Jones’ church and it is likely that he references it in JAG’s portico.

JAG’s unusually deep portico dominates the south façade, with a huge projecting rusticated base, elaborate side niches, and architrave lines emanating from the niches, balancing the weight of the portico (Butler 1989:45). (Fig 9) The large flight of stairs adds to the grandeur of the entrance. Two curious triangular abutments appear halfway back on the portico, the termination of the parapet that extends across the façade on either side of the portal. They are not easily visible from ground level, so do not intrude on the classical entrance with its columns and piers. (Figs 7, 10) Butler (1989:45) draws attention to “the perfect taper and the entasis5 given to the two columns and the square corner piers”, giving the rather austere portico a vital look. The treatment of the inside of the portico, however, is far from austere. The curved and coffered (recessed square panels) ceiling may be restrained (Fig 11), but the door and flanking windows have florid Wren-like swags above them, the side windows also having a triangular feature with a cherub’s head as the keystone of each window. (Figs 12, 13) The square openings beneath the windows were not part of the original plan, but were probably made for security reasons, so that people in the interior offices could easily see outside.6 The decorative features, which incorporate proteas, were likely to have been made in the workshop of Anton Van Wouw, who worked closely with Herbert Baker and his colleagues at this time. Van Wouw apparently made the clay models, which were then carved by stonemasons.7 The consoles that support the cornice below the decorative swag were probably a standard part of a stonemasons’ repertoire. (Fig 14)

FIG 11 (TOP): Portal ceiling. FIG 12 (CENTRE): Swag above central door. FIG 13 (BOTTOM): Swag with cherub head keystone, window to left of door. All images by ©David Ceruti.

The elaborate niches on either side of JAG’s portico and on the north ends of the wings are particularly fine adaptations of a more austere classical style. (Figs 9, 15) The jutting cornice with mutules at the bottom of the main portal’s pediment, extends along the flanking walls, with a parapet above. The niches punctuating each side of the portico repeat this feature on a much smaller scale. (see pg i south elevation plan) There are other details in these south niches of great subtlety and beauty, consisting of a series of recessive portal-like structures within an outer rectangular recess. From two large Ionic columns, barely attached to the wall, each is topped by a flat abacus (the small slab between the capital of the column and the architrave) to two square pilasters with an architrave and pediment above, to an empty niche with subtly recessed sides, and a rounded top with a radiating stonework feature. Subtle masonry lines connect some features across the entire façade. (see pg i south elevation plan and Fig 6) These elaborate recessive niches and the interplay of dark

and light shadows make them strong, impactful features, which balance the dominance of the portico.

The adaptations on the north ends of the wings are less elaborate and more highly set on the façade, integrated with the cornice and mutules above. (Figs 16, 17) A large plain arch surrounds the inner pedimented feature. Its keystone connects with the thin base under the cornice and mutules, centred between two of them, with angular radiating stonework linking the hemispherical top of the arch with the horizontal cornice and stonework courses below. As with the south façade, a distinct narrow projection extends from the abacus beneath the architrave and pediment along the adjacent walls. But unlike the south feature, the pediment rests on fully rounded Ionic columns (and not square pilasters) with a suggestion of square pilasters behind them. The columns rest on a stepped base that echoes that of the south façade, with the vent replaced by a square indentation. These northern ends of the wings can be viewed today

FIG 14 (TOP LEFT): Console, central door. FIG 15 (CENTRE): Niche to east side of the portal. FIG 16 (BOTTOM): Niche at north end of east wing, view from Meyer Pienaar extensions.

FIG 16 (BOTTOM): Niche at north end of west wing, view from Meyer Pienaar extensions. All images by ©David Ceruti.

from below through large glass bay windows in the Meyer Pienaar and Partners 1986 extensions, an inspired link between the old and the new.

From the exterior we now move to the interior. The main door under the portico leads into a small lobby with offices on either side. The scrolls on the flanking doors in the lobby and its curved coffered ceiling suggest the grandeur of the great gallery into which it leads, known since 1986 as the Phillips Gallery. (Fig 18) Along the south wall of the entrance into the Gallery are two recesses flanking the door (probably meant for display cabinets), all three with superimposed arches, facing three large windows on the north wall, the equivalent in height of the opposite arched door and recesses.8 (Figs 19, 20) The delicately decorated barrelvaulted ceiling interacts with the three features on either side. (Figs 21, 22) A circle at the middle intersects a curving recessed panel, which springs from the tops of the window and door-arch on opposite sides. Two elongated panels between the door and the two recesses curve across the ceiling to the spaces between the central and outer windows, terminating with a recessed circle and a floral swag that includes proteas. (Figs 23) Both ends of the long barrel vault ceiling terminate with two recessed panels springing from a recess-arch and a window-arch. The east and west ends of the grand gallery’s ceiling are terminated with a flat arch. All the doors, both here and in the other galleries, feature consoles (more simple than those at the portico) supporting cornices, which form a continuous band around each room. (Fig 24) The four elaborate swags in the Phillips Gallery, and the consoles throughout, would have been cast in plaster from a model, a technique described in detail by Jack Rich (1947).9 Another feature throughout JAG is that all the woodwork is teak.

A small sculpture lobby, or apse, leads out from both ends of the Phillips Gallery. (Figs 25, 26) A curved wall with

FIG 18 (TOP LEFT): The Phillips Gallery, 2015. FIG 19 (TOP RIGHT): The Phillips Gallery, 1957. FIG 20: (CENTRE LEFT): The Phillips Gallery north wall, closed window. FIG 21 (CRENTRE RIGHT): The Phillips Gallery ceiling. FIG 22 (BOTTOM): The Phillips Gallery ceiling. All images except top right by ©David Ceruti.

delicate receding cornices faces an opposite door, which leads into what is now the central courtyard. A patterned skylight corresponds to a charming hexagonal glass structure on the roof, like a small summer-house. (Fig 27) The next room is the first of the top-lit picture galleries, a square shape with the two south corners truncated (Fig 28), echoing the curve of the apse, while directing the visitor to the opposite entrance into a long picture gallery with top lighting. (Fig 29) At the end of this gallery is another squareshaped room with top-lighting. A side door opened from this room into the gallery gardens and the park, visible on the far right of the Meyer Pienaar excavation site. (Fig 30) The raised glass structures on the roof correspond in square and rectangular shapes to the rooms below. (Fig 31) Like the hexagonal structure, they are hidden from view by the south façade’s parapet, although they could be seen from the park side until the Meyer Pienaar extensions concealed this view.

This flat u-shape of rooms is what constituted the Gallery until the south pavilions to the east and west were constructed (1938-1940) .

After the unfinished building opened, JAG was generally neglected by the council until about 1930. John Maud, who was commissioned by the council in 1935 to write a history of the local government of Johannesburg, comments on the lack of interest shown to JAG and the meagre municipal revenue allocation.10 But things started looking up when council voted £200 pounds for Lutyens to do preliminary sketches showing proposed extensions to JAG, with particular reference to the method of lighting (meeting of 25 February 1930). The cost of extensions was agreed at a meeting of 3 April 1936, Lutyens and Howden were appointed at a meeting of 23 June 1936, and the plan for the extensions was approved at a meeting of 23 February 1937. It was reported on 27 July 1937 that working drawings (Fig 32)

FIG 23 (TOP LEFT): The Phillips Gallery swag. FIG 24 (TOP RIGHT): The Phillips Gallery console. FIG 25: (CENTRE LEFT): Sculpture lobby, apse. FIG 26 (BOTTOM RIGHT): Sculpture lobby, skylight detail. FIG 27 (BOTTOM LEFT): Hexagonal skylight structure on the roof. All images by ©David Ceruti.

and specifications had now been received from Sir Edwin Lutyens, and tenders were called for. Although the costs exceeded the estimates – the revised new pavilions, for example, were 25% larger than those in the original plan – a loan was sanctioned and work began in 1938. The building was overseen by the first professional director of JAG, Anton Hendricks (later Hendriks), whose appointment was recommended on 27 April 1937 by the Art Gallery Committee.

In the meantime, the Art Gallery Committee’s request to turn the basement into an exhibition space had been granted (26 March 1935) and part of the Howard Pim 1934 bequest of over 500 original prints was exhibited here in late 1936. About 40 years later, a similar basement space was excavated and enlarged to display contemporary South African art.

The two new pavilions, after delays during 1940 due to wet weather and a change from Elands River Stone to Flatpan, amongst other reasons, appear to have opened without ceremony in mid-1941. (A Lutyens déjà vu.) Council reported on 27 May 1941 that the architects’ final statement showed a saving on the contract, and proposed to use this for alterations in the basement, the south wall of the east pavilion, show cases, benches and seats etc, and sundries. This was one of the few times when JAG was flush with money.

The four pavilions in the original 1911 plan appear almost homely (see pg i south elevation plan), each with a chimney and rooms for different purposes: administration, a library, a re-creation of a Cape Dutch home, and a temporary exhibitions space (McTeague 1984:146). The two new pavilions present something more simple and modern, with two top-lit long galleries. (Figs 10, 33) They are described and illustrated in detail by Butler (1989:45-46, plates XC-XCII, Figs 219-228), who evidently worked closely with the development of Lutyens’ plans. For example, he

FIG 28 (TOP LEFT): Square gallery with truncated corners.

FIG 29 (TOP RIGHT): Long picture gallery with top lighting.

FIG 30 (CENTRE LEFT): Side door from north square gallery, visible to right of construction site. FIG 31 (ABOVE LEFT):

Rectangular skylight structure on the roof. FIG 32 (ABOVE RIGHT): Lutyens’ proposal for the art gallery extensions, 1937.

FIG 33 (BOTTOM LEFT): East and west pavilions built 1937-1941.

FIG 34 (TOP LEFT): Curved wall connecting the old building to the new pavilion. ©David Ceruti. FIG 35 (TOP CENTRE): North room of east pavilion. ©David Ceruti. FIG 36 (TOP RIGHT): View across the central axis. FIG 37 (CENTRE): View from the Phillips Gallery through to the east pavilion. FIG 38 (BOTTOM LEFT): Aerial view of skylight indentation in south east pavilion roof.

FIG 39 (BOTTOM CENTRE): Lobby at top of steps leading to new pavilion. ©David Ceruti. FIG 40 (BOTTOM RIGHT): Lobby viewed from bottom of steps. ©David Ceruti.

states that Lutyens’ original intention for the south walls of the pavilions was to have them quite plain between the two niches, which are far simpler than the complex niches flanking the portico. The walls were not meant to have windows, but these were required, as the rooms were to be used for administrative purposes. The loggias at each end are also new compared to the earlier plan, their inclusion perhaps being a small compensation for the many loggias in both the old and new plans, which never materialised.

A more likely reason, however, is that they extend the length of each pavilion and offer accommodation for the outer arched niche beyond the fenestrated gallery which, logically, one would think should be behind it. The inner niche, similarly, has no connection to the gallery behind it. (see plan, Fig 32) In fact it backs onto a staff toilet, a detail which Lutyens could well have done intentionally, displaying his almost playful subterfuges of placing features in areas unrelated to what one would expect from the outside. In creating a longer façade to the south east and south west galleries, Lutyens had more space to punctuate the walls with deceptively simple oblong windows, and to create an intricate, almost humorous, interplay of classical elements. He deeply recesses the windows, so the effect is of a façade with four squared piers on a linked base, each with an identical abacus. The windows each have a subtle disc above, and the air vents further above are idiosyncratically arranged. The niches with their shell-like concave tops seem to close the ends of each pavilion with a flourish, accentuated by the decorative jars atop the corners.

The pavilions are connected to the central building by a curved wall, which joins at the level of the continuous thin architrave that runs across the central façade. (Fig 34) They are at a lower level than the main building, and their curved connecting wall projects them dramatically forward, balancing the projecting central portico. Within the main building, the central access runs through the Phillips Gallery

and the galleries on either side of it, then down through the north room (Fig 35) of the pavilions, presenting dramatic perspectives. (Figs 36, 37) The sky-lighting for the two pavilion exhibition areas is completely hidden from view, except in aerial photographs, such as that of the combined Lutyens and Meyer Pienaar building, where an oblong indentation is visible in the centre of each pavilion roof. (Fig 38) Butler (1989:Fig 224) illustrates this extraordinary feature: a central space with perpendicular windows that filter light into the galleries on either side. Access to this roof feature is via a narrow corridor that separates the two galleries. This is not the only intriguing feature of these new extensions.

There is an extraordinary series of interlinked spaces which, for me, epitomise the genius and humour of Lutyens. I shall explore the feature in the east wing. This begins with a stone lobby leading off the south east square gallery with truncated corners. (Fig 39) (The two areas are on the same level: the view given in this reproduction is taken from above.)

The exquisitely crafted teak door, surmounted by a pediment, leads to a mundane toilet, which in turn looks out onto a hidden clear space open to the elements, and a wall on the outside of which is one of the pavilion niches. One then descends the adjacent stairs into the pavilion exhibition galleries, the steps starting with a slight curve and ending with a straight step at the bottom. (Fig 40) Just before entering the pavilion galleries, one notices a teak door to the right, which is usually closed to the public. Hidden behind this is a small circular vestibule with finely crafted features, one of the most beautiful rooms in the Gallery. It leads down to the metal-rung access to the roof. The first steps are bordered by a block with chamfered corners. (Fig 41) The stairs then turn right, beginning with a straight step and angling as the wall turns until one reaches another teak door. (Fig 42) Around the wall are architectural features which serve no purpose other than being

FIG 41 (TOP): Block with chamfered corners in vestibule. FIG 42 (CENTRE): Steps in vestibule. FIG 43 (BOTTOM): Architectural feature in vestibule. All images by ©David Ceruti.

FIG 44 (TOP LEFT): Hexagonal skylight in vestibule. ©David Ceruti. FIG 45 (TOP CENTRE): Spiral staircase to the roof.

©David Ceruti. FIG 46 (TOP RIGHT): Early view of JAG from Joubert Park. FIG 47 (ABOVE): Early view of Joubert Park from JAG. FIG 48 (BOTTOM LEFT): Early view of Joubert Park from JAG. FIG 49 (CENTRE): Establishing the sculpture garden. FIG 50 (BOTTOM CENTRE): Opening of the sculpture garden, 26 May 1971.

beautifully decorative. (Fig 43) And above is a perfect dome with a hexagonal skylight (Fig 44), exactly like the small hexagonal glass house on the roof above (Fig 27), which one can reach via the spiral metal staircase on the other side of the teak door. (Fig 45) I confess to being completely puzzled trying to match the two skylights, then realised I was experiencing one of Lutyens’ architectural conceits. This little room is meant to puzzle and please, occupying a ‘left-over’ space, which is irrelevant to the edifice or rooms outside.

The Lutyens building remained incomplete for the next 45 years. It had a period of prosperity under Anton Hendriks in the 1950s, but became increasingly inadequate space-wise and increasingly ignored as a national asset. In the 1960s there were plans to move the collection to new and larger premises in Parktown,11 and the Lutyens building was put up for sale in late 1960. Various proposals for the re-use of the building were discussed in the press of the time: a railway museum, a bus terminus, a crèche, a music school and an eye research institute. “The Johannesburg Art Gallery is static, it lacks vitality, it is nothing but a richly embellished mausoleum” announced TheStar, 30 April 1965, saying that its press files were full of criticisms of the art gallery.12 The Gallery had completely inadequate space to fulfil the role it should have been able to play.

JAG continued to struggle and increasingly became cut off from Joubert Park, with which it had been closely connected (Figs 46-48), and a security fence was required to protect the open north side. In 1971 this area was turned into a sculpture garden, an appropriate setting for items that were difficult to display within the premises. (Figs 49-51) In the early 1970s a basement area was excavated to create a space dedicated to contemporary South African art. To enlarge the available space, the city council constructed a library and storeroom attached to the Gallery in 1974, “an

odious brick extension, totally in conflict with Lutyens’ design and in fact disfiguring it.”13 The battle for extensions continued until finally the city council provided a budget in the 1984/85 financial estimates, and building operations began in October 1983. The extensions opened in October 1986, to coincide with the centenary of Johannesburg.

The architects appointed for the project were Meyer Pienaar and Partners Inc, who said from the outset that they wished to honour the Lutyens building by creating something in the footsteps of Lutyens, a completion in a modern idiom of his original plan.14 A granite plaque at the new north entrance of JAG proclaims the intertwining of the parts of the building. (Fig 52) In all the building works, the integrity of the original Lutyens building was respected, with later alien accretions, like the outside library and storeroom, being demolished. The central courtyard is perhaps the most beautiful of this meeting between the old and the new, with the large windows in the Meyer Pienaar extension reflecting the Lutyens windows opposite, and the doors leading into the courtyard on either side of the two walkways complementing each other. (Figs 53-55) The rough brick walls on parts of the original 1915 wings in the courtyard are now clad in stone, slightly distinct from the original Lutyens stonework in a step design. (Fig 56) There are also smaller details which emulate Lutyens in a modern idiom, such as the tall wooden doors leading out of the north-east and north-west exhibition areas to the education and conservation quarters on one side, and the administrative and library quarters on the other. The circular lobby outside the staff quarters is a particularly Lutyens-like gem with a window in the apex of the dome. The wing that closes the courtyard at the north is largely glazed on the south side, providing a sense of space and light. (Fig 57) There has already been mention of the successful way in which the visitor can see the ends of the two Lutyens wings through large curved glass windows.

The main entrance to JAG was turned around in the Meyer Pienaar design so that it faced out towards the park, a conscious decision to engage neighbouring communities. (Figs 58-60) The new entrance façade emulates the three large Lutyens windows and looks out over the copper barrel vaults that reflect light into the vast new exhibition spaces underground, accessed via steps and ramps from the main hall. (Figs 61-63) An attractive feature downstairs is the amphitheatre facing through glass doors onto a semi-circular water feature. (Fig 64) A corresponding lecture theatre was created in the basement under the Lutyens building that used to house the contemporary South African collection.

The Meyer Pienaar extensions have unfortunately suffered from structural defects since it opened. This, and the changing nature of Joubert Park, which has been fenced off from

FIG 51 (TOP): View of the sculpture garden towards the park. FIG 52 (BOTTOM): Plaque of the Lutyens and Meyer Pienaar buildings intertwined. ©David Ceruti.

FIG 53 (TOP): Central courtyard, Lutyens façade to the left, Meyer Pienaar façade to the right. FIG 54 (BOTTOM LEFT): Entrance to Lutyens building from courtyard. FIG 55 (BOTTOM CENTRE): Entrance to Meyer Pienaar building from courtyard. FIG 56 (BOTTOM RIGHT): East wall of courtyard with stepped stonework. All images by ©David Ceruti.

JAG for some time, have unfortunately impacted on the new extensions. But despite the grave conservation state of the Meyer Pienaar extensions, the shifting nature of the structure has led to exciting interventions from contemporary artists and new opportunities.

It is ironic that the building that turns 100 this year is in better shape than the newer one attached to it. But it has taken a long time for the full worth of Lutyens’ contribution to local and international architecture to be appreciated. It was declared a national monument in January 1993, a badge of honour that ensures its place in the future of this city and country.

FIG 57 (TOP LEFT): View from Meyer Pienaar wing to the courtyard. FIG 58 (TOP RIGHT): Meyer Pienaar façade looking to the park. FIG 59 (ABOVE): Meyer Pienaar façade with barrel vault roofs. FIG 60 (BOTTOM RIGHT): Meyer Pienaar entrance. All images by ©David Ceruti.

Endnotes

1 For the sake of clarity, Florence Phillips and Lionel Phillips are referred to as Florence and Lionel in subsequent mentions. Also, honorifics are not used, as knighthoods for most of the main characters had not yet been bestowed when the Gallery project started.

2 The members of the board are listed in a letter from Engelenburg to Middelberg, 25 July 1910, JAG archives.

3 Personal communication. Hussey, for example, discussed these sketches “without realizing their full significance” (Miller 2002:226 note 21).

4 International trade exhibitions were a frequent occurrence in Europe and North America at this time. Magnificent pavilions, representing different countries, were constructed from temporary material designed to be dismantled at the close of the exhibition. Sketches for the pavilion and subsequent British School feature in various chapters in Hopkins & Stamp (2002).

5 The entasis is a slight swelling along the outline of a column designed to counteract the optical illusion of curving inwards.

6 McTeague (1984) draws attention to this feature.

7 I am grateful to Jonathan Stone and Alexander Duffey for their insights on these details.

8 The north wall with three large windows is reminiscent of Lutyens’ orangerie at Hestercombe, Somerset, 1904 (Miller 2002:162).

9 I am grateful to Jonathan Stone for drawing my attention to this book and the techniques of plaster casting.

10 Maud (1938:147, Appendix I). Maud was appointed to write the book at a council meeting of 26 March 1935.

11 A site in the Pieter Roos Park, Parktown, was designated, although sites near the War Museum in Saxonwold and the proposed civic centre in Braamfontein were also considered. Rand Daily Mail, 28, 29 November, 1, 2, 7, 8, 12, 22, 24 December, 1960; The Star, 27 January 1962.

12 For this background see Carman (2003).

13 Thelma Gutsche, letter to The Star, 11 July 1974.

14 Information on the Meyer Pienaar Inc extensions comes from material in the JAG archive such as press releases, media packs, annual reports, news cuttings, articles, pamphlets.

Sources

Jillian Carman

Dr Jillian Carman is a Visiting Research Associate in the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand and was a curator at the Johannesburg Art Gallery for a number of years. She is the author of Uplifting the Colonial Philistine: FlorencePhillipsandtheMakingoftheJohannesburgArt Gallery(2006), and editor of OneHundredYearsofCollecting: the Johannesburg Art Gallery (2010). She serves on the Johannesburg Art Gallery Committee and the Wits Art Museum Board, and is a trustee of the Rand Regiments Memorial and honorary patron of the Michaelis Collection, Cape Town.

FIG 61 (FAR LEFT): Entrance to downstairs exhibition space. FIG 62 (SECOND LEFT): Exhibition space, late 1980s. FIG 63 (ABOVE LEFT): Exhibition space, 2015. ©David Ceruti. FIG 64 (ABOVE RIGHT): The amphitheatre looking towards the water feature, 2015. ©David Ceruti.

MATERIALISING IDENTITY, CLASS AND 'RESPECTABILITY': JOUBERT PARK, JOHANNESBURG AS A LEISURE SPACE, c 1890 s-1930

Louis Grundlingh

The early growth of Johannesburg presents the context and the opportunity to explore the nature, purpose, function, characteristics, meaning and design of Johannesburg’s erstwhile premier municipal public park, Joubert Park, and its adjoining structures, including the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Joubert Park became an important leisure site for the citizens of Johannesburg since its founding in 1892 and turned out to be a significant spatial marker of crucial changes occurring in a fast-growing Johannesburg. Perhaps the most important of these transitions was from Johannesburg being under the governance of the Zuid-Afrikaanse Republic (ZAR) (1886-1902) to a British governmental system after the South African War. The latter significantly influenced its layout, design and features. Areas for promenading, a bandstand, conservatory and art gallery combined to create and give material form to Victorian and Edwardian concepts of identity, class and ‘respectability’ as interpreted and reflected by Johannesburg’s town fathers. By the 1900s the Park was an integral part of the civic and cultural life of a class- and racially divided city, in many ways an exemplar of a British park.

The Transvaal Government, overseeing the spatial development of Johannesburg, was determined that the grid-line plan should be implemented in the layout of the town. Thus the vision of Johannesburg’s first land surveyor, Josias E de Villiers, to plan large property blocks and generous open spaces, was foiled. In terms of open spaces, the result was that Johannesburg was left with only a large market square (Neame undated:102), two more squares and a cemetery (Shorten 1970:645-46). So by May 1887 there were only a modest number of public spaces scattered throughout the town.1

However, when the rest of the farm Randjieslaagte was surveyed, an open area remained – far from the centre of the town. In 1888, the Diggers’ Committee was successful in persuading the ZAR government to set aside two portions of this land to be developed as parks – Kruger Park2 and Joubert Park. Prior to the development of Joubert Park, the site was well frequented for picnics along the spruit, which bisected the park.

By the second half of the nineteenth century, civic leadership and park promoters in Britain regarded parks as something essential for the wellbeing of an urban community.

They could become places of betterment for the ‘lower levels’ of society and symbols of civic pride, providing open spaces to enjoy their leisure time.

Whilst these functions were supported, to establish a park needed the financial backing from civil society. Fortunately the height of the parks movement in Britain coincided with a fashion for generous philanthropic gestures. The gift of a park from a wealthy citizen became common. The enthusiastic Mining Commissioner, Jan Eloff, was a fine example of where the gift of philanthropic entrepreneurs blended with an eye for profits from rising land values.

Shortly after the proclamation of the diggings, he almost immediately decided that the inhabitants of the fast growing mine camp should enjoy a “public park or garden to be planted with trees” (Bruwer 2006:102). For this purpose, and while frankly admitting ulterior motives, namely that he intended to build his house on adjoining ground, he recommended to the ZAR government a site for a park to the north of the present railway lines. Joubert Park was thus laid out as an upmarket recreation area.3 The Minister of Mines, CJ Joubert, supported the proposal. On 15 November 1887, the ZAR government granted Johannesburg

Postcard views of Joubert Park’s eye-catching features such as the manicured gardens, promenades, bandstand, kiosk pavilion, conservatory and decorative fountains. All images courtesy MuseumAfrica.

sixteen acres (6,5 hectares) of marshy ground (Shorten 1970:647 and Van Rensburg c1987:177).4 However, not much happened with the grounds for the next four years.

Despite this grant and the growth of Johannesburg beyond its mining camp origins, the ZAR government was still unwilling to give it a sense of permanence. Consequently, it did not invest in the educational and cultural needs of Johannesburg’s inhabitants. There were no state-funded museums, theatres, concert halls, libraries or a town hall. All of this sent out a clear statement that the centre of Transvaal authority and culture was in Pretoria. This void was filled by wealthy and influential private citizens, i.e. those who controlled the mines who would invest in and shape the white culture of Johannesburg society.

After the South African War (1899-1902), Lord Alfred Milner, High Commissioner for the Transvaal and Free State, decided to make his headquarters in Johannesburg instead of Pretoria. This changed the political and cultural fabric of local government in Johannesburg and had a major impact on the further development of Joubert Park.

Johannesburg now had a sympathetic and powerful administration investing in its prosperity. This was reflected in the wish to change the negative image of a lack of culture and education in Johannesburg. The further development of Joubert Park, in the interim between the South African War and the establishment of the Union of South Africa (1910), was thus an important kingpin in Milner’s Imperial project.

TOP ROW: Three panoramic views illustrating how the city and Joubert Park rapidly developed in its early years. BOTTOM LEFT: A view of Joubert Park towards the old kiosk, c 1930s. BOTTOM RIGHT: Plan of Joubert Park as it was between 1899 and 1903 drawn from memory and not necessarily to scale, 1957. Name of author illegible. Images courtesy MuseumAfrica.

From early on then, Joubert Park, by the very nature of its position, formed an essential part of this pattern (Beavon 2004:79) and a central pillar of the ‘Imperial project’. The Park henceforth reflected the values and culture of middle and upper class Johannesburgers, through for example, the appreciation of nature, music and the arts in a park environment.

Design and layout

The designs of nineteenth century English parks were strongly influenced by either scientific or educational needs (Clark 2006:38). The parks often focused on monumental architectural and eye-catching features, usually a bandstand, pavilion and fountains. There would be some form of horticultural display, be it a patch of bedding, a rose garden, or an ‘old English garden’ planted with hardy herbaceous perennials and flowering shrubs (Jordan 1994:90-91). The aim with the layout was to design a place for relaxation and a varied landscape, whilst accommodating demands for sufficient amenities for visitors. In this way public parks generated an idealised, chaste, simple, nostalgic, and conservative vision of the natural world – a moral counterpoint to the perceived dangers, dirt and disorder of city life. Rosenzweig and Blackmar (1992:107–108) aptly wrote:

These landscapes conformed to middle and upper class notions of what was visually pleasing: the contemplation of beauty and tranquility harmoniously expressed by the hand of God in nature would, it was hoped, inspire spiritual and moral improvement.5

Such a designed landscape was a form of civic display, demonstrating the ability of the political establishment to make the world an ordered place in spatial terms (Brück 2013:203).

A most striking feature of English parks was that they were regarded as being something rather precious. As a result, they were separated from their environment by fences, hedges or avenues of trees. Access was gained by only a few gates. According to Van der Waal (1987:83), “In the midst of the untended streets, small houses, the dirt from the mines … the parks were conceived as units with a specific form ... Circles, crucifers and meanders abounded in the walkways of the parks …”.

Features

In October 1892 Joubert Park was ploughed and the next year shelter beds for trees were put in and lawns were laid out. The basic design and layout of Joubert Park mirrored the philosophy of British garden design in accordance with the most basic ‘natural’ geometric patterns.

More specifically, the layout of Joubert Park contained “a mixture of grand scale and intimate elements, related to major, minor and converging axes” (Bruwer 2006:108). Most formal were the broad forecourt in the north, treated as a cour d’honneur, consisting of a geometrically curved wrought-iron screen. This formed the central gateway that opened into a deep-lined park with formal lawns, edged with profiled stone curbs. At the southern end a semi-circular long curved outdoor bench was placed, framed and lined with trees. The cour d’honneur terminated in a wrought-iron screen with two small square gate lodges fronting Noord Street (Bruwer 2006:108).

The British garden design was confirmed by the predominant role played by water. In 1895 a large, centrally placed cast iron ornamental fountain (a MacFarlane product) (Van der Waal 1987:83) with a pond was erected, whilst a rockery was given its final shape (Shorten 1970:647; Buff undated:4; Bruwer 2006:105).6 The water feature was redesigned and remodelled with natural boulders from the local kopjes. Six islets (with goldfish) were planted with bamboo, the centre island with native caladiums, and the miniature lake a selection of water lilies, whilst the outside was planted with forget-me-nots.7 The natural and soothing elements of plants and water could therefore be enjoyed. Due to the richness of the soil shrubs and flowers were well settled within two years.

The layout of and features in the park were intentional. Movement and behaviour of visitors was carefully controlled by the creation of paths, terraces and steps, as well as by the placement of features to which visitors might be drawn or had to circumvent, such as the bandstand, fountains or rockeries.

Joubert Park’s overtly designed landscapes acted as a form of civic display demonstrating the ability of the political and business establishment to make the world an ordered and predictable place, both in spatial and social terms. Even the more ‘functional’ park furniture, such as drinking fountains, lamp standards, seats and benches were highly decorative and visually striking objects. These features symbolised upper class values (Malchow 1985:122-123). Moreover, they created an almost theatrical setting in which presentations of sociability could be performed (Brück 2013: 196-197) and models of good behaviour and citizenship observed and imitated. Nurse Adelaide was clearly very pleased when she wrote with obvious pride and delight:

The park really looks a marvel of beauty now, the flowers and shrubs are smelling so sweetly and the chairs are in plenty. Nothing more is needed … Johannesburg is very blessed with wealth and the good things of life, so we feel we are not asking too much of it – only a place to sit and rest in of an evening after a day’s hard work in offices, workrooms and shops … where we could breathe the fresh pure air of heaven.8

The foremost activity for which parks were designed was, of course, for leisurely walking, an eminently ‘respectable’ activity. As a result the promenade became a key feature of the park layout. Here decorum could be displayed in dress, behaviour and knowledge of proper etiquette, which signified wealth, taste, and refinement (Scobey 1992:203-227; Brück 2013:209) – in short, middle class respectability.

Joubert Park became a pleasure to many of Johannesburg’s white citizens. “A friend of a Garden” was convinced that “in time it will be equal to any other park in South Africa … giving the impression of a proper country park”, 9 albeit in the city. In an article in The Leader (1913) the author praised Joubert Park for having “a stillness which appeals to those glad to get away for a short spell from the bustle of the town”.10 The park was even described as a “pleasure resort”.11

Joubert Park thus provided an escape from the crowded city life for some of its citizens. The design and layout accommodated all the signifiers of respectability: a promenade, well-lit park, with a conservatory, art gallery, organised entertainment, clean seats and flowerbeds. This wellordered space encouraged the presence of neat, ‘wellbehaved’ men, women and children and contrasted sharply with the urban environment of the lower classes not too far removed (Beavon 2004:62-63).12 One can imagine an elite evening in Joubert Park when reading Sidney S Graumann’s (1930) letter to the editor of The Star: “Of the many thousand people attending each evening concert large numbers enjoy promenading during the performance.”13

This idyllic world was interrupted by the South African War. The Park was in a terrible state. The water was silted up and the borders and walks were overgrown. Nevertheless, restoration to its former splendour started shortly afterwards. There was no shortage of seeds and plants, as many donations were received from all over the country. This included hundreds of roses from Natal and even from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew (Van Rensburg c1986:177).

Mostly, however, indigenous plants, giving it a natural flavour (Buff undated:4), thousands of shrubs and even fruit trees,14 all with labels, were planted. The swift restoration is a clear signifier of how important Joubert Park was considered for the city.

Restored to its original splendour by 1904, “Parkite” expressed what must have been the general satisfaction of the Johannesburgers with the design of the Park:

“Now, as originally designed, we have precisely what the hot and dusty Johannesburg needs, viz., the beauty of a flower garden on the one hand and the freedom of a shady park on the other, a combination which … shows the sound judgement and perfect climate knowledge of the original designers …”.15

Cultural structures

Middle class refinement at the turn of the century included admiration for music, nature, art, a library, a museum and facilities for horticultural displays. Citizenship and respectability were, after all, intimately entwined with cultural beliefs (Hoskins 2003:8). In many ways Joubert Park reflected these requirements. It was meant to be more than a “beautiful garden” (Cremin 1999:332).16 The Park shared – in an integrated way – its landscape with the bandstand, conservatory, and the Art Gallery, and even included plans for a memorial site and an amphitheatre. The city fathers believed that these structures would become the showcase for the city, more or less similar to what the Smithsonian Institute is for Washington DC, as the USA’s capital.

Joubert Park became a significant cultural and recreational up-market space (Van der Waal 1987:83). Within an area of 700 x 400 m all (mostly white) middle class needs were met. It could boast a park (with all the middle class accoutrements), sporting grounds in Kruger Park, a library, a hospital and a railway station. It even accommodated the official residence of the mining commissioner, Jan Eloff on the corner of Bok and Wanderers Streets (Van der Waal 1987:29).

Despite the fact that there was no proper bandstand at first, Joubert Park nevertheless became a popular site for weekly band performances since 1898 (Shorten 1970: 648).17 However, by 1905, the City Council budgeted to erect a bandstand, which almost inevitably followed similar British designs,18 and accommodated 50 players (Buff undated:3).

It became practice to have band performances on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons (Buff undated:12,14).19 Although concerts also took place in Hermann-Eckstein Park, Joubert Park was still recognised as the ‘in-town’ resort on Sunday afternoons.20 These park concerts were extremely popular with up to 4 000 people attending per Sunday by 1923.21 Electric lights were installed in 1914, which expanded the popularity of the Sunday evening concerts, which, in addition to the afternoon band performances, were now possible.22 As a city space, Joubert Park thus turned out to be a visual and aural delight.

The building of a conservatory in the Park was another important symbol of middle class respectability. Already in 1898 the City Council had purchased the south-west region of the Park from the nearby Wanderers sports club. However, it was only at the end of 1905 that the City Council asked for tenders for a conservatory.23 The conservatory was built during 1906 24 and opened on 30 January 1907.25

Inside the large glass hothouse were particularly fine collections of indigenous plants and flowers (Van der Waal 1987:83; Norwich 1986:75). The following description (Bruwer 2006:106) tells the story of a splendid place:

Former dry bare patches are now respondent with green and variegated flowers, and the tall white pampas grass crown the view with a halo … There can

be no pleasanter spot in which to stroll after the heat of the day … The new greenhouse is the largest in the country … it is fringed all around by rockery …

The aim of the new conservatory was to be instructive and educational, apropos current philanthropic thinking. Hence enamel labels were attached to all the diverse varieties of plants, bearing their botanical and common names, and detailing the various countries to which the varieties belong.26

Joubert Park provided the setting for another essential requirement to achieve British notions of ‘respectability’ – that being an art gallery. The founding of the Johannesburg Art Gallery can be linked to the ambitions of the Milner government to assert the superiority of British culture, to consolidate the cultural infrastructure of an emerging civil society and to demonstrate the commitment of the typical British tradition of philanthropy (Carman 2006:55). A cultural institution like an art gallery fitted in with the view that “the ‘haves’, the mining elite, must be seen to be offering something to the ‘have-nots’” (Carman 2006:56).

The driving force behind this project was Florence Phillips, wife of the mining magnate Sir Lionel Phillips. Both were leading cultural figures in Johannesburg’s upper circles and were determined “to create an urban environment in which their social and cultural comforts could be accommodated, to provide ‘the amenities of life in Europe, which are almost entirely missing here’” (Carman 2006:55).

Lady Florence persuaded the mining magnates to financially support the proposed establishment of an art gallery.27 On 11 October 1911 the Mayor of Johannesburg, HJ Hofmeyer, laid the foundation stone. Four years later the classically styled, stone-built gallery, designed by the distinguished British architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, despite being incomplete, opened its doors to the public (Clarke 1981:52).28

The selected site – the southern border of the park – was an unfortunate choice, however, as the Gallery faced onto the railway line. Not only were the soot and noise generated by the trains extremely unpleasant, but the Gallery also faced away from the Park, disassociating itself, as it were, from visitors to the Park (Van Der Waal 1987:115).29

In 1906, members of the English-speaking community suggested that another trapping of Empire – a memorial honouring British soldiers only, who fell during the South African War, should be erected in the Park.30 This was in line with similar actions taking place in Britain.31 Subsequently, in 1906, the north-west corner of Joubert Park was recommended as a site for the proposed ‘Rand Regiment Memorial’. However, it was turned down.32 The upshot was that the memorial was not built in Joubert Park.33 Chipkin (1993:41) aptly described it as “a typically deadpan Johannesburg response to attempts to achieve civic grandeur”.

A further attempt to add to Joubert Park’s list of essential buildings proceeded afoot late in 1927 and 1928 with an elaborate proposal to build an amphitheatre, as there were “only a few facilities for the music loving public”.34 Once this was in place, it was imagined that “open-air opera performances and concerts, amid surroundings similar to those in the great cities of Europe and America”35 would become possible. Clearly it was assumed that an amphitheatre in Joubert Park could place Johannesburg on a par with

LEFT: Clearing the ground for the Art Gallery, c 1910. RIGHT: Laying of JAG’s foundation stone by then Mayor of Johannesburg, HJ Hofmeyr. Images from the JAG archive.

world cities. The suggestion was, however, stillborn and this project too was eventually turned down.36

Although these two attempts did not come to fruition, they are a keen indication of the City’s drive to further add to Joubert Park’s status as Johannesburg’s premier park and, given the upbeat prosperity of the time, even comparing itself with world-renowned cities.

Other striking features of Joubert Park were its expensive, highly decorative, eye-catching and elaborate railings, iron fences, and ornamental cast-iron gate – the latter being the Park’s only point of entrance, which ensured that the Park was thus insulated from the city environment.37 Physically and mentally they enforced the transition from the busy streets to a space of calm and order.

The use of iron was significant as it represented the very heart of Western ideals of progress (Cossons & Trinder 1979). Iron symbolised Britain’s industrial might and its use in municipal parks was another way of legitimating an industrialised empire (Brück 2013:206).

Moreover, the entranceways functioned as symbols of civic authority and control. They provided ample restrictions, making the park inaccessible at particular times, thus guaranteeing the exclusion of all ‘improper characters’ and reminded those who entered that they should behave appropriately and respectably. Given the demography of Johannesburg, the city was divided along racial and class lines. This specifically played out in the occupancy of spaces, defined by whites as ‘their’ spaces. Thus, concerns over access and the consequent control over the behaviour of the ‘lower classes’ and other races manifested in Joubert Park’s enclosures. Consequently, the original purpose of

the founders of Joubert Park, that the park should be for the entire community, was effectively annulled.

Popularity

Until the 1930s, Joubert Park continued to be Johannesburg’s main park38 and a very popular venue for the city’s white inhabitants (Bruwer 2006:105). By 1907 the conservatory, together with the band performances, regularly attracted thousands of visitors (Buff undated:6,10). On hot summer evenings it was often difficult to find an unoccupied bench.39

One citizen, praising the advantages of Johannesburg’s weather, called for the opening of Joubert Park at night as well. On Sunday nights they could go to the Wanderer’s Club but “on ordinary evenings there is nothing but the

TOP ROW: Joubert Park greenhouse and views of the pond, c 1950. BOTTOM LEFT TO RIGHT: Women pushing their bikes through the Park, 1920s. Park and other leisure activities, c 1920s. Images courtesy MuseumAfrica.

theatres and music halls, and an occasional concert or lecture, neither of which are properly appreciated”. The writer stated that he did not want to go to the theatre every night and that entertainment “is expensive in these days when one counts every sovereign”.40 His suggestion was supported with enthusiasm by various (other white) correspondents. “Long felt want” reminiscing about and comparing to Britian wrote: “In the great cities at Home the parks are not closed at dusk , and why should they be here?” The correspondent pointed out that in a large town in the “Old Country” a band, paid for by the municipality, played during the summer months from 7.30pm to 10pm and “thousands avail themselves of the privilege”.41

It was not only the summer weather that enticed people to visit the Park in the evenings. In 1938 there was a request to extend the closing hours of “the paradise” during the winter months to 8pm, as it was “a rendezvous continually patronised by large numbers after the evening meal, where one can roam without fear … after the toll of the day.42 In its first 30 years Joubert Park succeeded in providing white citizens with plenty opportunities for outdoor recreation (Maud 1938:150).43

Conclusion

Joubert Park served as a distinctive civic and cultural space and a specific marker in the fast changing city landscape. As a physical symbol it reflected the confidence and political and financial power of the city’s (white) elite, keen to display their cultural power. In addition, it echoed the social and cultural values and tastes of the British middle class as manifest in its features, design and amenities. Moreover, the history of Joubert Park provides insight into how the city viewed itself and how it wanted to represent itself to outsiders. In this way the Park provides an effective cultural mirror of some of the city’s citizens of that time.

Furthermore, through their economic and political power, the elite of Johannesburg – especially the anglophile Randlords – Joubert Park became a symbol of British power, civilisation and prestige. It demonstrated clearly – in a powerful visual way – that Johannesburg was part of the British Empire.

Endnotes

1 Whilst space was set aside for squares in the town centre, land was made available for parks in the suburbs after 1890. Squares, it was decided, belonged in the business district and parks in the suburbs, where they would be used for recreation (Van der Waal 1987: 82). The Transvaal government in 1903 made some amends for the omission by presenting, as a free gift, the large open space which was subsequently named Milner Park.

2 The former was a piece of vacant land specifically donated by the government as a public park to the residents of Johannesburg in 1888 (Van der Waal 1987:31; Leyds 1974:146). However, it never really materialised due to the railway station that was established and developed on a part of the site. The remaining extent of Kruger Park, however, was developed as a sports ground and became the first site for the Wanderers Club (Buff undated:2) and Beavon (2004:50).

3 A similar example was the Union Ground, granted to the Town Council by the Chief Government Land Surveyor, Johan Rissik, on condition that it: “should remain dedicated for the purpose of … the recreation and amusement of the inhabitants of the municipality of Johannesburg and shall at all times be held available for the use of any volunteer corps for drill, parade or any such other military uses or purposes as the Commandant of Volunteers for the time being may sanction” (Neame undated:103). Leyds added that it

was also to be used as a playground for children (1974:146). Other areas that were set aside for recreation were End Park and Union Grounds. Soccer and cricket games were played on these grounds (Bruwer 2006:106).

4 In 1906, Joubert Park expanded with 8 morgen, 253 sq roods, 18 sq ft when the Government donated Joubert Park to the Johannesburg Municipality in terms of Crown Grant No. 268/1906. Municipal Offices, (hereafter MO), Johannesburg, Law Library (hereafter JLL), Minutes of Town Council (hereafter Minutes), 22 February 1904, 192 and MO, JLL, Minutes of a Special Meeting, 9 July, 1906, 785). Also see Bruwer (2006: 107). From a site plan showing the proposed original layout and extent of the Park, the synergetic relationship between the historic development of both the Wanderers Club and Joubert Park on the one hand, and the railway authorities’ ever-increasing demand for additional land on the other hand, is obvious. The Park was not extended to the south bordering the railway line (Bruwer 2006:102). This is another example of how Johannesburg had to forfeit an open space for commercial activities.

5 Also see Schuyler (1986:65–66); Taylor (1995:201221); Tarlow (2000:224) and Brück (2013:201-202). See discussion below on the plants and the fountain.

6 When one takes into account that it is only in the last few years that the major part of that fountain had to be abandoned it does seem that these extensive repairs were effective and the original fountain was indeed well constructed. MO, Minutes, 9 May 1906: 473.

7 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, Report, Leader, 21 August 1906. The City Council even issued tender applications for the erection of a windmill and water storage tanks in 1903 (Buff undated:2).

8 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, “Nurse Adelaide” to Editor, The Star, 31 December 1906. Joubert Park was still a splendid place fulfilling its

function [for a limited citizenship] in the 1930s. An article in the Rand Daily Mail described it thus: “Trim lawns, carpet beds, choice taste in flower colour schemes, tall and shade offering trees, tropical growths and wide, clean paths make the Park a haven in a city of money-makers” (Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 452, Article, Rand Daily Mail, 18 January 1930). Also see Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, “Rand Pioneer” to Editor, The Star, 23 January 1932; Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 294, “RG” to Editor, The Star, 22 April 1933 and Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 294, “Flower Lover” to Editor, The Star, 25 September 1934.

9 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, “A friend of a Garden” to Editor, Leader, 5 November 1903. Also see Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, “Horticulturist” to Editor, Rand Daily Mail, 29 August 1906.

10 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, Report, Leader, 21/8/1906. SET 12. Also see Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, “Arboriculturalist” to the Editor, Rand Daily Mail, 29 August 1906 and Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, Report, Leader, 21/8/1906.

11 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, No name to the Editor, Leader, 10/10/1906.

12 Whilst Johannesburg’s elite settled in Parktown and Parktown Ridge between 1891 and 1895, the marginalised barely made a living in the north-west corner of the city.

13 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 404, Sidney S Graumann to the editor, The Star, 6 March 1930. Also see Hoskins (2003:17).

14 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, article Leader, 17 July 1902.

15 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, “Parkite” to Editor, Leader, 21 December 1904.

16 Cremin described the multiple use of Grant Park.

17 Sunday afternoon promenade concerts were also given at the Wanderers Club.

18 Buff (undated:3) and MO, JLL, Minutes, 9 May 1906: 474.

19 Band performances were by 1909 also given in Joubert Park, Jeppe Park, Rotunda Park, Market Square, Fordsburg Market Square, Milner Park, Belgravia Park, Vrededorp Government Ground and the swimming baths.

20 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, article Leader, 8 January 1907.

21 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 429, CH Brooks to the Editor, The Star, 9 October, 1923. In 1922 the City Council spent £500 on performances in Joubert Park. This was only a loan from the Finance Committee as these concerts always paid for themselves (Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 429, Article, Rand Daily Mail, 29 September, 1922).

22 MO, JLL, Minutes, 9 May, 1906, 474; MO, JLL, Minutes, 10 March 1914; MO, JLL, Minutes, 24 September 1914: 515; MO, JLL, Minutes, 24 November 1914: 590 and MO, JLL, Minutes, 30 March 1915: 150 and 151. The average revenue for each concert was £40 while the average expenditure £45. A charge of 3 pence per seat being made for visitors to the Park. (Buff undated:16, 20) and MO, JLL, Minutes, 20 September 1921: 619).

23 MO, JLL, Minutes, 22 November 1905: 1298.

24 MO, JLL, Minutes, 28 February 1906: 228; MO, JLL, Minutes, 2 August 1906: 868 and MO, JLL, Minutes, 24 October 1906: 1099.

25 MO, JLL, Minutes, 30 January 1907: 15.

26 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 447, “Ratepayer” to Editor, The Star, 26 November 1918.

27 MO, JLL, Minutes, 3 August 1910: 1376.

28 The Gallery was not expanded until 1986.

29 Andrew Hopkins and Gavin Stamp, however, have shown that Lutyens intended to cover the railway line to link up the twenty acre Joubert Park with Union

Ground so that a formal garden could be laid out around the Gallery (Bruwer 2006:107).

30 Research on the history and meaning of monuments and memorials in the British Empire is vast. See for example, Moriaty (1997:125-142), Sokołowska-Paryz (2012) and Lambert (2014: 677-698). In 2002, the Rand Regiments Memorial was rededicated, recognising the men, women and children of all races and nations that lost their lives in the South African War.

31 MO, JLL, Minutes, 17 January 1906: 62-63, 75-76.

32 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, Report, Rand Daily Mail, 1 February 1906 and Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, Report, Leader, 13 January 1906.

33 The memorial, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, was eventually erected in Hermann Eckstein Park. A commemorative stone was laid by the Duke of Connaught on 30 November 1910.

34 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 320, Article, The Star, 18 November 1927 and Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 320, Article, RandDailyMail, 19 November 1927. This was, of course, not true. By that time there were numerous concert venues.

35 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 320, Article, The Star, 18 November 1927.

36 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 320, Article, Rand Daily Mail, 19 May 1928 and Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 320, Article, Rand Daily Mail, 11 October 1928. £50 was earlier voted for the preparation of working drawings and estimates of the total cost drawn up. These amounted to £7 500.

37 Bruwer (2006:107) and MO, JLL, Minutes, 17 January 1906: 20-22.

38 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, “Observer” to the Editor, Leader, 27 December 1904.

39 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 302, PA Bankes to Editor, Rand Daily Mail, 11 October 1928.

40 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, No name to Editor, Leader, 10 October 1906. “EXE WYE” concurred: “Johannesburg is badly in need of places of entertainment and recreation other than the theatres in the evenings ... and there is the matter of expense, which, except in the case of those favourably circumstanced, effectually debars frequent visits ... the theatre as a means of entertainment enters into the lives of but few of our townspeople, the majority either do not care for it or cannot spare the money...” Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, “EXE WYE” to Editor, Leader, 15 October 1906.

41 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 502, “LONG FELT WANT” to Editor, Leader, 11 October 1906.

42 Wits, WCL, HP, AF 1913, JPLPC, File 452, “Op maak AUB” to Editor, The Star, 29 April 1938.

Sources

Beavon, K. 2004. Johannesburg: The Making and Shaping of the City Pretoria: Unisa Press.

Bluestone, DM. 1987. From Promenade to Park: The Gregarious Origins of Brooklyn’s Park Movement, American Quarterly 39 (4, July): 529-550.

Brill, M. 2001. Mistaking Community Life for Public Life, Places 14 (2): 48-55.

Brück, J. 2013. Landscapes of Desire: Parks, Colonialism, and Identity in Victorian and Edwardian Ireland, International Journal of HistoricalArchaeology 17(1, March): 196-223.

Bruwer, J. 2006. Report on the Historical Layered Development of the Johannesburg Park Station Complex and Joubert Park Precinct for Osmond LangeArchitects and Planners. Unpublished: 98-121.

Buff, A. Undated. Cityparks. Unpublished manuscript.

Carman, J. 2006. UpliftingtheColonialPhilistine.FlorencePhillipsandthe MakingoftheJohannesburgArtGallery. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. Chipkin, CM. 1993.JohannesburgStyle:Architecture&Society,1880’s-1960’s. Cape Town: David Phillip Publishers.

Clark, P. 2006. The European City and Green Space:London,Stockholm, Helsinki, and St Petersburg, 1850-2000. London: Ashgate Publishing.

Clarke, J (ed). 1981. Braamfontein Spruit Trail. Johannesburg: COCCOS Publisher.

Conway, H. 1991. People’s Parks:The Design and Development ofVictorian Parks in Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cossons, N and Trinde, B. 1979. The Iron Bridge: Symbol of the Industrial Revolution. Bradford-on-Avon: Phillimore.

Cranz, G. 1982. PoliticsofParkDesign:AHistoryofUrbanParksinAmerica. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Cremin, DH. 1999. Building Chicago’s Front Yard: Grant Park 1836 to 1936. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Loyola University.

Gaskell, SM. 1980. Gardens for the Working Class: Victorian Practical Pleasure, Victorian Studies 23(4 (July): 479-501.

Hoskins, I. 2003. ‘The Core of the City’: Public Parks, Respectability and Civic Regulation in Sydney, National Identities 5(1): 7-24.

Jordan, H. 1994. Public Parks, 1885-1914, Garden History 22(1 March): 85-113.

Lambert, J. 2006. ‘The thinking is done in London’: South Africa’s English Language Press and Imperialism, in Kaul, C (ed). Media and the British Empire. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lambert, J. 2009. Maintaining a British Way of Life: English-speaking South Africa’s Patriotic, Cultural and Charitable Associations, Historia 54(2): 55-76.

Lambert, J. 2012. ‘Tell England, Ye Who Pass this Monument’: Englishspeaking South Africans, Memory and War Remembrance until the Eve of the Second World War, South African Historical Journal, 66(4): 677-698.

Leyds, GA. 1964. A History of Johannesburg:The EarlyYears. Cape Town: Nasionale Boekhandel.

Malchow, HL. 1985. Public Gardens and Social Action in Late Victorian London, Victorian Studies 29(1 October): 97-124.

Moriaty, C. 1997. Private Grief and Public Remembrance: British First World War Memorials, War and Memory in theTwentieth Century, 9(1): 125-142.

Maud, PR. 1983. City Government,The Johannesburg Experiment. Oxford: Clarendon.

Marais, IE. 2013. Public Space/Public Sphere:An Ethnography of Joubert Park,Johannesburg. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Johannesburg.

Neame, LE. (Undated). City Built on Gold. (No place of publication and no publisher).

No author. 1986. Johannesburg 100 Jaar. Melville: Chris van Rensburg Publikasies.

Norwich, OI. c1986. A JohannesburgAlbum:Historical Postcards. Craighall Park, Johannesburg: AD Donker Publisher.

O’Reilly, C. 2009. Aristocratic Fortunes and CivicAspiration: Issues in the Passage ofAristocratic Land to Municipal Ownership in Later Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Manchester with Particular Reference to the Sale of Heaton Park. Unpublished PhD thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University.

O’Reilly, C. Undated. From‘the People’ to‘the Citizen’:The Emergence of the Edwardian Municipal Park in Manchester 1902-1912. Unpublished paper.

Orum, AM and Neal, ZP (eds). 2010. Common Ground? Readings and Reflections on Public Space. New York: Routledge.

Rosenzweig, R. & Blackmar, E. 1992. The Park and the People:A History of Central Park. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Schuyler, D. 1986. TheNewUrbanLandscape:TheRedefinitionofCityForm in Nineteenth-CenturyAmerica. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Scobey, D. 1992. Anatomy of the Promenade: The Politics of Bourgeois Sociability in Nineteenth-Century New York, Social History 17(2): 203-227.

Shorten, JR. 1970. Die Verhaal van Johannesburg. Johannesburg, Voortrekker Uitgewers Beperk.

Sokołowska-Paryz, M. 2012. ReimaginingtheWarMemorial,Reinterpreting the Great War:The Formats of British Commemorative Fiction. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Tarlow, S. 2000. Landscapes of Memory: The Nineteenth-Century Garden Cemetery, European Journal ofArchaeology, 3(2): 217-239.

Taylor, HA. 1995. Urban Public Parks, 1840-1900: Design and Meaning, Garden History 23(2 December): 201-221.

Van der Waal, G-M. 1987. From Mining Camp to Metropolis:The Building of Johannesburg,1886-1940. Johannesburg: Chris van Rensburg Publications.

Van Onselen, C. 2001. New Babylon,New Nineveh:Everyday Life on the Witwatersrand, 1886-1914. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers.

Louis Grundlingh

Louis Grundlingh is a Professor in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Johannesburg. He currently specialises in and teaches leisure and urban history focusing on Johannesburg.

OVERVIEW OF JAG'S HISTORY

1886 Johannesburg is founded.

1887

Joubert Park, the oldest park in Johannesburg planned; it is proclaimed in 1906.

1904

Florence Phillips (born 1863, Dorothea Sarah Florence Alexandra Ortlepp) rallies her husband, Lionel Phillips, and other mining magnates, to give art to Johannesburg.

1909

Florence Phillips meets Hugh Lane and asks him to assemble JAG’S art collection.

Hugh Lane is the first overseas curator of the collection.

Florence Phillips buys the first 3 paintings for JAG from Goupil Galleries in London: Phillip Wilson Steer’s Corfe Castle, Lime-kiln and A Chelsea Window.

1910

Johannesburg Randlords donate money for the purchases of artworks for JAG – they include Lionel Phillips, Max Michaelis, Julius Wernher and others, and especially Otto Beit, Hermann Eckstein, Sigismund Neumann, Abe Bailey.

Johannesburg Town Council vote to allocate money for the building of JAG.

The nucleus of the JAG Collection exhibited for the first time in London, May-June with the Whitechapel Art Gallery’s TwentyYears of BritishArt (1809-1910) and in July, Country in Town.

October: Hugh Lane and A Edmund Gyngell start to unpack and install the collection of approximately 127 to 130 works.

A Edmund Gyngell appointed as the first part-time curator of JAG.

29 November: Opening of the collection in temporary premises in the SA School of Mines and Technology, Eloff Street – forerunner of the University of the Witwatersrand. Opened by the Duke of Connaught.

JAG was founded as TheMunicipalGalleryofModern Art.

First South African sculpture in the collection acquired: President Kruger in Europe by Anton van Wouw.

The nucleus of the lace, textiles and fans collections donated by Florence Phillips.

1911

Sir Edwin Lutyens appointed as architect of JAG and Robert Howden as local collaborating, supervising architect.

October 11: JAG’s foundation stone laid in Joubert Park.

Sir Hugh Lane resigns as London-based director and Robert Ross succeeds him until 1917.

1912

Sir Sigismund Neumann donates Pre-Raphaelite art and furniture to JAG, which is stored at the Tate Gallery, London.

Sir Lionel Phillips receives the accolade of baronetcy.

Ralph Rowland is London-based director, until May 1913.

1913

Official Deed of Donatio of the collection accepted by the Johannesburg Town Council.

Building of JAG begins under supervision of South African architect, Robert Howden.

JAG referred to as MunicipalArt Gallery and described as an Art Gallery and Museum of IndustrialArt.

1915

7 May: Sir Hugh Lane dies with others on board the RMS Lusitania on the when this passenger liner is torpedoed.

October: JAG opens its doors to the public without a ceremony. The building is incomplete.

1916

Robert Gwelo Goodman’s Konakontes, South West Africa is the first South African painting to be acquired by the collection, presented by Sir Lionel Phillips.

1918

Arrival in August of first books, donated by Max Michaelis to JAG, but housed at the Michaelis Art Library in the Johannesburg Public Library, now known as the Michaelis Art Collection in the Johannesburg City Library.

Robert Ross, JAG’s London-based curator, dies.

1924

Some Reminiscences by Lionel Phillips published.

1928

A Edmund Gyngell retires.

Austin Winter Moore appointed as part-time temporary curator of JAG.

1929

Austin Winter Moore resigns.

AA Eisenhofer appointed curator of JAG.

1931

Bronze plaque unveiled in honour of Lady Phillips at the south entrance.

1934

Print cabinet established with Howard Pim’s bequest of 551 prints.

1936

Johannesburg Golden Jubilee celebrated and JAG façade floodlit for the occasion.

Sir Lionel Phillips dies 2 July at Vergelegen.

Empire Exhibition from 15 September-16 January 1937 at Milner Park (this was formerly the Rand Easter Show grounds, and now part of Wits University).

1937

A A Eisenhofer resigns.

Anton Hendriks appointed as first full-time, professional, Johannesburg-based curator to JAG (his title later changed to director), and works without other professional staff for most of the next ten years.

Allocation of the first acquisitions budget.

56 434 visitors for 1937-1938.

1938

Building of the two side pavilions under the supervising architect Robert Howden.

The Ukiyo-e collection started as the first twelve prints bought.

South African artists’ works acquired.

1939

Beginning of World War II.

1940

The two side pavilions completed in partial fulfilment of Lutyens’ original plan.

Lady Phillips dies 23 August at Vergelegen.

Gerard Sekoto’s YellowHouses:AStreetinSophiatown is bought by Anton Hendriks – the first work by a black artist to enter the JAG collection.

1945

End of World War II.

1946

The Johannesburg Council agrees that the director should buy works overseas every 3 to 4 years.

1947

17th century Dutch collection begins, with donation of 17 paintings by Eduard Houthakker over the next few years.

Budget from City for buying of art is £5 000 per year.

The South African Room is opened.

1948

£5 000 is the budget for Anton Hendriks to buy art overseas.

JAG now called by its current name, Johannesburg Art Gallery.

1951

Eve Fairfax presents to JAG the letters written to her by Rodin between 1902-1909.

Mrs Eleanor Lorimer assists Anton Hendriks.

1952

The first professional assistant, Eleanor Lorimer, is permanently appointed.

The Red Ledger, the first documentation of the collection ever, apart from the 1910 catalogue, is initiated by Lorimer.

Anton Hendriks travels to Europe to buy works of art to the value of £10 000.

1953

Anton Hendriks acquires the Ming roof tiles.

The South African collection consists of 90 works.

1954

Significant collection of east Asian pieces, mainly Chinese, acquired.

The annual budget for buying of art is £10 000 per year.

1955

The Japanese prints collection is extended.

Anton Hendriks manages to buy StThomas by El Greco on a buying trip to Europe.

1956

Plans to build a new art gallery at the zoo, and for JAG to become a railway or mechanical museum.

1957

Nel Erasmus employed at JAG.

1958

66 461 visitors for the period 1957-1958.

1959

Joubert Park is the first park in South Africa to be illuminated for a week.

Johannesburg Council agrees in principle to build the new Gallery at the new proposed Civic Centre.

Anton Hendriks leaves for Europe with a budget of £20 000 to buy art.

Demonstration held at JAG to object to the Transvaal Academy comprising only two competition selectors, who, out of 300 works considered for selection, ultimately only choose 14 paintings and one sculpture.

1960

JAG goes up for sale for the bargain price of £100 000 and plans proceed to build a new Gallery at the zoo or in Parktown.

Proposals to transform JAG into a conservatoire, railway museum, bus terminus or eye research centre.

First open air exhibition of Edoardo Villa in Joubert Park. Ducktails with revolvers try to steal exhibits.

Artists Under the Sun, initiated by John Koenakeefe Mohl to showcase and sell the work of black artists not represented by JAG, begins to take place monthly in Joubert Park.

1961

Anton Hendriks sent on his last trip overseas to buy art for R20 000 before his retirement.

1962

Anton Hendriks postpones his retirement after 25 years at JAG, as a suitable candidate to take over his position is not yet identified.

A 27-acre park between Queens, Jubilee and Winifred Roads on Parktown Ridge is proposed as new site for JAG.

1963

Further proposals for Parktown Ridge site as relocation for JAG, as well as a site near the zoo.

Dr J van den Graaff of Utrecht is selected to be new director of JAG, but leaves after seeing the work involved and the salary!

Anton Hendriks asks to stay on as director of JAG.

39 912 visitors recorded for the 1963/1964 financial year.

The annual budget for the buying of art has increased to R30 000 per year and an acquisitions trip to Europe.

1964

Anton Hendriks retires as director of JAG after 27 years, but continues to assist as a consultant for the next 3 years.

Nel Erasmus appointed as Senior Professional Officer and as acting head of JAG.

Proposed Parktown Ridge site, over looking the zoo, is bought for R90 000 for the new Gallery.

Between 60 000-70 000 visitors recorded for the year.

1965

JAG still seeks a new director.

Council votes for a R30 000 budget for Gallery.

65 000-70 000 visitors recorded for the year.

University of Witwatersrand confers an honorary degree, Doctor of Philosophy, on Anton Hendriks.

The building makes no provision for toilets for visitors.

1966

Nel Erasmus is the first woman to be appointed as Curator in charge of JAG, after 5 years of looking for a director. Her title changes to Director at a later stage.

No Ordinary Woman:The Life and Times of Florence Phillips, written by Dr Thelma Gutsche is published by H Timmins. The book wins the CNA book prize. Through her research, important portraits by Mancini of Florence Phillips and her daughter Edith, are recovered in South African National Gallery’s basement and acquired by JAG.

New plans emerge to build the new Gallery on a park site off Empire Road, and not on the site bought for the Gallery.

Johannesburg 80th anniversary celebrations.

1967

Expropriation of three stands in Parktown as site for the new Gallery. Site adjoining Hillside and Empire Roads considered most favourable. Although new suggestions emerge to install the new Gallery at the Fort.

Gallery staff consists of Nel Erasmus and 20 workers. Annual acquisitions budget is R30 000.

First coloured postcards printed of some of JAG’s artworks.

1968

Permission given to build the new Gallery on the Parktown site on St Andrews/Hillside/Empire Road and Victoria Ave/Joubert Street extension (Pieter Roos Park).

Suggestion of JAG’s building becoming an Art Library for the city.

Exhibitions are constantly turned down because of lack of space.

Nel Erasmus and Mr Buchanan-Smith, architect, embark on a study tour to 11 countries and 33 museums for the planning of the new museum, until 1969.

The collection stands at 2 700 works of art.

70 000 visitors to the Gallery are recorded.

Twist Street entrances to Joubert Park are closed for a new bus way – no thoroughfare from King George to Twist Street. Entrance to Joubert Park is in Wolmarans or King George Street, and marked with an illuminated sign.

1969

SA Railways agrees to deck the sunken railway lines in front of JAG.

The planning of the new Gallery proceeds.

1970

Nel Erasmus goes on a buying trip overseas with R60 000 budget.

1971

JAG’s diamond jubilee, 1970-1971, is celebrated. The JAG Diamond Jubilee Fund is formed to raise funds, and so that the public may also contribute.

The mayor, Alf Widman, expresses his desire to see a Friends of the Art Gallery formed. Widman constitutes a Jubilee Celebrations Committee of 19 women, with Esmé Berman as head, to raise money for JAG, and to hold activities during its jubilee year. Later in the year, after Nel Erasmus lunches with Thelma Gutsche, this committee becomes the Friends of JAG.

Second artwork by a black artist acquired by JAG: Winston Saoli’s Two People Standing

Miss Fairfax turns 100 years on 10 October.

JAG is now open in the evenings from 19h00-21h00 every Wednesday, Sunday and public holiday, except for Good Friday.

1973

Nel Erasmus travels to Europe to buy art, and acquires Picasso’s Tête d’Arlequin for R28 000. The Friends of JAG contribute R18 000 and the Council R10 000.

This painting causes the biggest controversy of all works ever bought but JAG up to that point. See pg 170.

52 657 visitors to JAG recorded for the year.

1974

Annual acquisitions budget increased to R50 000.

JAG’s library at this time has a total of 5 000 volumes.

A documentary on JAG, directed by R Hancock, wins first prize at the Chicago Film Festival.

Suzanne Goldstein from Boston is the first appointed Professional Assistant: Educational Programming and Press Liaison.

84 035 visitors to JAG recorded for the year.

1975

Training begins for voluntary guides to JAG, to conduct tours for children.

Anton Hendriks dies in Paris at the age of 75.

Clement Greenberg, celebrated art critic, presents a series of art lectures at JAG.

Acquisitions budget is R50 000 per year.

Estimated cost to build the new Gallery is R10 million.

60th anniversary of JAG’s building is celebrated with an exhibition in the foyer of the Johannesburg Public Library.

71 506 visitors to JAG recorded for the year.

1976

Lorraine Deift and Bea Katz begin training as voluntary guides. Bea Katz retires in 2014. Lorraine Deift still guides with great enthusiasm (see pg 160). The voluntary guides extend their service to conduct tours for adults. Their regular monthly guided tours are a huge success.

7th May, a plaque commemorating Sir Hugh Lane on the 61st anniversary of his death is unveiled on the right side of the south entrance.

New exhibition space (previously a storeroom) for Contemporary South African art is opened, as an extension of the South African Collection. A new storeroom is built on the eastern wing.

Celebration of Johannesburg 90th birthday. Friends of JAG donate Jules Olitski’s Empress Love 5 (1975). An Art Christmas festival is also held at JAG to celebrate.

The budget for R50 000 to buy art is scrapped by the council.

Plans for the new art gallery are vetoed due to a shortage of funds.

76 161 visitors to JAG recorded for the year.

1977

Pat Senior appointed as the first Assistant Director at JAG.

An exhibition, Smuts,the Founder, 1910 is hosted at the Johannesburg City Library of General Smuts to commemorate his contribution to the founding of the JAG building and the site in Joubert Park.

Nel Erasmus retires as director of JAG after 21 years of service, 13 of which are spent at the helm.

First South African ceramic sculptures are acquired.

Pat Senior appoint ed director of JAG.

Guest Artist Project launched for the first time, with Jo Smail as the first artist.

Annual acquisitions budget is R20 000.

80 000 visitors to JAG recorded for the year.

1978

To meet continual requests from the public, tea and coffee are now served at JAG.

Pat Senior goes on an overseas buying trip and acquires 31 works of art to the value of R 65 000 out of the year’s budget of R77 000.

Further controversy involving Councillor JF Oberholzer over modern art bought by JAG, labelled as “trash”, including Frank Stella’s Eskimo Curlew and Victor Pasmore’s Projected Linear Relief. (See pg 173)

JAG now only open in the evenings during December and January.

Miss Fairfax dies aged 106 years.

JAG celebrates its 70th birthday with a piano recital, and an auction held by the Friends of JAG.

The first photographs, by Eric Saretzky, are acquired for JAG’s collection.

Acquisitions budget is R20 000.

500-year-old Gothic sculptures are discovered to be infested with woodborer, and are treated.

1979

The first full-time Professional Officer (Librarian) post is filled by Mimi Badenhorst (later Greyling).

1980

Friends of JAG present two major sculptures in further celebration of JAG’s 70th anniversary: Anthony Caro’s CCCVlll (1976-77) and Alexander Calder’s Black Small DiscwithPolygons (1960). The City Council of Johannesburg contributes R10 000 towards the acquisitions.

JAG at this point owns well over 2 000 prints.

Tours for the blind are introduced.

1980/81 Andy Warhol’s Joseph Beuys screenprint is purchased.

1981

Director travels to London to interview prospective candidates for the post of Restorer/Conservator. Miss J Pringle is appointed.

Meyer PIenaar Architects appointed for proposed JAG extensions.

Thelma Gutsche resigns from the Friends of JAG.

Bequest of Harold John Gallagher presented to JAG.

1982

First JAG Restorer/Conservator, Miss J Pringle, commences her duties.

1982/83 Francis Bacon’s Study of a Portrait of a Man is purchased.

1983

The Conservation studio is fully operational and operates from a ward at the Old Fever Hospital.

Pat Senior dies tragically in an accident on the 17th March.

Christopher Till is appointed director of JAG.

Till supervises the completion of the new extensions that had begun under Pat Senior.

October, JAG is handed over to the builders, with an estimated building cost of R7 190 000 to the Council, and completion expected by December 1985.

1984

Maud Sumner donates five of her paintings to JAG.

PACT presents an autumn season of lunch-hour concerts at JAG every Tuesday from May to June.

6 November, Gavin Relly announces the donation of R6 million to JAG by the Anglo American Corporation for the centenary year, which becomes the Anglo American Johannesburg Centenary Trust (see pg 170-72). R4 million is allocated towards an endowment fund for the Gallery, R1,7 million to complete the current extensions and restoration of JAG, and the balance towards commissioning sculptures for the Sculpture Garden.

Dr Thelma Gutsche dies 5 November.

1985

Centenary Sculpture Competition launched for the JAG Sculpture Gardens, sponsored by Anglo American.

1986

Johannesburg 100 years old.

JAG closes to the public from 1 January to 22 October due to building operations. The exhibition space is doubled and provides an administration wing, conservation studio, workshop, library and archives, education studio, coffee shop, print exhibition room, sculpture gardens. Provisions for disabled visitors include ramps, lifts and toilet facilities. Ample parking is available. Joubert Park is renovated to give a complementary setting to the extended JAG. The final cost of the refurbished and extended JAG is R 8 890 000.

The newly refurbished and extended JAG is opened on the 22 October by the Mayor of Johannesburg.

JAG receives a grand piano in memory of the late former director, Pat Senior, from her family, friends and the Friends of JAG, as she had promoted JAG as a concert venue.

Father Andrew Borello donates 25 British studio ceramics to JAG.

1987

JAG’s southern African Traditional Collection is inaugurated with the purchase of the Jaques Collection of 114 headrests, which is declared a national treasure by the National Museums Council.

Brenthurst Collection of the late Harry Oppenheimer is given on long-term loan to JAG and includes 862 objects (previously the Lowen Collection).

X-radiographic facilities installed in the Conservation Studio.

1988

JAG has a record 37 trained voluntary guides.

Award of Merit presented by Transvaal Provincial Institute of Architects to Meyer & Pienaar Architects Inc for the new JAG extensions.

Art classes are held for children on Saturdays in the education studio.

Various donations towards the Masters of Modern Furniture Collection.

Harry Oppenheimer bust installed in the sculpture garden.

1989

Imbali Teacher Training Project workshops initiated at JAG, sponsored by Women for Peace.

127 065 visitors to JAG – the highest ever recorded visitors figure in a calendar year.

1990

Johannesburg Art Gallery Sculpture Competition for the West Sculpture Garden is launched.

Ms J Colbourne joins the JAG staff as Paper Restorer, and provides specialist tours.

1991

Christopher Till resigns as director of JAG.

Rochelle Keene appointed as new director.

24 March, First Gerard Sekoto Open Day for Children held. Gerard Sekoto was the recipient of the 1991 Vita Art Award and generously donated his prize money to JAG on condition it would be used towards hosting a special day where young people could take part in activities around art.

A newly converted and refurbished lecture theatre, able to seat 125 people, completed in June.

Diane Levy is appointed as JAG’s first Curator of African Art.

Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa elected to the Art Gallery Committee.

The Library’s excellent exchange programme of publications is maintained by Joy Cheesman.

1992

The Horstmann collection, a significant collection of southern African art, is donated to JAG by Udo Horstmann.

The Art Gallery Committee holds a record 10 meetings for the year 1992-1993.

E Kruger Marx appointed as JAG’s first Registrar.

‘Performance in the Park’ is initiated to establish performance art culture.

The Friends of JAG, in association with Stephan Welz and Co, and artists, host a Mayoral ball – Le bal des tables artistiques.

JAG adds to its mission statement: To contribute meaningfullytotheappreciationofavisualcultureinamulticultural society.

Tim Couzens’ collection of works by black South African artists is acquired.

1993

January, JAG is declared a national monument.

An important collection of traditional African objects, assembled by Stephen Long, is purchased.

The installation, Altar of God, by Jackson Hlungwane, is acquired and installed.

The Green House Project in Joubert Park is initiated.

1994

New collecting policy for JAG is published.

Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit (RAU) donates 27 000 slides on Art History to the JAG Library.

FUBA Academy Archives compiled by Dr Elza Miles are donated to JAG Library by the Netherlands Embassy.

JAG Youth Club is launched on 18 June to provide art classes for young people in the immediate environment.

594 southern African traditional objects are bought from the collection of M Brodie.

Fiona Graham joins the Friends of JAG as Executive Officer and their office moves to JAG.

1995

Five of the exhibitions of the 1st Johannesburg Biennale are held at JAG.

Listings of JAG’S entire art collection is captured on computer.

The Museum Ambassador Programme, coordinated by Dammon Rice, begins with training, and is later awarded the prestigious AAM International Partnerships Among Museums Award.

‘Paper prayers’ campaign is initiated by NGO Bantwana with young artists from Artist Proof Studio, training students, peer group facilitators and teachers to use art as a positive way to provide information about HIV and AIDS and allows children to communicate sensitive personal experiences about the disease.

1996

Salvador Dalí’s White Aphrodisiac Telephone (1936) and Marcel Duchamp’s Bôite (1968) are acquired.

Art Educators Association moves from Joubert Park to the education studio at JAG.

Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, her son, and Royal Party visit the exhibition, Pictures from a GoldenAge: 17th Century Dutch Paintings

Robert Rauschenberg, and Felissimo, donate Tribute 21 (1994) to JAG.

1997

Western Joubert Park Precinct Pilot Project launched to upgrade water reticulation systems in buildings in the western Joubert Park precinct.

Lapeng Day Care Centre in Joubert Park opens. (See pg 160)

1998

Their Majesties King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway visit JAG.

1999

CSIR looks into the structural problems of the JAG building.

June to October the new extensions are closed for repairs to the building.

JAG participates in ‘Shuttle 99’ – a two year long arts exchange programme between South Africa and the Nordic countries, initiated by the Nordic Council of Ministers and Joubert Park Neighbourhood Centre.

1999/2000 Henson Manikwe and Wilson Baloyi each mark 30 years of service to JAG, and Peter Jackson, 21 years.

2000

Joubert Park Public Art Project is launched.

90 years of JAG’s collection celebrated in November.

City of Johannesburg spends R1,8 million to fix the roof and water-penetration problems in the Gallery.

2001

JAG assumes management of Sandton Civic Centre Art Gallery.

2002

Joubert Park Greenhouse Centre established.

Entrance to JAG revamped by inner city renewal projects.

Jillian Carman’s doctoral thesis, Modern Art for South Africa: The Founding of Johannesburg Art Gallery is published.

Michael Stevenson’s Art and Aspirations: The Randlords of SouthAfrica and their Collections is published.

Part of JAG’s sculpture, Tightroping, by David Brown, that was stolen in 1996, is discovered in a scrapyard in Cape Town by Willie Bester, and returned to JAG.

2003

Plans by the City Council to relocate JAG to Newtown.

March 15, VANSA Gauteng launches at JAG.

Rochelle Keene resigns as director of JAG after 25 years of service.

2004

Clive Kellner appointed director of JAG.

Continued plans to relocate JAG to Newtown. Other proposals to mothball the collection and develop JAG as a ‘White House’ for the Gauteng Premier.

2005

JAG plans to move to the Turbine Hall at a cost of R120 million.

First full digital interactive asset audit of all the works in the collection conducted.

2006

Jillian Carman’s UpliftingtheColonialPhilistine:Florence Phillips and the Making of the JohannesburgArt Gallery is published.

William Kentridge creates a mural for JAG.

Project Room is initiated to support emerging artists.

Joubert Park Anti-Crime and Grime Campaign launched.

New northern entrance opened in December 2006; officially launched in 2007.

2007

20 September launch of Artistic Fence around JAG to illuminate the surroundings, which was completed by the JDA in 2006.

2008

Clive Kellner resigns as director of JAG.

Confirmed that JAG will not move to Newtown.

JAG participates in the first Joburg Art Fair.

Marlene Dumas’ Young Boy (blue body) is donated by artist.

A Children’s Corner is created at the entrance with books and art materials.

2009

Antoinette Murdoch appointed as Chief Curator and Head of JAG.

Lapeng creative arts workshop.

A visit from 35, mostly architects and historians, of the Lutyens Trust of London.

Peter Jackson retires after 32 years of service to JAG as building manager.

2010

‘Adopt Art’ is launched as an opportunity for all to contribute to protecting and restoring works in JAG’s collection.

1 September, National treasures exhibition at Hollard’s Villa Arcadia celebrates the centenary of Lionel and Florence Phillips’ former home.

Centenary function held on 28 November to celebrate 100 years of JAG’s collection.

Jackson Hlungwane’s Altar of God is restored.

2011

Johannesburg’s 1st Conference on Public Art held at JAG, 11-13 November.

2012

Fiona Graham, Executive Chair of Friends of JAG retires.

Blocked drains and leaking roof problems force the closure of the basement space.

The courtyard is decked and contributes to hosting exhibition openings.

Security is upgraded.

2013

Explosion occurs in the Archives due to a faulty head in the Gaseous Fire Suppression system.

2014

A new exhibition of JAG’s history is compiled in the display cabinets.

2015

Masterpieces of the Johannesburg Art Gallery: From Degas to Picasso, featuring more than 60 works from JAG’s collection, is installed at Scuderie del Castello Visconteo di Pavia, Italy from 21 March to 19 July.

JAG participates in the FiveHundred-YearArchiveproject through the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative at UCT, which aims to develop and promote understandings of the archival possibilities of materials located both within and outside of formal archives and to facilitate their engagement, to stimulate interest, research and enquiries into the southern African past.

12 May, JAG site handover of the the Lutyens building for renovations.

The City commits a further R50 million for renovations to the JAG building in 2017.

20 November, restored JAG buildings open to the public in celebration of the Lutyens building centenary. This book, Constructure:100 years of the JAG Building and its Evolution of Space and Meaning is launched.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

“It is in the object relations of exhibitions that the power of objects becomes explicit, staging a series of dialogues between the audience and the museum building.” Clive Kellner (p 96)

“I have come to understand exhibitions as ontologically unstable, not as ‘things’ or ‘objects in a room’, but as ‘events’ that are informed by history and that shape society.” Clive Kellner (p 99)

“While the institution has … made great strides in encouraging greater inclusivity, not only in its collection and acquisition policies, the Gallery nevertheless continues to occupy a precarious place in the lives of the majority of communities it aims to serve. The participation of these communities in the narrative of the history contained by the Gallery is thus as implicit to its legacy as the exhibitions it has staged.” Same Mdluli (pp 92-93)

HISTORICAL LIST OF EXHIBITIONS: 1910-2015

This list was compiled using material from the JAG Library A-Books, newspapers, postcards, newsletters, annual reports, catalogues, invitations, and online sources. We have attempted to ensure the accuracy of all details listed as far as possible.

1910

09 May-13 June and 09-23 July

The Foundation Collection

The Gallery’s core collection was shown twice at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London. Curated by Hugh Lane.

29 November

The Foundation Collection

First exhibition of JAG collection in Johannesburg, opened by the Duke of Connaught at the South African School of Mines and Technology on Eloff street, formerly called Transvaal University College, which eventually became the University of the Witwatersrand.

Catalogue: TheMunicipalGalleryofModernArt1910:The JohannesburgArt Gallery.

1911-1915

No information available.

1916

November

Neumann Gift

Small collection of Pre-Raphaelite and other works. Stored at the Tate Gallery, London, before being sent to Johannesburg. Displayed at JAG soon after its arrival in November 1916. Curated by Henry Tonks with the assistance of Robert Ross. Catalogue: CH Collins Baker. Neumann Gift to the Municipal Gallery of ModernArt, Johannesburg. London: Philip Lee Warner. Includes ten plates, and an Introduction: The PreRaphaelite Movement.

1917-1929

No information available.

1930

JAG collection

Record of all works in the JAG collection, although not all displayed.

Catalogue: Municipal Gallery of Modern Art Johannesburg. 1930. With biographical notes. 3rd revised edition 1932. Various supplements until c 1936.

1931

No information available.

1932

September

Engravings, Etchings, Woodcuts And Mezzotints Loan exhibition from Howard Pim’s collection.

Catalogue: Engravings, Etchings, Woodcuts and Mezzotints Lent by Howard Pim,Esq,CBE on Exhibition at theArt Gallery,Joubert Park, 1932

1933-1936

No information available.

1937

The Howard Pim Bequest Exhibition of 509 (of the 551) original prints bequeathed by Howard Pim.

Catalogue: TheHowardPimBequest. 1937. Johannesburg Municipal Art Gallery.

1938

08 February

South African Academy 9th annual exhibition.

1939

17 February

Paintings and Sculptures by British Masters

Borrowed from the National and Tate Galleries in London.

1940-1941

No information available.

1942

05 January

War Art

1945

12 October

South African Academy 26th annual exhibition.

1946

11 October

South African Academy 27th annual exhibition.

Hague Collection

The name of a small collection of paintings by Cézanne, Daumier, Pissarro, Renoir and Van Gogh owned by the Cassirer family. It was smuggled out of Berlin in 1935 and kept at the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, until 1939. Reinhold Cassirer, who had moved to Johannesburg, arranged with the director of JAG, Anton Hendriks, to bring the collection from The Hague to JAG, where it was on loan from 1939 to 1961.

1947

26 June

Modern Dutch Art

10 October

South African Academy 28th annual exhibition.

1948

02 July

Contemporary British Paintings and Drawings

Works for the exhibition were selected by John Rothenstein, William Coldstream and Allan Gwynne Jones. The exhibition toured South Africa from December 1947 to October 1948.

Catalogue: Coldstream, W. 1948. Exhibition of ContemporaryBritishPaintingsandDrawings,1947-1948.London: British Council.

08 October

South African Academy 29th annual exhibition.

1949

05 March

New Acquisitions

Exhibition of works acquired during 1948, including works by Édouard Vuillard, Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard Catalogue of New Acquisitions, 1948. Johannesburg Art Gallery. Johannesburg: Joffe & Co.

07 October

South African Academy 30th annual exhibition.

24 December Christmas Exhibition: 16th Century Art

1950

18 April

Exhibition of Contemporary South African Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture

Organised by the South African Association of Arts, the exhibition opened at the Tate Gallery in London on 20 September 1948 and subsequently toured to Holland, Belgium, France, Canada and the USA (1948-50). The exhibition included Gerard Sekoto.

Catalogue: Exhibition of Contemporary SouthAfrican Paintings,DrawingsandSculpture. 1948. Cape Town: Cape Town Branch South African Association of Arts; Tate Gallery. A catalogue of an exhibition held at the Tate Gallery. With reproductions, and a prelude of historical paintings. Organised by the South African Association of Arts for the Union Government, 1948-9.

29 September

Collection of 17th Century Dutch Paintings

The collection was presented to the Gallery by Eduard Houthakker.

Catalogue: Carman, J. 1988. DutchPaintingoftheSeventeenth Century.Nederlandse Skilderkuns van die 17de Eeu. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. Carman, J. 1994. Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings in SouthAfrica.A Checklist of Paintings in Public Collections. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

13 October

South African Academy 31st annual exhibition.

1951

03 April

Contemporary French Art

1952

12 April

17th Century Dutch Paintings and African Art

An exhibition for the Van Riebeeck Festival. 2 700 visitors attend in a single day.

02 December

Newly Acquired Pictures and Sculptures

1953

21 April

Contemporary Belgian Painting

26 May

German Graphic Art: 15th and 16th Century

1954

04 May

Edvard Munch

An exhibition of woodcuts, etchings and lithographs.

1955

11 October

Modern German Graphic Art

1956

12 March

Swedish Graphic Art

24 September

Paintings of the Netherlands Impressionist School

The exhibition formed part of the Johannesburg Festival.

12 November

1st Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art

December

Japanese Colour Prints

1957

04 March

Rembrandt Etchings

11 April

Israeli Paintings

28 August

Graphic Art

11 November

South West African Artists

An exhibition of drawings and graphic art from five South West African artists: Adolph Jentsch, Frits Krampe, Heinz Pulon, Otto Schröder, Jochen Voigts.

1958

09 January

Henry Moore

An exhibition of sculptures and drawings.

07 July

Austrian Drawings and Graphic Art

27 October

Transvaal Academy Exhibition

1959

01 January

Graphic Art

An exhibition of prints from the Renaissance to then present day.

05 October

Transvaal Academy

07 December

French Tapestries: 16th-20th Century

The opening of the exhibition was postponed from 30 November due to the death of the Governor-General who was to open the exhibition.

1960

July

New Acquisitions

September

2nd Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art

October

Transvaal Academy

1961

Jacaranda Festival

September

Prints from the Print Collection

Featured artists: Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Marcel Gromaire, Maurice de Vlaminck, Braque, Picasso, Jacques Villon, Édouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Auguste Renoir.

December

Print Exhibition: 15th-17th Century

1962

July

Exhibition of Coloured Prints: 20th Century

08 October

Transvaal Academy 9th annual exhibition.

06 September

Exhibition of Competitors’ Drawing for the New Civic Center

1963

10 June

Contemporary French Painting

August

New Acquisitions

Japanese and European prints, oil paintings, drawings, sculpture and French posters.

04 November

Rock Art in Southern Africa

Tracings of original rock art drawings from across South Africa.

Catalogue: RockArt in SouthernAfrica/Rotskuns in Suidelike Afrika. 1963. Johannesburg. Johannesburg Art Gallery.

03 December

Transvaal Academy 10th annual exhibition.

December

Selection of Japanese Prints

1964

June Daumier

An exhibition of 64 lithographs and woodcuts by Honoré Daumier.

14 September

Contemporary Belgian Painting

October

60 Prints from the Howard Pim Collection

02 November

Transvaal Academy 11th annual exhibition.

1965

01 April

Pierneef: Watercolours and Drawings

22 May

Third Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art

01 July

Picasso and His Contemporaries

Featured artists: Georges Braque, André Derain, Kees van Dongen, Raoul Dufy, Marcel Gromaire, Henri Matisse, Max Pechstein, Pablo Picasso, Georges Rouault, Maurice de Vlaminck, Jacques Villon, Jan Wiegers.

07 October

Lautrec, Renoir and Contemporaries

Featured artists: Pierre Bonnard, Georges Bottini, Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Henri Cross, Maurice Denis, Raoul Dufy, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Alexandre Lunois, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Paul Signac, Théophile Steinlen, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jacques Villon, Édouard Vuillard, Wagner.

08 November Transvaal Academy 12th annual exhibition.

1966

10 January Constant Permeke

An exhibition of paintings, sculptures and drawings.

17 February

The Bible in Graphic Art

Featured artists: Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Sebald Beham, Bolsert, Ludolph Büsinck, Jacques Callot, Ugo da Carpi, Bartolomeo Coriolano, Hans Albrecht Von Derschau, Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, Anthony van Dyck, Albrecht Dürer, Hendrick Goltzius, Hendrick Goudt, Wenceslaus Hollar, Lucas van Leyden, Jan Lievens, Odilon Redon, Rembrandt, Vespasiano Strada, Eustache le Sueur, Guiseppe Nicolo da Vincenza, Hendrick Corneliszoon van Vliet, José Vela Zanetti.

May

The Republic Festival’s Art Exhibition

Fifty Japanese Prints

Featured artists: Harunobu, Hiroshige, Hokkei, Hokusai, Hyakki, Kiyohiro, Kiyomasu, Kiyonaga, Koriusai, Koryusai, Kunimasa, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, Okumura School, Shigenaga, Sorin, Toyokuni, Toyonobu, Torii School, Utamaro, Yasunobu, Yeishi, Yeizan.

July

100 Years of French Graphic Art

28 September

Adolph Jentsch

On the occasion of Johannesburg’s 80th Anniversary.

23 November

The Landscape in French, Dutch and English Art

1967

24 February

20th Century Graphic Art

June

16th to 18th Century Graphic Portraits

25 September

Le Corbusier

23 October

Transvaal Academy 14th annual exhibition.

20 November

Contemporary French Tapestries

15 December

Fritz Krampe

Memorial exhibition. Wenning

Commemorative exhibition.

Catalogue: Werth, A. 1967. Pieter Wenning 1873-1921 CommemorativeExhibition/Herdenkingstoonstelling,exhibition catalogue. Pretoria: Pretoria Art Museum.

1968

February

Cliché-Verre

Featured artists: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, CharlesFrançois Daubigny, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-François Millet, Théodore Rousseau.

16 May

Les Nabis

Featured artists: Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Gauguin, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Aristide Maillol, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Edouard Vallotton, Édouard Vuillard.

25 July

Masters of the Black and White Print

Featured artists: André Derain, Antoon Derkzen van Angeren, Raoul Dufy, André Dunoyer de Segonzac, Marcel Gromaire, Johan-Berthold Jongkind, Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Rouault, Jacques Villon, Maurice de Vlaminck.

16 August

Ruth Prowse

Memorial exhibition.

November

Portraits of the 19th and 20th Century

1969

March

Japanese Woodcuts

Featured Artists: Hiroshige, Hokusai, Kuniyoshi, Kunimasa, Koriusai, Otsu-E Shigenaga, Shunshō, Torii School, Toyokuni, Toyonobu, Utamaro, Yasunobu, Yeishi.

28 May

Contemporary British Painting

July

Posters from the JAG Print Collection

Featured artists: Pierre Bonnard, Jules Chéret, FernandLouis Gottlob, Eugène Grasset, Jules-Alexandre Grün, Henri-Gabriel Ibels, Armand Rassenfosse, Théophile Steilen, Jan Toorop, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jacques Villon.

27 October

Maggie Laubser Retrospective Exhibition

Catalogue: Van Rooyen, J. 1974. Maggie Laubser. Cape Town and Johannesburg: C Struik Publishers.

December

Hugo Naudé

Retrospective exhibition.

03 December

Rembrandt Tercentenary Exhibition

An exhibition of Rembrandt etchings from the Howard Pim Collection.

1970

25 March

Ernst Barlach and Käthe Kollwitz

Catalogue: Barlach/Kollwitz. 1970. Johannesburg: Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation.

15 April

Sculptures for the Blind

Catalogue: 1970. Supported by Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation. Contains Braille pages, by Braille Drukkery, Skool vir die Blindes, Worcester.

July

British Watercolours and Drawings

An exhibition of British watercolours and drawings (17001875).

Catalogue: An Exhibition of BritishWater-colours and Drawings(1700-1875)LentbyKindPermissionofaRecentBritish Settler 1970. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery

22 September

Sculpture Competition for the Terminal at Johannesburg Airport

A display of the maquettes of the competition’s finalists.

13 October

Jean Welz

Retrospective exhibition.

Johannesburg Artists: Johannesburg Art Gallery

Diamond Jubilee Exhibition

Catalogue: Johannesburg Art Gallery & Jubilee Celebrations Committee. 1971. Souvenir of Exhibition of Johannesburg Artists, Organised in Celebration of the Diamond Jubilee of the JohannesburgArt Gallery. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Quintennial Exhibition of South African Art

1971

March

New Acquisitions – 1st Exhibition of Contemporary European Graphic Art

26 May

Opening of the New Sculpture Garden

June

New Acquisitions – 2nd Exhibition of Contemporary European Graphic Art

04 October

Sam Butler

An exhibition of drawings, watercolours and oils.

19 October

Oskar Kokoschka

An exhibition of graphic works.

05 November

14 Johannesburg Artists

07 December

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)

The exhibition of paintings by Pierre Bonnard, a highlight of the Jubilee celebrations, was the most expensive exhibition to ever have been presented in South Africa at that time. Curated by Daniel Wildenstein.

Catalogue: Wildenstein, D. 1971. Pierre Bonnard, 18671947: Exhibition Johannesburg Art Gallery, 6 December 1971-9 January 1972: Johannesburgse Kunsmuseum 6 Desember 1971-9 Januarie 1972. London: Wildenstein and Company.

1972

March

The Heyday of the Lithographic Poster

Featured artists: Georges de Feure, Eugene Grasset, Privat Livent, Alphonse Mucha, Jan Toorop, Leopoldo Metlicovitz, Jules Cheret, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Alexandre T Steinlen.

April

New Acquisitions of Paintings and Prints of Buffe

May

July

Pierneef Watercolours and Drawings

Emilio Greco

An exhibition of etchings and watercolours.

August

Repeat: Graphic Art of Bonnard and the Nabis

30 August

Contemporary Tapestries

An exhibition of contemporary South African tapestries.

11 October Republic of South Africa Exhibition 1972

14 November

British Printmakers

An exhibition of British prints from 1968-1970.

12 December

Christmas Exhibition of South African Art

1973

09 February

Henry Moore – Elephant Skull

An exhibition to celebrate the purchase of two sculptures by Henry Moore, based on an elephant skull, as well as 28 etchings. In 1969/70, Moore was given an elephant skull, which he explored through his etchings and sculptures in the show. The department of zoology at the University of the Witwatersrand loaned the elephant skull to the Gallery for the duration of the exhibition.

11 June

The Sanlam Collection

An exhibition of paintings from The Sanlam Collection of South African Art.

July

French Abstract Art

Works on display by French Abstract Artists. Featured artists: Pierre Soulages, Victor Vasarely, Hans Hartung, Karel Appel, Jesús Rafael Soto, Yaacov Agam.

16 July

Aspects de l’Art Contemporain en France

09 September

Homage to Pieter Wenning

An exhibition to coincide with the artist’s birthday.

22 October

Vollard

14 November

British Printmakers 1968-1970

December

Christmas Exhibition

An exhibition of Gothic sculpture and religious prints

1974

22 January

Picasso

A display of the newly acquired work by Picasso, Tête D’Arlequin. The acquisition of the work garnered much dispute amongst the public concerning its cost (but marks a notable increase of visitors to the Gallery!). (see pg 173)

18 March

3 Centuries of French Art : François I to Napoleon I Featured artists: Claude Lorrain, Jean-Antoine Watteau, Théodore Gericault, Jacques-Louis David.

02 May

South African Collection

06 May

Modern Dutch Art

06 June

Japanese Prints

An exhibition of 44 Ukiyo-E woodblock prints, depicting pictures of everyday life, particularly those of women and actors. Featured artists: Sorin Hyakki, Utamaro, Uninosuke, Moronobu, Hiroshige, Harunobu, Hokusai, Hiroshige, Utamaro, Yeishi, Utamaro, Kuniyoshi, Kunisada, Utagawa Toyokuni, Shunsho, Shunyei, Torii Kiyomasu, Toyokuni I, Isada Koriusai, Shunshō. Yeizan, Rekisentei, Kunimasai, Otsu-E, Kishosai Yasunobu, Katsushika Taito.

30 July

New Acquisitions

Recently acquired works by Paul Wunderlich were exhibited along with prints by Achilles Droungas, Claude van Lingen and Giuseppe Catteneo.

September

Emillio Greco

An exhibition of prints

16 September

Francisco Goya

An exhibition of etchings by the Spanish artist.

21 October

Maurits Escher

An exhibition of graphic works.

05 November

SA Watercolours

An exhibition of 33 works by 9 South African artists: Adolph Jentsch, JH Pierneef, Enslin du Plessis, Maud Sumner, Edith LM King, Robert Gwelo Goodman, Erich Meyer, Annamarie Oppenheim, Florence Zerffi.

December

Picasso Slide Exhibition

A slide exhibition in companion to Picasso’s TêteD’Arlequin, acquired in 1973, featuring images of Picasso’s earlier paintings. Curated by Philip Feitelberg and John Rushmer.

09 December

Moses Kottler

A retrospective exhibition of sculptural work. Catalogue: Werth, A. 1974. MosesKottler:RetrospectiveExhibition/Oorsigtentoonstelling. Pretoria: Pretoria Art Museum. Afrikaans and English. Catalogue of the retrospective exhibition shown at the Pretoria Art Museum, Johannesburg Art Gallery and South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 1974-1975.

1974

29 May

Printing Techniques

1975

21 January

Contemporary South African Art

An exhibition of 74 works by 45 South African artists from the JAG reserve collection. Featured artists: Lionel Abrams, Amando Baldinelli, Walter Battiss, Noel Bisseker, Wim Blom, Norman Catherine, Christo Coetzee, Nerine Desmond, Pranas Domsaitis, Eleanor Esmond-White, Bertha Everard, Ruth Everard Haden, Katrine Harries, Willem Hendrik Gravett, Claude van Lingen, Judith Mason, Leonard Matsoso, Hans Potgieter, Starkey, Merlyn Evans, P Anton Hendriks, Karen Jaroszyska, Cecil Higgs, May Hillhouse, Edith LM King, Maggie Laubser, Louis Maqubela, Dirk Meerkotter, Hugo Naudé, Patrick O’Connor, Frans Oerder, Douglas Portway, Cecily Sash, Otto Schroeder, Cyprian Shilakoe, Cecil Skotnes, George Smithard, Nita Spilhaus, Anthony Starkey, Maud Sumner, Anna Vorster, Jean Weltz, Pieter Wenning, Matthew Whippman, Florence Zerffi.

18 March

20th Century Graphic Work

Featured artists: Mario Avati, André Beaudin, Hans Bellmer, Salvador Dalí, Jim Dine, Achilles Droungas, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Gerd Winner, Paul Wunderlich, Joan Miró, Robert Rauschenberg, Bridget Riley, James Rosenquist, Victor Vasarely, Antonio Tapies, Janvier Vilato, Mark Tobey, Gene Davis, Robert Jennison, Asger Jorn, André Masson, Terence Millington, Richard Smith.

19 May

French Tapestries

An exhibition of approximately 20 French tapestries.

26 August

The Technique of Engraving and Etching from Dürer to Dine

The first in a three-part series of print exhibitions. This display focused on graphic work that uses the engraving and etching techniques.

14 November

50 Prints from the Howard Pim Collection

08 December

Emile Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)

An exhibition of paintings and sculptures

A Comprehensive Exhibition of Contemporary South African Art of the Reserve Collection Exhibition in honour of Sir Hugh Lane’s 100th birthday

1976

30 January

500 Years of the Woodcut

The second in a three-part series of print exhibitions. This display focused on graphic work using relief printing.

07 May

The Extension to the South African Collection

The official opening of the new basement exhibition space for the South African Collection, in conjunction with the unveiling of a plaque commemorating Sir Hugh Lane, who formed the initial collection. JAG previously had not had space to exhibit its Contemporary South African Collection. Artists represented: Lionel Abrams, Armando Baldinelli, Walter Battiss, Noel Bisseker, Wim Blom, Norman Catherine,

Christo Coetzee, Patrick O’Connor, Karin Jaroszynska, Claude van Lingen, Judith Mason, Louis Maqhubela, Douglas Portway, Geoffrey Armstrong and Hans Potgieter.

16 June

The Rise of Lithography

The third in a three-part series of print exhibitions. This display focused on graphic work using lithography.

12 October

Helen Frankenthaler

With Hans Hartung and Pierre Soulages

06 December

Christmas Festival

A lunch-time launching of a Christmas Festival in celebration of the 90th anniversary of Johannesburg. Included an exhibition of prints from the print cabinet and an exhibition of the newly acquired Helen Frankenthaler painting, with graphic works by European abstract painters Hans Hartung and Pierre Soulages.

1977

12 January

Wolf Kibel: Prestige Retrospective Exhibition

A retrospective exhibition.

Catalogue: Van Niekerk, RH. 1976.WolfKibel:Retrospective Exhibition 1976/OorsigTentoonstelling. Cape Town: SA National Gallery.

07 February

20th Century Lithographs

An exhibition of lithographic prints ranging from Cubism to Pop Art.

10 March

Moses Kottler

A tribute

13 May

French Works

An exhibition of French works from the Gallery’s storeroom.

20 June

How We Got Our Art Gallery

21 June

Rubens and the Reproductive Engraving 1977 marked the 400th anniversary of the artist’s birth, and was declared the international Rubens Year.

20 September

The Ascent of Man: Films of Lectures by Jacob Bronowski

A series of screened lectures by Bronowski. Films featured: Lower than theAngels;The Harvest of the Seasons;The Grain in the Stone; The Hidden Structure; Music of the Spheres;The Starry Messenger;The Majestic Clockwork; The Drive for Power;The Ladder of Creation;WorldWithin; Knowledge or Certainty?; Generation upon Generation; The Long Childhood.

03 October

Graphic Art in Germany Today

An exhibition of works by 54 artists, mainly from the 1950s and ’60s.

06 December

JAG Guest Artist Project 1: Jo Smail Residency programme of local guest artists at JAG.

1978

10 January

JAG Guest Artist Project 2: Bernice Michelow

07 February

Museums In Education

An informative exhibition on education in the museum.

07 March

The Camden Town Group

An exhibition of works by artists from the Camden Town Group, from the Gallery’s British collection. Featured artists: Augustus John, Spencer Gore, Walter Bayes, Harold Gilman, James Innes, Lucien Pissarro, Walter Sickert.

29 March

William Blake (1757-1827)

An exhibition of hand-coloured facsimiles of Blake’s watercolours designed for poems by Thomas Gray. Gray, T & Blake, W. 1971. Poems By Mr Gray, Drawings ByWilliam Blake. London: Trianon Press.

08 May

The Animal in Art

An exhibition organised by the Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation in commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of the South African Nature Foundation.

Catalogue: The Animal in Art/Die Dier en die Kuns. 1978. Presented by the Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation.

20 June

Isaac Witkin: Sculptor

A small display of early sculptures and photographs.

04 July

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 3: Claude van Lingen

01 August

JAGs Guest Artist Project 4: Malcolm Payne

01 September Daubigny, Corot and the Cliché-Verre

An exhibition to commemorate the centenary of the death of Charles-François Daubigny. Additional works by JeanBaptiste-Camille Corot – one of Daubigny’s closest friends – were exhibited, representing the other end of the Barbizon School; as well as works by Jean-François Millet and Théodore Rousseau.

Catalogue: Daubigny, Corot, and the Cliché-verre: Exhibition 1 September-1 October, 1978. 1978. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

09 October

German Expressionist Prints

An exhibition of prints by German Expressionist artists, featuring Käthe Kollwitz, Emile Nolde, Max Pechstein, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

07 November

JAGs Guest Artist Project 5: Judith Mason and Marguerite Weavind

An exhibition of mohair tapestries by Weavind displayed alongside their original designs by Mason.

21 November

JMW Turner (1775-1851)

The film, RebelAngel – a commemorative film to Turner – was screened in conjunction with an exhibition of prints.

11 December

Art of The Space Age

At that point, the longest-running non-permanent exhibition to run at JAG – for a period of 9 months – presented by the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation. The exhibition featured 48 artists.

Catalogue: Alexander, FL et al. 1970. ArtoftheSpaceAge: ACollectionLoanedbythePeterStuyvesantArtFoundation Auckland: Auckland City Art Gallery.

1979

06 February

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 6: Noel Bisseker

06 March

The Ascent of Man: Films of Lectures by Jacob Bronowski Re-screening of films

13 March

Constance Stuart Larrabee

The first photographic exhibition at JAG featuring photographs by Constance Stuart Larrabee, South Africa’s first woman war correspondent during WWII. Larrabee was present at the opening.

25 March

Vincent van Gogh: The Lark and the Crow A play performed at JAG about the life of van Gogh, developed from his letters and photographs of his work. Over 75 images of his work were shown in this dramatic context where critical events of his life were explored. Curated by Phil Feitelberg; written by Christopher Consani and directed by Norman Coombes.

18 April

Modern British Bookbinding

An exhibition of 23 hand-bound books by artist bookbinders. Featured books included Euripides’ The Bacchae, James Joyce’s FinnegansWake Treatises on Goldsmithing and Sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini, and Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien.

05 June

Katrine Harries (1914-1978)

An exhibition of oil paintings, prints and drawings, and studies for book illustrations. Catalogue: Fransen, H. 1978. Katrine Harries: 1914-1978. Cape Town: South African National Gallery.

19 June

Ways of Seeing: Film Screening Screening of John Berger’s four-part series.

13 July

JAGs Guest Artist Project 7: Nel Erasmus Erasmus used the space to show creative work as a process of possibilities, constant change and choice.

August

Additions to the English Collection

11 August

Honoré Daumier (1808-1879)

An exhibition commemorating the centenary of Daumier’s death. Works on display included lithographs, woodcut prints and JAG’s two sculptures.

September

The South African Collection – A New Look

A re-arrangement of the South African Gallery, displaying some South African works from the Gallery’s reserve for the first time. Featured artists: Geoffrey Armstrong, Lee Brews, Trevor Coleman, Nel Erasmus, Ezrom Legae, Ruth Levy, Claude van Lingen, Berenice Michelow, Nico van Rensburg, Jo Smail, Elizabeth Vels, Peter Webber, Sydney Kumalo, Willem de Sanderes Hendrikz, Edoardo Villa, Spies Venter, Suzette Eglington, Thelma Marcuson, Rita Tasker.

04 September

Cutlery Through the Ages

An exhibition of over 200 pieces of eating implements (forks, knives, spoons) and cutting implements (scribes’ knives, razors, scissors, fleams, snuffers), from Stone Age flints, medieval excavation knives, to current day implements. Catalogue: Carman, J. 1979. Cutlery Through the Ages. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

19 November

Walter Battiss

An exhibition of 130 print works, books, ceramics, wooden sculptures, photographs and Fook Island objects. Catalogue: Werth, A. 1979. Walter Battiss:Comprehensive (Travelling) Exhibition. Pretoria: Pretoria Art Museum.

28 December

Eduardo Paolozzi

An exhibition of sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs from 1947-1968 by Paolozzi – considered one of the founders of Pop Art.

27 December

British Engravings in Wood

Fashion designers for the first time reveal the latest in haute couture at JAG

1980

01 February

Paul Nash (1899-1946)

Exhibition of photographic works.

04 March

Exhibition of New Acquisitions

Featured works included Donald Judd’s ‘Untitled’ Progression (1967/76), Edvard Munch’s Drawing ofTwo Figures (c 1890), and Georg Grosz’ Dancing (1925). Other artists featured included Kevin Atkinson, Judith Mason, Elizabeth Vels, Suzette Eglington, Willem de Sanderes Hendrikz, Sydney Kumalo, Thelma Marcuson, Rita Tasker, Spies Venter, Edoardo Villa, Peter Webber, WH Coetzer, Nel Erasmus, Ezrom Legae, Nico van Rensburg, Harold Rubin, William Blake, Gaston de Latenay.

11 March

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 8: Paul Stopforth

14 April

South African and International Tapestries and Wall Hangings

An exhibition of mostly contemporary tapestries from 20 different countries.

19 April

From Realism to Performance

A series of lectures by members of the History of Art and Fine Art departments at the University of the Witwatersrand, including William Holloway, Elizabeth Rankin, Brenda Danilowitz, Terry King and Alan Crump.

19 May

Pierneef/Van Wouw

An exhibition of 20 sculptures by Anton van Wouw (18621945) and 31 oil paintings and 9 casein works by Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957).

Catalogue: Pierneef, JH & Van Wouw, A. 1980. Pierneef, VanWouw:Skilderye en Beeldhouwerke deurTwee SuidAfrikaanse Meesters/ Paintings and Sculptures by Two SouthAfricanMasters:CatalogueoftheExhibition.Johannesburg: Kunsstigting Rembrandt van Rijn.

20 May

Pierneef Watercolours and Drawings

16 June

Hommage à Jean Lurçat

An exhibition of 20 tapestries from 1941-1965. Catalogue: Lurcat, J & Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada. 1967. Hommage à Jean Lurcat:A Collection of Contemporary FrenchTapestriesbytheLateJeanLurcat.Toronto: Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada.

30 July

Surrealist Works

05 August

South African Professional Photographs

Photographers from the fields of fashion, photojournalism and advertising were invited to submit photographs to the South African National Gallery, and were re-exhibited at JAG. They included: Cloete Breytenbach, Robert Brooks, Mervyn Clark, Ian Difford, Michael Donnelly, Costa Econmides, Stanley Eppel, Philip Fischer, Mike Fitzpatrick, Gavin Furlonger, Martin Gent, Steve Gordon, Glynn Griffiths, Neil Hermann, Noel Hodnett, Rob James, Anthony Johnson, Horst Klemm, Fiona Macpherson, Tony Meintjies, John Minty, John Paisley, Al Pereira, André Pienaar, Ian Reeves, Dan Roberts, Struan Robertson, Aurora Roland, Andrzej Sawa, Graham Stebbings, Susan Tatham, Marc Tiganis, Lambro Tsiliyannis, Jac de Villiers, Wendy Vogt, Barry White.

13 August

British Drawings and Watercolours

08 September

Five Sculptors: An Exhibition of Metal Sculpture

An exhibition of the Afrox Metalart guest artists: including Edoardo Villa, Johan van Heerden, Neels Coetzee, Gavin Younge, Ian Redelinghuys.

13 October

The Cinzano Glass Collection

An exhibition of ± 135 pieces of drinking vessels through the ages from all over the world. Curated by Peter Lazarus. Catalogue: Lazarus, P. 1978. The Cinzano Glass Collection Published by Cinzano.

03 November

WH Coetzer

09 November 1980 was Willem Hermanus Coetzer’s 80th birthday. In celebration, the Gallery displayed its works by the artist in support of a comprehensive exhibition that was held at the Africana Museum at the same time.

24 November

South African Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of the Friends of the Johannesburg Art Gallery

An exhibition of ±70 works from 45 artists, for the 70th anniversary of the Gallery’s Collection. Curated by Jillian Carman.

1981

12 January

Contemporary German Prints: Constructivists/ Realists

An exhibition of 99 works (dated between 1945-1981) by 33 artists. Featured artists included: Josef Albers, Günther Uecker, Horst Antes, Paul Wunderlich, Reiner Schwars. Catalogue: Grochowiak, T. 1980. Contemporary German Prints, Constructivists, Realists: 33 Artists of the Federal Republic of Germany. Stuttgart: Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations.

10 February

Virtues and Vanities: Women Depicted by Printmakers in France in the 19th Century

An exhibition of 55 prints and posters

16 March

British Artists’ Prints: 1972-1977

An exhibition of 56 prints and series of prints. Featured artists: Richard Allen, Anthony Benjamin, Robyn Denny, Richard Hamilton, Allen Jones, Victor Pasmore, Bridget Riley.

11 April

Oro Del Peru

A selection of exhibits from the pre-Inca and Inca gold collection of the Oro Del Peru Museum in Monterico, Lima.

Catalogue: Gallo, MM, Rey, AR, Quesada, AM. 1981. Oro Del Peru:An Illustrated Catalogue. Lima: Monterrico.

06 May

Architectural Models

An exhibition of models, plans and drawings submitted by architects around the country.

09 June

JAG’s Guest Artist Projects 9: Thijs Nel

07 July

The Roberts Bushman Art Collections

An exhibition of life-size copies of Bushman rock paintings – copied by Harald Pager between 1967-1969 – spanning a hundred years, from the Ndedema Gorge in the Drakensburg Mountains of [Kwa-Zulu-]Natal.

Catalogue: The Roberts Bushman Art Collection. 1981. Murray & Roberts.

04 August

Ukiyo-E: Pictures from The Floating World

An exhibition of Japanese prints. Featured artists: Hishikawa Moronobu, Ishikawa Toyonobu, Torii Kiyohiro, Nishikawa Sukenobu, Torii Kiyomasu, Suzuki Harunobu, Nishimura Shigenaga, Isoda Koryūsai, Kubo Shunman, Kitao Masayoshi, katsukawa Shunsho, Torii Kiyonaga, Kitao Shigemasa, Kitagawa Utamaro, Katsukawa Shun-Ei, Chōbunsai Eishi, Rekinsentei Sorin, Utagawa Toyokuni, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige, Yanagawa Shigenobu, Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi. An Usucha service (tea ceremony) was held on the 14th August and Ikebana flower arrangements were made for the occasion.

08 September

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 10: Willem Boshoff

06 October

Picasso’s Printmakers

An exhibition of prints, dating from 1905-1966, to commemorate the centenary of Picasso’s birth.

17 November

Richard Hamilton: Interiors 1964-1979

An exhibition of paintings, drawings, watercolours and graphic work by the British Pop artist, as well as other artists from the Gallery’s Print Cabinet.

15 December

Inuit Art: Art of the Canadian Eskimo

An exhibition of 79 sculptures and graphic work from the National Museum of Man, Ottawa, Canada and The Rothermans Permanent Collection of Inuit Sculpture, Canada. Small displays in 1981:

10 February

British Drawings and Watercolours

28 April

Post-Impressionism to Cubism (Donkey display)

23 June

Dutch 17th Century Landscapes (Dutch room)

03 July

Wood Engravings (Donkey display)

14 July

17th Century Dutch Prints (Dutch room)

03 September

Whistler Prints (Donkey display)

08 October

Dürer Prints (Dutch room)

04 December

Surrealist Prints (Donkey display)

Lace Display

1982

02 February

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 11: Johann Moolman Moolman exhibited various plaster figures integrated with wood and steel constructions, and a series of paper relief collages.

02 March

Harry Hammond: Pop People

An exhibition of over 100 photographs from 1948-1963 reflecting on the lives and legends of celebrities involved in shaping British popular music.

01 April

Equus – The Image of the Horse

An exhibition of over 100 items depicting horses, from all over the world. Curated by Reinhold Cassirer and Jillian Carman. Catalogue: Equus:The image of the Horse. Sponsored by The Premier Group Limited, Johannesburg.

08 June

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 12: Giuseppe Cattaneo

The works exhibited were paper architectural sculptures developed from photographs the artist took at the Thames in London.

06 July

Henry Moore – Elephant Skull

Fans

An exhibition of Italian, English, French and German fans from the 18th and 19th centuries.

17 August

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 13: Hans Potgieter

14 September

South Africa: Photo Statements

An exhibition of photographs by 16 contemporary South African photographers, including Omar Badsha, Rodney Barnett, Jan Erasmus, David Goldblatt, Henion Han, Michael Barry, Jenny Altschuler, Susan Giloi, Ben Maclennan, Ian Joseph, Martin Wells, Glynn Griffiths, Paul Konings, Michael Wyeth, Joan Hughes, Beverley Moss.

19 October

Roy Carruthers

An exhibition of oil paintings, drawings and lithographs depicting massive bodies, many-fingered hands, extended necks, elongated heads and distorted furniture and objects of Carruthers’ still-lives.

16 November

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 14: Willem Strydom

The artist’s concerns with the urban and industrial landscape were illustrated through constructions of steel, cast iron, wood and stone.

The World of Gilbert and George Exhibition of the recently acquired TheMorningAfter(1981).

21 December

John Piper and English Neo-Romanticism

An exhibition of 70 works that exemplified English NeoRomanticism from the early 19th century to the early 1940s, presented by the 1080 Foundation in association with The National Museum of Wales and the South African National Gallery.

Small displays in 1982:

March

May

Sculpture Techniques (Donkey display)

Jim Dine and Rosenquist Prints (Donkey display)

September

Sculpture Techniques

October

Walter Battiss (Gallery works)

1983

01 February

Cape Town Triennial 1982

An exhibition of the final 69 works from the national competition of contemporary South African art. Finalists included Karel Nel, Annette Pretorius, John Clarke, Davydd Myburgh, John Nowers, Ada van de Vijver.

29 March

Landscape from the Print Collection

An exhibition of over 100 prints from the Dutch 17th century, French and English 19th and early 20th centuries. The show attempted to illustrate the conceptual development of landscape in art.

17 May

Ian Redelinghuys: Sculpture Exhibition

An exhibition of 9 new major works, cast or welded in brass, bronze, stainless and mild steel. The sculptures were installed in such a way as to emphasise a built environment or objects in a playground, forcing viewers to interact with them as such.

04 July

23 American Artists

An exhibition of prints, photographs and other works on paper. The exhibition was compiled to provide a brief overview of American art in the 1970s. Featured artists: Cy Twombly, Alexander Calder, Robert Rauschenberg, Ron B Kitaj, Sol Lewitt, George Segal, Richard Tuttle, Bill Beckley, Christo, Roger Cutforth, John E Dowell, Helen Frankenthaler, Edward Giobbi, Stephen Greene, Alexander Lieberman, Brice Marden, Brenda Miller, Robert Motherwell, Stephanie Oursler, Beverly Pepper, Man Ray, William Wegman, Roger Welch.

08 August

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 15: Karel Nel

15 August

40 Years of British Sculpture

The exhibition provided an introduction to the development of British sculpture over the previous decade. Sculptures by 11 British artists were complimented by drawings, prints and sketches, supporting the sculptural projects. Featured artists: Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Lyn Chadwick, Robert Adams, Anthony Caro.

Catalogue: British Council. 1982. 40YearsofBritishSculpture. Great Britain: The British Council.

05 September

David Goldblatt: Thirty-Five Years of Photographs

An exhibition of photographs covering 1948-1982. Catalogue: DavidGoldblatt:Thirty-fiveYearsofPhotographs, April 1983 to January 1984/Vyf-en-dertig Jaar se Foto’s,

April 1983 tot Januarie 1984. Cape Town: South African National Gallery. 1983.

11 October

Swiss Photographers from 1840 until Today

An exhibition of over 300 photographs by 114 photographers, displaying the camera’s potential as an artistic medium and its technical evolution over the previous 140 years in Switzerland. Featured artists: Fred Boissonnas, Paul Senn, Gottard Schuh, Werner Bischof, Hans Finsler.

14 November

My Environment

The 21st Santam Child Art exhibition aimed at all schoolgoing children to promote awareness and involvement in society and the environment.

13 December

École de Paris: De Renoir À Kisling

An exhibition of 63 works, mainly of oil paintings, representing artists from the École de Paris (The Nabis, Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism) covering the period of 1880 to 1930.

1984

30 January

Ezra Stoller: Photographs of Architecture 19391980

An exhibition of photographs depicting architectural designs by architects such as Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Walter Gropius.

31 January

The New Johannesburg Art Gallery

A display of Sir Edwin Lutyens’ original plans of the Gallery (1911), as well as the plans for the new extension and scale models.

13 March

75th Anniversary of Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns: Exhibition of Medal-Holders 1935-1983

An exhibition of works by 26 of the 28 artists who had been awarded the Akademie’s Medal of Honour for Painting, Graphic Art or Sculpture, since 1935. Featured artists included Maggie Laubser, Alexis Preller, Adolph Jentsch, Moses Kottler, Irma Stern, Maud Sumner, Christo Coetzee.

17 April

The Changing Face of Art: Conservation in Progress

An exhibition intended to illustrate the processing involved in conservation, restoration and preservation of the Gallery’s collection. Demonstrations were given on painting techniques, x-radiography, cleaning, repairing, etc. JAG’s Restorer/Conservator, Miss J Pringle, gave special tours of the exhibition.

28 May

Impressions ‘84

The first exhibition, of 75 works, from the national student (tertiary level) competition hosted by the Rolfes Foundation of Student Art.

25 June

Images of Man

An exhibition of 62 sculptural studies of the human head by 51 artists, including Antoine Bourdelle, Jacob Epstein, Aristide Maillol, Amedeo Modigliani, Auguste Rodin, Sydney Kumalo, Elza Dziomba, Moses Kottler, Lippy Lipshitz, Lucas Sithole.

31 July

French Theatrical Prints and Posters

A selection of 19th century French theatrical prints from the Gallery’s collection.

Catalogue: Jules Cheret 1836-1932. 1984. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. Introduction by Margaret Vorster.

28 August

Clément Sénèque

A retrospective exhibition of 82 works (1897-1930).

25 September

Jim Dine: Nancy Outside in July

An exhibition of 25 etchings by the American artist. The prints were made between 1978 and 1981 and were of the artist’s wife, Nancy.

30 October

Peter Schütz

An exhibition of sculptures by the winner of the 1984 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Fine Art.

27 November

Collage Principle

An exhibition of 52 original collages by 23 contemporary artists, including Joseph Beuys, Wolfgang Ehehalt, Peter Sorge, Jochen Gerz. The exhibition was supplemented by documentation outlining the history of collage as a medium, beginning in 1912 with the Cubists, and a survey of contemporary example of collage, photomontage and décollage.

1985

14 January

Marguerite Stephens

An exhibition of 27 tapestries, beginning with her interpretation of a Cecil Skotnes design (1960) to a 1984 interpretation of the same work.

19 February

Additions to the South African Collection 1981-1984

An exhibition of new additions (purchases and gifts) to the Gallery’s South African collection, received between 1981 and 1984, dating from 1898-1984. Featured artists included Neels Coetzee, Paul Emsley, Robert Hodgins, Malcolm Payne, Paul Stopforth, Pieter Wenning, Frans Oerder. Catalogue: Additions to the SouthAfrican Gallery:1981 – 1984. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. Tribute to Maud Sumner (1902-1985)

The exhibition paid tribute to the artist who died on 14 January 1985. There were oil paintings, watercolours and drawings from the Gallery’s collection on display.

25 March

Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen

An exhibition of 68 paintings, drawings, prints and posters documenting contemporary life [in Europe] at the end of the 19th century to the 20th century, focusing on the poorer classes during the First World War.

23 April

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 16: Elizabeth Vels

20 May

Rolfes National Student Art Exhibition: Impressions ‘85

The second exhibition of the national student (tertiary level) competition hosted by the Rolfes Foundation of Student Art.

25 June

Recent South African Ceramics

An exhibition of ceramics by 31 contemporary South African ceramists, including Susan Annandale, Claudia Cooper, Maggie Mikula, Suzette Munnik, Hilton Nel, John Nowers, Clementina van der Walt.

30 July

Encounters ‘85

The exhibition consisted of a series of oil paintings, drawings, watercolours and pastels titled Encounters by Marion Arnold, winner of the 1985 Standard Bank Young Artist Award in Fine Arts. Catalogue.

17 September

Video Art

An exhibition of video art, including Eurasian Staff-Action (1968) by Joseph Beuys; Berlin – Exercises in Nine Pieces (1974-75) by Rebecca Horn; X-Projection (1972) by Wolf Knoebel; CologneCathedralasMedium (1980) by Nam June Paik/Ingo Günther; The New Symbolic Body Language of Sex According to Laws of Anatomy, Geometry, and Kinetics (1972) by Friederike Pezold; Reflections on The Birth of Venus (1976-78) by Ulrike Rosenbach.

12 November

Centenary Sculpture Competition

An exhibition of maquettes by the 8 finalists of the Johannesburg Art Gallery Centenary Sculpture Competition. Finalists were Bruce Arnott, David James Brown, Gaby Cheminais, Guy du Toit, Claire Gavronsky, Willem Strydom, Edoardo Villa, Gavin Younge.

Centenary Print Portfolio

An exhibition of original designs for the Johannesburg Art Gallery’s print portfolio and works of various media. Portfolio.

1986

01 January

JAG is closed for renovations

23 October

Johannesburg Art and Artists: Selections from a Century

A major exhibition tracing the development of art and artists in Johannesburg over 100 years. The show was chronologically divided into four sections. The first part of the exhibition focused on the artists that established an art life in Johannesburg between 1886-1939; the second section displayed the work of the artists Anton van Wouw (18621945) and Hermanus Coetzer (1900-1983), who substantially contributed to the art scene in Johannesburg; the third section emphasised the artistic achievements of the 1950s and 1960s, especially from the Johannesburgbased groups: The WITS Group, the Amadlozi Group and the Polly Street Art Centre; the fourth section was a retrospective of the Gallery’s Guest Artist Projects, which ran from 1977, which reflected trends in contemporary art making.

Catalogue

Jacob Hendrick Pierneef (1886-1957) Printmaker

An exhibition displaying a selection of landscape prints

24 November

Cape Town Triennial 1985

An exhibition of 96 selected works from the national competition, that travelled around South Africa. Catalogue.

01 December

Dulux Awards for The Creative Use of Colour in Design 1986

An exhibition of the results of the national competition encouraging the use of colour on interior and exterior surfaces of residential, industrial and commercial buildings.

1987

Centenary Sculpture Competition

Installation of the winning works

20 January

The South African Collection Revisited

An exhibition of JAG’s Permanent South African Art Collection, which had just moved to the new extensions of the Gallery.

Portfolios: A Selection of Contemporary Prints and Photographs

An exhibition of contemporary prints and photographs collected by the Gallery as portfolios and/or as group works, from Britain and South Africa.

10 February

The Modern International Collection

A display demonstrating the development of art since the Cubist period (1912) to then present day (1987). The exhibition was divided into two sections – the first focused on earlier works from France, while the second showed the later influence of North America.

17 March

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669)

An exhibition of prints by the 17th century Dutch master.

24 March

Robert Hodgins: Images (1953-1986)

A retrospective exhibition of work by the 1986 Standard Bank Guest Artist. Catalogue.

31 March

New Acquisition: Sunset, Return of the FishingFleet by Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915)

28 April

Vita Art Now

The AA Mutual Life Vita Art Awards’ first exhibition, where a panel of judges chose a selection of South African artist who had shown in Johannesburg during 1986. Annual award winner: Karel Nel; Quarterly award winners and runnersup: David Brown and Robert Hodgins; Quarterly award winners: Guy du Toit and Karin Jaroszynska. Catalogue.

01 May

Ilford Photo Press Awards 1986

The first annual Ilford exhibition of photographs. The competition was formerly known as the South African Press Photographer of the Year. The prize-winning works, and a selection of other entries, were on display.

26 May

Honoré Daumier (1808-1879)

A selection of lithographs.

09 June

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 17: Edoardo Villa

07 July

Relief Prints

Featured artists: Jean Welz, Gregoire Boonzaier, Alfred Krenz, Walter Battiss, Cecil Skotnes, Maurice van Essche, Cecil Higgs, Eleanor Esmond-White, Maggie Laubser, P Anton Hendriks, JH Pierneef, Bartholomeo Coriolano, Ludolph Businck, Paul Gauguin, JG Platt, Maurits Escher, Garrick Palmer, Jan Wiegers, Hans Albrecht Von Derschau, Albrecht Dürer, Felix Vallaton, Charles William Taylor, Auguste Louis Lepère, Antonio Zanetti, Lucas Cranach, Maurice de Vlaminck, Gwendolen Raverat, Eric Daglish, Garrick Palmer, Allen William Seaby, Wassily Kandinsky, Albertus Sok, Raoul Dufy, Adja

Yunkers, Otto Nebel, Michael Rothenstein, Herman Max Pechstein, Azaria Mbatha, Utagawa Kuniyoshi.

29 July

Reginald Turvey (1882-1968)

Retrospective of works by the ‘spiritual father’ of the Bahá’í of South Africa.

Catalogue: Johnson, L (ed). 1986. ReginaldTurvey:Lifeand Art. Abingdon: George Ronald.

July

Flying the Kite and Boys by Dame Laura Knight (1877-1970)

Two of Dame Laura Knight’s most important early works were shown together for the first time since their exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1910 – Flying the Kite (SANG collection) and Boys (JAG collection).

18 August

Druckgraphik Aus Frankfurt

An exhibition of 38 print works

25 August

Children’s Linocuts

09 September

Jacob Hendrik Pierneef (1886-1957): The Johannesburg Station Panels

The panels on display were loaned to the Gallery by The South African Transport Services.

Brochure by Jillian Carman. Related book: NJ Coetzee, NJ. 1992. PierneefLandandLandscape:theJohannesburg station panels in context / Pierneef,Land en Landskap:Die Johannesburg Stasiepanele in Konteks. Fourways: CBM Publishers.

22 September

New Prints: Recent Acquisitions

Featured artists included Francesco Clement, Enzo Cucchi, John N Muafangejo, Irma Stern, William Kentridge, Pippa Skotnes.

06 October

Unmasking The Puppet

03 November

The Standard Bank National Drawing Competition

An exhibition of the submissions by the finalists of the competition.

24 November

Christian Iconography in Printmaking

Featured artists included Jacques Callot, Maurice Denis, Hans Albrecht Von Derschau, Gwen M Raverat, John N Muafangejo, Hendrick Goltzius, Albrecht Altdorfer, J Goudt, Azaria Mbatha, Albrecht Dürer, Ugo da Carpi, Jan Lievens, Vespasiano Strada, Ferdinand Bol, Eugène Gaujean, William Wynne Ryland, Rembrandt, Lucas van Leyden, Hans Sebald Beham, Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, GN Vicenza, Frank Brangwyn, Anthony van Dyck, Émile Bernard, Georges Rouault, Schelte Adamsz à Bolswert, Cornelis Ploos van Amstel.

30 November

Dulux Awards for the Creative Use of Colour in Design 1987

An exhibition of the results of the national competition encouraging the use of colour on interior and exterior surfaces of residential, industrial and commercial buildings.

03 December

Focus on Bloomsbury

An exhibition presented in light of the renewed interest at the time in the paintings of the Bloomsbury Group.

Catalogue: Arnold, M. 2003. Focus on Bloomsbury/Kollig op Bloomsbury.

1988

26 January

Mary Stainbank

A retrospective exhibition.

Catalogue: Botha, A. 1988. Mary Stainbank Retrospective Exhibition. Foreword by Melanie Hillebrand.

02 February

Satirical Prints and Drawings

02 March

Contemporary German Drawings

15 March

Sir Frank Brangwyn, RA (1867-1956)

An exhibition of prints from the Gallery’s collection.

30 March

Modern South African and International Artworks from the Johannesburg Art Gallery’s Collection

03 May

Alphonse Legros and His Circle

Featured artists: Alphonse Legros, William Strang, Charles Jacque Auguste Lepère, Félix Bracquemond, James AM Whistler, Henri Fantin-Latour, Francis Seymour Haden, Walter Sickert.

10 May

Vita Art Now 1987

The AA Mutual Life Vita Art Awards’ second exhibition, where a panel of judges chose a selection of South African artist who had shown in Johannesburg in 1987. Annual award winner: Robert Hodgins; Quarterly award and merit award winners: Penny Siopis and David Goldblatt; Quarterly award winners: William Kentridge, David Goldblatt, John N Muafangejo, Edoardo Villa. Catalogue.

17 May

Transvaal Provincial Institute of Architects: Awards of Merit 1986/87

14 June

Barbizon Prints: Natural and Pastoral Themes

Featured artists: Jean-François Millet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Charles-François Daubigny, Paul Huet, Charles Emile Jacque, Théodore Rousseau.

Catalogue: Thyssen, E. 1985. Natural and Pastoral Themes by Barbizon Printmakers. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Art Gallery.

22 June

Paris and South African Artists (1850-1965)

Catalogue: Alexander, L. Paris and South African artists, 1850-1965. Cape Town: South African National Gallery.

26 July

John Muafangejo

An exhibition of work by the Standard Bank Guest Artist for 1988.

Catalogue: Muafangejo, J. 1998. JohnNdevasiaMuafangejo (1943-1987): Second Guest Artist Award 1998, Standard Bank National Arts Festival 1988. Broederstroom: Broederstroom Press. Text by Olga Levinson; introduction by Alan Crump. A project of the 1820 Foundation.

09 August

Impressionist Prints

16 August

Children’s “Impressionist” Paintings

24 August

New Group (1938-1954)

Exhibition commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the New Group. Artists included Walter Battiss, Maggie Laubser, Jean Welz, Maud Sumner, Alexis Preller, Cecil Higgs, Gregoire Boonzaier.

Catalogue: Schoonraad, M. 1988. New Group 1938-1954 – Battiss, Laubser, Welz, Sumner. Cape Town: South African National Gallery.

27 September

Intaglio Prints: An Historical Review

18 October

Masters of Modern Furniture

22 November

The Neglected Tradition: Towards a New History of South African Art (1930-1988)

An exhibition that resulted from the Gallery’s re-evaluation and reflection on the history of South African art. The exhibition attempted to trace the development of artistic practice and the influence of black artists in South Africa. Curator: Steven Sack. (see pp 90-93) Featured Artists: William Stewart Ainslie, Ben Wa Mokoena Arnold, Vincent Baloyi, Daniel Thomas Banda, Gerard Bhengu, Arthur Buthelezi, Peter Clarke, Lionel Davis, Bongiwe Dhlomo, Dumile Feni, Garth Erasmus, Fikile Magadledla, Bernard Gcwensa, John Hlatywayo, Austin Hleza, Jackson Hlungwane, Franz Hodi, Wopko Jensma, Duke Ketye, Thomas Kgope, David Koloane, Sydney Alex Khumalo, Ezrom Legae, Noria Mabasa, Dumisani Abraham Mabaso, Richard Mzamane Mabaso, Benjamin Mzimkulu Macala, Judus Mahlangu, Avhashoni Mainganye, Philda Majozi, Samuel Makoanyane, Ernest Methuen Mancoba, Buyisile Patient Mandindi, Bhekisani Manyoni, Louis Khela Maqhubela, Dikobe Wa Mogale, Thomas Selema Masekela, Mizream Maseko, Johannes Maswanganyi, Rexon Mathebula, Leonard Tshehla Mohapi Matsoso, Kagiso Patrick Mautloa, Azaria Mbatha, Elizabeth Mbatha, Mzwakhe Mbatha, Gladys Mgudlandlu, Justice Sfiso Mkame, Fanlo Mkize, Simon Mnguni, Thamsanqwa Mnyele, David Phaswane Mogano, John Koenakeefe Mohl, Dinah Molefe, Doe Molefe, Simon Moshapo, Julian Motau, David Moteane, Titus Moteyane, Andrew Tshidiso Motjuoadi, Thomas ‘Tommy’ Trevor Motswai, George Msimang, John Ndevasia Muafangejo, Nelson Mukhuba, Bheki Myeni, Khumalo Ndebele, Ephraim Mojalefa Ngatane, Mandla Nkosi, Sokhaya Charles Nkosi, Stanley Bongani Nkosi, Anthony Nkotsi, Hezekiel Ntuli, Jabulani Albert Ntuli, Caiphas Nxumalo, Derrick Vusimusi Nxumalo, Esther Nxumalo, George Pemba, Douglas Portway, Tivenyanga Qwabe, Daniel Sefudi Rakgoathe, Winston Churchill Masakeng Saoli, Lucas Seage, Mmakgoba Helen Sebidi, Gerard Sekoto, Phuthuma Seoka, Cyprian Mpho Shilakoe, Paul Michael Sibisi, Lucky SIbiya, Durant Sihlali, Lucas Sithole, Cecil Skotnes, Paul Tavhana, Edoardo Villa, Ruben Xulu, Ephraim Ziqubu, Michael Zondi. Catalogue: Sack, S. 1988. The NeglectedTradition:Towards a New History of South African Art (1930-1988). Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

06 December

Dulux Awards for the Creative Use of Colour in Design 1988

Myth and Fantasy in Printmaking

Featured artists: Andrew Verster, Justus Sadeler, Odilon Redon, Walter Battiss, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dalí, EdouardJoseph Goerg, Hendrick Goudt, Hieronymous Hopfer,

Jean-Francois Janinet, André Masson, Roberto Antonio Sebastian Matta, Lucien Coutaud, Anthonie Waterloo, Joan Miró.

1989

24 January

South African Collection

07 February

South African Print Portfolios

Portfolios included Helmut Starke’s Haystacks and Cape Town in Words and Images portfolios; Kevin Atkinson’s Cape Town in Words and Images; Peter Webber’s Cape Town in Words and Images; Gerrit Hilhorst’s On Black and White; Hogarth in Johannesburg by Deborah Bell, Robert Hodgins and William Kentridge; Happy Birthday Andrew Portfolio by Bronwen Findlay, Robert Hodgins, Peter Schütz, Penny Siopis, Clive van den Berg, Andrew Verster.

07 March

Cape Town Triennial 1988

A display of selected works from the national competition, that travelled around South Africa. Catalogue.

11 April

Northern Renaissance Prints

An exhibition of prints in conjunction with the launch of Jillian Carman’s publication, Dutch Paintings of the 17th Century

Catalogue: Carman, J. 1988. Dutch Painting of the 17th Century:JohannesburgArt Gallery/Nederlandse Skilderkuns van die 17de Eeu:Johannesburgse Kunsmuseum. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

03 May

Vita Art Now 1988

The AA Mutual Life Vita Art Awards’ third exhibition, where a panel of judges chose a selection of South African artist who had shown in Johannesburg in 1988. Annual award winner: David Brown; Merit award winner: Philippa Hobbs; 1st Quarterly award winner: Thomas Motswai; 3rd Quarterly award winner: Joachim Schönfeldt.

13 June

Architecture in Printmaking

27 June

Images of Wood: Aspects of the History of Sculpture in 20th Century South Africa

Catalogue: Rankin, E. Images of Wood: Aspects of the History of Sculpture in 20th Century SouthAfrica. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

08 August

Indian Miniatures

Exhibition of works on loan from Sue Ollemans

22 August

JAG’s Guest Artist Project 18: Neels Coetzee

An exhibition of drawings and sculptures.

24 August

Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes

An exhibition of etchings and aquatints

Brochure.

17 October

German Expressionist Prints

31 October

Gerard Sekoto: Unsevered Ties

Retrospective exhibition.

Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

19 December

Pop Prints in the 1970s

1990

13 March

Maidens, Mothers and Madams

May

Catalogue: Spiro, L. 1989. Gerard Sekoto:UnseveredTies

An exhibition of images, featuring women, from the print and drawing collection of the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

24 April

Vita Art Now 1989

The AA Mutual Life Vita Art Awards’ fourth exhibition, where a panel of judges chose a selection of South African artist who had shown in Johannesburg in 1989.

Catalogue.

The Modern International Collection

October

Contemporary British Ceramics

A display of the collection of British studio ceramics donated to the Gallery by Father Andrew Borello.

28 October

Jo’burg City – Whose City?

An oral history research project and photographic exhibition.

Catalogue: Hölscher, M & Emmett, M (eds). 1990. Jo’burg City –Whose City?An Oral History Research Project and Photographic Exhibition.

Completed November

The Rehanging of the Lutyens Building

Rehanging of Contemporary South African and Modern International Collections

Featured Artists: Bonita Kim Alice, Geoffrey Lawrence Vinal Armstrong, Bruce Murray Arnott, GH Atkins, Valerie BesterKiester, Zoltan Borbereki-Kovaks, Willem Boshoff, Andries Johannes Botha, David Brown, Norman Catherine, Albert Chauke, Zondi Chipa, Roger Henry Daller Davies, Jacobus Johannes Den Houting, Solly Disner, Guy du Toit, Elza Dziomba, Michael Edwards, Ângela Ferreira, Bernard Muntuwenkosi Gcwensa, Louis Michael Godberg, GS Gumede, Zamokwakhe Gumede, Hannes Harrs, Jackson Hlungwane, Job Kekana, Alison Kellerher, Duke Ellington Sipho Ketye, Moses Kottler, Maureen Langley, Phillipa Ruth Delisle Lea, Thomas Molatodi Lehupela, Israel Isaac ‘Lippy’ Lipshitz, Noria Mabasa, Richard Mzamane Mabaso, Ernest Mancoba, Richard Mangoma, Bhekisani Manyoni, Johannes Maswanganyi, Louis Maurice, Wiseman Ndabezinhle Mbambo, Mzwakhe Mbatha, Dianne Miller, Ivan Graham MitfordBarberton, Mishack Mkhabela, Saint Mokoena, Mji Edmund Mseleku, Nelson Mukhuba, Albert Munyai, Selby Mvusi, Ronald Mylchereest, Hendrik Tshivhangwaho Nekhofe, Josua Anfries Nell, Eric Ngcoco, Isaac Nkoana, Joel Noosi, Uwe Pfaff, Frederick Johannes Potgieter, Nico Prins, Maureen Vivian Quin, Tivenyanga Qwabe, George Ramagaga, Stephen Risi, Philemon Velangetshe Sangweni, Joachim Schönfeldt, Peter Schütz, Russell Scott, Lucas Seage, Solomon K Sedibane, Mashego Segogela, Doctor Phuthuma Seoka, Cyprian Mpho Shilakoe, Lucky Madlo Sibiya, Mario Constant Sickle, Durant Basi Sihlali, Lucas Sithole, Cecil Skotnes, Mary Stainbank, Coert Steynberg, Willem Strydom, Gert Swart, Tshikudo Tavhana, Madimetsa Teffo, Jacob Tladi, Johan van Heerden, Ruben Sezi Xulu, Mandlenkosi Zondi, Michael Zondi, Vuminkosi Zulu. Curated by Elizabeth Rankin.

04 December

Frederick I’ons (1802-1887)

A retrospective exhibition.

1991

29 January

Ukiyo-E: Japanese Wood-Block Prints Exhibition of JAG’s collecton of 180 prints.

Catalogue: Paton, B. 1991. Ukiyo-e:Japanese wood-block prints. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. Catalogue sponsored by The Friends of the Johannesburg Art Gallery. History of Papermaking Vita Art Prize

Gerard Sekoto was the recipient of the 1991 Vita Art Award. He generously donated his prize money to JAG on condition it would be used towards hosting a special day where young people could take part in activities around art. Since then the 16th of December has become JAG’s Gerard Sekoto Day for the Youth and the Gallery has continued to secure sponsorship for this event.

07 May

Vita Art Now 1990

The AA Mutual Life Vita Art Awards’ fifth exhibition, where a panel of judges chose a selection of South African artist who had shown in Johannesburg in 1990. Annual award winner: Karel Nel; Annual merit award winners: Paul Shelly, Penny Siopis; Quarterly award winners: Robert Hodgins, Braam Kruger, Russell Scott.

Catalogue: Danby, N & Pells, L. 1991. VitaArt Now 1990 Johannesburg Art Gallery. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

28 May

Diversity and Themes: Romantic Prints Curated by Sheree Lissoos.

Catalogue: Lissoos, S. 1991. DiversityandThemes:Romantic Prints. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

25 September

I Am a Culture Vulture

Artists’ Market: Young Artist Winners. An exhibition of the winning entries submitted to the competition.

02 October

BMW Art Car Collection

The BMW Art Car #12 in 1991 was painted by Esther Mahlangu.

Catalogue: Tobu Museum of Art (ed). 1998. Africa Africa VibrantNewArtfromaDynamicContinent.Tokyo: The Tobu Museum of Art.

04 December

Art and Ambiguity: Perspectives on the Brenthurst Collection of Southern African Art

The first major exhibition of ‘traditional’ southern African art at JAG. Formerly known as the Lowen Collection, the Brenthurst Collection was acquired by Harry Oppenheimer, repatriated to South Africa, and given to JAG on long-term loan. Chair of the Catalogue and Exhibition Project Group was Christopher Till; Project co-ordinator was Rochelle Keene. Authors and selection advisers were Patricia Davison, Johan van Schalkwyk, Anitra Nettleton, Rayda Becker, Sandra Klopper, Diane Levy, Ann Wanless, Agnes Havran. Exhibition design and concept was by Karel Nel. (see pg 144-145)

Catalogue: Art and Ambiguity: Perspectives on the Brenthurst Collection of SouthernAfricanArt. 1991. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. Contributing writers:

Christopher Till, Es’kia Mphahlele, Patricia Davison, Johan van Schalkwyk, Anitra Nettleton, Rayda Becker, Sandra Klopper, Diane Levy, Ann Wanless, Agnes Havran.

1992

22 April

Cape Town Triennial 1991

A display of selected works from the national competition, which travelled around South Africa.

Catalogue: KaapstadseTriennale 1991/CapeTownTriennial. 1991. Rembrandt Van Rijn Art Foundation.

12 May

1990/1991 Awards of Merit, Transvaal Institute of Architects

26 May

Meyer Pienaar Smith

01 July

Vita Art Now 1991

The AA Mutual Life Vita Art Awards’ sixth exhibition, where a panel of judges chose a selection of South African artist who had shown in Johannesburg in 1991. Annual award winner: Andries Botha; Annual merit award winners: Deborah Bell, Kendell Geers; Quarterly award winner: David Brown; Joint Quarterly award winner: Norman Catherine. Catalogue.

09 September

Last Paintings by Bill Ainslie (1934-1989)

Catalogue: Ainslie, B, Williams, P & Wolsford College, Oxford. 1990. Last Paintings by BillAinslie 1934-1989

24 November

Bloomsbury Artists at Charleston

An exhibition of paintings from the Reader’sDigest corporate collection.

Catalogue: Casteras, SP. 1992. Bloomsbury Artists at Charleston:Paintings from the Reader’s Digest Corporate Collection. Cape Town: The Reader’s Digest Association South Africa.

03 December

The Horstmann Collection of Southern African Art Exhibition of Udo Horstmann and his wife, the Horstmann’s collection acquired over thirty years, including sculptures, figures, masks, household objects and weapons from Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Kenya and Sudan. Curated by Diane Levy.

Catalogue: The Horstmann Collection of SouthernAfrican Art. 1992. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

1990 Sculpture Competition

The winning works by Andries Botha and Peter Schütz installed in the sculpture gardens.

1993

24 March

A Tribute to Gerard Sekoto

Catalogue: Marais, E. 1993. Tribute to Gerard Sekoto. Mmabatho: University of Bophuthatswana, Institute of African Studies.

25 March

Alfred Eisenstaedt

An exhibition of photographic works by Eisenstaedt –considered to be the ‘father’ of photojournalism. The exhibition featured roughly 60 of his photographs, including his

famous image, V-J Day, depicting a sailor kissing a girl in 1945. Eisenstaedt was present at the opening.

01 April

Knots and Nets: Spiritual Connections

An exhibition of American fibre art. 38 works by 24 contemporary American artists utilising knots and/or nets as symbolic elements imbued with spiritual and philosophical meaning.

23 May

IGI Life Vita Art Now 1992

An exhibition showing a selection of South African artist who had shown in Johannesburg in 1992 were chosen by a panel of judges. Annual award winner: William Kentridge; Annual merit award winners: Alan Alborough, Marc Edwards, Günther Herbst, Simon Stone. Quarterly award winner: Robert Hodgins.

Catalogue: IGI Life,Vita Art Now. 1992. Johannesburg: Vita Promotions cc & Johannesburg Art Gallery.

11 June

Entomological Art

First of two exhibitions organised by the Entomological Society of Southern Africa, featuring etomological art to coincide with their 9th Biennial Congress.

19 June

Lace Collection

Major installation of JAG’s lace collection, donated by Florence Phillips, with the assistance of members of the Witwatersrand Lace Guild who catalogued, cleaned and repaired the items.

Catalogue: Griffiths, A. 1993. The Lace Collection of the JohannesburgArt Gallery. 1993. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

23 June

Insect Art

Second of two exhibitions organised by the Entomological Society of Southern Africa, featuring etomological art to coincide with their 9th Biennial Congress.

03 August

New Acquisitions

05 September

ASAFO! Fante Flags From Ghana

17 October

Pressing Issues: How Prints are Made

An exhibition of prints and print techniques

14 November

Vita Craft Now 1993

The first national crafts exhibition. Catalogue.

Jackson Hlungwani

Installation of sculpture by Jackson Hlungwane in a dedicated area of JAG. (see pg 65)

Book: Spiro Cohen, L. 1993. JacksonHlungwani.AResource Book. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

1994

22 February

An Overview of Contemporary South African Art from the Permanent Collection

April

Ballot and Ballad Boxes

10 May

FNB Vita Art Now 1993

Annual award winner: Guy du Toit; Annual merit award winners: Belinda Blignaut, Allina Ndebele; Annual special

award winner: Niel Goedhals; Third quarter winners: Cyril Coetzee, Belinda Blignaut; Second quarter winners: Steven Cohen, Wilma Cruise.

Catalogue.

09 August

People, Politics and Power

An exhibition of Khoisan rock art in conjunction with the Rock Art Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand.

Catalogue: People, Politics And Power: The Politics of Representing the Bushmen People of Southern Africa 1994. Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand and Johannesburg Art Gallery.

30 October

Hand In Hand

A retrospective exhibition of works by Ernest Mancoba and Sonja Ferlov Mancoba. Curated by Elza Miles. Mancoba was present at the opening.

Catalogue: Miles, E. 1994. Lifeline Out of Africa:The Art of Ernest Mancoba. Johannesburg: Human & Rousseau. A resource book was additionally made available, written by Elza Miles.

23 November

The Foundation and Dutch Collections

A new installation of the Foundation and Dutch collections, to mark the launch of two books relating to JAG collection. Catalogues: Hare, MJ. 1994. Rodin’s Bust of Eve Fairfax:The Sculptor and his Sitter. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Carman, J. 1988. DutchPaintingofthe17th Century:JohannesburgArtGallery/NederlandseSkilderkunsvandie17de Eeu:JohannesburgseKunsmuseum. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

26 November

Presidents Award Student Exhibition

1995

07 February

Mubvumela Tree: Project Exhibition

An exhibition of wooden sculptures made during a workshop at the De Beers Venetia mine.

01 March

Outside Inside: Africus, The 1st Johannesburg Biennale

(See pp 94-5) An exhibition of 8 installations by South African artists that formed part of the first Johannesburg Biennale. Each artist was given a separate space in the Gallery within which to intervene. Curated by Julia Charlton. Featured artists and artworks: Jann Cheifitz: Foreign Exchange (1994-95); Kendell Geers: TitleWithheld(Boycott) (198995); Leora Farber: Seeing is Believing and Other Modern Myths (1994-95); Karel Nel: Temenos:Lingam or Mayhem (1994-95); Joachim Schönfeldt: Untitled(‘Thenoblesavage’) (1995); Steven Cohen: Let Them Eat Cock! (1989-95); Willem Boshoff: BlindAlphabetABC (1991-1995); Durant Sihlali: From the Mural series (1994-1995).

Catalogue: Bowyer, A (ed). 1995. Africus:The 1st Johannesburg Biennale. Johannesburg: TMC.

14 May

FNB Vita Art Now 1994

Annual award winner: Sue Williamson; Annual merit award winner: Walter Meyer; Annual special award winner for Hand in Hand: Elza Miles; Annual special award winner: Ken Oosterbroek; Second quarter winner: David Koloane;

Third quarter winners: Penny Siopis and Walter Meyer; Fourth quarter winners: William Kentridge, Willie Bester.

Catalogue: First National Bank 1994 Vita Art Now. Johannesburg: FNB Vita Art Awards and Johannesburg Art Gallery.

29 June

Public Worlds/Private Worlds

13 August

Hommage À Jean Lurcat

A centenary celebration of the artist.

Catalogue: Guillemin, H. 1973. Hommage à Jean Lurcat:

A Collection of Contemporary French Tapestries. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales.

11 September FashionArt

A one-day fund-raising event and exhibition, featuring Marianne Fassler, Blue Zoo, Julian, Jacques van der Watt, Ineeleng, Rachel Brown, André Croucamp, Gavin Rajah, Tracy Moore, Robert Hodgins, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, André Naudé, Philippa Hobbs, Velaphi Mzimba, Sam Nhlengethwa, Louis van Heerden, Andrew Putter, Sarah Tabane.

17 September

The Right To Hope

01 October City Life

12 November

Positive Lives: Responses to HIV

An exhibition of photographs curated by London-based Network group of photographers. The film Umuntu,Umuntu, Ngabantu was screened at the opening.

12 December Hidden Treasures

An exhibition of artworks selected from the storerooms by JAG staff members.

1996

18 February

Selby Mvusi: A Retrospective Exhibition

Retrospective exhibition curated by Elza Miles.

Catalogue: Miles, E. 1996. Current of Africa: The Art of Selby Mvusi. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. Publication produced to mark the opening of Selby Mvusi: ARetrospectiveExhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, 18 February-21 April 1996.

06 May

FNB Vita Art Now 1995

Annual Award Winners: Jane Alexander, Kevin Brand. Catalogue: First National Bank 1995 Vita Art Now. Johannesburg: FNB Vita Art Awards and Johannesburg Art Gallery.

May

Corbet to Caldecott

23 June Talking Colours

An exhibition of works by children resulting from a project facilitated by art therapists, educators and psychologists.

26 August Artists’ Books

An exhibition of books by people who don’t write, from the Ginsberg Collection (and some South African books from other collections). Curated by Jack M Ginsberg and David M Paton. Featured artists included Russel Scott, Sheila Flynn, Sonya Strafella, Flip Hatting, Liz Vels, Giulio Tambellini, Phillipa Hobbs.

28 August

Secular and Spiritual: Objects of Mediation

Exhibition of objects from different genres of traditional art, including child figures, medicine containers, ceramics, carved figures and beadwork, with explanations of their significance and use, especially their functional and spiritual purpose.

Leibhammer, N. 1996. Making Links: A Resource Book on theTraditional SouthernAfrican Collection at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Views from Within Traditional and contemporary works by South African artists showing innovation, adaptation to new material and markets, and how some works made in the past have influenced or remain meaningful to artists today.

Pictures from a Golden Age

Exhibition of 17th century Dutch paintings in South Africa, including loans from other South African galleries, and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Funded by the Royal Netherlands Embassy, and opened by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands as one of her functions celebrating her first official visit to South Africa and the resumption of cultural ties between the two countries.

Pamphlet, educational resources, wall panels.

17 November

Jürgen Schadeberg

Retrospective exhibition of photographic work.

08 December

George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba

Retrospective exhibition.

1997

25 March

A Decade of Collecting

An exhibition of work purchased for the Gallery’s collection through The Anglo American Johannesburg Centenary Trust (1986-1996).

Catalogue: Shoolman, S (ed). 1997. ADecadeofCollecting: TheAngloAmerican Johannesburg CentenaryTrust,19861996. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. Includes texts by Jillian Carman, Julia Charlton, Nessa Leibhammer, Gavin Relly, Rochelle Keene.

08 April

Tribute 21

An exhibition of 21 lithographs donated by Felissimo, a multi-national marketing company, and the artist Robert Rauschenberg, to celebrate 21 humanitarian themes for the 21st century.

13 May

Maz’enethole!

A display of a selection of works from the Nelson Mandela Collection, curated by Thembinkosi Mabaso.

Catalogue: Shoolman, S (ed). 1997. Maz’enethole! A Selection from the Nelson Mandela Collection.Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery/ANC Archives.

03 June

The Painted Sounds of Romare Bearden

An exhibition of work by the African-American artist (19141988), who grew up in Harlem, New York, during the Harlem Renaissance and was active in the civil rights movements of the 1960s. International travelling exhibition, organised by the United States Information Service.

Catalogue: Gelburd, G & Long, RA. 1994. The Painted Sounds of Romare Bearden. New York: Council for Creative Projects.

29 July

Collaborations 1986-1997 (FNB Vita Art Awards)

During a residency period from 11-16 October, the artists William Kentridge, Robert Hodgins and Deborah Bell produced a selection of collaborative works, including the film, Hotel

12 August

Transferring the Charge

An exhibition of prints illustrating a transforming South Africa.

09 October

HJ Gallagher Bequest

The exhibition featured a selection of artworks from HJ Gallagher’s collection, given to the Gallery in 1981, shown to coincide with the unveiling of a plaque of at Gallagher’s Corner, Orange Grove, Johannesburg.

11 October

Important and Exportant. Part of the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale 1997: Trade Routes: History and Geography

Curated by Gerardo Mosquera, the exhibition included work by Sophie Calle, Willem Boshoff, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Frédéric Bruly Bouabré, Ana Mendieta, Cildo Meireles, Filipino David Medalla and Adam Nankervis.

Catalogue: Enwezor, O (ed). Trade Routes: History + Geography: 2nd Johannesburg Biennale 1997. Johannesburg: Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council/Amsterdam: Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development.

02 December

Land and Lives

An exhibition of works by pioneer black artists born before 1930. Featured artists included Ferdinand Cloete, Micha Kagasi, Simon Lekgetho, Moses Tladi, Jackson Hlungwane, George Pemba, Ernest Mancoba. Curated by Elza Miles. Book: Miles, E. 1997. Land & Lives:A Story of Early Black Artists. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau. Educational brochure

07 December

African Womenscapes: 1997 “It’s a question of power”

An exhibition of paintings, prints, photographs, essays, creative writing, dance, music, fashion and styling by women. Featured artists: Nomsa Manaka, Sophie Mgcina, Nakedi Ribane, Jolah Mkame, Robin Chandler, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, Geraldine David, Ntsiki Zungu, Kedibone Tabane, Ruth Motau, African Maroon Jazz Band, Professor Phyllis Zungu, Vinara Naidoo, Nalini Moodley, Vusisizwe Mchunu. Curated by Linda Mvusi and Vusisizwe Mchunu.

1998

21 March

A Changed World

An exhibition of contemporary British sculpture from 19631996. Featured artists: Edward Allington, Bill Woodrow, Riichard Deacon, Michael Craig-Martin, Anthony Caro, Eduardo Paolozzi, Richard Long, Damien Hirst, Tim Lewis, Rachel Whiteread, Tony Craig. International touring exhibition by the British Council.

Catalogue: 1997. ChangedWorld:SculpturefromBritain The British Council.

11 May

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

Exhibition of work by the German painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose work explored the human condition, and especially the horror of war during the first half of the 20th century.

27 July

Evocations of the Child

An exhibition of fertility figures of the Southern African Region. Curated by Elizabeth Dell, Nessa Leibhammer, Karel Nel, Marilee Wood.

Catalogue: Dell, E & Becker, R. 1998. Evocations of the Child:FertilityFiguresoftheSouthernAfricanRegion.Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

01 September

Gauteng Heritage

13 November

Georg Baselitz

The exhibition represented 200 works, mainly on paper, from the Deutsche Bank’s collection.

Catalogue: 1997. Georg Baselitz:Aus der Sammlung Deutsche Bank. Schmidt Publishers.

1999

15 February

Azaria Mbatha

Retrospective exhibition.

Catalogue: Mbatha, A. 1999. AzariaMbatha.Johannesburg: National Arts Council of South Africa.

13 May

The Art of Baha’i Architecture

A photographic exhibition of Baha’i temples.

27 July

Banners of Twilight

An exhibition of wall-hangings by South African street children.

10 September

Shuttle ‘99 Ziyabuya Tactile Exhibition

A tactile exhibition of work by blind and visually impaired children shown as part of Willem Boshoff’s exhibition BlindAlphabet

26 September

Structures

An exhibition of photographic work by David Goldblatt.

21 November

Democracy’s Images

An exhibition of photography and visual art after the apartheid era. Featured artists included Jodi Bieber, Jean Brundrit, Kay Hassan, Senzeni Marasela, Santu Mofokeng, Ruth Motau, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Cedric Nunn, Tracey Rose, Joachim Schönfeldt, Penny Siopis, Minnette Vári. Curated by Rory Bester.

Catalogue: Lundström, J-E & Pierre, K (eds). 1998. Democracy’s Images:Photography andVisualArtAfterApartheid. Umeå: BildMuseet.

2000

23 January

Hansruedi Büchi

An exhibition of photographs of the Namib desert as seen through a Swiss lens by the photo essayist.

22 March

Harry Trevor

1921-1970: The South African Years 1939-1946

Curated by Hayden Proud.

Catalogue: Proud, H. 1998. HarryTrevor,1922-1970:The South African Years, 1939-1946. Cape Town: SANG.

09 October

King Korn Calendar Competition

November

Artists of the South November

Traditional South African Collection

An exhibition of a variety of works and objects from the contemporary and traditional Southern African collections, including new acquisition from 1996-2000.

16 November

Dobsville College Students Exhibition

03 December

The Joubert Park Project Presents an Open Day

A day’s events presenting the outcome of diverse, long-term projects and workshops, involving artists, performers, the Joubert Park Freelance Photographers, and groups of youths that form the neighbouring communities. Participating artists included David Goldblatt, Mothlalefi Mahlabe, Usha Prajapat, Robin Rhode, Amanda Lane, Mark Dunlop, Stompie Selibe, The Trinity Session, Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa, Clive van den Berg, Leon Mdiya. (see pp 148-153)

2001

07 March

Globalliance (A Clever World Holds Hands)

An exhibition of artworks by children from South Africa – from the Johannesburg Girls’ Preparatory School, and from Austria – from the Neues Gymnasium Leoben.

02 May

George Gittoes: Lives in the Balance

An artist’s eyewitness diary on the global and individual causes and consequences of post-war conflict.

17 June

Expressions of Identity

Curated by Mthunzi Ndimande and Nthabiseng Makhene.

13 July

African Renaissance

17 July

Max Ernst (1891-1976)

Exhibition of graphic works. Supported by the Goethe Institute.

15 October

King Korn Art Competition 2001

16 October

DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Sculpture 2002

An exhibition of work by DaimlerChrysler Award 2002 winner, Jane Alexander.

Catalogue: 2002. JaneAlexander. DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Sculpture. Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz Verlag.

29 October

My World/Our World

An international children’s photography project.

2002

27 January

Jabulisa 2000

An exhibition of art from Kwazulu-Natal. Curated by Jill Addleson and Brendan Bell.

Catalogue: Bell, B. 2000. Jabulisa 2000: TheArt of KwaZuluNatal. Pietermaritzburg: Natal Arts Trust.

Surviving The Lens

An exhibition of photographic studies of South East African people between 1870-1920. Curated by Michael Stevenson. Catalogue: Stevenson, M & Graham-Stewart, M. 2001. Surviving The Lens: Photographic Studies of South and EastAfricanPeople,1870-1920.Vlaeberg: Fernwood Press.

05 May

Peter Friedl

The exhibition included the Friedl’s video collaboration, King Kong (2001), with American cult musician Daniel Johnston.

18 June

Welcome to JAG

Proposals for new entries to the Gallery by third year fine art students from the University of the Witwatersrand were on display.

29 June

Amabal’Engwe

An exhibition of traditional garments and jewellery of the southern African region, forming part of the cultural events celebrating the African Union Summit in Durban that year. The term “Amabal’Engwe” is derived from the IsiZulu proverb: “Ingwe idla nga mabala”, which roughly translates into English as, “A leopard eats by its colours”. Curated by Veliswa Gwintsa.

23 July

The Martienssen Prize Exhibition 2002

The annual exhibition and prize for senior students from the University of the Witwatersrand.

29 August

[Re]vision: Art from South Africa

An open day series of exhibitions presented as part of the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. New Strategies

Part of ‘[Re]vision: Art from South Africa’, this exhibition exhibition featured works from the Gallery’s Contemporary South African Collection acquired over the previous decade. (see pp 130-143) Featured artists included: Alan Alborough, Jane Alexander, Jodi Bieber, Willem Boshoff, Lisa Brice, Norman Catherine, Clifford Charles, Samson Mnisi, Marc Edwards, Dumile Feni, William Kentridge, Moshekwa Langa, Tracey Rose, Jo Ractliffe, Santu Mofokeng, Sandile Zulu, Penny Siopis, David Goldblatt, Kendell Geers, Clive van den Berg, Stephen Hobbs, Robert Hodgins, David Koloane, Frank Ledimo, Ezrom Legae, Louis Maqhubela, Rosemarie Marriott, Colbert Mashile, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Sam Nhlengethwa, Peter Schütz, Hentie van der Merwe, Sue Williamson.

Catalogue: Maart, B (ed). 2002. New Strategies. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. Contributing writers to the publication included David Brodie, Brenton Maart, Tshidiso Makhetha, Stephen Hobbs. Safe Food II

Part of “[Re]vision: Art from South Africa, and the second component of the Safe Food project, which exhibited an interactive installation by Kathryn Smith, Stephen Hobbs and Marcus Neustetter.

Exchange Values: Images of Invisible Lives

Part of ‘[Re]vision: Art from South Africa’, this was a sound and sculpture installation by Shelley Sacks in collaboration with banana farmers and producers of the Windward Islands.

Catalogue: Sacks, S et al. 2002. ExchangeValues:Images of Invisible Lives. Published by: Exhibition for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002). (CD of recordings included).

Miss World and Company

Part of ‘[Re]vision: Art from South Africa’, this was an installation of giant rubber and latex sculptures, salt, and sound by Isolde Krams. The exhibition was accompanied by an opera during the opening, directed by Robert Colman. Boipelo Ka Setso: Treasures of the Southern African Region

Part of ‘[Re]vision: Art from South Africa’, this was an exhibition of works from the Gallery’s traditional southern African collection, also featuring photographs by Peter Magubane contextualising the garments, jewellery and utility items. Curated by Veliswa Gwintsa.

Beyond Barriers

Part of ‘[Re]vision: Art from South Africa’, this was an exhibition of works expressing various forms of awareness and access to equal rights, and exploring issues facing people with disabilities. Featured artists included: Mandla Mabila, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Willem Boshoff, The Alexandra Disability Movement and the Disabled People of Vosloorus, Dan Rakgoathe, Tommy Motswai, Ben Nsusha, Selwyn Segal, Sibonile & Brauns School, Thembalethu & Mason Lincoln School. Curated by Usha Seejarim and Coral Bijoux.

01 September

Art and Society

Following the [Re]vision exhibitions, a discussion forum on social art was led by Stephen Hobbs and Shelly Sacks, followed by an opera performance of Miss World and Company by Isolde Krams.

06 October

Gladys Mgudlandlu

Retrospective exhibition of work by the South African Expressionist painter, curated by Elza Miles. Book: Miles, E. 2002. Nomfanekiso,who Paints at Night: TheArt Of Gladys Mgudlandlu. Simon’s Town: Fernwood Press.

2003

01 February

White

A collaborative exhibition and installation by Helen Bramley, Liza Christofides and Ann-Marie Tully, using the colour white as a linking thread and aesthetic preference to express feelings of mourning and representational violence.

02 March

Mandla Mogale

A solo exhibition of large scale paintings

05 April

Show Me Home

A group exhibition exploring the ‘ambiguities of home’, featuring artists Veliswa Gwintsa, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Colbert Mashile, Usha Seejarim, Justice Jimmy Setumane Mokwena, Angela Buckland, Diane Victor, Jo Ractliffe, Deborah Poynton, Pitso Chinzima, Santu Mofokeng, Stephen Hobbs. Curated by Mads Damsbo.

Catalogue: Damsbo, M et al. 2003. Show Me Home. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

13 April

Liminal States

A solo exhibition of works by Churchill Madikida. Curated by Khwezi Gule. Opening speaker: Sandile Memela.

18 May

Siyabonga

An exhibition of then recent works by Keith Sondiyazi and Louis Chamane.

08 June

Inqolobane: Homage to Nhlanhla Xaba

A commemorative exhibition of paintings and prints. Opening speaker: Bonisiwe Makhene; guest speakers: Sydney Selepe, Alan Crump, Kim Berman, Steven Sack.

21 June

Art As Usual

City + Suburban Studio’s 24 Hour Residency Programme, which ran until 10 August, and featured 24 residencies for artists working in New Media, Traditional, Fashion, Audio, Conceptual, Lens-based and Public art.

09 August

Suka Dzivha Fundudzi

A solo exhibition of work by Samson Mudzunga, comprising coffin drums and sculptural objects. Curated by PItso Chinzima. Opening speaker: Anitra Nettleton.

Catalogue: Mudzunga, S, Chinzima, P & Nettleton, A. 2003. Suka Dzivha Fundudzi. Johannesburg: Johannesburg

Art Gallery.

30 August

Art As Usual: Exhibition of Evidence

The exhibition of 24.7 evidence of a 24-hour residency programme held over 7 weeks.

Rub/ish Talk

A mixed media exhibition by Jeff Nkainde and Vusi Mfuphi.

Opening speaker: Sokhaya Charles Nkosi.

01 October

Upfront and Personal

An exhibition of 3 decades of political graphics from the UK and South Africa.

Catalogue: McQuiston, L (curator). 2003. Upfront and Personal: Three Decades of Political Graphics from the UnitedKingdom,PlusSouthernAfricanPoliticalGraphics

Cape Town: British Council South Africa.

05 October

Hope Box

An interactive travelling exhibition of artworks from four art projects initiated by Rienke Enghardt, in association with the Joubert Park Project. The art projects included were: WeatherReport (1991-2004), HommageaTranTrung Tin (1993-2003), Cadavre Exquis (1995-2005) and Tigerpaws in the Fishglobe (2000-2006).

02 November

The Ones on Top Won’t Make it Stop

An exhibition of photographic works by Nontsikelelo ‘Lolo’ Veleko featured as part of the Urban Life project by Market Photo Workshop advanced students.

Déjà Vu

A solo exhibition of work by Simon Gush, coordinated by the Joubert Park Project.

06 December

Lucky Charm

An exhibition of work by the Bag Factory’s artists in residence, Bita Fayyazi and Hubert Dechant.

2004

10 February

Leaves War

A solo exhibition of works by Alazar Asgedom.

Transformation from Imitation to Self-Expression

A solo exhibition of work by Laine Blata Kiflezion.

25 February

Pressured Proportions

An outdoor sculpture installation by Emil Holmer

05 and 06 March

The Babysitting Series

A performance by Robyn Orlin in collaboration with JAG guards, as part of the FNB Dance Umbrella 2004.

07 March

African Jazz on Canvas

An exhibition of mixed media paintings by Michael Buhlakani Nene.

16 March

Thingerotomy

An exhibition of work by Joanne Bloch.

04 April

Urban Life

A photographic exhibition of works by 13 artists from the Market Photo Workshop encouraging engagement around urban culture, diversity of cultural background and heritage. (see pp 114-117)

17 April

Conrad Botes (Konradski)

A solo exhibition of works featured as part of Comics Brew, the Festival of International Comic Art in Southern Africa. Catalogue: Botes, C. The Rat inArt:Conrad Botes,Pop and the Postmodern. Catalogue with an essay by Ashraf Jamal. Cape Town: Erdmann Contemporary.

28 April

Sted=Place

A group exhibition featuring artists from Denmark and South Africa, including Doris Bloom, Willem Boshoff, Claus Carstensen, Torben Christensen, Marco Evaristti, Kendell Geers, Eva Koch, Karel Nel.

Catalogue: Spliid, L. 2004. Sted=Place. Denmark: CenterTryk Holbaek.

06 June life in(to) sojourn

An exhibition of work by Razak Awofeso. Out of Focus

An exhibition of photographic works by Buyaphi Mdledle featured as part of the Urban Life project by Market Photo Workshop advanced students.

04 July

Kliptown 6

A group exhibition featuring Pober da Gama, Louis Edwards, Kamogelo Mokhonki, Enoch Mohamed, Raymond Schoeman, Rhett Thomson, with an installation by the Kliptown Klipspruit West Eldorado Park Photo Assist (KKEPA). Kithi Kunje

A solo exhibition of work by Mbuso Yende.

14 July

Rorke’s Drift: Empowering Prints

A retrospective exhibition of printmaking from Rorke’s Drift. Curated by Elizabeth Rankin and Phillippa Hobbs. Catalogue: Hobbs, P & Rankin, E. 2003. Rorke’sDrift:Empowering Prints. Cape Town: Juta and Company Ltd.

15 July

Johannesburg Circa Now

A project by Jo Ractliffe and Terry Kurgan, which involved a three-month long exhibition and an interactive public project, focusing on Johannesburg’s transforming inner-city. Additional artists included Zola Gule, Lwazi Hlope, Andile Komanisi, Lebo Mahiloane, Sabelo Mlangeni, Siphiwe Zwane, the Joubert Park Freelance Photographers Association, as well as works from JAG’s Foundation Collection. (see pp 106-109)

Catalogue: Kurgan, T and Ractliffe, J (eds). 2005. Johannesburg Circa Now: Photography and the City. Johannesburg: Terry Kurgan and Jo Ractliffe.

18 July

Mother of Mine, Daughter of Spirits

An exhibition of photographic works by Sipho Futshane as part of the Urban Life project by Market Photo Workshop advanced students.

01 August

From Corot to Monet

The exhibition was previously shown at the Palazzo Crepadona, Belluno, Italy, organised by Linea d’Ombra from October 11 2003-February 15 2004.

Catalogue: Goldin, M & Keene, R. 2004. From Corot to Monet. Impressionists and Post-Impressionists from the JohannesburgArt Gallery. Treviso: Linea d’Ombra Libri.

07 August

Negotiate: Intercession

The first exhibition in a series of four, in honour of South Africa’s 10 years of democracy celebrations.

08 August

Cancelled Without Prejudice

An exhibition of works by Nirupa Sing.

29 August

Visual Sexuality

An exhibition of photographic works by Zanele Muholi featured as part of the Urban Life project by Market Photo Workshop advanced students.

04 September

Negotiate: Intervention

The second exhibition in a series of four, in honour of South Africa’s 10 years of democracy celebrations.

19 September

Oupa Nkosi: Kliptown

Nicole Thomas: Beyers Naudé

Photographic exhibition as part of the Urban Life project by Market Photo Workshop advanced students.

Land Act

An exhibition of works by Kolodi Senong.

02 October

Negotiate: Arbitration

The third exhibition in a series of four, in honour of South Africa’s 10 years of democracy celebrations.

20 October

Iqbal Tladi: Hybrid Pitt House

Raymond Mokoena: Amphela (cockroaches)

Photographic exhibition as part of the Urban Life project by Market Photo Workshop advanced students.

24 October

Negotiated Identities: Black Bodies

A group exhibition, including objects from the Gallery’s Traditional South African Collection, African Cinema and literary material. Artists featured included Peter Clarke, Ernest Cole, Ezrom Legae, Pat Mautloa, George Pemba, Winston Saoli, Nontsikelelo ‘Lolo’ Veleko.

30 October

The Storytellers: Works from the Non-aggressive Narrative

A solo exhibition of works by Nathaniel Stern. Assisted curation by Kathryn Smith and Pitso Chinzima.

03 November Making Waves

An exhibition of works from the SABC art collection. Curated by Koulla Xinisteris.

Catalogue: Xinisteris, K & Neame, G. 2005. MakingWaves:

A Selection ofWorks from the SABCArt Collection. Johannesburg: Koulla Xinisteris.

06 November

Negotiate: Conciliation

The fourth exhibition in a series of four, in honour of South Africa’s 10 years of democracy celebrations.

10 November

Saudade of Hope

An exhibition of photographs by Mozambican artists, as part of the Indian Ocean Photography Project.

14 November

The Child Within

An exhibition of introspective oil paintings by Nadia Taljaard that direct the viewer to a place of remembering being a child.

Scenes from a Car

An exhibition of photographs by Cariña Booyens, featured as part of the Urban Life project by Market Photo Workshop advanced students.

05 December

The Weeping Eye

A multimedia exhibition by Justice Jimmy Setumane Mokwena.

2005

22 January

A Place Called Home

An exhibition of work by contemporary artists from the South Asian Diaspora, including Bani Abidi, Omar Badsha, Ansuman Biswas, Zen Marie, Prema Murthy, Chila Kumari Burman, Faiza Galdhari, Sunil Gupta, Roshini Kempadoo, Moti Roti, Usha Seejarim. Curated by Zayd Minty.

Catalogue: Minty, Z. 2000. A Place Called Home. Cape Town: One.

30 January

Dumile Feni Retrospective

Curated by Prince Dube.

Catalogue: Dube, PM (ed). 2006. DumileFeniRetrospective. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. Brochure also available.

05 February

The Portable Hawkers Museum Retrospective

An exhibition of works by Alison Kearney.

01 May

Marina Abramović and Paolo Canevari

A live performance by Abramović, titled Spirit Cooking Organised by Kendell Geers. (see p 99)

04 May

Dutch Collection

Dutch art from the Foundation Collection. Curated by Sheree Lissoos.

Collections/Connections

Recent acquisitions from the Contemporary Collection highlighting aspects of spirituality and love, language and transition, urban culture, politics and the body. Curated by Khwezi Gule.

Present Continuous

An exhibition of recent acquisitions from the Traditional Southern African Collection,working with the idea that cultural exchange occurs in all directions, across societies and over time. Curated by Nessa Leibhammer.

31 May

Villa at 90

In celebration of Edoardo Villa’s 90th birthday, selected works were exhibited in conjunction with the book launch of Villa at 90

Catalogue: Nel, K, Burroughs, E & Von Maltitz, A (eds). 2005. Villa at 90.His Life,Work and Influence. Cape Town: Jonathan Ball.

15 June

Guy Tillim

An exhibition by the 2004 winner of the DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Photography. 2004. Catalogue: GuyTillim: DaimlerChryslerAward for South African Photography 2004. DaimlerChrysler South Africa.

03 July

William Kentridge Retrospective

A major retrospective survey of Kentridge’s work, curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, which opened at the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin, and toured through 2005 to venues in four countries, including K20/K21 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal; and the Johannesburg Art Gallery. The exhibition presented drawings by the artist dating as far back as 1979, major early animated films, an important selection of projections onto objects and furniture, and a selection of recent works based on the artist’s interest in shadows, as well as in the techniques of early cinema. Catalogue: Christov-Bakargiev, C. 2004. William Kentridge. Milan: Skira. Italian/English.

17 August

David Goldblatt: 51 Years

A touring retrospective exhibition of the photographic work of Goldblatt spanning 51 years. The exhibition was curated by Corinne Diserens and Okwui Enwezor. (see p 66) Catalogie: Enwezor, O (ed). 2001. David Goldblatt: FiftyOneYears. Produced by the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) with the collaboration of AXA Gallery, New York. Includes contributions by JM Coetzee, Michael Godby, Nadine Gordimer, Chris Killip, Ivan Vladislavic, Okwui Enwezor, Corinne Diserens and David Goldblatt.

10 September

Signs/Science of Life

An exhibition of recent works by Johan Meyer and his collaborators. Curated by Khwezi Gule.

27 October

Women by Women

An exhibition of paintings by over 60 female Indian artists, celebrating women. Curated by Khwezi Gule.

08 November

End of the World

An exhibition of works by Abrie Fourie. ‘Vying Posie’ (Going Home)

An exhibition of photographic works by Peter McKenzie. Curated by Khwezi Gule.

Exhibitions from the JAG Collection Pioneers. Curated by Khwezi Gule.

The Photographic Collection

Permanent Educational Collection, featuring works from the Contemporary, Historical, Modern International and Traditional South African Collections.

32 Dimensional: Works from the Contemporary Collection. Curated by Pitso Chinzima.

2006

28 January

Confluence

An exhibition of work by students from the JAG Saturday School and the Tembisa Art Development School. Curated by Hanolet Uys.

29 January

Now and Then

A retrospective exhibition of work by Norman Catherine spanning 35 years

Catalogue: 2000. Norman Catherine. Johannesburg: Goodman Gallery Editions. Includes contributions by Ashraf Jamal and Hazel Friedman, with an anecdotal foreword by David Bowie, a long-time collector and admirer of Catherine’s work.

19 March

Mari-Mira: Playing With Life

The project called itself “an international, transportable and evolving artistic village made out of discarded and disregarded objects. An art of recycling.” Mari-mira, or ‘fancy shacks’, as they are called – taken from a Creole word meaning ‘enormously fancy’ or ‘eccentric’, were the result of collaborations by French and South African artists whose histories were chronicled along with the displays. The project was initiated by Guy-André Lagesse and writer, Jean-Paul Curnier. The JAG show was a retrospective of 10 years of MariMira. Collaborating artists included Guy-André Lagesse, Doung Anwar Jahangeer, Sibusiso Mbhele, Jabulani Mhlabini, Pat Khanye.

20 April

Johan Thom

The Project Room is an initiative by JAG to foreground the work of young artists and experimental works. Thom was the first artist to exhibit in the Project Room, and his exhibition featured a multi-channel video installation with performances by jazz musician, Christophe Fellay.

23 April

Art and New Technologies: The MTN New Contemporaries Award and Exhibition

An exhibition of works by the finalists of the competition, James Webb, Mlungisi Zondi, Sharlene Khan, Julia Rosa Clark, Nandipha Mntambo. The award was won by Mlungisi Zondi. Curated by Khwezi Gule. Catalogue: Hobbs, P (ed). 2006. MTN New Contemporaries Award 2006. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

07 May

Black Box/Chambre Noire

Comprising a richly layered constellation of elements, including animated films, kinetic sculptural objects, drawings, and a miniature mechanised theatre, Kentridge initially conceived of Black Box/Chambre Noire, while preparing to direct his major theatrical production of Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute, for which, at the time, he was creating large-scale set designs and exploring staging and projections using a miniature stage maquette. The work was conceived as part of the Deutsche Bank and Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation’s commissioning programme for the Deutsche Guggenheim. Reflecting on the history of the German colonial presence in Africa, in particular the 1904 German massacre of the Hereros in South-West Africa (now Namibia), Kentridge explores how history and meaning are constructed, and by whom, and examines psychic processes of grief, guilt, culpability, and atonement in the aftermath of crimes committed. Kentridge refers to the term ‘black box’ in three senses: as a ‘black box’ theatre, a ‘chambre noire’ as it relates to photography, and the ‘black box’ flight data recorder used to record information in an airline disaster. Music for the piece was composed by Philip Miller. The exhibition was curated by Marian-Christina Villaseñor. (see pp 99, 105)

Kentridge, W & Villaseñor, M-C. 2006. William Kentridge: Black Box/Chambre Noire. New York: Guggenheim Museum.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition held at Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, 29 Oct. 29, 2005-Jan. 15, 2006.

29 May

The Dawn D-10 Educators art exhibition.

11 June

Kinshasa: The Imaginary City

Curated by Filip de Boeck and Koen van Synghel Photography and films by Marie-Françoise Plissart. A multi-layered exhibition and programme comprising installations, video and panel discussions, curators Filip De Boeck and Koen van Synghel sought to stimulate what is an ongoing debate on the nature of contemporary central African urbanscapes, and invited their audiences to question and rethink classic urban paradigms and the role they play in constructing urban identities. The exhibition was included at the 9th International Architecture Biennale of Venice in 2004, where the Belgian pavilion received the Golden Lion for the best pavilion. (see p 67)

Book: De Boeck, F & Plissart, M-F. 2005. Kinshasa.Tales of the Invisible City. Antwerp: Ludion.

15 July

Rembrandt (1606-1669): 400 Years

In celebration of 400 years since Rembrandt’s birth, JAG’s entire Rembrandt holdings of copper-plate etchings and some work by his predecessors were exhibited. Curated by Sheree Lissoos.

Catalogue: Lissoos, S. 2006. Rembrandt (1606-1669): 400 Years. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

23 July

New Painting

A group exhibition of recent South African paintings curated by Storm Janse van Rensburg. Artists represented included Ryan Arenson, Conrad Botes, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Tracy Payne,Tanya Poole.

Catalogue: Janse van Rensburg, S (ed). 2006.NewPainting: A Group Exhibition of Recent SouthAfricanArt. Durban: KZNSA Gallery.

23 July

Translation (In Memory of Durant Sihlali)

Comprising a selection of works produced between 1993 and 2006, Johannes Phokela’s exhibition pays tribute to Durant Sihlali, his deceased mentor and teacher. Entering into deliberate ironic and satirical dialogue with historical European artistic production, especially the work of 17th century Dutch and Flemish painters, Phokela’s oil paintings re-work and re-present the Old Masters through critical socio-political subtexts and appropriation of European visual traditions. (see p 68)

13 August

Churchill Madikida

Madikida was the second artist to exhibiting in the Project Room.

02 November

The Man: A Collaboration between Laurence Blogg, Thomas Dunn and Gregory Wright

Blogg, Dunn and Wright were the third selection of artists to exhibit in the Project Room, with The Man being an installation of an experimental film produced in 2006, accompanied by related photographic material.

09 November

Women: Photography and New Media

Along the theme of imagining the self and body through portraiture, participating artists included Natasha Christopher, Frances Goodman, Terry Kurgan, Jo Ractliffe, Tracey Rose,

Usha Seejarim, Penny Siopis, Nontsikelelo ‘Lolo’ Veleko. Curated by Jeannine Howse and Amy Watson.

12 November

Creative Explosion: Soweto Concealed Great Artists

An exhibition of the works of two artists from Soweto, Alfred Maphumulo and Russia Maina. Maphumulo presented portraits in oil and pastel of “people who have made a difference in the country”.

19 November

Approach

This multi-dimensional retrospective programme of Berni Searle’s work showed in 3 venues – at Michael Stevenson in Cape Town, the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, and at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and included performance works, photography, film and video installations addressing racial and gender inequities through the use of her body, personal histories and the construction of personal mythologies. The JAG show was curated by Clive Kellner. (see p 69)

Catalogue: Perryer, S (ed). 2006. Berni Searle:Approach. Published by Michael Stevenson Contemporary/Institute for Research in Art, JAG. Contributing writers include Alexa Favata, Gabeba Baderoon, Laurie Ann Farrell, Clive Kellner.

2007

13 February

Alt Pop: Jacques Coetzer

The performance and conceptual artist was the fourth invited artist to exhibit in the Project Room.

Catalogue: Coetzer, J et al. 2007. Alt Pop:Art Inspired by Doubt, Faith and Survival in the Middle Lane. Johannesburg: Jacques Coetzer/National Arts Council. Features texts by Willem Boshoff, Derek Hook, Ella Ziegler and Kathryn Smith, with notes by the artist.

08 March

Roger Ballen: Mid-Career Exhibition

A broad representation of work spanning much of Ballen’s prolific career, including photographs from the Platteland series, as well as more recent series and modes of exploration. (see p 70)

Catalogue: Ballen, R & Pohlmann, U. 2011. Roger Ballen: Photographs 1969-2009. Berlin: Kerber PhotoArt.

20 March

Celebrating 30 Years of Printmaking in Soweto Focusing on emerging artists, but also including works by deceased artists, notably Durant Sihlali and Nhlanhla Xaba.

07 April

Confluence ‘07

A combined art development schools’ exhibition.

25 April

Happy Dhlame

The fifth invited artist to exhibit in the Project Room.

13 May

Dunga Manzi/Stirring Waters: Tsonga and Shangaan Art from Southern Africa

Curated by Nessa Leibhammer, Billy Makhubele and Natalie Knight, DungaManzi/StirringWaters was the first exhibition to comprehensively celebrate and showcase Tsonga and Shangaan art, bringing awareness to the extraordinary breadth of creativity and skill found in and around Limpopo Province. With the input of artist Billy Makhubele, who collected many of the treasured pieces on the exhibition

– particularly the sangoma items – this exhibition created a ‘living’ archive. It presented the Makhubele family, through their objects and artworks – a family whose story is one of resilience and survival through the political climate of the late 19th century and the apartheid era. (see pp 145-147)

Catalogue: Leibhammer, N (ed). 2007. Dunga Manzi/ Stirring Waters: The Art and Culture of the Tsonga and Shangaan. Johannesburg: Wits University Press/Johannesburg Art Gallery. Contributing writers include Nessa Leibhammer, Billy Makhubele, Natalie Knight, Anitra Nettleton, Jean-Marie Dederen, Khwezi Gule, Karel Nel, Enos Sikhauli, Isak Niehaus.

24 June

Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent

The JAG showing of this mega-exhibition was its first on the continent, after having travelled to Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf, the Hayward Gallery in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Curated by Simon Njami. The exhibition was divided into three sections: City and Land; Identity and History; Body and Soul. (see pp 100-103)

Catalogue: Njami, S (ed). Africa Remix:ContemporaryArt of a Continent. Johannesburg: Jacana/Johannesburg Art Gallery.

28 July

Thando Mama

The 6th artist exhibiting in the Project Room

06 September

Sasol Wax Art Award 2007

As part of the Arts Alive Festival. Curated by Les Cohn. Finalists were Andrew Verster, Wayne Barker, Usha Seerjarim, Sue Williamson, Walter Oltmann.

Catalogue: Sasol Wax Art Award 2007

10 October Revisited

An exhibition by Cyprian Mpho Shilakoe. Curated by Jill Addleson.

Catalogue: Addleson, J (ed). 2006. Cyprian Mpho Shilakoe Revisited:AnExhibitionofPaintings,PrintsandSculpture.

Durban: Durban Art Gallery.

06 November

A Solo Exhibition

A solo exhibition by Benin artist, Meshac Gaba.

15 November

Lerato Shadi

The 7th invited artist to exhibit in the Project Room.

25 November

A Legacy of Men

A group exhibition in support of the 16 days of activism campaign, featuring artworks by Pierre Fouché, Robert Hamblin, Lawrence Lemaoana, Nicholas Hlobo, Mikhael Subotzky, Johan Thom, Kemang wa Lehulere. Curated by Jacki McInnes.

2008

10 February

Dis-Location/Re-Location

An exhibition by Leora Farber in collaboration with Strangelove exploring alienation and identity in South Africa. Catalogue: Law-Viljoen, B (ed). 2008. Dis-Location/ReLocation. Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing and The University of Johannesburg’s Research Centre for Visual Identities in Art & Design.

23 February

Urban Concerns

This project aimed to address human concerns and community dynamics in the public realm, connecting the city of Umeå, Sweden, and Johannesburg, and researching new avenues for experimentation through the mapping of multiple and simultaneous public spaces. (see p 71)

28 February

There is Something in the Air in Prince Albert An exhibition by Cuny Janssen.

12 and 13 March

20th FNB Dance Umbrella: Moving in Shadows Remix Dance Company collaborated with Santu Mofokeng on Moving in Shadows, inspired by a series of Mofokeng’s photographs called DancingwithShadows.The piece aimed to “find synergy between visual arts and dance”.

15 March

Spier Contemporary 2007

The inaugural Spier Contemporary exhibition featured 100 artworks selected from over 2 000 submissions from across South Africa.

Catalogue: Pather, J (ed). 2007. Spier Contemporary 2007. Cape Town: Africa Centre. Contributing writers: Clive van den Berg, Thembinkosi Goniwe, Virginia Mackenny, Zine Magubane, Deborah Posel, Bisi Silva, David Brodie, Roselee Goldberg.

20 April

Homeland Security

A photographic exhibition by Santu Mofokeng.

08 May

Ars Moriendi (How to Die Well)

The exhibition featured works engaging notions around death, mortality, salvation and transcendence, as well as contemporary deliberations on the memorialisation of memory through art, drawing from both the historical and contemporary JAG collections. Curated by Jeannine Howse and Clive Kellner. (see p 72)

29 June

Urbanation: a Mid Career Exhibition

A mid-career exhibition of installations by Kay Hassan. Catalogue: Asfour, F (ed). 2008. Kay Hassan:Urbanation. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery/Gordonschachatocollection. Contributing writers: Clive Kellner, Khwezi Gule, Ivor Powell, Thembinkosi Goniwe, John Matshikiza, Lesego Rampolokeng.

05 July

Confluence ‘08

A combined art development school exhibition.

24 July

Love and Hate in Lesotho

An exhibition by Zen Marie, and the launch of the Nando’s Project Room.

05 August Shrine Rituals

An exhibition by Dinkies Sithole

August

The Dematerialisation of the Art Object: 1917-2014

Curated by Clive Kellner. (see p 74)

24 September

Fish Drum from Lake Fundudzi

A once-off performance by drum maker Samson Mudzunga.

10 October

Disturbance

An exhibition of contemporary art from Scandinavia and South Africa. The artists involved examined the relationship that Nordic and South African artists have to notions of identity and place, by focusing on such elements as psychosis, consumption, beauty and hope. Curated by Clive Kellner and Maria Fidel Regueros. (see p 73)

13 November

Rush Hour Series

An exhibition by Themba Shibase.

30 November

Thami Mnyele + Medu Art Ensemble

A retrospective exhibition of Thami Mnyele and the Medu Art Ensemble. Curated by Clive Kellner, with Reshma Chhiba, Jeannine Howse, Khwezi Gule, Tshidiso Makheta and Maria Fidel Regueros. (see pp 96, 98, 104)

Catalogue: Kellner, C & González, S-A (eds). 2008. Thami Mnyele + MeduArt Ensemble Retrospective. Johannesburg: Jacana. Contributing writers: Steven Sack, Clive Kellner, Diane Wylie, Thami Mnyele, Elza Miles, SergioAlbio González, Judy Seidman, Mongane Wally Serote.

2009

24 March

For Tshepo: Ten Years Later Rangoato Hlasane in the Nando’s Project Room.

10 May

Journey on a Tightrope

Albert Adams retrospective exhibition.

Catalogue: Martin, M & Dolby, J (eds). 2009. AlbertAdams: JourneyonaTightrope. Cape Town: South African National Gallery.

30 June

Musha Neluheni: Vantage

26 July

Remastered

An exhibition by Vik Muniz, from the West Collection.

26 July

American Surfaces

An exhibition by Stephen Shore

20 September

An exhibition of new work by local and international artists around the theme of group identity, whether nation, culture, class, gender, sexuality or race. Curated by Simon Njami and Bettina Malcomess.

01 November

1mile2: Johannesburg

1mile2 was a 3-year global arts programme that asked communities to map the biodiversity, cultural diversity and aesthetic diversity of their local neighbourhoods, working in collaboration with artists and ecologists. 1mile2 Johannesburg was a collaboration between Anthea Moys, Kyla Davis, Lee Griffiths and Sandra Hall. Their project explored the notion of ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ places, the crossing of thresholds and the urban environment. (see pp 156-57)

2010

07 February

I Am Not Afraid

In celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Market Photo Workshop, featuring work by Bonile Bam, Jodi Bieber, Lerato Maduna, Sabelo Mlangeni, Zanele Muholi, Nontsikelelo Veleko. Curated by Christine Frisinghelli and Walter Seidi in association with Camera Austria.

Catalogue: Frisinghelli, C (ed). 2007. IAm NotAfraid.Camera Austria 100/2007. Graz: Camera Austria. Includes texts by David Goldblatt, Rory Bester, John Fleetwood, Bonile Bam, Jodi Bieber.

21 February

Gae Lebowa

‘Gae Lebowa’ translates as ‘Home North – an exhibition by George Mahashe, who travels north to seek the wisdom of his ancestry.

21 February

Showmaster

A Project Room exhibition by Claudia Shneider

13 March

An Evolving Consciousness: A Visual Journey Through Artworks Inspired by the Black Consciousness Movement

An exhibition of works reflecting on how the Black Consciousness Movement inspired an atmosphere of creativity in the arts as a tool of resistance. Including works from the permanent art collections of JAG and UNISA. Estrella de Mar

Taking as her example the starfish that re-grows any limb that is severed, Nuria Mora´s project created a multitude of works all stemming from the same nuclei: starting with a simple cube in the Gallery space, this was added to and then dismantled piece by piece. New street works, originating from the removable parts of the first work, were then created within the city.

18 April

America Made in China

The artist, ‘William Kentridge’, formerly known as Roelien Brink – who, like her renaming of self sets out to challenge value systems, which she considers groundless, in this exhibition explored aesthetic ideals from within a consumerist and media-saturated culture, and at how the media confers value on “mere symbols, such as artworks, through its idealisation of youth and beauty”.

02 May

I Am Not Me, The Horse is Not Mine

An exhibition by William Kentridge featuring 8 film projections, created in preparation for his production of the Shostakovich Opera, The Nose. (see p 75)

Catalogue: Kentridge, W. 2008. IAm Not Me,The Horse is Not Mine. Johannesburg: Goodman Gallery.

23 May

Without Masks

An exhibition of contemporary Afro-Cuban art, coinciding with the City of Johannesburg’s Africa Day celebrations and the Soccer World Cup. Slavery, racism, identity politics, religious beliefs, and civil war were recurring themes in the exhibition. Featured artists: Ruperto Jay Matamoros, Belkis Ayón Manso, Pedro Álvarez, Manuel Mendive Hoyo, Julián González Olazábal, Ricardo Rodriguez Brey, René Peña, Moïse Finalé Aldecoa, José Bedia Valdés, Marta Maria Pérez Bravo, Rubén Rodriguez Martinez, Maria Magdal. Curated by Orlando Hernández. (see p 76-77)

Catalogue: Hernández, O. 2010. Without Masks ContemporaryAfro-CubanArt. Johannesburg: Trace Group.

06 June

Deep Play

A multimedia, 12 channel, video installation with colour and sound (German with English subtitles), by Harun Farocki, first featured on Documenta 12, DeepPlay is made of various perspectives on the final of the 2006 World Cup. In association with the Goethe-Institut South Africa. Coinciding with the Soccer World Cup 2010.

20 June

Borders

From the 8th Bamako Encounters, The African Photographic Biennale,in Association with Culturesfrance. Catalogue: Krifa, M & Serani, L. 2009. Borders. Encounters ofBamako9:AfricanPhotographyBiennial.Arles: Actes Sud.

19 September

Ernest Cole Photographer

An exhibition of approximately 150 of Cole’s photographic works from the Hasselblad Foundation’s collection. (see p 78) Catalogue: Knape, G. 2010. Ernest Cole, Photographer.

Göttingen: Hasselblad Foundation, Steidl. With essays by Struan Robertson and Ivor Powell.

03 October

South African Photography: 1950-2010

13 October

The MTN Art Classes Exhibition

24 October

Reflex/Reflexión

An exhibition presenting works from the project INFLUX/ REFLUX/REFLEX, featuring work by Marta Fernández Calvo, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Juan Linares, Erika Arzt, Churchill Madikida, Óscar Mora, James Webb. Curated by Nilo Casares and Bronwyn Lace.

28 November

One Hundred Years of Collecting

The Launch of the publication, One HundredYears of Collecting:TheJohannesburgArtGallery, in conjunction with building projection and installation by Stephen Hobbs, and a vast display of works from JAG’s collection. Book: Carman, J (ed). 2010. One Hundred Years of Collecting:TheJohannesburgArtGallery. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Matters of the Spirit

An exhibition of works from the traditional southern African collection. Curated by Nessa Leibhammer. Transformations: Women’s Art from the Late 19th Century to 2010

Curated by Nessa Leibhammer, Reshma Chhiba and Musha Neluheni. (see p 79)

2011

12 February

Looking as Learning

An exhibition of works in the 2011 schools visual arts curriculum. Curated by Musha Neluheni and Nontobeko Ntombela. (see pp 130-143)

Educational booklet: JAG-ed.

20 February

Waiting For God

A mid-career retrospective exhibition by Tracey Rose. Curated by Khwezi Gule, Renaud Proch and Linda Givon. (see p 81)

08 May

A Fearless Vision

A retrospective exhibition for the artist Alan Crump, curated by Federico Freschi.

Installation by Stephen Hobbs in the Auditorium Entrance

13 May

Antagonistic Harmonies in First Arrangement

The first of three Project Room exhibitions of 2011. The artist Peter Mammes’ installation work, drawings, relief sculptures and paintings were on display.

15 May

A.R.C. @ JAG

A mid-career retrospective exhibition by Richard John Forbes. His A.R.C.(Acoustic Resonance Collector),Quiet Revolution and Ripple were on display.

Catalogue: Forbes, RJ. 2011. A.R.C. @ JAG. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

02 August

Ugqozi Lwentambende … Spirit of the Long Rope from isiMangaliso

An exhibition of selected works from the 3-year art programme in northern Kwazulu-Natal. Artists involved: Lucky Jambi, Nhlanhla Mabaso, Nokuthula Gumede, Muzi Nomandla, Neliswe Msweli, Samuel Mtshali, Thulani Mkhize, Memorial Biyela Mnguni, Steven Khoza.

04 September

MaNyauza: Silent Messages to My Mother

An exhibition by Mbongeni Buthelezi. (see p 80)

18 September

Pinky Promise

A photographic exhibition by Pierre Crocquet de Rosemond concerned with child sexual abuse.

Catalogue: Law-Viljoen, B (ed). 2011. PinkyPromise.Johannesburg: Fourthwall Books in association with Hatje Cantz.

16 October

Works on Paper

Solo exhibition by Vasco Futcher of 20 drawings on paper using traditional techniques. Curated by Nontobeko Ntombela.

13 November

Dutch/Flemish Exhibition

Curated by Sheree Lissoos. An exhibition of paintings and prints made during the Dutch Golden Age, when the Dutch Republic was the most prosperous country in Europe.

21 November

Michaelis Art Library Education Project

16 December

Play, Ritual and Inspiration

An exhibition of the Phansi Museum’s Collection of South African child figures. Opened by Frank Jolles. Catalogue: Jolle, F. 2011. AfricanDolls:TheDulgerCollection. Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Verlagsanstalt.

2012

29 January

A Fragile Archive

An exhibition of works by the pioneering woman artists, Gladys Mgudlandlu and Valerie Desmore. The exhibition was centered around an installation that re-staged Mgudlandlu’s first exhibition in 1961, and which also included works of other women artists from public collections. Curated by Nontobeko Ntombela. (see p 82)

26 February

Transference

An exhibition exploring new artistic interpretations of cosmopolitan trade of the Johannesburg inner-city trolley pushers. Exhibited in the JAG Project Room. Featuring work by Vumelani Sibeko and Senzo Shabangu. Curated by Portia Malatjie.

Fluctuations of Form

A sculptural exhibition of works from the Gallery’s collection, curated by Musha Neluheni and Nessa Leibhammer.

06 May

Coming of Age: 21 Years of Artist Proof Studio

A retrospective exhibition celebrating 21 years of printmaking in Johannesburg. Curated by Pamela Allara. Opened by Sibongile Khumalo. 2 651 guests attend. Featured artists: Phillemon Hlungwani, Nelson Makamo, Lehlogonolo Mashaba, Lucas Nkgweng, Kim Berman, William Kentridge, Diane Victor, Wim Botha, Norman Catherine, Paul Edmunds, Gerhard Marx, Colbert Mashile, Chris Diedericks, Kudzanai Chiurai, Lauren Adelman, Birgit Blyth, Muzi Donga, Jane Goldman, Cathy Kernan, Ilana Manolson, Osiah Masekoameng, Mongezi Ncaphayi, Charles Nkosi, Judy Quinn, Rhoda Rosenberg, Peter Scott, Stompie Selibe, Nhlanhla Xaba. Catalogue: Allara, P & Berman, K. 2012. Coming ofAge: 21Years ofArtist Proof Studio. 2012. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

15 July

MMXII

A solo exhibition by James Webb, featuring 15 of Webb’s projects installed within the Gallery and among a selection of works from the Gallery’s archive. (see p 84)

05 August

Oblique

A solo exhibition by Abrie Fourie comprising a film installation and a narrated text by Ivan Vladislavić, counter-positioned to a small series of photographs. Curated by Storm Janse van Rensburg.

28 October

French Connections

An exhibition of works from the JAG collection. Curated by Sheree Lissoos and Antoinette Murdoch. (see p 83) Jaged: French Connections educational supplement.

2013

10 February

Venus At Home

A solo exhibition by Usha Seerjarim, concerned with the everyday, the mundane and the ordinary and how it shapes identity.

07 April

Looking as Learning II

An exhibition of works from the Gallery’s collection that explored a chronological layout of the South African and international trends based on the 2013 national secondary school visual art curriculum. Curated by Musha Neluheni.

08 September Off The Beaten Path

An exhibition which deals with violence, women and art, curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg. Featured artists: Jane Alexander, Louise Bourgeois, Lise Bjorne Linnert, Maria Campos-Pons, Marina Abramović, Wangechi Mutu, Miri Nishri, Patricia Evans, Maimuna Feroze-Nana, Mona Hatoum, Icelandic Love Corp, Yoko Inoue, Jung Jungyeob, Amal Kenawy, Hung Liu, Almagul Menlibayeva, Gabriela Morawtz, Yoko Ono, Cecilia Paredes, Susan Plum, Cima Rahmankhah, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Masami Teraoka, Hank Willis Thomas, Miwa Yanagi, AWARE/OWARE project. (see pp 110-113)

03 December

Conversations (House Keeping)

An exhibition of what might be considered non-traditional artworks from the Gallery’s collection. Curated by Antoinette Murdoch. Featured artists: Albert Adams, Marc Edwards, Albert Munyai, Anthony Caro, Beverly Price, Charles Rennie Macintosh, Charles-Edouard-Jeanneret le Corbuiser, Claudette Schreuders, Clive van der Berg, Elizabeth Margaret Vels, Fred Page, Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Jacques Coetzer, Jan Schoeman (Outa Lappies), Jeremy Wafer, Johannes Frederik Potgieter, Johannes Phokela, Kieth Dietrich, Luan Nel, Moses Seleko, Nandipha Mntambo, Penny Siopis, Peter Bernd Schutz, Richard Hamilton, Robert Griffith Hodgins, Sam Nhlengethwa, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Sandile Zulu, Steven Cohen.

2014

16 March

JAG/SNAG: End of Exhibition

After 3 years of research/discussion/responses to JAG’s physical and historical properties with the director of JAG, Antoinette Murdoch, Stephen Hobbs presented his final series of architectural responses to the Meyer Pienaar extension of JAG. Opened by Christopher Till. (see pp 118-127)

18 April

Another Country

An exhibition by Reiner in conjunction with the launch of a corresponding catalogue. Curated by Musha Neluheni. Book: Leist, R. AnotherCountry:SouthAfrica’sNewPortraits. 2014. Johannesburg: Jacana.

25 May

Over The Rainbow

An exhibition interrogating the Gallery’s collection post-1994. The exhibition dealt with race, identity, HIV/AIDS, poverty and wealth, amongst other concerns. Featured artists: Thando Mama, Zanele Muholi, Pieter Hugo, Penny Siopis, William Kentridge, Churchill Madikida, Diane Victor. Curated by Musha Neluheni.

27 July

Blindfolded Line, Dancing Through Time

An exhibition by Liza Grobler; curated by Antoinette Murdoch. Booklet: BlindfoldedLine,DancingThroughTime.LizaGrobler and Friends.

14 September

The Foundation Collection of the Johannesburg Art Gallery

Installation of the Foundation Collection of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, curated by Hugh Lane (1873-1915) and the relaunch of the original 1910 catalogue. An edition of postcards of eight works from the collection was also printed for the occasion. (see pp 86-89)

Launch of reprint of The Municipal Gallery of ModernArt, Johannesburg 1910

2 October

PG Bison Award Ceremony

PG Bison Award Ceremony announcing the winners of the student competition to redesign the Meyer Pienaar extensions.

12 October

Wish You Were Here, So Long

Two by Two Art Studio presented a night at JAG, featuring performances, installations, graffiti, music and a film (shoot and) screening. Contributors: Thando Lobese, Kitso Lelliot, Kirsty Morrison, various graffiti artists, Chris Preyser and DJs Left & Right.

29 October

Condition Report, Wits at JAG: The Encyclopaedic Basement.

Curatorial terms and their accompanying displays of revisited and re-contextualised works from the Johannesburg Art Gallery Collection, by Wits postgraduate curatorial students. Catalogue: Alheit, C. et al (eds). Condition Report. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. (see pp 131-143)

09 November

The Refusal of Time

The Refusal ofTime was first shown at Documenta 13 in 2012, and was made in a series of workshops over a period of two years. It started as a series of conversations between William Kentridge and Peter Galison, a scientist, looking at different theories of time, from Newton through to Einstein and black holes; in each case finding the metaphor for the science rather than trying to illustrate it. In the end the piece deals with the transformation of time into material objects, sound, images and mechanics. It comprises five video projections, a multi-dimensional soundscape created by Philip Miller, four megaphones and a large breathing machine. (see p 85) Catalogue: Kentridge, W. 2013. The Refusal ofTime. Paris: Editions Xavier Barral. Includes an introduction by William Kentridge. Text by Peter Galison, William Kentridge, Catherine Meyburgh, Philip Miller.

09 December

Cemetery

A solo exhibition by Raimi Gbadamosi. Curated by Musha Neluheni.

2015

12 April

KafferSheet

A solo exhibition of work by Turiya Magadlela. Curated by Jonathan Garnham and Antoinette Murdoch.

24 May

Construct to Deconstruct

An exhibition of work by Happy Dhlame, with a performance at the opening by Herbie Tswaeli, Kgafela wa Magogodi, BCUC. Curated by Antoinette Murdoch and Musha Neluheni. (see pp184-185)

July

Common Threads

An exhibition of tapestries from the Gallery’s collection, displayed with their corresponding paintings/prints/drawings. Curated by Antoinette Murdoch, Tara Weber, Philippa van Straaten.

09 August

1:1

A solo exhibition, including photographic prints, multimedia installation and video projections by Alinka Echeverría. Opening remarks by Achille Mbembe. A panel discussion featuring Raimi Gbadamosi, Sean O’Toole and Alinka Echeverría accompanied the exhibition. Curated by Medeine Tribinevicius, Thato Mogotsi and Musha Neluheni.

09 September

LOS-JHB: A Sound Installation by Emeka Ogboh

VANSA Art week Joburg 2015 in partnership with the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

10 September

FNB Joburg Art Fair

Featured artist Candice Breitz, in partnership with JAG and Goodman Gallery.

Centenary Celebrations exhibitions: Nov 2015

South African Art From 1940-1975

Shown chronologically, the exhibition represented work associated with various South African art schools, including Rorke’s Drift and Polly Street, as well as other individual artists, including Albert Adams, Peter Clarke, Ernest Cole, Valerie Desmore, Nel Erasmus, Dumile Feni, Ruth Everard, Katrine Harries, Gavin Jantjes, Maggie Laubser, Ephraim Mojalefa and Fred Page. Curated by Antoinette Murdoch; co-curator, Tharien Strydom.

Pre-Raphaelites and their Circle

An exhibition of all Pre-Raphaelite work in JAG’s collection, with Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s ReginaCordium (Mrs Rossetti) as the centerpiece, as well as some of their contemporaries. Curated by Sheree Lissoos.

Pastoral Pieces: Significant African Objects from JAG’s Historical Collections

Significant pieces from within all of the sub-collections of the African Traditional Collection, including the most recently acquired Maritz Collection. Curated by Karel Nel and Philippa van Straaten.

Moments in a Metropolis

An exhibition highlighting, celebrating and interrogating JAG’s defining context – the city – through works on paper, including printmaking and photography. Curated by Tara Weber.

Digital works from JAG’s Collection Curated by Musha Neluheni.

TOP LEFT: Display from the JAG Collection, c 1931. TOP RIGHT: Works from the Contemporary South African Collection, 1990s. CENTRE LEFT: The Hague Collection, Post Impressionist Room, c 1950. BOTTOM LEFT: Installation view of Images ofWood: Aspects of the History of Sculpture in 20th Century SouthAfrica, 1989. BOTTOM RIGHT: Installation view of UKIYO-E, Japanese Wood-Block Prints, 1991.

Installation views of the permanent display of sculptures by Jackson Hlungwane (1923-2010).

The dedicated Jackson Hlungwane Room at JAG was inaugurated in 1993.

Installation views of David Goldblatt: Fifty-OneYears,A Retrospective, 2005.

Installation views of Kinshasa:The Imaginary City, 2006.

Installation views of Johannes Phokela’s Translation: In Memory of Durant Sihlali, 2006. The exhibition featured a selection of works produced between 1993 and 2006.

Installation views of Berni Searle’s monographic exhibition titled Approach, 2006.

Installation views of the Roger Ballen’s mid-career exhibition, 2007.

The 2008 Urban Concerns exhibition brought together curators, artists, students and ordinary citizens from Johannesburg and the Swedish city of Umeå seeking solutions to the challenges of living in cities. The project approached art from an activist’s perspective, redefining the role of the artist as a social and political agent with the ability to facilitate change. Images courtesy of Anthea Moys.

Installation views of Ars Moriendi (How to Die Well), curated by Jeannine Howse and Clive Kellner, 2008.

Installation

views of Disturbance – ContemporaryArt from Scandinavia and South Africa, curated by Clive Kellner and Maria Fidel Regueros, 2008.

Installation views of The Dematerialisation of theArt Object: 1917-2004, 2008.

William Kentridge’s multi-channelled projection installation

I Am Not Me,The Horse is Not Mine shown at JAG in 2010.

Installation views of Without Masks:ContemporaryAfro-Cuban, curated by Orlando Hernandez. The exhibition opened on 25 May, Africa Day, and coincided with the 2010 FIFA World Cup, hosted by South Africa.

Installation views of Ernest Cole Photographer, an exhibition of around 150 works from the

Hasselblad Foundation’s collection, 2010.

Installation views of Transformations:Women’s Art from the Late 19th Century to 2010, curated by Nessa Leibhammer, Reshma Chhiba and Musha Neluheni, August 2010 to January 2011.

Installation views of Mbongeni Buthelezi’s mid-career exhibition MaNyauza: Silent Messages to My Mother, 2011.

Installation views of Waiting for God, a mid-career retrospective by Tracey Rose, curated by Khwezi Gule, Renaud Proch and Linda Givon, 2011.

Installation views of A Fragile Archive, curated by Nontobeko

The exhibition featured works by the pioneering woman artists, Gladys

and Valerie Desmore, and also included works of other women artists from public collections.

Ntombela, 2012.

Mgudlandlu

Installation views of French Connections, an exhibition from the JAG collection curated by Sheree Lissoos and Antoinette Murdoch, which formed part of the France-South Africa Seasons 2012 & 2013.

Installation views of James Webb’s exhibition MMXII, 2012.

Images courtesy of Anthea Pokroy, Paul Grose and Nic Dunmer.

The Refusal of Time, 2012, a multi-channel projection installation of William Kentridge’s collaboration with composer Philip Miller, projection designer and editor Catherine Meyburgh, choreographer and dancer Dada Masilo, and scientist Peter Galison, shown at JAG in 2014. Images © Patrick de Mervelec.

Installation views of JAG’s Foundation Collection, curated by Hugh Lane (1873-1915), was on show from September 2014 to May 2015 for the first time in many decades in its original setting. Image ©David Ceruti.

JAG’s Foundation Collection, 2014/15. Image ©David Ceruti.

THE NEGLECTED TRADITION

Same Mdluli

In 1988 the Johannesburg Art Gallery hosted an exhibition titled The NeglectedTradition:Towards a New History of SouthAfricanArt (1930-1988). It was the first exhibition of its kind to be held in the Gallery in that it brought together the work of black artists (and some white artists) in South Africa, framed within a period covering half of the past twentieth century. Generally The NeglectedTradition is viewed as a revisionist exhibition aimed at redress and reparation of an imbalanced historical account. However, in revisiting the exhibition, I argue that although the exhibition occupies a significant position in South Africa’s art historical narrative, located at the brink of political conversion, this emphasis on the political tends to detract from its initial intention as ‘a catalyst’ for further investigation on some of the artists it featured. As a result it was not only read as an overtly political exhibition in that it sought to change the exclusive narrative of South African art history, but also, in so doing, it highlighted the progression towards transformation within institutions like JAG. JAG at the time of the exhibition also had a strong desire to keep on par with international trends in curating and programmes aimed at greater inclusivity.

In 1987 the director of JAG, Christopher Till, approached Steven Sack, a lecturer in the Department of History of Art and Fine Art at the University of South Africa (UNISA), to curate an exhibition of art by black South Africans. In an attempt to write a more integrated history of South African art, Sack and a team of researchers consulted the archive

of newspaper reviews, existing literature, as well as artists, educators and members of community-based organisations to establish the basic information required for the exhibition.

As this occurred only a few months prior to the exhibition opening, Sack and his team were assisted by Matsemela Manaka,1 who had begun to carve out some of the groundwork in the field of black art studies that would look at questions of redress in South African art. The exhibition featured 100 black artists, among whom were several ‘rural’2 artists, but it also included three urban white artists, Bill Ainslie, Cecil Skotnes and Edoardo Villa. Although Till points out that the exhibition was aimed at “… reflecting and re-evaluating South African art history by tracing the development and influence of black South African artists” (1989:5), the inclusion of the three white artists was explained by Sack as being “based on their integral relationships with the historical development of black South African art” (1989:7). The exhibition, however, did not adequately concede the complexities of this relationship, and for the most part remains underpinned by questions of patronage, changing social conditions, as well as new educational influences, all of which were factors that played out differently for different black artists.

In reassessing this history, Sack notes the importance of “acknowledging the complexity and variety, as well as the degree of cultural interchange that has taken place within this history” (1989:5). As a result, the work selected for inclusion was then grouped into categories that began

to weave and connect a particular narrative –“towards a new history of South African art” (1989:7). While establishing this new history, the exhibition was also confronted with the challenges of re-writing history, accompanied by an already fragile archive, which, as the curator admits, was not always accurate and at times inconsistent. This is illustrated by the unevenness of the biographies in the written entries of the catalogue and the commentaries about the various artists. For this reason the catalogue forms a critical aspect of the exhibition itself, not only as a remnant and reminder thereof, but also an important survey of the development of black art covering a particular period. It has also, however, become a useful tool to interrogate the role of the exhibition itself in generating a particular kind of narrative about black art through the biographies it produced about certain black artists – both urban-based and those considered ‘rural’.

The Neglected Tradition exhibition was thus faced with some challenges from the onset. It first had to grapple with assembling a fragmented and displaced narrative of black creative expression and culture. In order to revisit the neglected history of ‘black art’, curator Steven Sack notes how he was compelled to make crucial decisions (1989:7). This included deciding whether “to write about black art as a separate category or insert it into the mainstream” (1989:7). The challenges can thus be traced through exploring the structure of the catalogue and the categories Sack used to frame the works exhibited in the show. This may not

necessarily have been the structure of the exhibition itself in terms of layout and display – a record of which does not exist – but it provides an overview of the ideological framework of the exhibition and may further explain the wider implications of how the category of ‘rural’ artists was inserted into the exhibition, and for the writing of them into history.

In the catalogue, the trajectory of art produced by black artists is delineated through a timeline mapping when certain key art centres opened to offer formal training to these artists in South Africa – the “Pioneers” consist primarily of artists who were trained through missionary schooling, followed by an overview of centres like Rorke’s Drift and Polly Street, which formalised art training for black artists from the late 1950s onwards. The categories of “New Generation” and “New Generation Sculpture”, however, track a slightly different path in that they are conveniently situated within “the dialectic of town and countryside”, a theme that runs through the catalogue in various ways. While the term “New Generation” is centred on the role of art centres within urban areas, “New Generation Sculpture” refers to artists from a particular locale, namely the northern part of the country, especially Gazankulu and Venda. The categorisation of both groups of artists are framed not only within a particular timeframe – the 1980s – but were also accommodated by the art market in distinct ways. The ‘New Generation’ is discussed in relation to the political changes that were taking place in the country, whilst the ‘New Generation Sculpture’ discussion seemed concerned with the politics of the art market following the Tributaries3 exhibition of 1985 (1989:27). They both however allude to the politics of the time and this, as a result, makes them political terms themselves. Furthermore they explain why in the exhibition itself Sack intentionally evades the use of terms such as ‘township’ and ‘transitional’, which were increasingly becoming debatable in academic spaces and the public realm.

While The NeglectedTradition sought to bridge a gap in, if not transform the history of South African art, in many ways it nullified the significance of modernisms practiced by the black artists it highlighted. To some extent it attempted to address this, by following a fairly accurate chronology used to categorise the artists it featured in the exhibition, however it also took a political stance, both artistically and socially, in that in its function as a research project, one of the key objectives for Sack was “to re-examine the prevailing notions of the nature of ‘black art’ and indeed the definition of art” (1989:7), which he believed had “in many cases been adopted unquestioningly from Western art tradition” (1989:7). This, I suggest, impacted on the framing of the exhibition, in that it was held in an institution based on the same tradition. It therefore also invoked the politics of display and representation, and how this played out being held at an art institution like JAG.

JAG is a public, municipal institution governed by the City Council of Johannesburg, which meant that from its inception it functioned differently from a national museum. It has always been governed and funded at a municipal level and so its status as an institution of national importance was attributed via a series of historical events, rather than being officially recognised. But this is arguable, because at the time art museums in South Africa were exclusive to all but white middle-class artists and audiences. The importance of JAG as an institution with a national reach was thus signalled in the late 1980s by a changing political landscape and the appointment of a new director. Therefore, in discussing the exhibition itself, it is important to consider the formation of JAG, because the establishment and development of its collection, which later included some works from The Neglected Tradition exhibition, was peculiarly shaped by its formation.

As pointed out by Jillian Carman (2006:191), this history presents another dimension of the Gallery in relation to its

The opening of The Neglected Tradition:Towards a New History of SouthAfricanArt (1930-1988), 22 November 1988.

function in the formation of a national identity, as well as its institutional role to stimulate and encourage scholarship in art making (2006:191). Yellow Houses,A Street in Sophiatown (1940) by Gerard Sekoto was acquired in 1940, and, while it was JAG’s first acquisition of a work by a black artist, it set a possible precedent for a different kind of narrative that subsequently became part of the

history of the painting, and the collection and the Gallery.4 The orthodox (colonial) narrative of the Gallery was in a way disrupted by this acquisition, although Sack argues that the inclusion of Sekoto’s canvas in the collection was partly because of the association of easel painting with Western tradition.5 It remained, however, the only acquisition of a work by a black artist for the next 31 years: no further works by black artists were acquired until TheNeglectedTradition exhibition eventually opened in 1989.

Since then, there has been further inquiry into some of the artists the exhibition featured, such as Dumile Feni, Ernest Mancoba and Ephraim Ngatane, all of whom had exhibitions and publications of their work produced subsequent to the exhibition. In this sense the exhibition did indeed achieve its objectives as a catalyst to encourage further research on the artists it featured. It highlighted the significance of these artists in South African art history, but did so through a particular lens, one that not only sought to delineate what constitutes ‘black art’, but in so doing also shaping how this art would be incorporated into the broader South African art historical narrative. This is also apparent in how the catalogue placed less emphasis on the activities of centres such as the Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA) and Johannesburg Art Foundation, which were instrumental in shaping the development of art produced by black artists prior to the staging of the exhibition.

The Neglected Tradition exhibition therefore narrates a complex story about art, politics and nationalism in South Africa. This story is intrinsically linked to the historical narrative of JAG, which shares a particular relationship with South Africa’s cultural landscape. While the institution has, since the exhibition, made great strides in encouraging greater inclusivity, not only in its collection and acquisition policies, the Gallery nevertheless continues to occupy a

Installation views of The NeglectedTradition:Towards a New History of SouthAfricanArt (1930-1988), curated by Steven Sack, 1988.

precarious place in the lives of the majority of communities it aims to serve. The participation of these communities in the narrative of the history contained by the Gallery is thus as implicit to its legacy as the exhibitions it has staged.

Endnotes

1 Matsamela Manaka was a writer, director, actor, poet and cultural theorist living in Soweto. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Funda Drama Centre in Diepkloof, Soweto in 1978. He is also the author of Echoes ofAfricanArt,A Century ofArt in SouthAfrica.

2 The word ‘rural’ is placed in inverted commas from hereon because it was later problematised along with terms such as ‘township’ and ‘transitional’.

3 Tributaries was an exhibition curated by Ricky Burnett at Newtown Galleries, Johannesburg in 1985. It featured 111 works made by 111 artists from mainly urban, but

some rural, and a variety of educational, class and religious backgrounds. It was unique owing to the fact that, for the first time, black urban and ‘rural’ artists exhibited their works alongside white urban artists on a public platform. See Burnett, R. 1985. Tributaries:A View of Contemporary SouthAfricanArt. Johannesburg: BMW Kulturprogramm.

4 In 2010 the Johannesburg Art Gallery celebrated 100 years of its collection. It was accompanied by a catalogue with illustrations as well as essays by some of the employees of JAG, in which it is stated that Sekoto’s Yellow Houses:A Street in Sophiatown was the first work by a black artist to enter JAGS’s collection. Carman, J. & Lissoos, S. 2010. Becoming Historic, in Carman, J (ed). 2010. One HundredYears of Collecting. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery: 46.

5 Sack, 1989: 12. At this point it is also worth noting the fact that work by black artists had previously been shown on the South African Academy exhibitions in

1930 under a separate category of ‘Special Exhibit by Native Artists’, however when Sekoto showed at the Academy in 1939 there was no separate Native Exhibit category (Harmsen, 1989: 287).

Sources

Carman, J. 2006. Uplifting the Colonial Philistine: Florence Phillips and the Making of the JohannesburgArt Gallery. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Goniwe, T. 2014. Welcome to the White Art Jungle: The Black Collectors’ Forum, Art South Africa, 13 (2): 89-90.

Harmsen, F. 1989. The Neglected Tradition, SouthAfrican Journal of Cultural andArt History, 3(3), July 1989: 284-287.

Sack, S. 1989. The NeglectedTradition:Towards a New History of South African Art (1930-1988). Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Till, C. 1989. In Sack, S. TheNeglectedTradition:TowardsaNewHistoryof SouthAfricanArt (1930-1988). Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery: 5.

Same Mdluli

Dr Same Mdluli is an artist, arts administrator and writer living in Johannesburg. She has a PhD in Art History and an MA in Arts and Culture Management, both from the University of the Witwatersrand, and a B-Tech in Fine Arts from the University of Johannesburg. In 2012/2013 she was a Junior Research Scholar at the Getty Research Institute (LA), a participant at the Diversitas Summer School in Oldenburg, Germany, and is an invited guest researcher at the Institut National d’histoire de l’art (INHA) in Paris.

OUTSIDE INSIDE

Julia Charlton

Outside Inside formed part of the ‘Africus 95 Johannesburg Biennale’, the first mega international art exhibition organised in South Africa after the advent of democracy in 1994. Twenty years later, from the perspective of today’s global, vibrant and dense arts sector, it is hard to remember the excitement generated by the opportunity to participate in a project of this magnitude. After years of repressive legislation and stifling isolation, however, the local arts landscape was insular and limited. The end of apartheid was a time of heady optimism, and though South African society was still in turmoil in many respects, there was a palpable sense of change, optimism and enthusiasm. South Africa was poised on the cusp of the world’s attention, and in art terms this translated to a moment of international interest and curiosity distilled in biennale form.

The Johannesburg Biennale was not universally met with enthusiasm and endorsement, and both at the time, and in the decades since, many artists, academics and activists have been highly critical of the allocation of considerable financial resources to this project when there is so much developmental need across South African cultural entities. In this respect perhaps not so much has changed; public arts organisations remain desperately underfunded and the high-profile projects that receive the bulk of available government funding remain hugely contested. Today’s most topical example is perhaps the proposed R600 million National Heritage Monument, a cultural theme park in Pretoria, set to house over 500 bronze sculptures of struggle heroes, while most existing museums languish in situations of financial constraint and neglect.

As a metropolitan-funded entity, JAG fell under the Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council, the broader city structure responsible for the Biennale. The main action was taking place in Newtown at MuseumAfrica and the Electric Workshop, also in the city’s Central Business District, but some distance from JAG’s location in Joubert Park.

A sense of being part of, but not central to, the Biennale pervaded JAG’s involvement. Uncertainty and instability characterised the entire project and, until the last, there was considerable doubt as to whether the whole project would, in fact, come off. Confirmation of the funding, necessary to contract the artists involved, was significantly delayed.

The curation of JAG’s contribution fell to me as Curator of the Contemporary Collections, but many colleagues were involved. A number of us had been captivated by descriptions of Fred Wilson’s Mining the Museum at Maryland Historical Society in 1992 (I’m not sure that any of us had actually seen the exhibition, I certainly hadn’t); his exploration of the politics of exclusion and eradication through site specific installations in the museum had resonated with ideas we were grappling with in the South African context. Assistant Director and Senior Curator of Collections Lesley Cohen suggested the installation art form, and Paintings Conservator, Theresa Wimberley, contributed the title.

Selected artists were invited to ‘engage critically’ with JAG in whatever way they saw fit – its collections, space, institutional framework, history – and they chose where to insert their work. The invitation seemed a risky proposition, though again with the benefit of hindsight, I wonder what generated

such anxiety, other than the perceived loss of curatorial control that various authors have pointed out was diminished by the careful selection of the artists. We decided to allocate all of the project’s R30 000 budget to the artists, so each had a contribution of R3 000 towards their production costs. Even at the time, this honorarium was tiny, and several artists refused the invitation when they discovered the fee involved, but most seized the opportunity. One who was expected to participate and is included in the official Biennale catalogue, photographer Victor Matom, fell out, but I can no longer remember for what reason.

The artists responded in enormously different ways. Kendell Geers required that a display from the permanent collection be dismantled and the resultant empty room be exhibited; Durant Sihlali installed paper pulp works on the floor and the glass that separates the Gallery’s interior and exterior. As Colin Richards put it, “Geers sought to evacuate the institutional space (Johannesburg Art Gallery) while Sihlali sought to occupy it” (Atlantica No 11 October 1995); Willem Boshoff installed his BlindAlphabetABC, a field of carved wooden objects in mesh boxes that reversed the usual power relations between blind and sighted people; Karel Nel created a contemplative ritual space by filling a Lutyens gallery with his installation of stone objects, sand and light to explore ideas of art as sacred activity; Jann Cheifitz suspended banners parodying banknotes above the public entrance, in a critique of exploitative global trade exchange; Joachim Schönfeldt situated his image of a scrap metal collector in all the exhibition’s communication material, in recognition of the primary role that marketing

and publicity play in the circulation of art; Leora Farber undermined patriarchal systems of representation embodied in 17th century Dutch still life paintings by creating elaborate assemblages of excess to be viewed through an installation of optical devices; Steven Cohen’s LetThem Eat cock! transformed JAG’s Print Room into his studio space, demanding recognition of his queer identity and expressing his rage at the ongoing violence inflicted and endorsed by South African society.

The energy and intensity of each of these spatial interventions was substantial and, in my opinion, noticeably altered the institutional environment of JAG with their quiet power.

Julia Charlton

Julia Charlton has been the Senior Curator at Wits Art Museum (WAM) since 2005 and played a key role in the development, fundraising and establishment of this museum. She obtained her BA Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1983 and her Master’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Cape Town in 1987. She has over 25 years of administration and curatorial experience within public art institutions including Unisa Art Gallery, Pretoria (1987-1990), Johannesburg Art Gallery (1991-1997) and Wits (since 1997).

LEFT, TOP TO BOTTOM: Durant Sihlali’s The Mural Series, Joachim Schönfeldt’s Untitled (The Noble Savage) and Karel Nel‘s Temenos Lingam or Mayhem. RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM: Jann Cheifitz’s Foreign Exchange, Kendell Geers’ Title Withheld (Boycott), Leora Farber’s Seeing is Believing and Other Modern Myths and Steven Cohen’s Let Them Eat Cock! Images © Wayne Oosthuizen.

THE GRAMMAR OF THE EXHIBITION, 1 BIOGRAPHY OF A BUILDING AND A PHONE CALL

Clive Kellner

Itisnowwidelyacceptedthatthearthistoryofthe second half of the twentieth century is no longer a history of artworks,but a history of exhibitions.

– Florence Derieux (O’Neil 2012:91)

The typology of the exhibition

Objects have the power to inspire, transform and to cause effect. This power may take variable forms, be it cultural, technological, economic or symbolic. The Johannesburg Art Gallery contains over 9 000 objects with this kind of ‘aura’.2 It is in the object relations of exhibitions that the power of objects becomes explicit, staging a series of dialogues between the audience and the museum building. It is a vital one that is necessary to the construction of civil society and the principles of democratic values. As Pontus Hulten, the legendary curator and museum director stated, “a museum director’s first task is to create an audience – not just to do great shows, but to create an audience who trusts the institution” (Obrist 2008:37). With reference to Hulten’s comment, I will discuss several exhibitions that I presented between 2004-2009 as Head and Chief Curator of the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Exhibitions in museums have their etymology in scholarship: a form of ‘show’ and ‘tell’ in which ‘to show’ is to display and ‘to tell’ is to be an active agent in the production of knowledge. This idea is further elaborated in the distinction between the museum curator as caretaker (Latin curare, to care for), and that of the independent curator who has become synonymous with that of an ‘auteur’ or author of exhibitions. Jan Hoet, when curating the 1992 documenta, writes, “this exhibition is my text, every work that is contributed is a postulate and the discourse unfolds as one walks through the spaces” (O’Neil 2012:97). As such, there is an unfolding revelation of an artist and their work as the viewer moves through the various galleries of the building. Moreover, the authorial intention of the curator becomes apparent in the relation between art on display and the architecture of the building.

Adam Szymczyk explains that the word ‘exhibition’ is from the Latin exhibere or ex-habere, which is “the act of holding something out and thus making it visible and present” (2009:57). This idea was central to my curatorship of JAG in two primary ways. First, in considering how to attract audiences to one of the densest transit hubs in Johannesburg, located between Park Station, Hillbrow and the city centre. And secondly, I envisaged large-scale exhibitions that would be informative, spectacular in their design and compelling to engage with as “poems in space”, to use Harald Szeeman’s term (Obrist 2008:238). In order to realise this, I envisaged a programme of diachronic exhibitions of South African and contemporary African artists in the form of monographs and retrospectives, including David Goldblatt ( David Goldblatt: 51 Years, 2005), William Kentridge (William Kentridge Retrospective, 2005), Kay Hassan (Urbanation, 2008), Berni Searle (Approach, 2006) and Meshac Gaba (2007). In contrast, I envisaged a programme of collections and thematic exhibitions of a synchronic nature that addressed a particular theme or set of ideas at one point in time including, Impressionists from Corot to Monet (2004), NegotiatedIdentities:BlackBodies (2004), Dunga Manzi:StirringWaters (2007), Africa Remix (2007), Ars Moriendi (2008), The Dematerialisation of the Art Object (2008) and Thami Mnyele + Medu Art Ensemble (2008).

As a curator or ‘exhibition maker’, I consider exhibitions as more than merely ‘objects in a space’. My proposition was therefore, how to enhance the performative aspects of exhibition making where the choreography of the exhibition is something that is staged and performed for an audience. Moreover, exhibitions in museums tend toward the pedagogic, imparting didactic knowledge by “showing rather than writing” (Haxthausen 2002:XV). Through the use of visual syntax, the exhibition becomes a form of visual argument or essay. Curator and art historian, Robert Storr, uses the analogy of the exhibition space in relation to language, “Galleries are paragraphs, the walls and formal subdivisions of the floors are sentences, clusters of works are clauses and individual works in varying degree operate as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs” (Marincola 2006:23). Applying this analogy to the exhibition programme radically transformed the Lutyens building. Berni Searle’s monographic exhibition became a temporal-spatial theatre of video projections, infusing sound and image. Meshac Gaba’s playful interactive installations offered a parody of institutional systems of display; whereas Kay Hassan’s displays suggested that of an urban ethnographer reflecting personal narratives of the city within the museum.

Backstage

Prior to discussing some of the exhibitions in detail, it is necessary for the reader to obtain an understanding of the ‘backstage’ of JAG. This ‘backstage’ presents a contextual picture of the conditions and environment in which the exhibitions took place. These included; floods, a deteriorating heritage sandstone building, failing sewerage pumps, insufficient storage space for the collections, upgrading of the security systems and a gap in the extensions to the building. Not to mention the taxi ranks, crime, traffic

congestion and litter that beset the area. But perhaps more significantly, the annual budget for exhibitions was R36 000, and for education R23 000. The solution was, of course, a prodigious amount of fundraising.

This idea of a ‘gap’ in the building implies a further gap in funding, as well as in the audience to the Gallery. Each year the demographic of visitors to the Gallery changes during the December holiday period. At this time of the year between 2 000 to 3 000 people visit JAG, consisting predominantly of African immigrants from the neighbourhood. Therefore, as part of the cultural exchange project Urban Concerns (2006) between the Art Gallery and Bildmuseet in Sweden, urban researcher Ismail Farouk mapped the African immigrant communities surrounding JAG. For the Kinshasa: The Imaginary City exhibition (2006), we organised a Congolese Day of Celebration as a means of engaging the Congolese community in Johannesburg. In this way, the Art Gallery extended its mandate in reaching new audiences but also in achieving social cohesion.

Curating Africa

Africa Remix was the proverbial blockbuster exhibition. On the opening night the streets of Johannesburg leading to the Art Gallery were blocked. Someone commented that they were not sure if they should be upset or overjoyed! It turned out to be the biggest opening in the history of the Johannesburg Art Gallery. It began as a conversation held on the balcony of the coffee shop overlooking Joubert Park between myself and the curator Simon Njami, who said in his typically nonchalant manner, “wouldn’t it be nice to bring Remix to Johannesburg?”3 At a meeting held at the Centre Georges Pompidou Art Museum in Paris, together with the other principal organisers of the exhibition, the

Museum Kunst Palast, Mori Museum and the Hayward Gallery, it was agreed that the exhibition would travel to Johannesburg. However, the exhibitor’s fee of R500 000 had to be paid. In total, R5 million was raised for the exhibition. Politically, it was important to host the exhibition on the continent, in addition to presenting it in its full manifestation. This meant recreating complex installations such as Bili Bidjocka’s The Room of Tears (2004). This required a ‘false’ floor with sensors and touchstones immersed in water, with video monitors embedded in the walls in an interactive environment.

Hicham Benohoud’s image, Version Soft IV (2003) was used for the cover of the Johannesburg version of the catalogue. As a conceptual ‘portrait’ depicting a person’s face obscured by labels, the image represented a shift from the stereotypical portrayals of Africa as exotic, as depicted on several of the other catalogue covers. Although Remix was very much about representation, materiality and inclusivity, the exhibition nevertheless contributed actively toward generating discourse around contemporary African artistic production and reception. The exhibition’s discursive attributes rendered fully the notion of the exhibition as dialogical – as an exchange between the artworks and audience, further elaborated through the para-curatorial aspects of the exhibition. These included the catalogue with newly commissioned essays and glossary, education resource booklet, CD Rom, guided tours and a series of panel discussions.

Retrospective exhibitions

William Kentridge’s Retrospective was a travelling exhibition. Curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, it was first exhibited at the Castello di Rivoli in Turin. It subsequently

toured to K20/K21 Düsseldorf; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, and lastly to the Johannesburg Art Gallery (2005). The exhibition was beautifully and sensitively curated and JAG was possibly the finest incarnation of all the touring spaces, largely due to the proportions and volumes of the Lutyens designed building.

Historically, JAG was very ornately decorated. The remnants of this legacy are still prevalent in the visual architecture of the Lutyens building style, but is also found in the galleries, such as the dado rails and Galerierot4 or red textiles (sacking or velvet) used to cover the walls. These architectural elements are a leftover from the 18th and 19th century aristocratic and upper middle-class interiors that were absorbed into museum design and display. This aesthetic language was incorporated into the Kentridge exhibition, featuring a blue room with drawings hung in salon style, above the dado rail to the ceiling, ‘skied’ as if a visual field of constellations.

One of the key themes or recurring images in Kentridge’s films and drawings is that of the landscape, and in particular the ‘Highveld’, either as barren veld with mine dumps or littered with architectural references. O’Neil (2012:92) uses the metaphor of the exhibition-as-landscape as a means of establishing a formal structuring device within the grammar of the exhibition. As viewers and as people, we orientate ourselves in relation to the natural and built environment around us, primarily visually and spatially. This concept was made visible in the Phillips Gallery that contained four large bronze figures, Shadow Quartet (2003/4) and behind the figures, Shadow Procession (1999) was projected onto a screen contrasting with the bronze figures in the foreground. In the restroom, a small bathroom cabinet, Medicine Chest (2000) hung almost indistinguishably,

the contents being projected onto the mirror of the medicine cabinet. In both these instances, the grammar of the exhibition supported the idea of exhibition-aslandscape where the visual and architectural elements became one.

Exhibitions as propagandist, ennobling and/or pedagogic

How do we historicise the events of the dehistoricised?

This was a way of thinking about the gaps in the art historical record of JAG where significant, but under-exposed artists could receive public visibility. In particular, artists who were previously marginalised due to the apartheid regime’s racial policies. Art historian and scholar, Mary Anne Staniszewski (1998:292) defines three kinds of exhibitions: the propagandist, the ennobling and the pedagogic.5 These are not rigid categories, but rather suggest paradigms in which exhibitions may overlap categories. The first major retrospective exhibition of this nature that I would describe according to Staniszewski’s criteria as propagandist and ennobling, was that of ‘the Goya of the Townships’, Dumile Feni. A larger-than-life figure, whose works had not been seen much in South Africa given that he had lived in exile in London and New York, where he died in 1991.

The Thami Mnyele + Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective exhibition (2008) can be described as a ‘performative archive’ reflecting on a significant period in South Africa’s cultural and political history. The exhibition was divided into two parts: the life and work of Thami Mnyele, an artist, activist and MK cadre who was killed by the SADF on 14 June 1985 in a raid on Gaberone, Botswana. The second part of the exhibition presented the various units of

Medu Art Ensemble, including the Graphic, Film, Photography, Music, Theatre and Poetry units, and many of the resistance posters produced by the Graphic unit. The exhibition culminated in a representation of the 1982 Culture and Resistance Symposium and Festival of the Arts.

The exhibition took three years of research, drawing from several archives and presenting original material in the form of video footage, music soundtracks, photographs, newsletters and theatre scripts. The ‘Raid Room’ was wallpapered with newspaper cuttings of the Gaberone raid in which Mnyele was killed, creating a backdrop to the objects, videos and photographs of the raid. In one propaganda image, apartheid police spy, Craig Williamson, is seen holding two grenades as evidence of ‘terrorist’ activities that Mnyele was supposedly involved in. In a glass vitrine, a branch of a thorn tree with Mnyele’s blood on it that Albio Gonzalez took from the site of the raid was displayed.

The exhibition was officially opened by the then Deputy President of South Africa, Baleka Mbete, who had been a member of Medu in exile. Amongst the other luminaries who were Medu members, was musician Jonas Gwangwa, who together with Steve Dyer, performed at the opening. In these ways the exhibition became inclusive, expanding its parameters beyond the Gallery’s walls and spaces. It represented a form of ‘remembering’ – a reconstruction of people’s lives and of historical events that construct narratives. It is in such ways that exhibitions within a museum context transcend the more traditional view of the museum as a ‘sepulchre for dead objects’,6 and embody what Tony Bennet (2006:59) describes as, “opening up the museum space to the representatives of different communities by providing them with opportunities for authoring their own stories”. As such it gives voice and expression to hidden histories.

Marina, the star!

Marina Abramović is considered one of the forerunners of performance art in the world and has become something of a celebrity, appearing in Jay Z’s recent hit Picasso Baby, as performed at a New York gallery. The status attributed to her is in light of her profound endurance-based performances of the body in which she explores the limits and psychological parameters of herself and the audience. Two of her video works were shown in JAG, including a single channel black-and-white projection, The Hero (2001), featuring Abramović on a horse while holding a white flag, and a multi-screen projection, Count on Us (Chorus) (2003), a meditation on the genocide in Bosnia, accompanied by a chorus sung by children. The exhibition opened together with her partner, artist Paolo Canevari, on the 1st May 2005, with a live performance by Abramović, titled Spirit Cooking, in which she stood clothed in a white gown on a platform staring transfixedly outwards above the audience.

And the phone call ...

I was sitting at my desk when I received a telephone call from Friedhelm Hütte of Deutsche Bank. He wanted to know if JAG would like to exhibit William Kentridge’s Black Box/Chambre Noire, a recently commissioned project for the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. Naturally I acted composed, and requested that he send a written letter of request that would be considered according to the appropriate channels. I put down the phone and ran through the building overjoyed with delight! Black Box/Chambre Noire is an extraordinary work, consisting of a mechanised mini-theatre. The central narrative focuses on the German massacre of the Hereros in then South-West Africa (Namibia)

in 1904. It is a work of mourning, a Trauerabeit 7 or labour without end that uses theatrical devices to convey a historic account, but through poetic resonance. Stephen Greenblatt (1991:42) speaks of resonance as, “the power of the displayed object to reach out beyond its formal boundaries to a larger world” and wonder; “the power of the displayed object to stop the viewer in his or her tracks … to evoke an exalted attention”. This is indeed something that Kentridge’s work has an uncanny ability to achieve in the viewer: an arresting wonder that inspires, yet is bound in the socio-political landscape of his time and place in history.

CodaI have come to understand exhibitions as ontologically unstable, not as ‘things’ or ‘objects in a room’, but as ‘events’ that are informed by history and that shape society. Through this experience, I view the museum not as Foucault did, as a ‘space of difference’, a heterotopia, like a cemetery, prison or ship, but as a “differencing machine”, that emphasises “the museum as a facilitator of cross-cultural exchange” (Bennet 2006:59). It was my privilege to oversee JAG during a period in which we were able to present a series of extraordinary exhibitions, in often challenging circumstances, that contributed towards a more socially cohesive society. Karsten Schubert (2009:11) emphasises, “it could be said that one of the greatest myths about the museum is that it is an oasis of calm untouched by the storms of politics and history, nothing could be further from the truth. Over time, the museum has responded to political and social shifts with seismic precision”. It is in this precise and yet reflexive response to political and social shifts that the Johannesburg Art Gallery leaves an indelible impression in our society.

Endnotes

1 I have used the term the “grammar of the exhibition” as referenced in the Manifesta Journal #7.

2 Walter Benjamin refers to the term ‘aura’ in his seminal essay, TheWorkofArtintheAgeofMechanicalReproduction. For Benjamin, an aura represents an original and authentic artwork, such as a painting, whereas through the influence of technology and reproductions, an artwork may loose its aura.

3 Simon Njami made this statement in discussion with myself at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2006.

4 For further reading on the development of art museum spaces, see Walter Grasskamp’s article in Oncurating, #09/11: Curating Critique, titled, “The White Wall –On the Prehistory of the White Cube”.

5 Mary Anne Staniszewski is an art historian who analysed the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition histories in her publication The Power of Display (1998). In her analysis she develops the concept of the three exhibition categories.

6 Beth Lord’s paper, ‘Foucault’s Museum: Difference, Representation and Genealogy’, published in Museum and Society, March 2006, offers a useful critique of Adorno’s notion of the museum as “sepulchre for dead objects”, and Foucault’s assessment of the museum as a “placeless place” or heterotopia.

7 For a description of William Kentridge’s Black Box/ Chambre Noire, see the Guggenheim Museum in New York’s website: http://www.guggenheim.org/newyork/collections/collection-online/artwork/22065.

Sources

Benjamin, W. 1968. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, in Arendt, H (ed). Illuminations. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich Inc.

Bennet, T. 2006. Exhibition, Difference and the Logic of Culture, in Karp, I, Kratz, C, Szwaja, L & Ybarra-Frausto, T (eds). Museum Frictions, Public Cultures/GlobalTransformations. Durham & London: Duke University Press.

Grammar of the Exhibition. Manifesta Journal, MJ #7 [Sa]. [O]. Available: www.manifestajournal.org/grammar-exhibition.

Grasskamp, W. 2011. The White Wall – On the Presentation of The ‘White Cube’. Curating Critique. Oncurating.org, # 09/11: 78-90.

Greenblatt, S. 1991. Resonance and Wonder, in Karp, I & Levine, S (eds).

Exhibiting Cultures,the Poetics and Politics of Museum Display. Washington & London: Smithsonian Institute Press.

Haxthausen, C (ed). 2002. The Two Art Histories, the Museum and the University. Williamston MA: The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

Kentridge, W. Black Box/Chambre Noire [Sa]. [O]. Available: www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artwork/22065.

Lord, B. 2006. Foucault’s Museum: Difference, Representation and Genealogy. Museum & Society, March (1): 11-14.

Obrist, HU. 2008. A Brief History of Curating. Zurich: JRP Ringier.

O’Neil, P. 2012. The Culture of Curating and the Curating of Cultures. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

Schubert, K. 2009. The Curator’s Egg. London: Ridinghouse.

Staniszewski, MA. 1998. The Power of Display, A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

Storr, R. 2006. Show and Tell, in Marincola, P (ed). What Makes a Great Exhibition? Philadelphia: Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

Szymczyk, A. 2009. Exhibitions, in Scharmacharja, S (ed). A Manual for the 21st Century Art Institution. London: Koening Books.

Clive Kellner

Clive Kellner is currently Executive Director of the Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation and curator-at-large of the gordonschachatcollection. He lectures part-time in Curatorial Strategies and Practices at the Department of Visual Arts, University of Pretoria. He was the director of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (2004-2009), Coordinator of the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale (1997) and co-founded the panAfrican curatorial platform, Camouflage art, culture & politics, and was editor-in-chief of Coartnews magazine.

THIS AND FOLLOWING THREE PAGES: Installation views of Africa Remix, 2007.

Installation views of the Thami Mnyele + Medu Art Ensemble exhibition, curated by Clive Kellner with Reshma Chhiba, Jeannine Howse, Khwezi Gule, Tshidiso Makheta and Maria Fidel Regueros, 2008.

LEFT: Installation views of the William Kentridge Retrospective exhibition, 2005.

RIGHT: William Kentridge’s Black Box/Chambre Noire, 2006.

JOHANNESBURG CIRCA NOW

Terry Kurgan and Jo Ractliffe

Johannesburg Circa Now was a multi-platform project developed in 2004 at a very particular moment in the history of the city of Johannesburg: ten years into democracy, the city witnessed a surge of developmental and regeneration projects as public and private investors turned their attention to the inner city. These manifested in the rejuvenation of public spaces, housing developments and iconic infrastrucure projects, like the Nelson Mandela Bridge and the Constitutional Court.

Johannesburg Circa Now was principally about photography and the city, and it started with a conversation. Cities run on conversations, and ours gave birth to an ever-widening circle of engagement with other conversations.

At the centre of our originating discussion were two shared preoccupations. On the one hand, an abiding interest in photography’s relation to the real and how photographs mediate our experience of ourselves in the world. On the other, the practical experience of having worked on a number of projects connected with photography, public space and the inner city of Johannesburg.

At that time, Jo Ractliffe had just spent five years documenting Johannesburg’s rapidly transforming inner city, alongside various teaching and curatorial projects she was involved in that explored the city as both ‘studio’ and ‘gallery’ space; and Terry Kurgan’s art practice had included

commissioned work for both development agencies and some corporate sector social investment programmes, where the focus was on the social and physical regeneration of the city’s old centre. And although our interests had been located in relatively distinct contexts, we recognised that there were interesting links between the two, and common ground in the complex and contradictory environment that was the inner city. In particular, it was thought provoking to discover that the bodies of work we were developing then, Jo’s Johannesburg Inner CityWorks 2000-2004, and Terry’s Park Pictures, had emerged quite directly out of the projects we had presented on the Joubert Park PublicArt Project in 2001 (see pp 148-153). This led to a thought about what could happen in a coming together of our two projects, and we began to talk about collaborating on something new that we thought would find a most appropriate home at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Inevitably, while Johannesburg Circa Now started with our independent bodies of work and an idea for a shared project that would mark a ‘meeting point’ between them, we ended up with a much larger and more layered project with three integrated components: an exhibition, an interactive public project and a catalogue publication that incorporated additional contributions from writers, teachers, architects, photographers and visual artists. This trinity of image-action-text enabled us to extend our focus beyond the fixed parameters of the exhibition space.

The exhibition

As we developed the project, we realised that underpinning our individual and collective work was a critical set of relations, affiliations and connections to other practitioners, that inflected what we were now thinking and doing. We wanted to explore the possibilities of working within this ‘condition of collectivity’, as it were; in a space where the ‘thing’ of art is as much about the fluidity of relationships, exchanges and process as it is about the material object. Consequently, the exhibition expanded beyond the original scope of a joint exhibition to include the work of student photographers at the Market Photo Workshop and the street photographers comprising the Joubert Park Photographers Association, as well as the products of a public project that invited broad audience participation.

Terry had worked with the park photographers since 2001. Her collaboration with them for this new project included mapping their often long-held fixed positions in the Park, documenting their personal and professional histories and buying and collating hundreds of photographs unclaimed by their clients over many years. These photographs, juxtaposed with her own portraits of each photographer, and of paintings selected from JAG’s Foundation Collection, formed part of her installation in the gallery space.

When invited to teach at the Market Photo Workshop in May 2003, Jo had met with a group of students – Zola Gule, Lwazi Hlope, Andile Komanisi, Lebohang Mashiloane, Sabelo Mlangeni, Nhlanhla Mngadi and Siphiwe Zwane – who were photographing in the inner city and who also expressed their interest in participating in the project. With the support of the Market Photo Workshop, the project shifted its focus and each photographer produced a series of images for the exhibition that explored a specific aspect of life and work in the inner city.

The public project

When thinking about inviting the public to participate in this project, we wanted visitors to the exhibition to be able to register their contribution and response to the exhibition in a material way, in the actual exhibition space, alongside the other works on show. And, with regard to the diverse range of visitors we expected at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, we had to find a process that would be accessible to all. We also wanted it to be playful.

We installed a photo studio into the exhibition space, with a selection of backdrops and props, lights, a camera and a printer – and true to the conventions of ‘real life’ photo studios, a specially made stamp to indicate the provenance of these pictures. During these sessions, visitors to the exhibition had the opportunity to explore how they wished to represent themselves through photographic self-portraits accompanied by short texts. Two copies of each image produced in the photo studio were printed – one for the exhibition, the other for the person to take home. The response to these workshops was diverse, provocative and often very moving. While some participants enacted playful and elaborately staged fantasies, others were

more serious about how they represented themselves to the world. Pinned up on the walls of the Gallery, this wall of portraits and words continued to grow during the course of the exhibition.

The public project was designed and facilitated in collaboration with the Curriculum Development Project and the Wits School of Arts ‘Artists in Schools’ Partnership Project and the Imbali Visual Literacy Project. Together with teachers from the above organisations, we held a series of exploratory workshops. In these we exchanged various ideas about the focus, structure and process of the public project, as well as the critical issues of organisation and logistics – how to run a portrait studio smoothly when working with groups of as many as 50 learners from over 30 schools. We also wanted these sessions to support the work the teachers were doing in their schools, so part of the intention in these planning sessions was to develop ways of taking aspects of the project back into the school curriculum.

Our project assistants were then a group of young photographers, artists and art students, and they facilitated a programme of regular workshops during the exhibition’s three-month run. In addition to the schools’ workshops, open sessions with the general public were held each weekend. The project assistants were Lester Adams, Reshma

Chhiba, Andile Komanisi, Bronwyn Lace, Andrew Mokgatla, Kamogelo Mokhonki, Paul Molete, Flora More, Thami Mqoco, Danny Nhleko, Amy Watson and Siphiwe Zwane.

Many from this group, ten years later, are now practicing professional artists, photographers, arts and culture administrators, and curators.

The book

The book we published endeavored to bring the various parts of Johannesburg Circa Now together in relation to each other, and to locate these within a wider experience of photography and the city.

We compiled a selection of photographs drawn from the project, accompanied by essays and short texts by many of its participants, facilitators and collaborators. These provided points of access into the thoughts, activities and results of the different platforms of the project.

But equally importantly, we invited other ways of perceiving and reflecting on the city and photography. In addition to commissioned essays about the city, photography, and our work, by writers Rory Bester, Santu Mofokeng, Sean O’Toole, Ruth Rosengarten, Melinda Silverman and Msizi Myeza, and photographs by invited photographers, David Goldblatt, Ruth Motau and Stephen Hobbs, the book incorporated a series of texts by South African writers, artists and poets written in response to particular photographic images. Here we asked contributors Phaswane Mpe, Jay Pather, Ivan Vladislavic, Ingrid de Kok, Antje Krog and Penny Siopis to choose a photograph, one that for whatever reason fascinated, compelled or provoked them. But also, an image that had some connection – even if oblique or obscure – to growing up, living in, or passing

through Johannesburg. Finally, David Andrew, John Fleetwood and Keorapetse Mosimane wrote essays that reflected on the value of a participatory approach to teaching and learning in the photo studio and the Market Photo Workshop collaborations.

Altogether the texts included in our book were a way into the work of Johannesburg Circa Now, which at its heart was about making material lived experience; a space through which to speak something of our individual and collective responses to living in this place at that time. And while there were gaps and many things left out, we wanted to work with photography in such a way as to activate a sense of the inter-connectedness of things. The photograph marks a point in a story, one from which we could then conjure our own narratives. There we could make of the photograph, or rather with it, an encounter that radiated both inwards into our private world of associations and experiences, and outwards, back into the myriad worlds captured within the space of this city.

Terry Kurgan

Terry Kurgan is an artist, writer and curator based in Johannesburg. Her artistic interest is in photography, and in the complex and paradoxical nature of all photographic transactions. She is currently Artist in Residence/Writing Fellow at WiSER, Wits University, where she is producing an artist’s book comprising a series of linked, narrative non-fiction essays that develop in relation to the evocative power of photographs as objects.

Jo Ractliffe

Jo Ractliffe is the Senior Lecturer in Photography at Wits University and has taught photography at various local and international institutions. She was a founder member of The Joubert Park Project, has been a Writing Fellow at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) and in 2013 was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Curating the Archive at the University of Cape Town. Her photographs reflect her ongoing preoccupation with the South African landscape and the ways in which it figures in the country’s imaginary – particularly the violent legacies of apartheid.

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: VIOLENCE, WOMEN AND ART

Antoinette Murdoch

Off the Beaten Path:Violence,Women andArt, conceived by Art Works For Change, is a prominent international touring exhibition which landed on the doorstep of JAG on 8 September 2013, and was curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg. After much effort behind the scenes, JAG managed to raise funds from the National Lottery to bring the show to South Africa, with the conviction that it was a vital collection of work that directly addressed a pressing South African social issue.

In her curator’s statement, Rosenberg comments that “[t]hroughout the world, women and girls are victims of countless and senseless acts of violence. The range of genderbased violence is devastating, occurring, quite literally, from womb to tomb. It occurs in every segment of society, regardless of class, ethnicity, culture, or whether the country is at peace or war. Often the victim’s only crime is that she is a woman”. The conceptual background to the show could hardly be more relevant in South Africa. According to some sources, violence against women occurs with the highest frequency in the world in South Africa, topped by the staggering statistic that a woman is raped in this country every four minutes.

In the light of this devastating social evil, it was most relevant and appropriate to showcase artists on the South African leg of the exhibition who were unambiguously opposing

such violence. These included: Jane Alexander, Louise Bourgeois, Lise Bjørne Linnert, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Marina Abramović, Wangechi Mutu, Miri Nishri, Patricia Evans, Maimuna Feroze-Nana, Mona Hatoum, Icelandic Love Corp, Yoko Inoue, Jung Jungyeob, Amal Kenawy, Hung Liu, Almagul Menlibayeva, Gabriela Morawetz, Yoko Ono, Cecilia Paredes, Susan Plum, Cima Rahmankhah, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Masami Teraoka, Hank Willis Thomas, Miwa Yanagi, AWARE/OWARE project.

The exhibition was divided into five categories: ‘Violence and the Individual’, ‘Violence and the Family’, ‘Violence and the Community’, ‘Violence and Culture’ and ‘Violence and Politics’.

In the section on Violence and the Family, Louise Bourgeois’ The Accident (silver gelatin print), beautifully reflected on the desire for solitude that often follows violent experiences. “In this piece, a woman is alone in a black tunnel. Her torso is skewered by a crutch, she is hobbled by her high heels, nude and armless, yet she smiles complacently. Like a woman trapped in a violent family situation, she wears a mask that tells the world everything is just fine.”1

Also from Violence and the Family comes Cut Piece by Yoko Ono. In this video piece, Yoko Ono is seen sitting onstage in a black dress, as people cut away pieces of

the dress, leaving her body increasingly exposed. Art Works for Change evocatively describe the audience’s actions, “[l]ike vultures taking pieces of her, the audience violates Ono’s body, shredding her clothes, stripping her almost naked. But throughout most of the performance, she sits motionless, trying to maintain a composed stare toward the audience”.2

The section on Violence and the Community, an untitled work by Yoko Inoue, showcased how “in some communities, where direct intervention is culturally impossible, women respond to severe domestic violence by assembling outside of the household in question and banging out an alarm on pots and pans. This informs the perpetrator that the spirit he attempts to break belongs to many, not one. There are as many forms of activism as there are individual and group propensities and cultures: creating new ways of living together cooperatively, providing havens from violence, lobbying to change unjust legislation, or simply saying no.

Pot-banging is a form of protest for many communities that signifies a community’s shift from ‘silent collusion’ with domestic violence to active opposition”.3

For the staging of the exhibition at JAG, we were acutely aware that the communities in the immediate vicinity of the Gallery are similarly deeply affected by sexual and genderbased violence. It therefore was vital that we engaged

Installation views of Off the Beaten Path:Violence,Women and Art, exhibited at JAG in 2013.

Installation views of Off the Beaten Path:Violence,Women and Art, 2013.

women in the depressed inner-city areas around JAG in a more practical and relevant way than simply staging the exhibition, and hoping it might be seen by some of those victims of violent abuse. Accordingly, we held workshops with women from the surrounding area, and specifically the Boitumelo craft group from Hillbrow.

These workshops took place in JAG’s educational studio, and presented each participant with a pre-manufactured papier-mâché bowl. After participating in talks about HIV/ AIDS and sexual abuse, the women involved were then guided to develop ideas they wanted to express, which they then painted onto their bowls. They were challenged to think about safe places, and these were what they painted. The following day they were taught to play the the AWARE/ OWARE game, to bring them further awareness of the dangers they face on a daily basis, and importantly, some skills to deal with them.

The exhibition statement describes the AWARE/OWARE game for women empowerment as being based on the 7 000 year-old African board game, Oware. “The large-scale adaptation of the game” it states “was created as an interactive and educational forum to help communities explore the issue of female empowerment. The traditionally played Oware game focuses on two central principles – ‘to reap, you must sew’ and ‘to receive, you must give’. As such, this game is not only played for enjoyment but has been passed down from generation to generation as a useful educational and empowerment tool. Furthermore, researchers are discovering that we can learn valuable lessons through game-playing”.

On display at JAG was one version of the game that had been developed as part of the Freedom to Create celebration in Cape Town in 2011, and it proved to be one of the

most striking installations on exhibition in the Phillips Gallery. South African arts and crafts groups, Ardmore Ceramics, Artist Proof Studio, Greatmore Outreach Project, Hlabisa Basket Weavers, Keiskamma Arts Trust and Woza MoyaHillcrest AIDS Centre Trust, participated in developing the work, and incorporating various artistic methods into it, including painting, weaving and beading.

Marina Abramović, Jane Alexander, Amnesty International Sweden Campaign, Hank Willis Thomas and Cuban artist, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, as well as others, engaged the theme of Violence and Culture, in which they explored issues such as rape and war, ideas of modesty, poverty, religion, genital mutilation, history and mythology.

The last category, Violence and Politics, included a work by Mona Hatoum, titled OverMyDeadBody, which the curator describes as “a call to action for women to stand up against violence in every form – from domestic to warfare. By placing a tiny toy soldier on the nose of a determined woman, Hatoum has made violence appear small in the face of female solidarity and resolve – having the viewer believe that women as a whole have the power to stop violence. Yet the title invites the viewer to consider what sacrifices must be made to achieve this goal”.4

To many people, the relationship between urgent social problems, such as violence against women, and visual art, is ostensibly tenuous. Without educational resources and engaged care and shelter from other organisations, an art exhibition, no matter how well-conceived and hard-hitting, will fail to make much difference at grassroots level. But in the South African context, where violence against women is of epidemic proportions, such an exhibition can help not only to conscientise people, but to mobilise essential financial and social resources towards helping women

from all walks of life who are suffering abuse. We hope that bringing the show to JAG helped in some small way to do that.

Endnotes

1 Quoted off Art Works for Change web page www.facebook.com/artworksforchange/ posts/340945955968155

2 Ibid

3 Ibid

4 Ibid

Antoinette Murdoch

URBAN LIFE

John Fleetwood

Urban Life was a series of solo and two-person exhibitions of Market Photo Workshop (MPW) students that was hosted in the Project Room at JAG throughout 2004. The work of the twelve participating students was the outcome of the Advanced Course at the MPW, lead by myself. ‘Urban life’ was the theme for the course and exhibitions, and encouraged a multiplicity of thinking about the city, how it constructs itself, and of shifting identities.

The photographers involved were Cariña Booyens, Sipho Futshane, Ingrid Masondo, Buyaphi Mdledle, Raymond Mokoena, Solomon Moremong, Zanele Muholi, Oupa Nkosi, Musa Rapuleng, Nicole Thomas, Iqbal Tladi and Nontsikelelo Veleko.

The Market Photo Workshop, at the time, offered non-formal part-time photography training. Courses were scheduled mainly over weekends and evenings. The Advanced Course was practical and project driven, and was based on discussion and peer review. These discussions focused on the anticipation of what ten years of democracy could bring to society, of how the young democacy was shaping new identities and cultures, and especially on how photography fitted within this.

The then recent historical reference to the role photography had played towards liberation and resistance encapsulated thinking about the role of photography at the time, and

it created deep thinking paradigms that intersected with new talk about photography as a democratic medium. This intersection of the anticipation of the digital image coinciding with the anticipation of national democracy created an energised dynamic.

Discussion during the course opened up questions around various issues in society, including sexual identities, subcultures, expression, fashion, shifts from traditional to urban life, redefining the township as urban and redefining Johannesburg. Towards the end of the course it was clear that the work these students had produced made a bold statement about this new urbanism. Also key to this realisation was the need to show the work in the city.

The Photo Workshop at that point was run from the old Newtown Post Office building in Bree Street, a crammed space with a darkroom and training rooms, but which offered no space to exhibit work. Few galleries remained in the city centre as business had swiftly repositioned itself north, to Sandton, during the prior decade. The Johannesburg Art Gallery was one of few art spaces that had remained though. As an institution it still represented some of the homogenising power of the museum – white power, privilege, high art. But previous projects like the Joubert Park Public Art Project (JPP) had wanted JAG to redefine itself in relation to its location and context. This context made JAG the perfect space for us to consider using for a series

of exhibitions by non-university photography students. It was aligned with the idea of redefining society, democratisation and taking ownership of the city and its institutions; but also of defining photography’s place in the arts.

Pitso Chinzima, JAG exhibitions officer at the time, was keen to offer us the Project Room space. But there was no budget support available from JAG. So MPW bought the paint, and the photographers painted. We curated and installed the exhibitions; and JAG’s security looked after the work. We also marketed and publicised the exhibitions.

There was a certain reciprocity that marked this exchange. Without artistic interference we were able to explore an exhibition space, giving photographers the rare chance to exhibit, to play and to grow accustomed to a gallery. In turn, new audiences that growingly supported the emerging photographers, and who ordinarily would not have considered attending the formalities of space of such an institution, visited JAG. Showing the work of these young photographers at JAG gave the work, and the Gallery, currency; the public started to take the photographers and their photography more seriously. And the work, which brought content from a larger Johannesburg to the Gallery, thereby redefined Johannesburg to its audiences.

It has been in subsequent years, as some of these photographers have begun to develop local and international

profiles for their work, that the relationship between the Urban Life project and JAG has become more evident. Both are fragmented attempts to narrate the story of Johannesburg.

Urban Life exhibitions programme:

04 April-9 May 2004

Group Exhibition, Urban Life

16-30 May 2004

Buyaphi Mdledle, Out of Focus

06-27 June 2004

Musa Rapuleng, Street Fashion

Solomon Moremong, Black Sunday

04-25 July 2004

Sipho Futshane, Mother of Mine, Daughter of Spirits

01-22 August 2004

Ingrid Masondo, Split Ends

Lolo Veleko, Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder

29 August-12 September 2004

Zanele Muholi, Visual Sexuality

19 September-10 October 2004

Nicole Thomas, Beyers Naudé Drive

Oupa Nkosi, Kliptown

17 Octobber-07 November 2004

Iqbal Tladi, Hybrid Pitt House

Raymond Mokoena,Amaphela (Cockroaches)

14-28 November 2004

Cariña Booyens, Scenes from a Car

05-28 December 2004

Group Exhibition, Urban Life

John Fleetwood

John Fleetwood is the Head of the Market Photo Workshop, and an independent photography curator and producer. Fleetwood’s interests in photography are predominantly in the developing mode of documentary photography and, in particular, the possibilities for photography in the politics of aesthetics and representation.

TOP LEFT: ©Buyaphi Mdledle. TOP RIGHT: ©Musa Rapuleng. CENTRE RIGHT: ©Solomon Moremong. BOTTOM LEFT: ©Nicole Thomas. BOTTOM RIGHT: ©Raymond Mokoena.

SNAGGING AT THE JOINTS

Stephen Hobbs

The project

Given its four-year time frame, the JAG/SNAG project served as a unique opportunity to test a number of ideas about the nature of the ruin as a site of imaginative potential. It was a conceptual design project that sought to revel in urban and architectural decay for its own sake, in so far as the patina of time and ‘some’ collapse is a more interesting reflection on the state of things than constant cosmetic fixes; and equally to objectify decay – as in neglect and lack of care as a shocking condition that continues to be ignored.

In the lead up to the 2014 JAG/SNAG exhibition in JAG’s Meyer Pienaar building extension, the interim approach involved a series of smaller exhibitions in Space A, formerly the Lace Room, a basement gallery adjoining the auditorium below the Lutyens building.

For chief curator Antoinette Murdoch, the requirement was that this artistic intervention be complimented by a more supportive collaboration on re-assessing the condition of the building, with a view to at least stabilising its water penetration issues, but preferably also to help develop and adopt a plan to radically alter the 1986 Meyer Pienaar addition relative to the faulty materials used at the time – the copper domed skylights being an example.

Hence the second and equally compelling aesthetic component was the research journey into JAG’s maintenance archives relative to a survey of the key ‘negative’ points in the Gallery’s timeline – whether the incorrect orientation of the original Lutyens Gallery entrance, or the potential sale of the Gallery in the early 1960s to become a national eye research centre, amongst others.

Space A’s bunker-like condition, submerged at the basement level of the Gallery, served well to showcase some of this archival material and various other artifacts, the key being the Meyer Pienaar Architects’ competition model for the 1986 addition. This configuration of material, set against a wall-to-wall black and white painted Johannesburg city grid, served Murdoch with a strategic starting point for orientational tours centred on exposing the state of the building.

Given the myriad socially engaged and educational workshops and exhibitions that took place at JAG, both preceding and parallel to JAG/SNAG, the project tended towards a more conceptual and observational approach to the various subject areas under investigation, namely the building, Joubert Park, the Park fence, city users and inhabitants, transport nodes, points of connection and contact, water penetration, maintenance, the art collection, audience development, staffing, security, storage, JAG’s exhibition programme, and so on.

The main conversation

At the forefront of Murdoch’s concerns, and a key focus from the start of her five-year contract as Chief Curator, was the restoration of the building as a project outcome for 2015. As a starting point therefore, a process of near forensic analysis of every flaw-bearing nook and cranny was undertaken; from mould, plaster collapse, exposed reinforcements, rust, damaged electrical services, to ceiling rot and roof damage. The resultant photographic audit lent itself to a conventional building condition report.

Joints, leaks, city edge

With the input of roof specialists and structural engineers, the building was explored in its entirety. The internal investigation offered fascinating insights into the evolution of the Gallery over the decades of building add-ons, and repairs; from Lutyens’ first build in the early 1900s, to the east and west wing additions in the mid-1930s, all the way to the ‘modern’ addition in 1986. The lack of transfer of knowledge and skills for the maintenance of older building materials, carved sandstone, ornate wood finishing, beveled glass and hand crafted ceiling moldings relative to the more recent bricks, mortar and modern servitude that came with the 1986 addition, highlighted a ‘crisis’ in the necessary management and maintenance of such interfaces, old and new.

TOP LEFT: Clippings from the 8th and 12th December 1960 editions of the Rand Daily Mail reporting on the potential sale of the Gallery building to become a national eye research centre.

TOP RIGHT: Installation view of the Meyer Pienaar Architects’ model for the 1986 addition set against a wall-to-wall black and white painted Johannesburg city grid which served as strategic starting point for orientational tours centred on exposing the deteriorating state of the building. BOTTOM: Selective images of the audit into the condition of the building. Images ©JAG and Stephen Hobbs.

Standing on the roof in 2012, with a view of the Noord Street taxi rank, Joubert Park and surrounding buildings north and south of the railway lines, my realisation was that the conservation plan for this building seemed intrinsically linked to the wellbeing of the surrounding buildings, the inhabitants of the city and the necessary daily operations required to maintain continuity of functions and practices of people and city. It was clear to me from this point that without an understanding of the greater plans of the City and private sector to effect change in this environment, this art project would need to have both a philosophical and collaborative attitude towards failure and futility. I would equally need to look to new practical and aesthetic solutions in picturing this condition, offering insights and tactically engaging specialists whose work assists or confronts local government and so on.

Means of engagement: Public realm

The necessary process of self-familiarisation with the interstices of JAG’s architecture, and its interface with the city and public realm has, at its core, an all too familiar contradiction between inclusion and exclusion, largely attributed to the fencing off of the Park, which almost privatises the north entrance to the Gallery; the perceived threat of taxi violence, and the general tardiness of the area.

Without an actual project for social engagement, wandering the streets and photographing people seemed too voyeuristic and opportunistic to me, however there were moments of identifying urban edges peopled in such a way as to explain spatial conditions and character. Fast-forward to

recent evictions of street traders surrounding Joubert Park (and greater Johannesburg), and one is confronted with unfathomable decision making that neither supports the social and economic fabric of the area, nor builds on the diversity of offerings on the street.

At the commencement of this project The Trinity Session was midway through its three-year contract with the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), as public art curator/ coordinator, and while there were discussions between JAG and the JDA about a possible public art intervention in Joubert Park, the interest came and went. In this mode of practice, however, a piece of public art produced through a collaboration with local inhabitants and users might have elicited a research component or fact finding conversation on the ground that, with the help of a capital projects budget, could have provided a metaphorical bridge between the Gallery, the relevance of its practices and specifically its collection to a local audience. Typically an exhibition of the outcomes of such a process of social and design engagement with local users and inhabitants goes a long way to engendering a means of narrative and collective ownership of the final artwork, as its relevance is ideally plugged into the attitudes and practices of the area, expressed in an artistic way. Yet this did not happen.

Usability

Of all of the days in the weekly cycle of Joubert Park, none would seem more telling of the social and cultural layers that accumulate, than a Sunday; between various small outdoor prayer services, large-screen sports broadcasts, family picnics and children playing; chess games and park

photography; young couples pushing baby strollers in the Phillips Gallery in JAG, it would seem all is as it should be.

Indeed for most, Sunday is a day for pause and relaxation, it’s the remaining six days of the week that require special effort in continuing to build a programme of relevance and usefulness between the building and its surrounds.

Small exhibitions and holy spaces

For the lead up period to the JAG/SNAG exhibition in 2014, Space A was updated on a quarterly basis, in tandem with the Gallery’s rotating exhibition programme. These updates included elements relating to new image and object making attendant to the project, text pieces, photographic studies and so forth.

On one occasion it was amusing to be informed that an installation element had been damaged during the movement of a Mozambican Christian congregation to and from the auditorium. The cracked work, which happened to be an upstanding piece of mirror plate, clad with adhesive tape, held together. The damage to the mirror was later playfully exploited when re-introduced to the exhibit with an external dowel stick armature for support. The metaphor of building as body, and reconstruction as surgery, was already inherent to the project. For my work, however, the accidental moment served as a catalyst for exploring the interface between new uses for the building, the cognitive relevance of the artwork to the present audience and most interestingly, the clash between a colonial building and African architectural traditions over the centuries.

TOP & CENTRE LEFT : Views of JAG facing Joubert Park showing the isolating fence. CENTRE CENTRE: View to the south from JAG’s roof. CENTRE RIGHT: View of Stephen Hobbs’ reconfigured cracked mirror plate installation piece in Space A. BOTTOM LEFT: View of the railway line to the south of JAG. BOTTOM RIGHT: View of the taxi rank on Noord Street. Images ©Stephen Hobbs.

Building practices in Africa

Some time prior to JAG/SNAG’s move into this space, the media reported on the theft of a small classical sculpture in the Lutyens Room, a small adjoining grey sandstone gallery, a level above Space A. Shortly after the theft, the remaining sculptures were relocated and the room remained empty. Yet the aura of the theft seemed to linger. As a response to the vacuum of memory in this ‘antechamber’, a construction of re-commissioned timber, reaching to the skylight, aimed to highlight the permanence of the colonial building in opposition to contingent building methods in many African cities.

Being the tiniest of all the exhibition rooms in the Gallery, the Lutyens Room receives special late morning sunlight, which pours in as arcs of gridded yellow and white light silhouetting the form of the window frames. The regularity of this atmosphere during setups in Space A brought a strange comfort to my exhibition process, which aimed at targeting faults within the system. In fact, despite the contradictory positioning of the original Lutyens building entrance, entering the Phillips Gallery from the south side, one is often welcomed – quite therapeutically! – by a warm sunny interior, expressing the full volume of the building and its generous high entrance and repetitive alcoves.

Condition as art. And practical solutions.

In retrospect, the Lutyens Scaff tower served as something of an artistic indulgence. It was clear going forward that the balance between artistic treatment, presentation of

archival information and the new documentation arising out of building condition reports to work, the approach for the final exhibition in the Meyer Pienaar Gallery should avoid artiness through conventional object-based artworks, and rather engage the entire building as a situation where the building would become material; be the material. All attendant objects and data would be in line with the factual, albeit at times bizarre, narrative of changes and contradictory management decisions inherent to the history of the building.

Working with the notion of information as aesthetic material, an important justification for the JAG/SNAG exhibition was that the months in advance of the show played a constructive role towards Antoinette Murdoch’s building restoration agenda.

Months of picking at key documents in the Gallery library and maintenance files prompted a two-day workshop and public open session where critics, historians, heritage specialists, artists, architects, user experience designers and the Friends of the Gallery were invited on a tour of the faults of the building. The following day featured a public open session, which then led into a design-thinking workshop. The primary objective of these sessions was towards generating a report that sought to balance negative public perceptions, and introduce radical architectural intervention solutions and practical steps towards arresting water penetration and other damage in the Gallery, caused primarily by poor atmospheric conditions and control.

The willingness on the part of Murdoch to publicly expose these faults – with a view towards finding a constructive solution for the Gallery buildings – came with real shock and horror to the workshop attendees who got to gauge firsthand the threats to aspects of the building’s structural

integrity, as well as the real threat these posed to JAG’s collection and greater heritage value.

The following extracts outline the introduction and conclusion of the report.

INTRODUCTION

The core of the problem solving process around JAG’s current condition centres on the following actions:

• An urgent technical audit managed by a ‘traditional’ projectmanagementteam,leadinthemainbyastructural and civil engineering assessment … to provide an accurate costing for all technical restoration.

• Interim storage plan for relocating the collection to better facilities.

• Identifying marketing opportunities in relation to this, throughtheexhibitionofthiscollection,andusingthis asafundraisingstrategyandpropositionforasatellite division of the Gallery’s holdings (Tate Gallery &Tate Modern for example).

• The development of a marketing strategy that both raisesfundsfortheaboveandfocusesonthecentenary celebrations of the Lutyens building in 2015.

• The development of a design strategy to repurpose the parts of the Gallery whose components as a result of failure – in terms of water penetration etc – require revised or entirely new architectural design.

• Alignment; of all pro-bono specialists’ input and support to realise these objectives (heritage, marketing, advertising, restoration, etc).

PROPOSED NEXT STEPS

1. Presentation of report and strategy to Langalihle Mfuphi,Deputy Director Museums and Galleries and the Department ofArts, Culture and Heritage.

FAR LEFT: Installation view of Stephen Hobbs’ Lutyens Scaff. TOP & CENTRE: Views of the Lutyens Room, before and after the theft of a classical sculpture from this space. BOTTOM: View of the early JAG/SNAG installations in Space A. Images ©Stephen Hobbs.

2. Jeremy Rose (architect) to submit Professional Team recommendation.

3. ChristopherTill to source funding for the above team.

4. Adrienne Hall – assisting with fundraising strategy.

5. Randall Gross to commence strategy development in tandem with centenary planning.

6. JH-01 to carry out user experience design and user audit of Joubert Park and Gallery,with the exhibition offindingsinSPACEA.CommencingMarch2012.Outcomesofthisprocesstoformareportoncurrentaudience status at JAG and surrounds.

7 Development of an advertising and marketing brief to DraftFCBtofacilitatevariousobjectivesoutlinedhere.

8. SettingupandmarketingofdonorfundforCentenary restorations(additionalmeetingswithPUMArequired).

9. Appointmentofafocused2015committee–aftermeetingsandcharettesconsistingofstaff,Friends,guides, CoJagencies,corporatesupporters,arteducators,CBD businesses, arts organisations, community resident organisations, broader media and taxi association.

CONCLUSION

The advent of the Lutyens Building 100 year milestone in 2015, is as much a symbolic moment to celebrate the endurance of the Gallery, as it is a real incentive for assembling the right support and momentum for the necessary

renovations to the entire building.As of mid-2012, the MeyerPienaarextensionwillbeclosedindefinitelyinorder to conduct the necessary assessments and evaluations of the building’s condition.

Thesuccessofthisendeavorwillinvariablybefoundinpublic partnership,where investment from the City should be used as leverage for private sector support.Through the courseoftheworkshop,adebateensuedaroundtheimpact and implications of corporate ownership of the collection; this as with many other challenging issues engendered a senseofpanicattimes,whereasolutionforprotectingthe collection was [deemed] urgent and critical.

Goingforward,theestablishmentofacentenarycommittee would be aimed at overseeing the communications and fundraising strategy for the restoration and or architectural redevelopment of parts of the Gallery in preparation for 2015.

JAG/SNAG Meyer Pienaar Gallery: May-August 2014

From the outset it had been nearly impossible to raise funds through conventional national or provincial funding bodies

for the project, which was ironically useful, in that the desire for any structural design change would come in part from local council, but in the main most likely benefit from an exchange with the world of commercial suppliers and professionals. Hence the installation that unfolded comprised a series of planned stages and integrated interventions in response to this funding predicament.

Exhibition elements:

1. Breakdown of old exhibition screens to reveal original aspects of the Meyer Pienaar design, and stockpiling of all old and new materials for their own aesthetic value and potential future use.

2. Scaffold support for most noticeable ceiling collapse and surface water damage.

3. Re-orientate the visitor entry into the space on its north/ south axis

4. Placement of video and photographic work.

5. Design-in gaps; create open spaces for educational projects and industry collaborations that would unfold through the course of the exhibition.

6. JAG progress and milestones wall installation.

7. History wall, detailing the various building add-ons and key archival information.

Installation view of Stephen Hobbs’ JAG/SNAG in the Meyer Pienaar Gallery, 2014. Images ©Stephen Hobbs and David Ceruti.

Re-design project: University of Johannesburg FADA,

Department of Architecture

MTech 2014 - Urban Update #3 JAG:So where to from here? (seven-week programme)

In their UrbanUpdate 2014 project – JAG,sowheretofrom here? – students in the first year of the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Architecture Department’s master’s programme were asked to propose architectural updates to JAG and its precinct, critically considering the building’s neoclassical (1915; 1940) and postmodern manifestations (1986), and to interrogate the physical and psychic disconnectedness of the building and its art collection from its immediate context.

Students were encouraged to consider ways in which public art may be reconsidered in this context; were tasked to reflect on the strict typological delineations of ‘museum’ and ‘park’ and explore ways of redefining and reconnecting these; to interrogate the validity of a term like ‘African museum’ and what such a phenomenon might mean or look like; to deliberate on the performative value of the body in space and compare more fluid attitudes to the generally static ways in which most art works still tend to be framed and shown to audiences.

Through their designs students were encouraged to radically improve and extend on the building’s current function(s). The proposals that emerged demonstrated interesting possibilities for improved access, participation and enjoyment of JAG as an important resource catering to a complex urban, socio-cultural and economic context and a wide range of user groups.

TOP LEFT: Installation view of the Urban Update #3 JAG: So where to from here? student project. ABOVE: One of the many stakeholder workshops. TOP RIGHT: Gauteng Institute for Architecture public event, 2014. CENTRE RIGHT: Mapping of the activities and stakeholders in Joubert Park. BOTTOM RIGHT: Stephen Hobbs engaging with JAG/SNAG exhibition visitors.

Gauteng Institute for Architecture: Public Event: 24 April

2014

This was a debate that considered the following premise as a trigger:

In 1960, JAG was up for sale for conversion to an eye research centre,an ironic reinforcement of the function of the museum.The neglect JAG experiences today is a lost opportunity,notonlyfordesignrevisionsandthelike,butalso for critical urban research and new possibilities for such culturally encoded buildings.JAG couldn’t be more relevant or important,a metaphor for the continuity and discord of our time; we should use it.

Questions posed included:

• Should it be demolished? Re-purposed?

• Alternative awareness strategies for the role of buildings in relation to Joubert Park and the CBD, broader urban condition and opportunities.

• Making visible JAG’s important collection.

The ultimate intention of the JAG/SNAG project was to take advantage of an extended time frame (five years, if one includes the period of development from the 2014 exhibition to the 2015 centennial celebrations for which this text was commissioned), in order to witness and respond to the challenges and life cycle patterns of thinking and planning that only materialise, often, much later.

Given the complex funding and programming processes of big international museums, it is fair to say that their contributions to contemporary discourses can be several years behind current debates. While JAG may be considered a big museum on the continent, and an important repository of

cultural content, it is an astonishingly publicly conscious space, having demonstrated timeous responses to critical urban conditions, new trends in contemporary practices and collecting, and strong visibility at important art world events, and so forth.

In closing, it is interesting to note that there is a fundamental design tension in central Johannesburg, between its city planners and its users. The tension lies in constant efforts to reach world class city status, in the face of urban practices operating with different intent, hence the formalising forces of the world class city agenda all too often fails to harness the innovative and adaptive tendencies of its local users. The sustained legacy of defensive spatial planning in our cities is intrinsically linked to our ability to be open and considerate of difference and change. The Johannesburg Art Gallery is still standing and functional. Dear reader, come up with a plan; participate; come with something special!

Stephen Hobbs

Since 1994, Johannesburg has served as a reference point for Hobbs’ artistic and curatorial insights into the apartheid city turned African city – with a particular interest in the impact of defensive urban planning and architecture on the behavioral aspects of the city and society. Hobbs was previously the curator of the Market Theatre Galleries, and co-director of the Premises at the Joburg Theatre. Since 2001 he has co-directed the artist collaborative and public art consultancy, The Trinity Session.

NEW ENGAGEMENTS/ SHIFTING BOUNDARIES

“… given the shift in artistic and curatorial practices, the role of education within art collections has equally needed to change in order to challenge complexities, contradictions and burdens of cultural, political and social histories carried by these institutions. …

“The collection should therefore always be seen as an agent through which continuous examinations of curatorial endeavours are explored; equally, that these explorations are reliant on viewers as active participants in the making of meaning for art. This is based on the understanding that learning does not happen in an environment of autocracy (curators telling the ﬁnite story), but rather an understanding that different readers (curators and different audiences) also carry a set of tools and knowledge that work towards evoking multiple interpretations. Such an understanding starts to place works of art (by extension the artist), curator and audience as interlocutors tied in a web of narratives, which becomes activated through temporary exhibitions.” Nontobeko Ntombela (p 132)

CURATORIAL AS EDUCATION

A few notes on the role of education within the context of a museum

Nontobeko Ntombela

No matter how a particular museum may develop it remains essentially shaped by the policies of its founders, which successive curators may modify but not change (Carman 1988:203).

Having focused her PhD (as well as being an ex-employee of JAG) on the history of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Jillian Carman’s writings acutely observe some of the challenges South African museums like JAG are faced with today. Her writings on JAG – though largely focused on recording its evolution and contribution to South Africa’s museum history, artistic and academic writing – connote underlying issues with its current position, which are implicated in its institutional ideological framework, collecting history and Gallery building. As an African museum, JAG like many other African art museums1 conceived around its time and/or with similar ideological frameworks, remains a paradox in a place that is fast rejecting its relevance and reasons for existing (albeit politically, financially or ideologically). More importantly, Carman’s statement articulates the limitations and restrictions that these challenges pose on curators and administrators who enter this space.

This essay examines three exhibitions,2 New Strategies (2002), Looking as Learning (2011) and Condition Report (2014). It examines these three exhibitions as possible points of departure from which we can reconsider and unpack the ways in which JAG’s art collection is constituted, studied and analysed. It examines these three exhibitions

as moments in which JAG’s art collection is curatorially explored to ask questions around the role of education within the context of a museum. In so doing it considers education as an active tool towards addressing issues of past imbalances through the museum’s collecting and display strategies, which also records shifts and developments in curatorial and artistic practices. These are moments that are critically located in the exhibition making approach that have largely been motivated by the political dispensation of the early 1990s in South Africa.

Looking at these three exhibitions, this essay proposes three models – reflective, responsive and experimental – for consideration. The first exhibition model proposes reflective curating – that which responds to issues of transformation, based on artistic trends, strategies of collecting and administrative attitudes.

Presenting a selection of works from JAG’s new acquisition of that period, collected between 1992 and 2002, the exhibition New Strategies, curated by David Brodie (2002:4), articulates this model. It aimed to, … critically explore[s] the Gallery’s collecting strategies, as well as situate the Gallery within a broader context of public institutions seeking to define their roles as socially and culturally responsible contemporary institutions. Central to this concept of institutions as agents that carry and define bodies of cultural knowledge, and activate the dissemination of such knowledge.

Underlined in the notion of ‘cultural knowledge’ and ‘active dissemination’ is the curatorial motivation to create a platform for learning about new artistic practices entering the Gallery during this time as well as new display strategies that in turn speak to transformative collecting strategies by this museum.

Locating curatorial practices as an instrumental tool with which to engage this notion of transformation, Brodie further argues that “curatorial process now becomes the orientating function through which meaning, both original and accumulative, may be manifested” (2002:5). He proposes that curatorship must be recognised as a form of education (as part of the education programme) particularly towards accessing and disseminating information about the development of cultural production in South Africa. He states, “Such an education programme must focus on increasing interaction between potential learners, institutions and objects” (2002:05). This understanding of curating records a shift within South African curatorial practices, particularly of curating art collections. More details about this exhibition are described later in this essay.

The second exhibition model proposes responsive curating – that is exhibitions that respond curatorially to the demands of the Gallery’s largest stakeholders, namely schools, in order to bridge the gap between abstract learning from

textbooks and experiential learning from seeing. In another sense, such an exhibition is based on a model that is audience driven.

Within the exhibition Looking as Learning, the focus on the high school learner was central to its conceptualisation, framing and selection of artworks presented. Basing its curatorial premise on the 2011 national secondary school visual art curriculum of Grades 11 and 12, the exhibition was primarily concerned with following groupings and themes that were guided by that document. The aim was to offer high school learners (as well as the broader public) an opportunity, firstly, to experience these works of art first hand beyond the classroom and textbook; secondly, to understand how this museum could be useful towards their learning; and thirdly, to expose the collection by showing examples of works of artists listed in the curriculum – that may not be widely available to be seen in South Africa – that are actually at their disposal and available at JAG. As such it makes the existence of the contradictions existing in these collections, that being the combination of Western and African art housed within one institution and within an African context, all the more valuable and worthy of studying. More details about this exhibition are described later in this essay.

The third exhibition model proposes experimental curating – a model of curating exhibitions that encourages curatorial explorations through experimentations structured as part of learning – borrowing from Alfred Barr’s3 definition of a museum as a laboratory – with an aim to foster new interpretations, re-contextualisation and presentations of the collection.

Condition Report was an exhibition curated by a group of twelve postgraduate students from the University of the Witwatersrand taking part in the course titled ‘Curating Exhibitions: The Politics and Aesthetics of Display’. Framed around the collection of Hindu sculptures, Ming dynasty

roof tiles and Gothic wooden carvings that form part of JAG’s permanent collection, their curatorial premise looked at the role of the curator when tasked to recontextualise these objects by exploring their history, movements and significance to the collection as a whole. Collectively, working as a group, each student offered their own individual take on this collection within one group exhibition.

Taking what would have been a collection that has hardly been exhibited within JAG’s exhibition history,4 these students were tasked with curating a show that responded to the collection in order to offer new takes on objects that are largely ignored. In this instance the museum encompassed the role of a laboratory by allowing this group to experiment with different curatorial and display approaches. More details about this exhibition are described later in this essay.

All of these models engage strongly, in various ways, with aspects of education. They centre education as a continuous and active process towards understanding cultural, social, economic and political influences that operate within a museum.

In ‘A New Way of Looking at Old Things’, Susan Pearce (1999) argues that a museum is a social construct, purveyor of ideologically charged notions of knowledge and historical truth, which must evolve, and which must be a “reflexive exploratory” (1999:12) of culture. She argues that it must be a space where “existing collections can begin to speak in new voices” (1999:12), and to her this implies a major shift in management practices and attitudes. The exhibition projects summarised above begin to engage with this understanding.

Furthermore, thinking about Pearce’s position of museums, the context of JAG indicates interesting and precarious

tensions when its comes to its institutional ideology, management practices and articulations of culture, given the inherent colonial project that is traceable in both the old and new collections. These tensions can be observed in JAG’s employment demographics, collecting policies, exhibition programming and the location of the museum. As such, the distribution and valuing of art, as well as knowledge production, are affected by these tensions, which in turn affect how the art of South Africa is perceived locally and abroad, i.e. regionally within South Africa, throughout Africa and the world at large, given the varying values for different artists’ works, lack of political buy-in, limited and/or conditioned financial support, etcetera.

By centring integrated approaches between curating and education – not one above the other – this paper proposes another exploration of how such models can help address issues of politics of display, historical burdens, contradictions and the limitations of collections, in critical and reflective ways. As Boris Groys argues, “since curatorial practice can never totally conceal itself, the main objective of curating must be to visualise itself, by making its practice explicitly visible” (2008:49).

Similarly, this essay proposes that curatorial endeavours centred on education need to be made explicit, both in their intentions and motivations, and both conceptually and physically. At JAG this is needed in order to deal with the historical contradictions and burdens imposed upon this collection and also to enable its audiences to understand strategies used in the framing of the exhibitions they are viewing, so that they are able to participate with a fuller understanding of how certain things have been presented to them. Thus it enables the viewer to understand their role and agency when interacting with these spaces and its contents, particularly when it comes to activating their own readings and interpretations.

This is by no means claiming that these are new models5 or that they have not been done at JAG before, nor a selfcongratulatory stance about what JAG has achieved, but I have chosen to focus on these three exhibitions largely because they are projects where I have either (both as employee and as guest curator) participated in their making, or have learnt about them through research, which in some sense reflects the kind of relationship I have with this institution, and in another sense evidences my own larger curatorial scholarship on curating and education.

Indeed, the many exhibitions that JAG has produced indicate some of these approaches, but what I would like to offer here is a reflection on how such curatorial approaches start to speak to curating as an expanded field, that which is global in its broader framework, yet at the same time could be understood to speak specifically to a South African context. It also speaks to strategies that start to unpack some of the failures and successes that such endeavours present through their attempts to re-imagine and reinterpret JAG’s art collection. In turn, it locates a practice that is responsive and motivated by its local context, which may be approached differently in other parts of the world.

Linked to this is the age old question of the role of art museums in South Africa today, which is tied to how South African museums are dealing with the different needs and aspirations of their multifaceted audiences and the complex contexts in which they are placed. It asks the question: how can art collections help us pose questions of new histories and new modalities of display towards better serving its increasingly complex society?

I argue that given the shift in artistic and curatorial practices, the role of education within art collections has equally needed to change in order to challenge complexities, contradictions and burdens of cultural, political and social histories carried by these institutions.

Such a change is not based on the old understandings of what museums were meant to be in the early nineteenth century – what Jessica Morgan in her article ‘What is a Curator’ defines as being “closely related to strategies of discipline and enlightenment in the post-industrial age” where “visitors were taught only curated histories, but also curated ways of seeing and behaving in the museum” (2013:23) – but rather based on an understanding of education as a curatorial approach in exploring possibilities of reimagining the relevance of museums within the context of South Africa. This understanding also enables a space for multiple interpretations, in that once the museum is considered a laboratory, or a space for experimentation, it is easy to understand that its collection is always reread and reexamined through exhibitions and other curatorial projects.

The collection should therefore always be seen as an agent through which continuous examinations of curatorial endeavours are explored; equally, that these explorations are reliant on viewers as active participants in the making of meaning for art. This is based on the understanding that learning does not happen in an environment of autocracy (curators telling the finite story), but rather an understanding that different readers (curators and different audiences) also carry a set of tools and knowledge that work towards evoking multiple interpretations. Such an understanding starts to place works of art (by extension the artist), curator and audience as interlocutors tied in a web of narratives, which becomes activated through temporary exhibitions.

This understanding of the role of education is one that sees the exhibitions as a space that not only diffuses these roles of teacher and student, but rather follows what Carli Coetzee calls ‘accentedness’. Though her writing is located within the education field more broadly, Coetzee’s paradigm on ‘accentedness’, described in her book Accented Futures: Language Activism and the Ending of Apartheid (2013)

offers a useful theoretical framework in analysing the historical distortions and conflicting view points that arise when studying exhibition practices.

Coetzee speaks to the ideas of ‘accentedness’ as a denotation, less about the way we sound when we speak, but rather ‘accentedness’ as a notion located in the activity of ‘translation’. It is important to note that Coetzee argues against translation in its literal sense of being “an effect of inequalities, rather than as a meeting of equals” (Coetzee 2013:1), which she views as a one-sided story and an instrument of colonial domination. But rather, she argues, translation can be useful when understood as a concept that accents towards understanding an “attitude that challenges those in power and aims to bring to the surface conflictual histories” (2013:7).

Her use of the term ‘translation’ is thus not located in the linguistic understandings of the term, but rather as a metaphor or antithesis of translation towards what she calls ‘accented thinking’, that which speaks to interpretations that are cognisant and active in foregrounding the contradictions of things, particularly of history (i.e. not telling only one side of the story). Many curators have similarly argued that the construction of an exhibition is, in another form, an act of translation, in that by placing certain works together and within a particular framework, it translates the meaning and reading of those works in a particular way. I align my understanding of translation with Coetzee’s, which she uses ironically, as an antithesis, particularly considering that often when curating collections we are confronted with incongruent and Eurocentric values that many of these collections were originally conceived upon.

Coetzee’s proposition makes it possible to work with these incongruences when curating an exhibition. The task, such as that of the Wits curatorial students, was aimed at doing just that, in that they were forced to deal with the anomalies

existing within JAG’s collection, and needed to reflect on what it would mean to re-exhibit the collection in a postapartheid context, without regurgitating Eurocentric tropes or telling only one side of the story.

Coetzee proposes that accentedness happens in moments of learning; learning that is centred around understanding multiple positions (at times even debunking these positions) – between victors’ and victims’ stories; the writer and reader; the teacher and learner – that which implicates all positions in order to understand the complexities of translation and the complexities of engaging with history’s contradictions.

Coetzee’s use of the idea of accentedness thus proposes an effective tool towards understanding how contradictions of history can be approached towards learning, particularly when thinking about the impact of apartheid, a system that she argues is still long “ending”. She further believes that an ‘accented discourse’ can be a form of activism towards bringing social change. If we are to think about this approach within the context of making exhibitions and through the integrated approach of education as a curatorial approach, then it offers us an effective tool towards dealing with these incongruences and unequal past collecting strategies of South African art that are ever so prevalently reflected in art collections of South African museums today. It also offers a tool that can be used in dealing with the absences, gaps and omissions found in these collections, inherent to apartheid’s exclusionary systems.

This notion of accentedness thus calls for the diffusion of the curators of museums as authority, implying that museums need to take account of the demands of their audiences, which in my opinion should dominate what museums do. As such it compels a museum to reflect on its position not only as the interpreter of its collections, but rather as a mediator, responsive to changes taking place around it, and

making itself available to being (re)directed by its stakeholders in the way they engage these collections.

Accentedness thus speaks to Boris Groys’ understanding of museum collections’ ‘multiple authors’, given that these collections constantly “change[s] hands and authors” (2008:100), thus their meaning remains in constant flux. Such an understanding speaks critically to how knowledge about art is circulated, disseminated and studied, in that these forms of knowledge production also need to clearly outline the possibilities for change.

However, it is important to note that this is not about advocating for inappropriate or reductionist readings of artists’ works and their intentions, but rather an activation of newer readings that work towards making art more accessible to a broader audience. This is in line with Vera Zolberg’s (1994) idea of democratising education, which she argues, promises “an elite experience for everyone” (1994:64). Zolberg makes this proposition as a challenge to art museums to change their persistent attitudes of art as only reserved for a select few. She argues that “education in the broad sense of the term involves acculturation or interrogation into a common culture, and the acculturation is not confined to formal school alone” (1994:4).

Calling for curatorial premises that centre education, therefore, does not mean thinking of art as an instructive tool towards educating the ‘masses’, but rather as an experience that locates education as a given or common experience. Such an approach also means changing the attitude of educational programmes as ‘afterthoughts’ or support to exhibitions already curated. This also does not mean advocating for arts education in the sense of grassroots community based training, but rather it is about promoting education as being a curatorial component, premised both in the making and conceptualisation of exhibitions. What I am

proposing here is education as a curatorial approach that is understood both as a motivation for making exhibitions and a curatorial concept itself.

New Strategies, changes in the collection and exhibition practices at JAG

What good are museums? How do they contribute to society? Can their roles be better modified to serve cultural needs of an increasingly complex society? (Brodie 2002:4)

David Brodie, in his catalogue essay, ‘New Strategies’, asks these questions as an attempt to grapple with what he identified as ‘new strategies’6 of collecting art within public art institutions. Essentially defining JAG’s new approaches to collecting contemporary art following the new South African political dispensations in the early 1990s, he presented these approaches in a form of an art exhibition showcasing a selection of JAG’s acquisitions from 1992 to 2002.7 According to Brodie, such an exhibition demonstrated how contemporary public art institutions, such as JAG, were responding to the political, social and cultural changes taking place in South Africa at the time, activities mostly intensified in the early years of democracy.

Sabine Marshal, in her article ‘Who is In and Who’s Out?

The Process of Re-writing South African Art History in the 1990’s’ (1999) offers that such shifts characterised museum practices of this time, focusing on reconstructing and bridging gaps and imbalances created by the neglect of contributions from artists of colour over the previous decades. This, she states further, called for extreme changes in exhibition, acquisition policies and interest in research topics, which were attempts to re-write South African art history.

Brodie’s exhibition exemplified this shift, with JAG at a critical juncture in redefining its roles as an “agent of cultural knowledge” (2002:4), a role that Brodie describes as being a critical responsibility for a museum. He argues that “the role of the public art museums is to carry, define and disseminate cultural knowledge through its collecting policy and its vision towards cultural development” (2002:4). Such an argument for the role of a museum speaks to the very core of notions of education, looking at ‘cultural knowledge’ as a space in which the formation of a kind of knowledge and learning can happen.

Embracing the notion of audience driven curatorial approaches as a well as that of education as curatorial, a key motivation for Brodie’s exhibition was about creating access and dialogue around an increased diversity of artistic practices in South Africa since the new dispensation, describing that “[t]hese strategies centre educational elements as an embedded notion of the curatorial” (2002:5).

I was not part of the making of this exhibition and my reference to it is concerned less with unpacking its curatorial merit, than to site a moment where JAG has made efforts towards political redress and education through its collection. This to me signalled an institution in crisis; at the same time a moment that was to determine the future of this institution. As such, it meant projects implemented during this time worked towards defining a new role for this institution. One would think this was also a moment for JAG to re-evaluate its ideologies. However, if we are to go by Carman’s earlier statement about the unchanging policies of such institutions, a question remains about the extent to which such projects, like the one Brodie curated, really succeeded towards shifting and transforming this institution’s ideological framework?

Pointing to the challenges of institutional ideologies, Julie McGee – although focusing on (although not delimited to) exhibitions taking place at the Iziko South African National Art Gallery in Cape Town – argues that exhibitions hosted by these public institutions are ultimately continued attempts to “control social memory” (2006:179), which remain entrenched in the western value system. She asserts that many institutions in South Africa, including JAG, remain trapped in the rhetoric of reproducing historical tropes – pointing out the disproportional lack of representation of localised narratives and practices in exhibitions.

McGee’s argument on these control systems of ‘social memory’ points to unshifted ideologies, evidencing how these institutions have not done enough to engage transformation, but rather defaulting back to their commitment to past policies. As a result, McGee’s observation echoes Carman’s assertion that these institutions’ policies remain unchangeable.

Khwezi Gule’s8 unpublished essay ‘Colleagues in Conversation’ (2015) offers another anecdote about these insistent past policies. It vividly captures some of the challenges faced by current employees; particularly JAG’s black employees. In this interview they speak about their dissatisfaction with exhibition programmes and lack of space for their voices to be heard. Whilst acknowledging the extent to which transformation attempts have continuously been implemented, it however, also indicates the failure of these so-called transformation9 programmes in the post-apartheid context.

For JAG, increasingly, there is a lot of criticism around the kinds of exhibitions this institution is producing, particularly over the past seven to eight years since Clive Kellner’s departure, largely due to lack of funding being raised towards hosting the most desirable shows possible at the Gallery. As such, it can be argued that although the political

dispensation happened 20 years or so ago, attempts to shift these institutions’ policies have not been sustained. And based on the kinds of criticism many South African museums10 continue to receive, this indicates a crisis not only for JAG, but also for all art museums in this country.

Another added factor; the extreme decline in visitor numbers11 also shows that there is a real crisis for museums in Africa. This can be noted in the decrease of crowd-pulling, large scale exhibitions of international stature that JAG used to hold annually. Instead, what one often sees now, are semi-large scale shows that only attract particular kinds of audiences, which still remain largely geared towards white audiences, indicating that the status quo continues to remain unchanged.

Often when such debates emerge, much of the blame tends to be directed at the lack of political and funding support for infrastructure and programming of these institutions. Better yet, the usual excuse of art’s abstruseness for a layman. Although this may be true to some extent, some of these issues also stem from ideological clashes that persist. As a result, many South African museums are currently unable to balance the expectations of their diverse audiences, in turn leaving these public collections to exist only as curious archives of the past and beholders of the cultural hegemony and social ordering of former powers, which have paralysed the growth and expansion of museum practices within this democracy.

Taking this into consideration, it explains why such institutions are constantly criticised for their lack of transformation and also how they are constantly under threat of closure. It means museums must re-evaluate how their programmes speak to today’s politics, cultures and economies, in relation

to contexts in Joubert Park, the Johannesburg CBD, and the rest of South Africa.

Furthermore, in order to change or challenge this insistent history, we need to constantly return to posing questions of these institutions, such as those that Brodie outlines in NewStrategies. We need to ask; what do we do with these collections today? Do they simply remain disengaged monuments to a former power, or do we as a society call on these institutions to take responsibility for their current positions and roles? In what way can this be achieved given the diverse and often conflictual needs and understandings of what these institutions ought to be? In light of the New Strategies exhibition, it might be necessary to ask the question; is having group shows at every political turn (every ten years since democracy) enough to change these past policies and ideologies? Who are these exhibitions for? McGee further asks, “what does it mean for an institution of European and colonial heritage embedded in South Africa to transform and incorporate more fully nonEurocentric cultures? What are the measures of success vis-à-vis transformation? Who acts as jury? What kinds of evaluative process should be implemented?” (2006:180). Although such questions are hard to answer, I argue that taking the stance of engaging the role of education in a critical and reflective way may start to offer us space to explore these historical limitations.

In Coetzee’s understanding of accenting history lies the opportunity to reimagine the future of museums and their collections. Brodie’s exhibition starts to do this and his engagement with this collection articulates an accentedness particularly through its concerns with the changing and complex society within which JAG is positioned.

Looking as Learning

Exhibited in 2011, Looking as Learning – was curated as a collaboration between the JAG education department (headed by Musha Neluheni, then the education officer, but now curator of contemporary collections) and the contemporary collections department (which at the time was part of my portfolio) – with the aim of exploring education as a curatorial framework.

The idea to co-curate was primarily based on the desire to collapse the separate working processes around exhibition making within JAG that often place the educational programming as an ‘afterthought’ or support service to the exhibition. It was an attempt to break the hierarchy often placed between museum curator and education staff, that which Vera Zolberg (1994:53) argues is often

[the] belie[f] that the museum educator is the advocate of the visitor while the curator is the advocate of the artwork […] Since the Museum educator is frequently viewed a technician at best, and is subordinate to the real purpose of the museum, which is to acquire and care for artworks, democratization has a long way to go.

Therefore, it was an attempt to explore collaborative curating by centring the objectives of these two departments, which in turn experimented with the notion of education as curatorial. Explaining collaborative curating, Magali Arriola (2010:26) writes:

This collaboration involves both the artists and curators who have worked towards questioning the configuration of the art world and towards providing alternative networks within which the works can be

circulated, while hopefully alleviating and revising the power relations that sustain the art world.

The notion of collective curating is a strategy I have often employed in my practice, particularly in cases where I have worked directly with artists towards the making of a show, but I have always been curious about the varying degrees to which one might test how such a strategy operates, and to what extent one can measure its true manifestations.

My understanding of collective curating has always been about working within a space where the collective force is acknowledged; a force that is not about shared responsibilities only, but rather about acknowledging shared authorship in ushering a single voice through the exhibition platform. Looking at this exhibition, its particular authoring further expanded the notion of authorship beyond artist and curator, to curator and curator, as well as the collection (and by extension the artist) and audience. Our understanding of authorship in this instance was as reliant on the original intentions (of school curriculum developers) of the works of art chosen, as it was on the audience’s (the learners’) pre-determined learning experience guided by the 2011 national schools visual art curriculum. Arguing for what he calls heterogeneous authorship Groys (2008: 97) writes:

If the choice, the selection, and the decision with respect to the exhibition of an object are thus acknowledged as acts of artistic creation, then every individual exhibition is the result of many such processes of decision, choice, and selection. From this circumstance result multiple, disparate, heterogeneous authorships that combine, overlap, intersect, without it being possible to reduce them to an individual, sovereign authorship.

Installation views of Looking as Learning, 2011.

Rather than being a show that simply regurgitated thematic exhibition rhetoric, it was important for us that it implicated curatorial motivations and the art curriculum in a process that “acknowledge[d], reflect[ed] and problematize[d] its own discursive context, its modes of articulation and

reception, as well as its frame of operation” (Arriola 2010:30) in order to fully capture the experimentations of the process.

The aim to conceptualise an exhibition based on the 2011 Grades 11 and 12 art curriculum also speaks to Coetzee’s notion of accentedness in that the exhibition pulled together collections that are not often studied and exhibited together, such as JAG’s international collection, together with its southern African modern and contemporary art collections. The grouping together in one show of works from these different collections started to deal with JAG’s long history of collecting (thus implicating collecting strategies), while at the same time looking at ways in which to engage this collection today.

Displayed in the basement building, this exhibition navigated the themes described in the curriculum document chronologically. The themes described were as follows; Impressionism and Post Impressionism, Cubism and Fauvism, Surrealism & Dada, and Pop Art, Minimalism and Photo-realism from the international art collection; and Voice of the Emerging/Artists Influenced by Historical African Art; Community Legacies: Polly Street, Rorke’s Drift and other local styles; Socio-Political Art – From the Struggle to the Present, and Post-Apartheid Identity in South Africa, from the South African Collection.

The show relied heavily on schools coming to see the show in order to fully realise its potential, and for other readings and meaning to be garnered. For us this was a moment that defined JAG’s purpose as “a learning environment in which curiosity, discovery and contemplation are encouraged” (JAG education booklet 2011). As a way of extending this learning experience further, the show was accompanied by a booklet that included nine essays by different contributors.12 The booklet functioned primarily

as an aid to enable students and teachers to navigate their understanding in ways that would be useful towards their academic writing around this collection.

The fact that this exhibition took place in the basement does pose some moments of failure within this project – not only because of the limitation of the space being exhibition unfriendly due to roof leaks, but also because it was not a place in the main halls and interface of the Gallery, which to some extent defaulted it to a sub-project in support of other ‘main’ exhibitions in the Gallery at the time, essentially countering the very thing it claimed to do. This I believe has been reviewed in shows that have subsequently followed along this track. As such, it does note an investment by the Gallery to explore this type of curatorial project as part of its core deliverables.

Condition Report

If we are to understand the predicament of South African art museums today as monuments and archives of former power, carrying histories of elsewhere, then it explains some of the disconnects that exist between their collections and the contexts in which they are currently located. This identity crisis has left many art museums unsure of how to address the needs of its stakeholders, as well as unsure of how to deal with this accumulated history, today. This is certainly the case with the JAG collection, which carries such a large number of western art pieces, along with a few oddities of works from the East. Its collection of Hindu sculptures, Ming dynasty roof tiles and Gothic wooden carvings exemplifies this anomaly. For this project I returned to JAG, no longer as an employee, but as a guest curator, with the understanding that I was to work with Wits students towards realising a show.

For these to be found housed within the art collection of a South African museum today raises a number of questions about how such a collection came about. It implicates the thinking of people like Dr Petrus Anton Hendriks13 who was the director in charge at the time the Chinese Ming objects were brought into the JAG collection. It was clear that JAG collected historically, with the intention of being at the forefront of global culture, yet that perception of global culture was based on western standards – and to be seen to be breaking tradition, and to show forward thinking, was a trend adopted in Europe at the time. This need to be seen on par with international trends was important for JAG given that the entire motivation for why this collection was established in the first place depended entirely on western understandings and values of what culture was and meant. This meant that for the longest time the JAG collection looked at the West for answers, at what it deemed culturally acceptable and valued as art, but not at what was around it. Some people may argue that this is still the case today.

Furthermore, one can argue that this has led to some of the rejections, criticism and neglect this institution is experiencing today. However, as precariously powerless, invisible or decayed as JAG may seem to be today, and as much as it is not even an option to de-accession these collections (as a way of annulling this history), I argue that it is equally important to understand the value of this shaky history in today’s context. This kind of thinking, I believe, will activate the collection as a space of learning and knowledge production and realise its laboratory potential in its full sense – a laboratory space to critique this history, in order to learn about what South Africa measured itself against,

but also to address the omissions created through those collecting attitudes.

The exhibition Condition Report aimed to do just that. It aimed to critique these collections in order to understand some of the motivations for them entering JAG, to consider how they speak of cultures of elsewhere, of the kinds of omissions they created, and of their relevance or irrelevance within JAG’s collection today. Contextualising their concept, the twelve curatorial students14 articulated their curatorial framework (2014:1) as follows:

Within a museum context a condition report is a report that tracks the physical condition of a work in a collection at various stages. It relates directly to the archive and concepts of collection and care. Through diverse curatorial processes and acts this term is extended to explore the condition and politics of display in relation to culture, ethnography, authenticity and otherness.

Condition Report marked the end of the fourth year postgraduate course in curating that had been run, and jointly taught by the departments of Art, Culture and Heritage Management, and History of Art, at Wits School of Arts. In the past, the course had tried to locate curatorial practices in post-apartheid, protest politics and the gaze discourses.15

But it seems we had never thought as keenly about what it means to talk about the ‘politics’ of display as we did while curating Condition Report, through this collaboration with JAG.

Installation views of Condition Report, 2014.

With twelve individual installations of the three collections – Chinese Ming, Gothic sculptures and Hindu sculptures – juxtaposed against the contemporary collections – both South African and international – this exhibition enabled different takes on questions pertinent to how one might

Installation views of Condition Report, 2014.

recontextualise and deconstruct these collections today. The students posed questions about the unknowable journey the collection travelled from distant lands to JAG, of what they translated to after being moved from their original contexts, of how value is constructed in order to understand what gets displayed in a museum context, of who assigns these values, of who their original intended audiences were, and of how these audiences have evolved.

Through her installation, Rita Potenza posed the question of whether it is possible, given their history and reclusiveness of some of the objects, for a curator to create what James Clifford calls a ‘contact zone’16 where visitors are enabled to engage with one another in vigorous debates around those objects related to the politics of collecting and display? Another student, Cally Thompson, consistently reminded us that democratic education should be central to all curatorial projects. She argues:

I have been inspired by some of the theory around education that can become actualised through the exhibition, and through a process of audience engagement and participation. Education in this sense is not about a transfer of knowledge from the museum to its audience but rather becomes a joint process of learning involving a dialogue between the institution and the public.

Irit Rogoff poses a further challenging question about the educational role of museums, namely, what can we learn from the museum “beyond that which its sets out to show or teach?” (Rogoff 2008:2). Such a form of selfreflective curating implicates the curatorial process in direct ways. Thompson’s attempt to curate questions around the role of the curator and education offered her the space to experiment and to use the museum as her laboratory. Her QR code intervention17 placed within the exhibition

space played not only with intervening in the physical space, but crossed over onto the online platform in order to think of the museum’s audience beyond a physical interaction. These indeterminate curatorial processes probed moments for contemplation, critique and reflection, not only as subversions of old conventions of curating, but also as a place of learning.

For each of the curatorial students, learning manifested through their individual interpretations of JAG’s collection, which extended to the audiences that visited the exhibition. It was a moment where learning (education) was translated along the scaffold from the collection to curator, to students, to other viewers, and vice versa. The entangled form of learning speaks directly to Coetzee’s ‘accented moment’ – a learning that happens in all directions.

Conclusion

These three examples of curating compel us to think of curating as a complex process that challenges and necessitates the changing nature of what curators and museums do within the context of South Africa, guided by the demands of social, cultural, economic and political dynamics specific to local conditions.

One has to commend JAG for being a space that enables these different forms to manifest – of course not without the mandatory agonising – but it should not be complacent about its achievements. JAG should continuously work towards extending the role of education within its mandate. The disconnects, contradictions and inconsistences that exist in JAG’s collection, and the space from which it operates, needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency, but with criticality, sensitivity and with the understanding

that JAG as an institution cannot do this alone. It needs its stakeholders, so as not to operate only from a place of defence and protection of this collection and its history, but to work jointly with them towards addressing its administrative, ideological and building structural limitations. It can only do this by making itself vulnerable to public scrutiny – scrutiny that it can use as a tool from which to begin to work through its contradictions. Understanding the role of education offers a space to make these vulnerabilities visible, and through them to ask a series of questions, and propose experiments that attempt to go beyond the ideological limitations that Carman outlines at the beginning of this essay. The challenge here is not to take those formative ideologies as a given, but to constantly challenge them and push back. And that I believe is the work of JAG’s successive curators – most importantly not only to implement these strategies, but also to find meaningful ways of evaluating their impact.

Endnotes

1 In his article ‘African Museums: The challenge of Change’, Emmanuel Nnakenyi Arinze argues that “African Museums were not established for the same reasons as Western museums … in contrast African museums were created to house the curios of tribal people and to satisfy the curiosity of the elite citizenry almost to the total exclusion of the local people who produced the objects and material” (1998:31). These, he argues, were motivations that only served the interests of colonial power. Although JAG was conceived based on a different need from the one Arinze describes, given that it was established to show South Africans what ‘culture’ was by bringing Western art to Johannesburg, it too operated on ideological principles

of racialised exclusivity and colonialist attitudes. It was a space made for whites only and, based on that, its motivation was therefore similar to those museums Arinze describes.

2 Today exhibitions are regarded as moments through which we can understand how artistic practices have evolved over time. They allow us to examine the chronology of, and nexus between events, objects, artists, curators and art institutions. They demonstrate how artistic, curatorial and exhibition practices interconnect as critical forms of knowledge of art history. Contextualising exhibitions, Paula Marincola, director of Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, argues that “Exhibitions are strategically located at the nexus where artists, their work, the arts institutions, and many different publics intersect. Situated critically, they function as the prime transmitters through which the continually shifting meaning of art and its relationship to the world is brought into temporary focus and offered to the viewer for contemplation, education, and not least, pleasure”.

3 Alfred H Barr was an American museum curator, and the first director (from 1929-43) of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York City.

4 The Gothic sculptures were last displayed in an exhibition curated by Clive Kellner titled ArsMoriendi(Howto DieWell) in 2008, also at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

5 However, it is also important to state at this point that previous curatorial strategies have not always been inclusive and that these were deliberately imposed in order to uphold a particular ideal that ran concurrently with the ideologies of the museum and the exhibitions it produced.

6 He states,“The Johannesburg Art Gallery is committed to maintaining and augmenting a collection that is both representative and, as importantly, of high quality.

The term ‘representative’ necessarily covers a range of various identities (racial, gender or otherwise), artistic styles and even artistic mediums, which had previously been peripheral […] The issue has been addressed through a focus on current artistic talent and a careful following of artistic trends and developments of the present moment, as well as a careful look back to our recent history, searching for artists’ work that could have, or should have, been collected long ago but had been overlooked (Brodie 2002:5).

7 Rationalising his selection he states “by presenting a decade’s worth of acquisitions, we are offering an insight into a vital period of development and advancement of the Gallery’s vision regarding its collecting policies and strategies – a visual record of choices made and decisions taken as South Africa moved from pre- to post-election, from apartheid to democracy” (2002:4).

8 An interview with JAG’s longest employed black administrative staff about their experiences working within the museum.

9 In my understanding, this slow pace of transformation has been both deliberate and unintended. It has been deliberate through strategies of gatekeeping, both from an employment and education point of view, given the limited examples that demonstrate changes in the valuing systems (content taught in university art schools and museum exhibition programming), black staff retention and reasonable recruitment requirements, both from the education system and employment sector, which has in turn meant the status quo has also remained undisturbed – particularly when it comes to specialist posts. It has been unintended merely because of the lack of political will and proper channels to challenge these museums particularly around their deliberate gatekeeping strategies.

10 This criticism has also been directed at museums like, Pretoria Art Museum, Iziko South African National Gallery, Durban Art Gallery, Oliewenhuis Museum, William Humphrey’s Gallery among others, all of which are located within major cities in South Africa.

11 The 2010 report on the State of South African Museums put together by the South African Human Sciences Research Council indicated that art museums are most affected by their declining numbers.

12 Essays included in this booklet were as follows: ‘The Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Paving the Way to Modern Art’ by Lené Lordan, ‘Looking and Learning’ by Jeannine Howse, ‘Dada and Surrealism in the JAG Collection’, by Anthea Buys, ‘The Art of the “New World’’’ by Musha Neluheni, ‘Modern South African Artists’ by Nontobeko Ntombela, ‘Socially-Engaged Art from the Anti-Apartheid Struggle to the Present’ by Khwezi Gule, ‘Post-Apartheid Identity in Visual Art’ by Zen Marie, ‘Questioning Gender: The Artwork of Mary Sibande, Zanele Muholi and Nandipha Mntambo’ by Portia Malatjie, and ‘Matters of Spirit’ by Nessa Leibhammer.

13 Hendriks was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1899. In 1937 he was appointed to the post of director at JAG where he remained until he retired officially in 1964, but remained as an advisory director for a further three years. In 1967, Hendriks was awarded an honorary Phd from the University of the Witwatersrand for his invaluable contributions to the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

14 Chava Alheit, Usha Bapoo, Megan Kidd, Yolanda de Kock, Mpho Kumeke, Viola Makin, Amohelang Mohajane, Refiloe Motau, Rita Potenza, Sizwe Radebe, Nomcebo Sithole, and Cally Thompson.

15 The past three years have yielded wonderful exhibitions – curating Lauren Beukes’ novel about a semi-fictional

Hillbrow, Zoo City (2011), the 1976 uprising captured as One Day in June (2010) and When We Look at You (2013), which was a response to Nelisiwe Xaba’s interpretation of the ‘Hottentot Venus’ that she titled ‘When I Look at You’.

16 Clifford refers to the “contact zone” as the dramatic shift that lies predominantly in how the object is presented and in turn received and perceived by the viewer. It is for this reason that the gallery or museum space becomes a powerful ‘contact zone’ (1988:120).

17 “To use the QR code effectively I needed a space to house the questions. I used the online platform www.callythompson.com on which I created post pages. Each post was a question that corresponded with a QR code. I created eight exhibition posts and therefore eight QR codes to place around the exhibition. When someone scanned a QR code they would be directed to the post where they would read the question and if they wanted to they had the opportunity to respond. I had activated the option to comment below the questions that I asked, so that it gave people an opportunity to respond to my questioning” (Thompson 2014).

Sources

Arinze, E. 1998. African Art Museums: The Challenge of Change, in Museum International 197(50)(1). Unesco: Paris: 31-37.

Arriola, M. 2010. Towards a Ghostly Agency: A Few Speculations on Collaborative and Collective Curating. Manifesta 8: 31-45.

Carman, J. 1988. Acquisition Policy of the Johannesburg Art Gallery with Regards to the South African Collection, (1909-1987) in South African Journal of Culture and Art History 2(3). Pretoria: Bureau for Scientific Publications: 203-213.

Clifford, J. 1988. ThePredicamentofCulture:Twentieth-CenturyEthnography, Literature, and Art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Coetzee, C. 2013. Accented Futures:LanguageActivism and the Ending ofApartheid. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Gule, K. 2015. Colleagues in Conversation, unpublished transcript and recording.

Groys, B. 2008. Multiple Authorship. Chapter in Art Power. Cambridge MA: MIT Press: 93-100.

Hagg, C. 2010. As Assessment of the Visual Arts Sector in South Africa and Assistance to the Department of Arts and Culture in Developing a National Policy for the Visual Arts DAC/0006/07/T. [0]. Available: www.hsrc.ac.za/en/research-outputs/view/5456#sthash.O8y3PhQn.dpuf.

Marshall, S. 1999. Who is In and Who’s Out? The Process of Re-writing South African Art History in the 1990’s. [O]. Available: http://motspluriels.arts.uwa.edu.au/MP1299sm.html.

McGee, J. 2006. Restructuring South African Museums: Reality and Rhetoric in Cape Town in Marstine, J (ed). New MuseumTheory and Practice:An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Marincola, P. 2006. Questions of Practice: Practice Makes Perfect. Introduction in What Makes a Great Exhibition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Morgan, J. 2013. Question 1: What is a Curator? in Hoffman, J. Ten Fundamental Questions of Curating. Mila, Italy: Mousse Publishing: 20-29.

Pearce, S. 1999. New Way of Looking at Old Things, in Museum International 202, 51(2). Paris: Unesco: 12-17.

Potenza, R. 2014. Enclave, in Alheit, C. et al (eds). Condition Report. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Roggoff, I. 2008. Turning. e-flux Journal #0, November: 1-10. [O]. Available: www.e-flux.com/journal/turning/

Storr, R. 2001. How We Do What We Do, And How We Don’t, in Marincola, P (ed). 2001. Curating Now: Imaginative Practice/Public Responsibility. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.

Thompson, C. 2014. Accenting Space, in Alheit, C. et al (eds). Condition Report. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Zolberg, L. V. 1994. ‘”An Elite Experience for Everyone”: Art Museums, the Public and Cultural Literacy’. In Sherman, D. J. and Rogoff, I (eds). Museum Culture: Histories, Discourses, Spectacles. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota: 49-65.

Nontobeko Ntombela

Nontobeko Ntombela lives and works in Johannesburg. Currently enrolled in the History of Art PhD programme at Rhodes University, she holds a Master of Arts in Fine Arts degree from Wits University, where she also works as a lecturer, in the History of Art department. Before that, Ntombela worked as a curator at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (2010-2012), Durban University of Technology Art Gallery (2006-2010) and BAT Centre Art Galleries, Durban (2002-2006).

JAG'S TRADITIONAL COLLECTION: CONSTRUCTING MEANING

Philippa van Straaten

For most of the twentieth century, museums and art galleries in South Africa still focused heavily on art that was produced in Europe or oriented towards a minority demographic with largely Eurocentric sensibilities. Also, following the longstanding worldwide trend at the time of relegating African and southern African material culture to the realms of ethnographic, natural history or anthropological museums, or other cultural heritage spaces, it meant that these items were long not regarded as artworks but as exotic curiosities.

It was only in the 1980s, with the appointment of Christopher Till as director, that the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) began to think about and actively collect traditional southern African material culture as artworks. Changing social and political circumstances and feeling in the country “saw traditional southern African collections redefined with some movement from ethnographic collections into art galleries” (Leibhammer 2010:83), such as JAG.

JAG has, since the late 1980s, not only acquired various important and diverse traditional southern African artworks and collections, and worked on the re-contextualisation of these artworks into a museum setting, but has also held several ground-breaking exhibitions thereof. Three of the most defining exhibitions are dealt with here, alongside brief mention of other significant events that have allowed the contested JAG space to start changing views and viewings of traditional southern African art objects and exhibitions.

These exhibitions have also caused curators to look reflexively at the theoretical, ethical and practical processes that artworks experience before they get to be seen by the public. Patricia Davison highlights the ‘frames of reference’ and meaning-making processes that objects within museum are subject to (Davison 1991:15). Viewers of exhibitions are often not aware of the way in which “their experience is conditioned by the spatial context and the manner in which the work is installed” (Davison 1991:15).

These important exhibitions, along with accompanying published catalogues and other printed material, have aimed at facilitating not only a greater understanding of the works on display, but have also commanded further investigation into theoretical and ethical issues of representation and representation of southern African art in various contested museum and gallery spaces, like JAG, and for various audiences. Issues around terminology, labelling and classification have also been interrogated and dealt with through all stages of curating and exhibiting these collections. Also, in a sense, JAG has created another ‘exhibition space’, through comprehensive printed material accompanying certain exhibitions.

The first of these three most prominent and large-scale traditional southern African art exhibitions is Art and Ambiguity, held from December 1991 to March 1992, and curated by Karel Nel of the University of the Witwatersrand, and Christopher Till and Alan Alborough from JAG (Leibhammer 2010:86). Art and Ambiguity focused on

the Brenthurst Collection, which was assembled by ex-South African Johnathan Lowen in London from 1971 to 1983, and was repatriated to South Africa after being bought by Harry Oppenheimer in 1986. This extensive collection of just over 850 objects has been housed by JAG on long-term loan since 1987. Other items included in this exhibition were a number of Jaques Collection headrests, purchased in 1987 with funds from the Anglo American Johannesburg Centenary Trust (AAJCT), and loans from other institutions throughout South Africa.

This exhibition and the comprehensive accompanying catalogue (JAG 1991) was the first major international exhibition of art from southern Africa (Leibhammer 2010: 85-6), and consisted mostly of a variety of carved wooden pieces. The combination of the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue, which contained articles written by prominent art historians, curators and academics, was seen as “[giving] shape and meaning to the genre” (Leibhammer 2010:86) and engaged viewers with, “a distinctive southern African aesthetic, underpinned by the contexts, spiritual beliefs and ways of life that gave meaning to the forms, material and creative processes”.

The catalogue, too, was described by reviewer Barry Ronge, as “… the only comprehensive examination of a tradition of South African art that was pillaged, removed, negated and marginalised … Now, like the people of South Africa, it is

being gathered back from its exile … offering a sense of identity and tradition that has been missing for decades” (originally appeared in the SundayTimes, 8 December 1991; cited in Leibhammer 2010:86).

The resource book, Making Links (Leibhammer 1996) was based on two exhibitions, Secular and Spiritual:Objects of Mediation and Views fromWithin. Both exhibitions opened in August 1996, and were curated by then-curator of traditional collections at JAG, Nessa Leibhammer. Making Links explained these exhibitions, and the ways in which traditional African art is curated and exhibited in spaces like galleries and museums (Leibhammer 2010:86).

The second of the three most defining traditional southern African art exhibitions at JAG was Evocations of the Child, curated by Nessa Leibhammer and Karel Nel in 1998. This travelling exhibition included representative examples of child figures or fertility ‘dolls’ from various museum and private collections. In her Introduction, Elizabeth Dell explains how and why the accompanying catalogue to the exhibition had created a benchmark in research into the area (Dell quoted in Leibhammer 2010:86).

Dunga Manzi/StirringWaters:Tsonga and ShangaanArt from SouthernAfrica (Leibhammer 2007) was again a defining exhibition, not in the least because of the complex issues around Tsonga and Shangaan identity dealt with in the

Installation views of Art and Ambiguity, curated by Karel Nel (featured above), Christopher Till and Alan Alborough, 1991-92. The exhibition focused on the Brenthurst Collection.

TOP: Installation view of Secular and Spiritual: Objects of Mediation, 1996. BOTTOM ROW & TOP LEFT: Installation views of Dunga Manzi/StirringWaters:Tsonga and ShangaanArt from SouthernAfrica, 2007. TOP RIGHT: Installation view of Matters of Spirit, an exhibition of works from the traditional southern African collection curated by Nessa Leibhammer, 2010.

accompanying catalogue (Leibhammer 2010:87). The exhibition, curated by Leibhammer in conjunction with Natalie Knight and Billy Makhubele as guest curators, celebrated Tsonga and Shangaan culture. In the Introduction to the catalogue, Leibhammer writes that the exhibition “addressed the problems of alienation and silence in a number of ways … [it brought] the knowledge and of ‘living’ memory of a family that embraces its heritage … to the artworks” (Leibhammer 2010:1).

Although JAG’s traditional southern African collection is only 28 years old as of 2015, its size continues to expand, and its ongoing contribution to discourse, public interaction with, and experience of exhibitions and the objects on display continues to develop. Leibhammer writes that “JAG’s contribution to local and international scholarship in the field has been significant … [and that the] understanding of what constitutes southern African traditional art [is] underpinned by a sound historical and theoretical context” (Leibhammer 2010:87). As of 2009, the southern African art collections have also been shown in a dedicated space in the 100-year-old Edwin Lutyens section of the JAG building (Leibhammer 2010:87).

SOURCES

Davison, P. 1991. Ambiguity, Style and Meaning, in Art and Ambiguity. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. Catalogue.

Leibhammer, N. 2010. Filling the Spaces/ Contesting the Canons, in 19102010 One Hundred Years of Collecting. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Philippa van Straaten

Philippa van Straaten is a curator working in Johannesburg. She completed her BA (Hons.) degree at Rhodes University

in 2004, and went on to complete the African Programme in Museum and Heritage Studies postgraduate diploma course at the University of the Western Cape in 2005. She completed her MA in Heritage Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2008. She worked for ICOMOS-UK in London from 2009-2011, and was a Curatorial Assistant at MuseumAfrica before her current role as the Curator for traditional southern African art at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

JOUBERT PARK PROJECT 2000-2001

Jo Ractliffe and Dorothee Kreutzfeldt

The Joubert Park Project begins in 2000 as a loosely organised group of artists, photographers, people working in the arts and a small grant that Dutch artist Jack Mensink of the Artificial Shelter Foundation raised for a project, So Where To, involving the photographers in Joubert Park. It develops into an intensive programme of ‘site specific’ artistic and educational workshops that take place over the year in close collaboration with community initiatives and constituencies that make up the Joubert Park area, including the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Joubert Park Neighbourhood Centre, Lapeng Child and Family Resource Service, The Joubert Park Freelance Association and Park users. Artists, musicians and performers involved in the workshops include Gerard Bester, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt*, Amanda Lane, Jones Mathebula, Sanae Sawada, Usha Seejarim, Stompie Selibe, Rita Potenza*, Jo Ractliffe*, Robin Rhode and Bié Venter*. Workshops with Park photographers, facilitated by John Fleetwood*, Cedric Nunn, Peter McKenzie, Andrew Meintjes and Graeme Williams, and with input from David Goldblatt and Jürgen Schadeberg, are directed towards developing technical, marketing and business skills. In 2001, Terry Kurgan initiates another project with the Joubert Park Photographers Association, called Joubert Park Photo Studio, which involves the installation of a professional mobile photo studio in the Park.

Above all the workshops generate an intensive momentum of ‘creative’ activities, exchanges and explorations in the Park and Gallery: establishing personal and spatial relations; engaging lived experiences of participants. Social and political themes predominate, and the need for the revitalisation of the Park, for safety, inner city rejuvenation, skills and life orientation for the youth. Out of this process core facilitators (*) begin to formulate a set of interests and aims under the name of the Joubert Park Project (JPP), with the focus on Joubert Park Precinct, JAG and ‘public art’. (As the project develops, the collective of organisers grows to include Rory Bester, Terry Kurgan, Cedric Nunn, Bettina Schulz, Marion Shaer and Merryn Singer.)

Open Day 2000 presents the workshops in the form of a photographic exhibition, installations and performances situated in the Gallery and the Park. The audience is ushered in and out of the Gallery. It coincides with the monthly ‘Ziyabuya Child and Family Arts Festival’ and begins with a blessing ceremony with sangomas (facilitated by the Performing Rites Company). The ceremony is conducted in response to an early divination session at JAG with Makhosi Fikile Dhlamini and Gallery director Rochelle Keene, which highlighted the plight of the Gallery and its lack of integration with the immediate environment (the key image that emerges is a female, unhappy ‘ghost’ who roams the

rooms of the Gallery). At this point JAG is barely functioning as a public institution: it is insufficiently funded and understaffed; sections are in disrepair; the doors are closed for long periods. In contrast, the Park is used intensely as one of the few public green spaces in the inner city, despite the lack of maintenance or care by the municipality. The clinic, crèche, greenhouse, neighbourhood centre, lawns and chessboards serve as significant public places. The day’s events and exhibition engage and celebrate these sites; there are spirited and funny moments, bringing together participants and audiences: for example, headdressed and costumed ‘live’ pieces are moved around the giant chessboard, interrupting the usual rules and sights. Robin Rhode’s workshop collaborators perform various scenarios in the Gallery with wall drawings as ‘props’ – muggers stealing a ‘suitcase’, kids throwing cans into a ‘basketball hoop’ and lovers necking on a ‘park bench’. In the Park ‘speech bubbles’ stencilled onto board with phrases taken from popular hip-hop and kwaito songs are placed on benches and sculptures, in trees and the greenhouse, provoking unsolicited romantic conversations between people and spaces. In the Gallery a debate on art in the public realm of inner city Johannesburg is programmed, with speakers Leon Mdiya, Vernon Openshaw, Clive van den Berg, Jo Ractliffe, Lesley Perkes, Bongi Dhlomo, Kathryn Smith and Stephen Hobbs. The day’s events are documented in a film, From the Ground Up, by

TOP LEFT: Blessing ceremony with sangomas facilitated by the Performing Rites Company, which highlighted the plight of the Gallery and its lack of integration with the immediate environment, 2000.

BOTTOM LEFT: Installation view of Usha Seejarim’s paper pigeons.

TOP RIGHT: View of Robin Rhode’s ‘Park Bench’ which illustrated how wall drawings were used as ‘props’ during his workshop.

CENTRE RIGHT: Chess piece, JPP Open Day, 2000.

BOTTOM RIGHT: Installation view of Speech bubbles, Open Day, 2000.

the Trinity Session. Open Day ends with songs and the lighting of many paperbag lanterns in the Park, each featuring a drawing made by young participants in Usha Seejarim’s workshop, which addressed their ‘hopes and dreams’ for the Park.

In the same year the JPP issues a call for proposals for the Joubert Park Public Art Exhibition to take place in 2001, inviting people to present ideas and projects that respond to the specific conditions, changes and potentials of the precinct and its inner city context. (In the call, it is declared that ‘Public art is for everyone’, appealing for modes and forms of production with the possibility to engage socially, artistically with the specific realities, architectures and imaginations of places and publics. It is an enthusiastic call for the activation of spaces, for testing the artist’s role in relation to the city, audience and context. Within the politics and demographics of artistic networks, platforms and institutions at the time – which is partly reflected by the group of facilitators – the project endeavours to mobilise participations and collaborations across different artistic disciplines and networks.)

The core team of organisers lobby for funds and move their ‘offices’ into the administrative wing of the Gallery. The responses to the call are surprisingly numerous and the selection process a lengthy, intensely debated affair, resulting in an ambitious three month programme and exhibition, with 38 contributors, and collaborations from South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Iceland, Switzerland, Holland, Great Britain and Sweden. The production runs on minimal resources and individual and collective efforts, with the support of Gallery staff, input from the Bag Factory and

Wits Division of Fine Arts. The exhibition and performance programme occupy sections of the Gallery and the Park: Canadian artist Mara Verna sets up a mobile manicure and pedicure station for women along the walkways, a strangely intimate set up; stilted, often funny conversations across languages ensue. Icelandic artist Anna Richardsdottir, accompanied by musician Stompie Selibe, performs a daily cleaning routine and draws a close group of onlookers

– there are teasing comments and questions by passersby, requests if one can join. The opening in October 2001 attracts a surprising number of visitors – 2000 are recorded

– the largest audience the Gallery has seen in several years, and is followed by a three month programme of workshops, happenings and talks.

From the pamphlet of the exhibition:

Willem Boshoff (Broken Trust, granite seat sculpture in the Park’s ‘Lovers Lane’), Matthew Burbidge (video shot from the Gallery roof, Gallery), Pitso Chinzima (installation in the Park commemorating people who experienced violence and trauma at particular sites), Patsy Cloete and Steffan Carstens (video of kite-making workshop inspired by JAG collection, Gallery), Steven Cohen, Elu Kieser and Nomsa Dhlamini (video installation of the ChandelierProject in the Gallery and performance at the opening), Michael Coombs (plaster copies of security cameras installed in strategic places around the Gallery and Park), Wilma Cruise (video screening in the Gallery of people who lived and died in Joubert Park, TheTaleofShippy–aLovelyMan,TaleofDM – A Refined Man), Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg (Nightshift, video projection in the Gallery produced while on residency in Johannesburg; Videowall – installation with video and stills shot at Park Station), Sebastian Diaz Morales and Jo Ractliffe (collaborative video projections in the Gallery, including The Persecution of the White Car shot in Durban), Brendhan Dickerson (fire sculpture performance on opening night in the Park), Natasha Du Venage (movement workshop with youth from the inner city), John Fleetwood (photographic and sound installation in the Gallery exploring notions of dislocation and xenophobia), Abrie Fourie (installation of Monument in the Park, comprising bibles), Sally Gaule and Susan Beningfield (multimedia installation in the Gallery based on research of social dynamics in Newtown), Jeanette Ginslov and Marcus Neustetter (interactive installation, See-Saw, including sound and a seesaw, Gallery), Manya Gittel (performance workshop with youth resident around the Park), Catherine Henegan (billboard installation in the Park), Lucky Jiyane (life-size wire sculptures installed in the Park), Arthur Kunene (ostrich eggs painted with scenes from Joubert Park, Gallery Shop), Terry Kurgan and Nkosi Ndlovu (portrait project/exhibition in the Park and mobile photo studio with the Joubert Park Freelance Photographers Association), Busisiwe Mafu and Simon Molefe (documentary on Joubert Park and residents), Jones Mathebula (T-shirt printing workshop), Goodness Nhlengethwa (sound installation in the Gallery based on interviews with people in the Park), Cedric Nunn with Isaac Phakati and Siphiwe Shandu (photographs for anti-litter campaign), Celia Parsburg and Elin Wikström (radio project based on weekly conversations with residents in the Park), Rita Potenza (portrait outlet collaboration with Park photographers, Gallery Shop), Robin Rhode (video projection and installation in collaboration with previous workshop members), Anna Richardsdottir (as described), Usha Seejarim (video and sound installation in the Gallery and paper pigeon workshop), Moses Seleko (cowhide-covered park bench),

TOP LEFT: Andrew Meintjes facilitating a workshop at Terry Kurgan and the Joubert Park Freelance Photographers Association’s mobile photo studio. TOP CENTRE: Cedric Nunn, Isaac Phakati and Siphiwe Shandu’s anti-litter campaign.

TOP RIGHT: Peter McKenzie facilitating a workshop with the Joubert Park Freelance Photographers Association. CENTRE

LEFT: Mara Verna’s Joubert Park intervention. BOTTOM LEFT: Elu Keiser performing at the opening. ABOVE: Brendhan Dickerson exhibition opening.

Stompie Selibe (instrument making and sound workshop), Kathryn Smith (photographic installation in the Gallery investigating potentially ‘lethal’ spaces), Amichai Tahor (karaoke project on opening night, Park), The Trinity Session (screening of documentary From the Ground Up), Andrew Tshabangu and Peter McKenzie (with Park photographers Varrie Hluzani and Nkosi Ndlovu, photographic installation against shop windows in the precinct), Mara Verna, Leon von Solms and Toni Morkel (performances in the Park) and Sue Williamson (FromtheInside, slide projection in the Gallery of text pieces painted on walls in surrounding areas, addressing HIV/AIDS).

The Joubert Park Project continues to operate from the Johannesburg Art Gallery until 2004, working on various ‘public’ projects, such as the Creative Inner City Initiative,

a poverty alleviation and youth development initiative in neighbouring Hillbrow. In 2004, JPP moves to the historic Drill Hall next to Joubert Park, which is redeveloped as a multi-use heritage site. Here the collective is formalised as a non-profit trust, consolidating previous experiences and works to define a structure and programme in relation to the Drill Hall, its history and environment, as site and material. Instrumental in this process are Keren Ben Zeev and Maria Fidel Regueros, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt and Bié Venter, joined by Joseph Gaylard, and later Rangoato Hlasane and Malose Malahlela – who would go on to form Keleketla! – with input from Vincent Trutter and Lawrence Lemaoana and board members. The proximity to JAG remains an important, yet an underdeveloped asset. Until 2009, members of the JPP work as site managers, generating and facilitating projects in collaboration with artists, educators and non-artists

working in diverse fields. This includes the set up of a multiuse gallery, Point Blank, and artists’ residencies. (The core aim is to bring the strategies and instruments of the contemporary arts to bear on the complex and conflicted environment in a manner that asks questions both of arts practice and the complicated reality of this shifting urban context – in relation to South Africa and globally.)

Projects include: ´Notes to Home’, a series of exchanges with artists from Maputo around questions of migrancy and xenophopia in 2006; ‘Cascoland’, a production residency co-facilitated by JPP with a Dutch collective involving artists, architects, urbanists and designers from Europe and South Africa in developing projects concerned with animating the Drill Hall in relationship to its urban context (2007); ‘Last One Standing’ (2008), a major snowball fight tournament

RIGHT: Anna Richardsdottir’s performance in Joubert Park. CENTRE: Manya Gittel’s movement workshop. RIGHT: Stompie Selibe’s workshop.

staged in collaboration with the Official Snowball Fight Association from Sierre in Switzerland, with teams recruited from a great diversity of inner city experiences, including boxers, taxi drivers, police, hairdressers, artists, street traders and urban managers; UrbanScenographies (2009) in collaboration with ScU2 – a group of artists from South Africa, DRC, Kenya, France, Angola, Cameroon and Nigeria are invited to live and work at the Drill Hall and surrounds, and respond to the proposed curatorial themes of stage, playground, battleground and market.

Throughout this period the organisation hosts a significant number of residencies involving artists, mainly from South Africa, as well as Europe and elsewhere. Artists live in an apartment in the newly renovated August House, and develop work in the context of the Drill Hall and surrounds.

At the end of 2009, JPP ‘hands’ infrastructure, and the site management role and funds over to Keleketla! Library (Keleketla! Media Arts Project NPC), whose programme is conceptualised around the establishment of a youth library on site. Initially a once-off project by JPP artist in residence, Bettina Malcomess, with Rangoato Hlasane and Malose Malahlela, over the next six years the collective (Hlasane, Malahlela and collaborators) organises after-school programmes, poetry sessions, exhibitions, stokvels, music collaborations and performances, workshops, residencies and artists’ studios (http://keleketla.org). In 2014 Keleketla! closes the library and after-school programme, partly as a result of the City’s inability to formalise a lease agreement with tenants at the Drill Hall. The collective now operates from the King Kong building in Troyeville.

The trajectory of the JPP from the first activities at the JAG, to the Drill Hall, is a complex one – the narrative of related projects and networks, contributors and advisors, artistic initiatives and failures are still to be properly recorded and critically examined. The disjunction which inspired and sustained the project – the disconnect between the Gallery and the inner city urban context – is one which endures, and which should continue to present a compelling set of cues or prompts for new actions and interventions.

Jo Ractliffe

Jo Ractliffe is the Senior Lecturer in Photography at Wits University and has taught photography at various local and international institutions. She was a founder member of

The Joubert Park Project, has been a Writing Fellow at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) and in 2013 was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Curating the Archive at the University of Cape Town. Her photographs reflect her ongoing preoccupation with the South African landscape and the ways in which it figures in the country’s imaginary – particularly the violent legacies of apartheid.

Dorothee Kreutzfeldt

Dorothee Kreutzfeldt is an artist whose work has largely been defined by painting and collaborations, often within specific urban contexts. She teaches in the Fine Art Department at the Wits School of Arts.

THE GREEN FENCE

Usha Seejarim

As a young art student in 1995, I worked on a mural in Joubert Park. The team, led by Nicky Bloemenfeld and Andrew Lindsay, aimed to bridge the gap between the art inside the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the people outside the Gallery. We worked with a group of youth who frequented the adjacent Joubert Park. We all made drawings of the artworks on display inside the Gallery at the time, and collaboratively we painted these images on the wall in the Park. Memories of this project are infused with the strong stench of urine that we encountered anew each morning at the mural site. I mention this because it is an indicator of the realities of the location of JAG, and thus puts into perspective the nature of some of the challenges of this specific context.

The young participants from the area expressed having enjoyed the experience of engaging with the exhibition that was showing at JAG at that time, as well as with the process of creating the mural. They verbalised a delight in having gained knowledge of the Gallery and its artworks. When asked why they had not visited the Gallery before, they responded that they hadn’t known that they were allowed to enter it. When asked about what they had previously imagined the function of the building to be, they had assumed that it was a police station or some other inaccessible governmental structure. When asked if they would now enter the Gallery, knowing that it is open to the public, that it is free, and given that they are now familiar

with the space, their response was a collective and resounding “No”. Upon further probing, they declared a discomfort with the space. They were comfortable only as long as we were there, and in our absence they remained intimidated by the structure.

Twenty years later the invisible gap between the Gallery and the people who work, live and leisure in its immediate vicinity is made tangible through a green fence between the Gallery and the Park; through the obscurity of the entrance to the Gallery, the unconnected strong police presence that gathers each morning in the yard to convene before their deployment for general law enforcement around the city; and the overall greyness of a not-sowelcoming place. The Gallery is an equally intimidating space for the visitor not familiar with or from the inner city, reinforced by the congested King George Street, which is littered with hawkers, pedestrians and taxis, mingled with a perceived threat of a ‘smash-and-grab’ or other violence.

For this visitor, the green fence and police presence act not as measures of security. Instead of comforting these visitors, they fortify feelings of separation and anxiety.

Over the years various projects have attempted to eradicate, or at least address the metaphoric green fence. They include engagements with the park photographers, the Joubert Park Project (2001), The Greenhouse Project, as

well as several educational interventions, all met with varying levels of success.

A bizarre phenomenon that seems to have flouted this norm, however, has occasionally occurred during certain events like Africa Remix and William Kentridge’s openings, which have seen unprecedented attendance – where the vehicle queue to enter the premises extended several kilometres outside the Gallery! Families with young children from the suburbs as well as visitors commuting via public transport have, in these instances, somehow defied the logic of attendance otherwise, and have seemed paradoxically unaware of the dangers of the area, magnified at night.

In sporadic cases then, the green fence has the ability to become less opaque. The obvious desire for the sustained invisibility of these barriers asks the question, who it is that the Gallery serves and if, in fact, these seem to be two distinct audiences; the so-called art literate community that resides mostly outside of the inner city, and the inhabitants of the surrounding areas who are somewhat oblivious to the activities of the Gallery. This prompts further questions that seek to explore broader definitions of art, as well as the role of the Gallery. The disjuncture between the Gallery and its location persists perhaps because these definitions are not fluid enough. Yet, JAG’s continual refusal to relocate might well be read to affirm its commitment to the building, to its location and to its audience/s.

What will it take then to increase engagement with JAG and its contents, which include one of the biggest and most impressive collections in Africa? Perhaps it is about the right kind of programming that makes invisible the barriers that normally dissuade visitors from coming. Perhaps it is about prioritising community engagement that goes beyond a few isolated projects built in as an essential mission and objective of the Gallery; an inside approach to definitions of art that begins with an active engagement with the surrounding inhabitants. Perhaps it is about making the physical structure friendlier and more accessible. When the question of capacity, resources, time and will arises, perhaps in an ideal world these will become fashionable

KPAs for the scorecards of senior City officials, politicians and other bureaucrats. Failing that, it is left up to the individuals from the institution as well as the art community to be resourceful and find creative solutions defined by the industry that it represents.

But like the smell of urine on the mural wall, the challenges within a changing environment will grow stronger and stronger unless the immense value of what JAG is, what it represents, and the potential that it can be, can be communicated, understood, internalised and thus supported and promoted.

Usha Seejarim

Usha Seejarim holds a Masters Degree in Fine Art. She has had seven solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally, and has completed a number of significant public art commissions.

With a background in Art Education, Seejarim is committed to art as a vehicle for social change and continues to work at grassroots level through community-based public art projects. She recently initiated The Art of Access: an online platform making contemporary art more accessible.

NEW ENGAGEMENTS - OLD STRATEGIES

Musha Neluheni

Over the course of the 100 years that the Johannesburg Art Gallery building has been in existence, its presence within Joubert Park has been challenging. Joubert Park was built in 1898 and was the first park to adorn the fledgling city of Johannesburg. However as the city has grown around the Park, it has gone through many socio-economic changes. Over the past twenty years, JAG has attempted to host a number of outreach programmes to try and become more relevant to the people in the Joubert Park community, achieving varying levels of success.

Although I was the Education Officer at JAG for four years, the project I would like to reflect on was one which I was involved with before I began working at the museum. It was a project I was brought into as a coordinator, due to JAG’s lack of staff at the time.

My first encounter with JAG’s ‘outreach programmes’ was in 2009 with the project, 1 Mile2 – a project sponsored by the British Council that sought to engage 31 artists, 18 ecologists, 8 countries and 10 communities in bridging the gap between museums and the environments around them. Each museum involved was chosen based on its proximity to a ‘green space’, in order to bring art and environment together with the community surrounding the area. Artists and ecologists from the selected countries would be paired with British artists to collaborate on a series of interventions over a three month period. The entire premise was that the artists were to work only within one square mile radius

of the museum, which in JAG’s case primarily included Joubert Park. The British Council envisioned a three year programme with the chosen museums, where the artists and ecologists would rotate, but where the museums and communities would remain constant.

The South African artists, Anthea Moys and Kyla Davis, were paired with British artists, Sandra Hall and Lee Griffiths. The artists chose to work with the Greenhouse Project in Joubert Park, which has a team of environmentalists who were able to assist them with the ecological aspect of their project. Below is a breakdown of the artists’ engagement over the course of the three months.

The first intervention was a simple one, in which the artists went into Joubert Park and offered free fresh orange juice to participants in exchange for stories about their mutually shared square mile. Whilst waiting for their fresh juice, they invited locals to write their names on the front of a large label, while on the back, stories about where they feel safe/ unsafe. The public was apprehensive at first, but by the end of the afternoon, the artists had gathered a large volume of stories from adults and many of the children who pass through the Park on a daily basis.

The artists then looked further along the square mile radius of the museum, going as far as Parkview, and making connections with this wealthier suburb, and with Hillbrow. The artists asked Parkview residents to donate flowers,

that would be photographed at George’s Boxing Ring in Hillbrow, and which were then sent back to the residents of Parkview in the form of a postcard. In a sense, they wanted to show both the Parkview residents, as well as the participants from the inner city, just how close, and yet so far, their physical, social and economic situations were.

The last few interventions were very much focused on the environmental aspect of the project. The first part took place at the Greenhouse Project using the building to create a ‘fax machine’, where empty envelopes bearing messages such as “for you” and “open me please” were passed back and forth on a string slide between the artists and the participants from the inner city. These envelopes would be used at a later stage in the project. The remainder of the day at the Greenhouse resulted in the participants learning how to grow plants in the bottoms of plastic Coke bottles. The majority of the project’s participants lived in the high-rise buildings surrounding Joubert Park, therefore did not have gardens in which to grow plants, and so this was a new skill that the Greenhouse taught them. The final intervention that took place happened in the Park and the Gallery. Participants began in the Park, identifying the different species of trees there, and attaching their ‘fax machine’ letters to the trees, sealed with a kiss. They then went into the Gallery to redraw the different trees. A final exhibition profiling the project was constructed on this day, made up of all the different components that had been established over the three month period. The entire project was blogged about

on the 1 Mile blog, which each participating country was contributing to.

In the end, the British Council collected all the data from the projects all over the world, finding the Johannesburg intervention to have been one of the more successful. As stated in their final report, “Although there are examples of the partnership working very successfully, as in Delhi and Johannesburg, there is sometimes a sense of artists engaging with the project in parallel rather than in collaboration”. This is something I witnessed first-hand with the four artists who worked on 1 Mile2. There was a clear engagement with the community of Joubert Park. What started as a very nervous first day serving juice in the Park, ended with them being welcomed every time they re-entered it, and with them drawing the local community into the Gallery every time they were hosting a new intervention.

In the months following the end of the project, we saw the participants of the project continue to visit the Gallery. Of the 165 local participants, the children were our most frequent visitors, spending hours between the end of the school day and closing time, roaming the halls of the Gallery, or drawing at the ‘children’s nook’. But as 2011 dawned, and those children and families moved on, the numbers from the Joubert Park community who interfaced with JAG, once again dwindled. Due to the global recession, the British Council withdrew the project funding to all the museums involved. Griffiths and Hall had initially planned a participatory “I Love Hillbrow” festival that would “challenge the social and cultural barriers between Johannesburg’s most deprived and violent neighbourhood and other local communities”, however this, too, never materialised. The question is, was the Park, the Gallery or the project at fault? Given the transient community of Joubert Park (families only tend to stay in the suburb for under two years), one can assume

that this is a relevant factor. In such a transient environment, one needs to question whether there can ever in fact be a sustainable community engagement project that would align the Gallery and the Park.

Musha Neluheni

Musha Neluheni is an artist and curator, and currently the Curator for Contemporary Collections at JAG. She was previously the Education Officer at JAG from 2010-2013. She holds a BAFA from Rhodes University and is working towards her MA in Art History. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and has had three solo exhibitions. She worked as the assistant curator for the Sasol Art Collection between 2006-2009. She was awarded Young Curator of the Year at the 2008 Aardklop Arts Festival.

SHIFTING SPACES, PUBLICS AND AUDIENCES

Reshma Chhiba

Leaving JAG, where I worked for six years, left me feeling both relieved and worried; worry stemmed from having given so much time and energy to a space that is never quite sailing smoothly; and one only really becomes aware of the dire state it is in once you have stepped out. Much of what I talk about in this article may seem cynical or critical of JAG, but these thoughts come from a place of having experienced the space – both at its peak and at lower points – and is rather intended to draw attention to possible shifts that could take place there, prompted by questions that may or may not have been answered as yet. It is also from a place of sincerity and respect for the collection and archive that I believe in the future of JAG, in whatever form it may eventually end up – its legacy being a collection that is 105 years old and one of the few public collections in the country that is able to grow annually.

I joined the staff of the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2007 as Exhibitions Curator, under the leadership of Clive Kellner. Having just come back from a four month mediation stint at Documenta 12, I arrived just as Africa Remix was being de-installed, thus missing out on one of the most crucial exhibitions under Kellner’s curatorship at JAG, and probably one of the biggest crowd pullers that JAG has ever witnessed. Coming from a large scale exhibition such as Documenta, engaging with five exhibition venues and an audience of people from various countries, arriving at JAG was both exciting and a bit daunting. Not only was I in

charge of all exhibition logistics and planning, but I also managed a team of men who, needless to say, were less than thrilled about the prospect of reporting to this ‘short Indian lady’. These are realities that one faces, being a woman, a female of colour, new to the game and fresh out of university. Along with these day-to-day challenges, very quickly into the job one also learns that, as with most government-owned institutions, the wheels of operation turn very slowly, thus adding to the difficulty. These challenges, along with JAG’s rather awkward geographical location in Johannesburg’s urban landscape, which rightfully had its place in 1915 when it was just built, surrounded by highend apartments, one realises that audience participation, engagement and dissemination of ideas may be harder to achieve than might be the case in other parts of Joburg, or the world.

Isolated and surrounded by a public that is mostly uncertain about what JAG actually is or does, JAG houses a treasure trove of over 9 000 pieces of art, and while some of it may be questionable – as I presume is the case with most public collections – it is certainly one of the most diverse collections of fine art objects amongst South Africa’s public collections. On reflection I wonder to myself what it means to have this vast array of artworks available to the public? How exactly does the public gain access to these artworks or learn about the value of this space? And is it still worth investing in and building this collection?

I pose these questions less to answer them, and more as prompts for current debates around JAG, its status and relevance in the contemporary South African art world. Having changed positions from Exhibitions Curator to Registrar in 2009, under the leadership of Antoinette Murdoch, I had direct and regular access to this collection. As Registrar, the main purpose of my job was to ensure historically accurate archiving and efficient collections management. Essentially, one is the ‘care-taker’ of the collection, liaising both locally and internationally, ensuring the accessibility, both physically and pedagogically, of the collection and archive to various institutions, while still aiming to maintain museum standards and procedures. I say “aiming to”, because the reality of JAG’s space is that, while its collection may be loaned and recognised internationally, its space does not currently live up to international standards. This was the painful reality of the building during my time there. My intention here is not to criticise or be negative, as JAG has played a crucial part in my growth as an artist and project coordinator, and I want to see the institution and collection survive. But how does one do this if the higher echelons of the institution – the City Council – do not see the value in its staff, collection or building? A lack of funds, coupled with ignorance about art collections by the City makes it extremely difficult for those inside the institution, who work tirelessly to genuinely make some difference.

Over the years JAG and many well-meaning and concerned artists, curators, and project coordinators have tried, very convincingly, to engage the public and spaces surrounding JAG. These artistic interventions, while often successful as art projects, have not, however, managed a genuine and long-lasting impact on the space or the collection. These fleeting moments of engagement are yet to see the results of sustained shifts and engagement with the potential audiences who have the most direct access to it. This is not a criticism of these projects or the artists involved, who have created great value through their efforts, but rather highlights the difficulty of JAG’s location, geographically and historically. Is JAG’s aim to engage contemporary art audiences, or a public that is yet undefined? And how is some of its collection still relevant to either of these audiences? Or is its mandate simply to cater for school-going students who are able to travel to it, which it does quite successfully?

All these challenges aside, JAG has seen many successful exhibitions and projects that are relevant in the trajectory of contemporary South Africa art. These include Africa Remix, the SpierContemporary2007 competition, Meshac Gaba’s retrospective (2007), Kay Hassan’s Urbanation, Thami Mnyele + MeduArt Ensemble Retrospective (2008), Tracey Rose’s mid-career retrospective, Waiting for God (2010), William Kentridge’s IAm Not Me,The Horse is Not Mine (2010). These exhibitions have been proof that while JAG may struggle, it has nevertheless created moments of relevance, and is possibly still one of the most beautiful spaces in Johannesburg in which to exhibit. But is beauty enough? The staggering shift away from JAG, by artists, patrons and curators, witnessed over the past few years is determined by a number of factors. Some choose not to go because they fear driving down the road and entering a space that is the neighbour to one of Joburg’s most notorious taxi ranks; others perhaps see it as an irrelevant space. Or could it be that questioning the relevance of

spaces, the kinds of audiences we engage and who exactly makes up the ‘public’, which sometimes fuels the contemporary art that is being made and taught currently, dissuades people from trekking down to JAG?

Perhaps it is a combination of all of the above that determines who visits or does not visit JAG. Should JAG then be trying to insert itself more prominently in conversations about space and audience? Perhaps it already does. It is with a great sense of nostalgia for the collection that I have written this article, and a great amount of hope that JAG finally finds its place in contemporary South Africa. I say this fully aware that since stepping out of JAG two years ago my only engagement with it has been to use its collection as a teaching aid. I am convinced that this is where its strength lies. In conclusion I ask again, what does it mean to have this vast array of artworks available to the public? How exactly does the public gain access to these artworks or learn about the value of this space? And is it still worth investing in and building this collection?

Reshma Chhiba

Reshma Chhiba is a visual artist and dancer based in Johannesburg. She currently serves as Exhibitions Coordinator at The Point of Order, an experimental exhibition space run by the Division of Visual Arts, Wits University. Previously, Chhiba worked at the Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre (VIAD), University of Johannesburg, and as Exhibitions Curator and then Registrar at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. She is also the co-founder and Creative Director of Sarvavidya Natyaalaya dance school.

`

LAPENG CR E CHE

Lorraine Deift

Lapeng sessions began as a desire to enrich the lives of children attending the crèche in the Joubert Park precinct.

While the first Lapeng visit took place in November 2009, voluntary docents, Lorraine Deift and Bea Katz, and Tiny Malefane of JAG’s permanent staff, continue to host the pre-primary children of the Lapeng Child and Family Resource Service at JAG from 10h00-12h30 on the second Tuesday of each month, from February to November.

These mornings begin with 20 minutes of yoga, then a fifteen-minute guided tour of JAG, followed by an activity – either in the studio (in winter), or in the quadrangle (in summer). Once the children have completed their artworks, biscuits and juice are served and the morning is rounded off with a sing-song.

The sessions are thoroughly enjoyed by the children, who are an absolute joy! We work with different media each time, and reference these during the Gallery tour, concentrating on clay, wood, or metal sculpture, for example, on exhibition in the Gallery at that time. We then settle down to creating our own sculptures to the accompaniment of some great music, and gales of laughter from the children when we precede the clay and painting activities by dressing them in shopping bags modified as aprons to protect their clothes! At one clay session, one solemn little girl was battling with her lump of clay on the table. I asked her

if I could help her, and made a little animal for her. When I handed it to her, there was a glimmer of awakening in her eyes and her face suddenly broke into this huge smile as recognition dawned that this is what you can do with clay!

We make extensive use of inexpensive as well as waste materials: decorated paper plates and cardboard tea boxes with pictures cut out of magazines; ‘shakers’ using cardboard toilet rolls decorated with stick-ons and filled with samp; coloured paper crowns and lanterns; puppets made out of papier mâché or airline socks; necklaces and bangles with paint-dyed pasta; spatter paintings using toothbrushes … We’ve received some wonderful donations for the programme too, such as a nursery that donated coloured pots, gravel, sand and Kalanchoe seedlings for each child to pot and take home and nurture.

As the year rolls on, it is so rewarding to note the progress of the children; to see the development of small muscle control, concentration and staying power, and the way in which they become more familiar with terminology and are able to identify a ‘photograph’, a ‘painting’, and a ‘sculpture’ in the Gallery and, as a result, a more positive interaction with the works they are exposed to, many keenly remembering what they have learnt at their previous visit!

The last session of the year is the end-of-the-year party, where the docents contribute cupcakes, sandwiches, sweets

and small gifts to the children, who become very boisterous – so different to the shy small children at their first visit. Bea, Tiny and myself are very grateful to all the people who help us in various ways.

Mathibedi Nthite, who runs Lapeng, told us that the monthly visits have become an important event in their curriculum and are much appreciated. The children tell their parents about their mornings at JAG, and excitedly bring home their artworks, and some are even ‘bringing’ their parents to the Gallery on weekends and during school holidays and acting as their ‘guides’!

Lorraine Deift

Lorraine Deift has been a volunteer docent (trained in 1979 by Jillian Carman) at JAG for 36 years. She is passionate about children and conducts many school tours, including ongoing monthly sessions with the children of the Lapeng Crèche. She co-authored the Dumile Feni Resource book published in 2004. Over the years she has helped train many new guides. She also takes it upon herself to keep an eye on the Gallery’s plants! She is a yoga practitioner and a genealogist.

JAG LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

Jo Burger

It is the heart and soul of JAG – or definitely the institutional memory of JAG; for some a hidden pot of gold or a treasure trove that they have only just discovered. I like to think of it instead as the brain of JAG. The JAG Archives have been so many things to so many users over the last century.

In the 21st century, archives have come to be rightfully acknowledged, by institutions and corporates alike, who recognise their importance as a critical resource. The archive is a powerful tool and can be utilised in many ways. Cinderella has finally come out for all to see, no longer confined to a dusty, dark museum! Her popularity has increased, and she’s even proving to be quite glamorous!

Hand in hand, as the value and importance of JAG’s art collection and building have extended, so too has its collection of library and archival material. The JAG Library has always held its own in providing an excellent resource and research standards, attested to by many researchers both locally and from all over the world. Some occasionally sceptical researchers, who by sheer need of the resource have ultimately been forced to venture into the inner city and pay JAG a visit, have been pleasantly surprised at what they have found, despite gloomy pictures painted for them of what they might expect to experience.

But there have been some casualties too: Prof Steven Dubin from Columbia University, for example, who injured the

muscles in his neck while turning and photocopying the heavy ‘A’ books! But not put off, he has kept coming back, year after year, for more.

The past century has had many dedicated role players involved in bringing together this invaluable resource: previous directors, librarians, curators, other staff members, artists, other art institutions and galleries, donations, and an exchange system of publications with other museums. The ‘lost’ archive of the founding of JAG was also retrieved through the dedication of Dr Jillian Carman.

In 1994, the Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA) Academy Archives, compiled by Dr Elza Miles, was donated to the Library by the Netherlands Embassy. This invaluable archive is not only a prized possession of JAG, but a resource that is used regularly and has functioned as the primary resource for many publications and research since. We are grateful to all of these role players for their contributions.

The JAG Archive comprises the history of the building, the collection, information on artists, JAG’s staff over the years, and the Gallery’s numerous exhibitions, events and activities. The most important of all documents in the archive are the ‘A’ books, modern day scrap books, pasted with newspaper clippings, newsletters, invitation cards, speeches from openings, and much more. A prized edition is the first

1909/10 ‘A’ book, which features clippings of the very first exhibitions of the nucleus of JAG’s collection at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, in 1910.

This Foundation Collection, curated by Hugh Lane, was well received abroad, apparently the envy of all, and won glowing reviews from noted critics of the time. There had been one reservation, though, that being about where this collection was headed … namely, to Johannesburg – a dusty mining metropolis. In South Africa of 16 July 1910, the critic states: “Whether this collection will appeal to the Colonial Philistine is another question …”.

The Library’s collection of invitation cards of the 20th century South African exhibitions are unique, beautiful, and could be pieces of art in their own right. These documents are not just objects of beauty, however, but are still relevant as a reference source. Another set of beautiful documents is the collection of posters of previous JAG exhibitions, and dates back to the 1960s.

The Annual Reports provide the most user-friendly reference source about JAG, and cover 26 years of JAG’s history. Additionally, there are important letters, collection catalogues and other paraphernalia that the archive houses. Artist files of artists featured in the collection, and exhibition catalogues, form the majority of all the documents in the archives and are used on a daily basis.

The Art Reference Library is specialised and a one-stop resource for researchers, hosting a wealth of exhibition catalogues and other art library materials rarely found in any other libraries. The most popular section is the artists boxes, which contain newspaper clippings, essays, invitation cards and more. Same Mdluli of Wits writes: “Thank you for the wonderful resource centre. I would not have come this far with my PhD studies had it not been for the JAG Library”.

Beyond the doors of the Library and Archives are three other resources that form a further part of JAG’s archives. The display cabinet in the foyer of the building is a quick minireference of the history of JAG and its collections, available to all visitors, and was given a make-over in 2014. The office of the registrar holds information on the collections, copyright of works, photographs, exhibitions, loans and much more. The admin office files contain correspondence, budgets, invoices for works in the collection, documents regarding the building, staff and institutional activities. The most important documents are kept in a safe.

JAG believes in an active library and archive. Post-graduate interns from Wits University have assisted in the Library, and have learnt from these invaluable resources, enabling them to do better in the workplace.

Many researchers have expressed the hope that in future this resource could be made available to wider and global audiences. Digitising the archive will literally unlock this hidden treasure, and it is a desired goal.

So what, for me, is the most outstanding or unique file, photograph or document in the archive? Most enchanting for me is the correspondence between Auguste Rodin and his sitter, Miss Fairfax, the latter personally donating those letters to JAG.

But listening to what users of these resources have had to say about their experience of the Library and Archives is equally valuable. Prof Dan Magaziner of Cornell and Yale University wrote: “Unbelievable archive. I’d be nowhere without it ”.

And one Grade 12 learner, W Mawela of Parktown Boys High School, got carried away: “I felt like I was at home – even better … no radio or TV. This was a lifetime experience … surely I will come back”.

Jo Burger

Jo Burger has been the Senior Librarian of the Johannesburg Art Gallery Library and Archives since 1996. She was formerly a teacher at various schools and a lecturer at the Goudstad Teachers College. Between 1991 and 1994 she was the medical librarian at the JG Strijdom (now Helen Joseph) Hospital before she was appointed to the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

CHANGING VISIONS

“The Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) is committed to preserving and providing access to our South African art heritage and to giving due recognition to our neglected artists through exhibitions, publications and education programmes. The Gallery collects works of art-historical importance and conserves these pieces for future generations. In addition to an extensive collection of historical European and South African paintings, drawings prints and sculptures, JAG is home to several works at the cutting edge of South African contemporary art. The museum also actively aims to redress omissions and oversights in collecting practice during South Africa’s colonial and apartheid eras by regularly acquiring works by, and hosting projects that create awareness about, artists who have previously been marginalised in the construction of South African art history.” JAG mission statement

“… if you are to address what is acknowledged to be one of your key constituencies, you will need to adopt a different language and form of engagement.” David Andrew (p 193)

Stephen Hobbs’ JAG/SNAG outside projection, 2010.

TIMELINE OF JAG DIRECTORS AND CHIEF CURATORS OVER THE PAST CENTURY

Lady Florence Phillips Art enthusiast 1900s-1940

Nel Erasmus Acting: 1964-1966 Director: 1966-77

Sir Hugh Lane Founding Curator 1909-1911

Pat Senior 1977-1983

A Edmund Gyngell 1911-1928

Christopher Till 1983-1991

Austin Winter Moore 1928-1929

Rochelle Keene 1991-2003

E E Eisenhofer 1929-1937

Clive Kellner 2004-2008

P Anton Hendriks 1937-1964

Antoinette Murdoch 2009-present

IMAGE CREDITS: Portrait of Florence Phillips, 1909, by Antonio Mancini, ©JAG. Sir Hugh Lane, ©National Portrait Gallery, London. Nel Erasmus, ©Albert Geyser. All other images from the JAG archives.

NEL ERASMUS

JAG’s Lutyens building has fine proportions – during my years as Director (1964-1977, and before, from 1957 when I was a professional assistant), I loved them; they have an effect, to put it mildly. But beauty and functionality did not meet here. The nineteenth century design of the museum makes the building suitable for a static collection of works of fine art. But this never-finished building offered extremely limited use of space.

This fact influenced everything we ever did at JAG.

Exhibition space was converted into two offices, a library and a workroom. Space for a small South African collection had to be found next to the storage area: a low-ceilinged, half-underground space. In later years, when the collection had grown greatly, it had to be shown as a temporary exhibition.

One exhibition hall was reserved for regular print exhibitions. But temporary exhibition space was an ever-present problem.

Lectures were sometimes arranged in exhibition halls of course, but we had no chairs. Where were we to store them?

And so we focused on guided tours instead.

The building offered a beautiful venue for small ensembles, so we had chamber music concerts from time to time, the ambience of which were always well-received by the public.

So successful was my predeccessor, Dr Anton Hendriks, in making these drawbacks known to the City Council, that land for a functional building was acquired on the ridge between Oxford and Jubilee Roads in Parktown.

In 1968, I went with the City’s Chief Architect, Mr BuchananSmith, on a carefully prepared study tour of new and modified museum buildings in Europe, Israel and the USA. This study tour ended in Mexico City, where we attended the Unesco conference on post-war museum buildings.

Much emphasis was placed on providing independent spaces, under the same roof, for permanent collections and temporary exhibitions, where certain spaces could be shared, while the specific requirements of both permanent and temporary activities could be met – a fundamental notion that is still key to JAG’s survival as a museum.

Under all the dust and grime, I still feel there is something noble about the JAG building. Something that needs to be revived as one of the City’s hidden gems. This gem could serve the surrounding community well as a venue for the city’s jazz musicians and other music contemporaries, as well as being a centre for music lessons.

Nel Erasmus

Nel Erasmus holds a BA Fine Arts degree from Wits (1950) and a NATC (National Art Teachers Certificate) (Wits Tech), and taught at the Johannesburg High School for Girls in Barnato Park during 1952, and in London, before settling in Paris mid-1953, where she continued her studies at the Sorbonne, the Academie Rànsom, and the École des BeauxArts, and travelled extensively in Europe and Greece. It took JAG Director, Dr Anton Hendriks, one year and three interviews to decide that he indeed wanted to train her as professional assistant on his staff (1957). From 1963/4 she assumed full responsibility for JAG, and retired as Director in 1977.

Nel Erasmus overseeing the installation of works in the new JAG sculpture garden before its opening in 1971.

LADY PHILLIPS AND LUTYENS' MISTRESS

Christopher Till

Being asked to recall moments during the time I had the privilege of spending with the Grande Dame, on the occasion of her centenary, feels a little like betraying her age and secrets. The personification of JAG comes in several forms, beginning with the indomitable figure of Lady Phillips, complete in her effervescent pink frilled hat and pearls, painted by Antonio Mancini and reproduced on the cover of Thelma Gutsche’s book, No OrdinaryWoman:[The Life andTimes of Florence Phillips] (1966) – for that is what they both represent!

My dalliance with Edwin Lutyens’ unfinished mistress I can dimly recall as a boy, beginning at the end of a tram ride from Oxford Road to Joubert Park, with her highly polished parquet floor and ceilings that reached for the sky with Miss Fairfax ethereally hovering in an alcove as a fitting and beautiful embodiment of the imposing presence felt in her voluminous embrace. Tall wooden doors and imposing silence with a guard following to prevent nasty little hands touching anything seems familiar.

A visit years later as an art student to gaze upon real French Impressionist paintings, the subject of wonder and awe after having learned of these mysteries in exam questions, conjures up a drive through bohemian streets and a park with benches marked for white children with nannies and whites only, and peering through the railing into the courtyard from Joubert Park at the spot where clandestine messages were exchanged by ‘terrorists’, and where a sculpture by Henry Moore was stolen!

The next is walking through her hallowed halls and studying the faces of Dutch burghers gazing self-satisfiedly back with lacy wives beside them, and thinking whether these would be my daily companions. I was on my way to Australia from Zimbawe, where I then lived, to be interviewed for a job at the Western Australian Art Gallery, and had been persuaded to apply for the directorship of JAG, which had become vacant with the tragic death of Pat Senior.

Waiting for the appointed time for this, I witnessed a Council meeting debating the dangers of arming black traffic officers and wondered what I was doing considering coming back to South Africa! My arrival back in Zimbabwe, with no decision having been taken yet whether to remain there, take the Australian job, or come home, was met with the news that I was indeed heading south – my appointment having already been announced in the Rand Daily Mail! Decision made!

My arrival in December 1983, four months late due to a motorcycle accident on the eve of my intended departure, began a courtship with the Grande Dame, which over the years began as a waltz, and moved to a tango.

The incomplete Lutyens plan, which led to Lady Phillips not attending the opening of the Gallery in November 1915 in protest, was finally to be completed in the form of the Meyer Pienaar design, which added two buildings onto the footprint of the Lutyens-designed missing pavilions, and a third on the missing northern wing (the two other missing pavilions having been added in 1940 using the Lutyens

design). Added to this was a proposed new gallery space extending along the the entire Joubert Park side of the completed plan. “The extention is rather a fusion into the Lutyens footprint with quiet foreground elements placed as to support and enhance the inherently grand stature of the existing edifice”, said the architect Willy Meyer.

The huge hole dug into Joubert Park defined the parameters of the building to accommodate more exhibition space, sculpture courts, a library, children’s workshop, conservation studio, technical workshop, auditorium space and coffee shop. The growing building became my hunting ground to argue with builders, contractors, and the project manager, in achieving a building which would live up to the architectural statement and complement the Lutyens design. This was all done on a set of crutches, leapfrogging up and down stairs and over building rubble leading to a unrepeatable nickname being used by disgruntled contractors after having the quality of their workmanship consistently condemned!

The approaching Centenary of Johannesburg provided an opportunity to once more turn to the Randlords, whose support of the Gallery goes back to its very beginnings.

An approach to Anglo American led to a telephone call to me from Mr Gary Ralph, with whom I had been negotiating the possibility of assistance, asking to see me at the Gallery at 6pm one evening. The news he brought with him resulted in the Gallery’s wine stock being plundered in celebration, and was followed on the 6th November 1984 with the announcement by the Chairman, Mr Gavin Relly, of the

Auguste Rodin’s Miss Fairfax, c 1907.

formation of the Anglo American Centenary Trust, with the donation of 6 million Rand being made to the Gallery. This was made up of 4 million Rand for the establishment of an endowment fund to purchase works of art; 1,7 million Rand to complete the extentions to the building, and 300 000 Rand for the commissioning of sculptures for the Gallery’s sculpture gardens. An evening and day to remember!

The Centenary Sculpture Competion resulted in Bruce Arnott, David Brown, Willem Strydom, and Gavin Younge being commissioned, and their sculptures unveiled at the end of 1986 – that being the Centenary year of the City of Johannesburg – in the inner courtyard and around the JAG building. In addition to this, a Centenary Print Portfolio was published, featuring the work of Giuseppe Cattaneo, Robert Hodgins, Ezrom Legae, Karel Nel and Malcolm Payne.

The Gallery closed to the public from the 1st January 1986, with the staff who had been housed in the two originally completed pavilions (in 1940) moving into the new offices, and returning the pavilions to exhibition spaces once more. The closure enabled the Old Lady to be given a new wardrobe, with the walls of the building being covered in coloured fabric and re-hung following a Victorian approach of double and triple hanging of the historical collections. This was inspired by the hanging of the Manchester City Art Gallery where I had seen this method used there in its refurbishment, and decided to do the same in the rehanging of the refurbished Lutyens building. This allowed for many more works from the collection to be hung with an aesthetic effect of the salon being achieved.

The Dutch collection moved into the vacated south-east pavilion, with a selection of the print collection installed in the south-west pavilion, and the French, English, and international modern collections being hung in the south, east and west wings. (This was rearranged in 1990 from

a chronological and national grouping, to a thematic hanging of the late nineteenth to twentieth century works in these areas.)

A selection of contemporary international and South African collections was hung in the new subterranean exhibition gallery, and the print collection housed in the new print store, with temporary print exhibitions drawn from this exhibited in the adjacent print room constructed for this purpose. Temporary exhibitions were accomodated in the new gallery space on a rotating basis.

The Lutyens building was installed with temperature and humidity control and new lighting conforming to international standards.

On a wonderfully balmy summer evening, the refurbished Gallery and new extention, facing with its new entrance into a completely revamped Joubert Park, which had been ‘restored’ to its former glory, opened on the 22nd October 1986 with the exhibition, JohannesburgArt andArtists: Selection from a Century. With a classical ensemble playing in the Lutyens building and a jazz band in the new extension, invited guests swayed to the new heartbeat of the completed Johannesburg Art Gallery, 75 years after Lady Phillips’ dream was launched. Her smiling image hanging against the newly installed pale pink fabric of the Phillips Room seemed to hold a new measure of satisfaction and delight!

The sprightly and reinvigorated Gracious Lady and her new beau played host to thousands of admirers that reached record figures of 107 170 in 1987/88; 124 378 in 1988/89 and 109 212 in 1989/90, as well as holding the highest number of exhibitions – 22 – in one year. These were halcyon days in a giddy dance, with a refreshed and excited partner and dedicated fans.

Perhaps the most significant exhibition of these was The NeglectedTradition:TowardsANewHistoryofSouthAfrican Art (1930-1988). My introduction to the Dutch burghers and their wives, French café society, English interiors, and South African landscapes, seemed singularly lacking an African voice. The commissioning of this exhibition set out to find this voice and bring it into the Gallery as an integral part of South African art and the Gallery’s collection.

Having collected and introduced traditional African art into the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, my decision and intention to do the same in South Africa was achieved, once again through the assistance of a Randlord benefactor! An outstanding collection of southern African material collected by Johnathan Lowen in London was brought to my attention by Professor Elizabeth Rankin, then at the University of the Witwatersrand. A visit to London, accompanied by the City of Johannesburg’s Chairman of the Culture and Recreation Committee, Mr Danie Malan, to persuade him to authorise the purchase of the collection, fell on deaf ears. However, an approach to the Oppenheimer family saw them buying the collection and placing it on permanent loan to the Gallery. (An exhibition of this, titled Art andAmbiguity: Perspectives on the Brenthurst Collection of Southern African Art was held in the Gallery in 1991.)

This was followed up with the acquisition of the the Jaques Collection of headrests, which had been on loan to MuseumAfrica, and which was being withdrawn and offered for sale. Using funding from the Anglo American Centenary Trust, this became the foundation of the traditional Southern African Art collection, and the first purchase made using these funds, in March 1987. The acquisition represented a particular milestone for me in the trajectory of the Gallery and its role of collecting and representing the art of the society that it serves.

These collections were exhibited in the new gallery exhibition space in cabinets on either side of the Print Room and Print Exhibition Room. The European collections were now juxtaposed with exceptional examples of the art of southern Africa!

The role played by Lady Phillips and Sir Hugh Lane in the formation of the bedrock of the collection, built upon by subsequent directors and curators, has seen the growth of the collection over decades into what is, in my view, the finest in southern Africa. The establishment of the Anglo American Centenary Trust and the funding it provides saw many significant acquisitions made during the 1980s and early ’90s, and has continued to do so over the past two decades.

The Trust broke the dependence of the Gallery on the inadequate and contested resources made available by the City, characterised by the publicity seeking antics of the Chairman of the Management Committee at that time, Councillor Obie Oberholzer. This is graphically illustrated in two particular instances, which were taken up by the press. The first was the the acquisition of Pablo Picasso’s Tête d’Arlequin in 1974 under Nel Erasmus’s directorship, and the second, Francis Bacon’s Portrait of a Man in 1983, which was acquired shortly before my arrival at the Gallery.

‘Obie’s’ utterances of these being “’n Gedrog” (an eyesore), and the publicity he evoked around their purchase, still resonates today. In 1985, as an April Fool trick, he put a replica of the Tête d’Arlequin in the window of the OK Bazaar’s window in Eloff Street, under armed guard, stating that “Nobody will give it a second glance”, and claimed that it was to be seen for the last time before being sold to an American buyer, “Just to prove how few citizens approve of this kind of art”. Many still believe that this was what had in fact taken place, and that the work was lost to the collection!

While this was done by Obie with tongue firmly in cheek, I am not sure Lady Phillips would have appreciated the attempted humour in it, having tangled with the City fathers and having suffered their strangling of her dream for the Lutyens design to be fully realised for 75 years.

A century on, and nothing much has changed in this regard! However, all those who have continued to support and believe in that vision can wish the Gracious Lady a happy 100th birthday and wish her many more. Hip hip hooray!

LEFT: Construction view of the Meyer Pienaar extension. RIGHT: Invitation cover for the opening of the new JAG exstension, 22 October 1986.

Christopher Till

Christopher Till was Director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, before serving as Director of JAG (1983-1991). As Director of Culture for the City of Johannesburg (1991-2001), he established the City’s first cultural office and directed the formation of arts and culture policy. He established the Johannesburg Arts Alive International Festival in 1992, the Johannesburg Biennales in 1995 and 1997, and the rebuilding of the Civic Theatre (now Joburg Theatre), and was a seminal role player in the development of the Newtown Cultural Precinct. He is the founding Director of the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, and the Gold of Africa Museum in Cape Town; is the principal driver in the development of the Mandela Capture Site in Howick, KwaZuluNatal, and is currently directing the planning and development of the new Javett Art Gallery and Museum at the University of Pretoria.

ROCHELLE KEENE

The Johannesburg Art Gallery was my second ‘home’ for 25 years. I started at the Gallery on 1 April 1978, and my last day was 31 December 2003 – a very long stretch!

One of the great pleasures for me was walking in to the Phillips Gallery every morning. Even when the new entrance was opened, the staff would use the Lutyens entrance to the Gallery in the mornings and evenings. I loved the barrelvaulted ceiling with its plastered decorations and the beautiful morning light that came through the three arched shuttered windows. I loved the wooden shutters, and watching them being opened and closed every day with a long wooden pole was special. The shutters of the Phillips Gallery had the most beautiful hinges, which were made by metal worker George Ness, whose work was much admired by Sir Herbert Baker, as well as by Baker’s protégé, Joseph Michael Solomon, who worked in Lutyens’ office in 1911.

The Lutyens building was amazing. It was opened in 1915 and, during my time at the Gallery, hardly any maintenance was needed. I remember a minor leak when one of the glass doors in a skylight was faulty. It was easily repaired and, while I was still there, there was never another leak. The maintenance was virtually limited to painting the ceilings and walls every now and again.

The Gallery for me was always welcoming and I loved seeing different exhibitions in it, although it was mostly hung with permanent collection works of art from the original

collection put together by Sir Hugh Lane. I would see the Philip Wilson Steer lady looking through the Chelsea window to my right (From a Chelsea Window, 1909), and Charles Shannon’s Lady in a Winged Hat. Portrait of Mrs Scott,WifeoftheExplorer, 1908, as I walked through the beautiful wooden and glass-paned doors, and then look through the windows at the sculpture courtyard; and I would always enjoy a quiet moment of contemplation before the day began.

In contrast to this, the Meyer Pienaar extensions, completed in 1986, were a nightmare almost from the start. Built without gutters, and with inadequate provision for storm water drainage, the building leaked and then flooded throughout the summer seasons. We all dreaded the summer rains and often stood ankle deep in water in the display area as the building flooded and we bucketed out and mopped up rain water to try and save the cork floors. There were several times when we removed artworks from exhibition as an emergency when rain poured down the walls. The final straw for me was one really wet December day when once again we were flooded. This day, from the early morning, we were ankle-deep in rainwater. I remember standing in the exhibition hall and crying: from sadness and frustration. I tried to get hold of every single City Councillor, from the Mayor to everyone on the Management Committee (which was in recess), to come in to the Gallery and see for themselves what we were dealing with. Mavela Dlamini [who holds a Masters degree in civil engineering, was Managing

Director of the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) at the time, and the current City manager] will always be a hero in my eyes – he answered the call, came to the Gallery and within hours had convened an emergency task team to deal with the flooding. He personally ensured that a budget was provided to carry out the necessary repairs at the time and chaired the meetings of the task team which met frequently, often at 07h00, in order to accommodate his busy schedule. When the Gallery celebrated its 85th anniversary special mention was made of the role he played in ensuring that we had real reason to celebrate!

The Lutyens galleries changed a lot over the years and each new exhibition, too numerous to mention, made the galleries look and feel different. One of the wonderful uses of the Phillips Gallery was for opening events and concerts. The acoustics in the Phillips Gallery are near-perfect, and many wonderful musical and other events were held there over the years. I well remember truly special concerts arranged by the intrepid Dr Thelma Gutsche, the driving force behind the Friends of the Johannesburg Art Gallery in the early days. She often invited young upcoming performers to perform, who went on to become extremely well-known and successful in their careers – two of these were Tessa Ziegler (classical guitarist) and Tessa Uys (pianist). She also had the Alma Musica Trio performing on special occasions, much to the delight of Gallery visitors.

I also remember a magical day in the sculpture courtyard with Richard Cock who taught young people how to make rudimentary musical instruments with found objects, and then conducted an impromptu concert with them playing their ‘instruments’.

Antoinette Murdoch has been wonderfully successful in securing funding for the refurbishment of these ‘old’ galleries and the repair of the ‘new’ section. I wish her and her team everything of the very best for the next 100 years!

Rochelle Keene

Rochelle Keene holds a BA (Hons) degree in History from the University of the Witwatersrand. She has worked in the museum sector all her life, initially at the South African National Museum of Military History, then at JAG, and at the Adler Museum of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. She joined JAG in April 1978, finally serving as Director from 1989-1993 and Chief Curator from 1994 to December 2003. She served on the

Council of the South African Museums Association from 1996-2006, and as its President from 1999-2001.

Works from the Foundation Collection in the Phillips Gallery, as well as the grand piano presented to JAG in memory of Pat Senior.

CLIVE KELLNER

When I was appointed the Director and Chief Curator of JAG, I asked about a particular work in the collection, Untitled –The Family Bath (1981) by Michael Goldberg. It was a work I was familiar with, having seen it as a child when visiting JAG with my father in the early 1980s. I was informed that the steel bath had been used at the Gallery to refrigerate cold drinks, the concrete bricks were being used as doorstops and the metal grid had been used for a braai. The restoration of Untitled – the Family Bath, not only restored a part of myself, brought full circle through the experience of a young boy into that of a museum director, but also symbolised the restoration and rejuvenation of JAG amidst the backdrop of a transforming post-apartheid society. I would therefore describe my appointment not as a job or vocation, but as a ‘calling’. My vision for JAG was to develop a credible local and international institution by strengthening the curatorial and exhibitions departments and content, networking and raising the profile of the museum, building institutional capacity and taking care of in-house problems quickly and efficiently. As such, I went about transforming the institution from the inside out.

It is the mandate of museums to: collect, preserve, research and exhibit for public benefit. This understanding was fundamental to my vision for JAG. However, there is a perceived paradox in the status of a museum to be both a ‘time capsule’ and an ‘experimental laboratory’. On the one hand, I was aware of historical precedent – the legacy of previous directors, exhibitions and collections; and on the other hand, the need to rejuvenate the Lutyens

building through proactive community and audience engagement primarily through a programme of high profile exhibitions. Given the limited resources and budgets of JAG it was important to scale down the number of smaller exhibitions, to enable staff to spend time preparing and researching. This entailed an emphasis on scholarly publications and on producing high profile, large-scale exhibitions that led to increased sponsorship and partnership opportunities.

In response to a journalist’s question concerning JAG’s location within downtown Joubert Park, amidst taxis, congestion and crime, I responded, “I don’t think JAG has a reputation with its surroundings, I think South Africa has a reputation with its surroundings” (Maart 2004). Here I was addressing the question of urban topography in relation to cultural, racial and economic disparities as exemplified by the contrast between Sandton and Alexandra, the rich versus the poor and the legacy of old apartheid versus a new African identity. I viewed these as symptomatic of the historical processes of transference into a more legitimate society and the rather unique opportunity this presented for JAG to be an instrument for social cohesion, audience engagement and a cultural ambassador for the city.

The renewal of JAG resulted in increased visitor numbers, an exciting high profile exhibitions programme, extensive community outreach, accolades in the form of ‘The Star Readers Choice Awards’ and ‘Best of Joburg’. As noteworthy as these achievements were, the most memorable was seeing people, whether ordinary citizens, Constitutional

Court Justices, academics, workers, immigrants, children or tourists, experiencing the profound fulfilment of engaging with art, whether contemporary or historical. It is a reminder of the fundamental role that museums can play in transforming societies. Last year, I attended an evening opening at MOAD [Museum of African Design]. I stopped at a garage to ask directions, when a petrol attendant knocked on my window, and called my name, “Hey Clive … do you remember me … from JAG days …”.

Sources

Maart, B. 2004. Picking Up the Pieces, in Art SouthAfrica. [O]. Available: http://artsouthafrica.com/archives/archived-featured-articles/212-mainarchive/archived-featured-articles/1411-picking-up-the-pieces.html.

Clive Kellner

Installation view of Michael Goldberg’s Untitled – The Family Bath (1981).

ANTOINETTE MURDOCH

I started working at JAG as the Chief Curator on 1 April 2009. My vision for JAG took shape slowly as I set out to try to understand the nature of the beast before I said or promised too much. However, I do recall making an announcement to my staff that within three months the air conditioning would be fixed. It is now six-and-a-half years later, and there are finally people crawling around on the roof installing partial air conditioning for the 100-year-old Lutyens building. This small administrative victory involved six years’ worth of report writing and resilience in the face of much frustration. Were it not for the very pushy Alba Letts (at the time Deputy Director: Arts and Culture), we would not have completed the restoration that has been accomplished up to this point. Vast areas of waterproofing are currently being installed, and the Meyer Piennaar building (with its long-standing reputation for a leaky roof) will soon be fully repaired.

In working out my own vision for my work at JAG, I turned to JAG’s mission statement for guidance. My preoccupation with the physical space and infrastructure of the Gallery is addressed in JAG’s now reworked mission statement. This revision of the statement began during Clive Kellner’s tenure, and was subsequently completed by my curatorial team. It states:

The Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) is committed to preserving and providing access to our South African art heritage and to giving due recognition to our neglected artists through exhibitions, publications and education programmes. The Gallery

collects works of art-historical importance and conserves these pieces for future generations. In addition to an extensive collection of historical European and South African paintings, drawings prints and sculptures, JAG is home to several works at the cutting edge of South African contemporary art. The museum also actively aims to redress omissions and oversights in collecting practice during South Africa’s colonial and apartheid eras by regularly acquiring works by, and hosting projects that create awareness about, artists who have previously been marginalised in the construction of South African art history.

In order for us to preserve and provide access to art heritage, we have to start with the building, which houses that heritage. After all, it is the home and the showcase of the many artworks collected over the years. JAG, as the home to this wonderful collection of art, needed a lot of TLC. Without neglecting any of the other aspects of the mission statement, my team set out to get the Lady in order.

This focus on the wellness of the building has, of course, always taken place in the context of providing JAG’s stakeholders and visitors with the best possible access to the kinds of art and art-historical redress elaborated on by the mission statement.

The exhibitions over the years, many of which are detailed in this book, are testimony to the curatorial teams doing

their jobs at the highest level possible. During my time at the Gallery, Without Masks, an exhibition of Afro-Cuban art (see p 76), stands out as a baptism of fire for me: as well as it being a very well-attended exhibition, it critically attempted to make sense of African identity across the world. Then there was Ernest Cole Photographer (see p 78), in association with the Hasselblad Foundation; and the very important Off the Beaten Path, which was funded by the National Lottery. This exhibition included women artists globally, and is described in an essay in this book (see pp 110-113). Waiting For God (see p 81), curated by Khwezi Gule, Renaud Proch, Linda Givon and Nontobeko Ntombela, was a highly controversial mid-career retrospective by Tracey Rose; and Matters of Spirit, (see pp 146-147) a semipermanent exhibition of works from the Traditional southern African Collection, curated by Nessa Leibhammer. Coming ofAge:21Years ofArtist Proof Studio, curated by Pamela Allara, Kim Berman, and various others, was a showcase of dozens of artists working at the Artist Proof Studio excelling in the art of printmaking. Last but not least, and to me the most important exhibition in relation to my vision for the gallery, JAG/SNAG (see pp 118-127), a series of interventions also described in this book.

In terms of the simultaneous building upgrades, a deck was installed in the courtyard, a new security system has been installed, the wooden panels in the east wing have been restored, all offices have been painted, new toilets have been fitted, a new corporate identity has been developed, and new sign boards have been placed around the Gallery.

Most recently the City of Joburg committed a further R50 million for renovations to the building in 2017!

Several suggestions have been made to move the Gallery from its current location. A straightforward response to this idea is to ask why? I think the Gallery is ideally located in a high traffic area and it is perfectly central to most of the city’s suburbs. It fulfils a crucial educational and social identity role for many inner city residents, and remains a Johannesburg landmark with a rich and varied history, which it is also in a unique position to question, debate and contest. Now the Gautrain and Rea Vaya train provide direct public transport access to the venue.

I think the key to the way forward for the Gallery is to keep up the physical and infrastructural maintenance, and to wholeheartedly confront the issues of perceptions of what the Gallery is and should be. Many of the writers in this book question who the audience of JAG really is – which is on one level a wider question about who the appropriate or desirable audiences for a public art institution located in the centre of a busy African city should include. That wider question is also about the role of art itself in such a city, where identity, race and cultural capital are under intense scrutiny. I believe that audience should start with the people here in Joubert Park. For example, while there have been many artistic interventions in the immediate vicinity of the Gallery over the years, none of these have proven to have longevity, except perhaps Terry Kurgan’s and Jo Ractliffe’s photographic projects (see pp 106-109), specifically with the park photographers. As these photographers still frequent the Gallery to take pictures of a curious audience, ordinary people in the area, with no background in art appreciation, are brought in and made aware that entrance to the space is free, and that many treasures lie within it. On another level, many openings and panel discussions have seen heated and necessary debates about the placement and presentation of art objects; of colonial

histories; and contemporary socio-political debates, for which JAG is a very useful and appropriate forum.

I can only hope that the celebration of this Centenary, and this accompanying book, will start addressing some of these questions more closely; and more importantly, that those people who feel wary about JAG, its curatorial policies over the years, its colonial history, or its current physical location, will get positively involved in its change. Without the support of the arts community, the institution will remain in flux. It will be a hit and miss of good and bad exhibitions and programmes, which do not lead to any resolution or future for what should still be the flagship art institution of our famous African city.

Antoinette Murdoch

FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: French Connections walkabout, 2012. Exhibition poster for Coming ofAge: 21Years ofArtist Proof Studio, 2012. Sculpture in the JAG courtyard. Renovations in process on Meyer Pienaar roof, 2015.

CHANGING VISIONS

Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa

“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” – Carl Bard

In 1995 I was invited to speak at the annual Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) conference in Baltimore, Maryland in the USA. The topic was, ‘Why art museums matter’, and I was one of three international contributors. There were a few institutions I could have drawn inspiration from around the country. I was still trying to find my feet on the Johannesburg Art Gallery Committee and I chose to work with the experience I was gaining and the inspiration that was the Johannesburg Art Gallery at the time.

The country was grappling with the rapid political changes of the ’90s. Institutions such as JAG and other museums were working hard to realign to the changes. I approached my address to the gathering in Baltimore by addressing my own changing vision of what the Johannesburg Art Gallery had been, and what it was working towards. I did a couple of spot interviews in Joubert Park and with friends I had known for a while. My focus was not so much on the content of the collections as much as the building and my respondents’ understanding of its function. Very few of the respondents knew that the building housed art collections. Many thought the building housed government offices.

The street photographers used the building as a backdrop for pictures they were taking for their clients to send back home to their families.

During this ‘transition’ period the Art Gallery Committee meetings engaged in robust discussions in all aspects of the Gallery, but in particular around acquisitions. There was a glaring need to redress acquisition trends with a view to closing the gaping gaps in the collection. They were small steps that gained momentum as the country was settling into her new-found democracy. The Johannesburg Art Gallery had been an active participant in the 1st Johannesburg Biennale earlier in 1995. In redressing and in embracing the changes, JAG was actively involved in the repatriation of important indigenous artworks: the Brenthurst Collection stands as a living testament of the changes that were, and continue to be, effected by the Gallery.

In the words of Dr Myles Munroe: “Nothing is as permanent as change. Nothing is as constant as change. Change is as constant to existence and common to creation”. In celebrating the 100 years of the Luytens building we are constantly reminded that within its hundred-year-old walls there are constant changes of vision that make the building a relevant site of engagement in the 21st century.

Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa

Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa is an artist, curator, writer and educator who has played a pivotal role in the development of the visual arts in South Africa since the early 1980s. She has been a member of the Johannesburg Art Gallery Committee since 1992.

Art Gallery Committee meeting, 2010.

DAVID KOLOANE

My early memories of the Johannesburg Art Gallery are not by any means flattering, but brought with them a sense of rejection and exclusion.

The first attempt I made to visit JAG was in 1974, when I ventured into the Gallery after black communities were finally allowed in.1 As I entered the reception, I saw a group of white uniformed personnel in spotless black uniforms and shimmering black boots. As I walked towards the artworks on display, one of the attendants immediately followed me, and no matter where I looked and walked, I could feel the piercing eyes. It was as if I had wandered into a no-go area.

The second attempt I made was even more bizarre, as there were armed guards around the Gallery. I did not even bother to find out what was happening.

The Johannesburg Art Gallery is perched, or rather compressed, between the largest park in the city to its north, and an underground railway bridge. Across the bridge, further south, is the city’s largest taxi rank, characterised by an ant-like melee of human traffic in a chaotic criss-cross of urban/rural destinations fuelled by a cacophony of taxis, buses, and any other modes of wheeled contraption on the road.

The location of the Gallery might have been ideal at some point in history when the city was envisioned as a white

citadel, characterised by peace and order. Joubert Park was, at the time, an island of tranquility, with freshly painted park benches festooned with “whites only” stickers.

In 1960 a group of independent artists initiated an open air display exhibition where individual artists were allocated exhibition stands for displaying and conducting sales of their work. The ‘Artists Under the Sun’ group held their displays on the first weekend of each month. Among the artists who displayed their work regularly was John Koenakeefe Mohl, one of the founding members of the ‘Artists Under the Sun’ project – who was also Helen Mmakgabo Sebidi’s mentor – while other artists included Billy Molokeng, David Mogano, Alfred Mtimbane, Helen Sebidi and Welcome Koboka.2 The absurdity of the situation was like a comedy of errors where, on one hand, you had an official cultural institution – JAG – which excluded black African communities, cheek by jowl with a spontaneously organised open air display enjoyed by all race groups.

When Christopher Till was appointed director of JAG in 1983, he brought about meaningful changes to the institution. These included the appointment of black members onto JAG’s acquisitions committee. I was pleasantly surprised when I received an invitation to be a member of the committee, together with Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa.3 We had both been curators at the FUBA Gallery,4 which was an independent cultural initiative that had an impact on visual and performing arts in Johannesburg during the 1980s and

’90s. Our mandate was to advise and persuade the acquisitions committee to acquire the work of black African artists in the form of prints, paintings, sculpture and new media, including photography, video, and so forth. It was, as such, essential for us as committee members to visit as many exhibitions as possible in the Johannesburg area. The collection of black African artists’ work in the Gallery left much to be desired at that time, despite black communities in Johannesburg, and South Africa generally, being in the majority.

An acquisitions meeting was held quarterly to assess if we could grow the collection. On the whole, black African communities were still trapped under the failed grand idea of the apartheid concept, which was characterised by the lack of essential cultural infrastructure, and which translated into only a handful of artists sheltered under the dubious mainstream umbrella appearing successful, while the majority remained stifled.

During these meetings, it was evident that in discussion of the work, university based members would be conversant with the academic ability of persuasion, whilst other members’ terminology was not adequate and coherent enough to persuade the committee, and at times irrelevant artwork would be selected because of the articulate academic art talk rather than based on concepts such as visual harmony. As a result, the acquisition of black artists’ work was a painstaking effort. Thankfully, the volume of work by black artists

in the collection has since gradually increased as more black students enter tertiary level education, which now provides limitless possibilities and unimagined destinations, obliterating the matriculation barriers of yesteryear. The expansion of artistic expression into new media has further provided the necessity of choice for these artists.

There have been some groundbreaking retrospective exhibitions at JAG over the past decade of some outstanding local artists who had previously been prejudiced by the institution, but whose integrity has, to some extent, been restored through these recent developments. Artists such as Dumile Feni,5 whose work had been neglected, was one such artist who was bestowed with a retrospective exhibition (in 2005). Others include Gerard Sekoto (1989), George Pemba (1996) and Ernest Mancoba (1994).

National art competitions are often viewed as a nation’s creative psyche and a barometer of artistic expression, and corporate sponsorship assumes a vital role in the artistic landscape of any country.

The Cape Town Triennial art competition, which took place every three years,6 was a major activity in the local art world. The jury panel of most exhibition competitions had historically been exclusively white, so it was a pleasant surprise for me to receive an invitation to join the competition’s national panel.7 I agreed to become a panel member8 as I felt I needed to comprehend how the art market in South Africa operates on a national level. It was important for me to assess the problems associated with artmaking within

Installation views of Kay Hassan’s Urbanation, a mid-career retrospective of paintings, installations, photography, collage and video, 2008.

urban and rural areas in order to establish the extent of the national network of formal and non-formal institutions.

As this was a national competition there were collection centres in cities and towns around the country. Panel members visited every collection point to assess and select approved artwork. All the selected and approved artwork was then sent to the National Gallery in Cape Town for the final selection of award winning work and the exhibition component. The prize giving ceremony was convened at the National Gallery. The Anton Rupert Foundation provided the necessary resource for travelling around the country in the form of a private luxury jet and we, the panelists, were joined by the local representative on the selection panel. Fortunately I had worked with some of the panel members on different projects before, and the discussion on these selections of work was vibrant and vital to all members. I always remember the late Edoardo Villa used to say, “I can only select work that I can feel and not what my mind tells me. Your long academic talk and big words don’t impress me”!

The schizophrenic role that JAG has played in the development of my art career is mind-boggling, to say the least. The sense of rejection I felt during the apartheid era made me resolute that I must become a participant in influencing change, rather than being a mere observer always moaning and complaining in utter despair. Being appointed to the acquisitions committee widened my scope of influence and insight into the visual arts generally. The Cape Town Triennial brought into sharp focus the diverse problems confronting art practitioners around the country and the dismal lack of basic infrastructure and attendant resources.

JAG over the years has been the altarpiece of contemporary art in the country, hosting exhibitions for the first

and second Johannesburg Biennales (1995 and 1997), as well as the likes of William Kentridge, Dumile Feni9 and Kay Hassan’s retrospective exhibitions. Changes in leadership have also brought in their wake a diversity in the progress of the institution, both positive and negative. The ratio of personnel in all sectors has been radically transformed since 1994, and the general estimate currently is 80 percent black and 20 percent white.

As I write this, the present exhibition in JAG’s experimental basement space is a multimedia installation by the versatile artist Happy Dhlame – who studied in Switzerland – titled ‘Ndawo Mnyama’, which translates as ‘A Place of Darkness’. It reflects the numerous dilapidated buildings in the city centre with no electricity or running water, which are occupied by destitute people seeking opportunity in the city. JAG’s basement space has, through constant flooding, become a shadow of its erstwhile splendour, and the exhibition serves as an appropriate metaphor of that decay.

Endnotes

1 Ed note: While there was never any formal legislation to bar black visitors from entering JAG, their reception was marked by such suspicion and discomfort that it amounted to much the same thing.

2 Welcome Koboka was an enterprising artist who bought a camper vehicle from which he showcased his work around the country, and it is evident that he took a leaf out of the Artists Under the Sun concept to advance his career.

3 Other members of the jury included Alan Crump, head of the Fine Art Department at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Karel Nel, practicing artist and lecturer at the same university, Christopher Till, director of JAG, and Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa, artist and curator.

Christopher Till had previously been the director of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

4 In 1977 David Koloane co-founded the Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA) Gallery and became its first curator.

5 Feni had settled in the USA in 1979 and died there in 1991.

6 Sponsored by the Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation, in association with the Art Museums of South Africa, the Triennial ran every three years between 1982 to 1992.

7 There was a general polarisation of race relations during this particular period, such as the internicine violence termed ‘black on black’ by the general media, and also the ‘sellout’ label, which fuelled random mob justice.

8 Other members of the jury panel were Alan Crump, head of the Wits Fine Art Department, Rayda Becker, curator of the Gertrude Posel Gallery at Wits, Edoardo Villa, a prominent sculptor, Christopher Till, director of JAG, and myself.

9 The Dumile Feni retrospective was researched and coordinated by Prince Dube, who is one of the new breed of black curators.

David Koloane

Dr David Koloane is an artist and writer based in Johannesburg. From 1977 to 1979 he was founding member of The Gallery in Jeppestown. He joined the Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA) in 1979 as a tutor, and later become head of department. He completed a diploma in Museum Studies at the University of London in 1985, and in 2015 was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Rhodes University. Among numerous other positions he has held, he is co-founder of the Thupelo Workshop programme and the Fordsburg Artists Studios. He has served as a board member for the NAC, and served on the Johannesburg Art Gallery Committee from 1983.

Installation views of Happy Dhlame’s Ndawo Mnyama (A Place of Darkness), 2015.

COLLECTIVE VISION

Closed Session Discussion: 23 July, JAG Boardroom

Participants: Natasha Christopher (NC), John Fleetwood (JF), Raimi Gbadamosi (RGb), Stephen Hobbs (SH), Donna Kukama (DK), Londiwe Langa (LL), Antoinette Murdoch (AM), Tracy Murinik (TM), Nontobeko Ntombela (NN), Usha Seejarim (US)

Apologies from: David Andrew, Reshma Chhiba, David Goldblatt, Rangoato Hlasane, William Kentridge, David Koloane, Dorothee Kreutzfeldt, Cynthia Kros, Terry Kurgan, Gabi Ngcobo, Musha Neluheni, James Sey, Koulla Xinisteris. Khwezi Gule opted not to participate.

serious to consider in the ongoing process of the Gallery’s transformation over a century.

Tracy Murinik (TM): This proposed conversation really comes out of a longer conversation I had with Nontobeko Ntombela and Khwezi Gule in the very early stages of conceptualising the direction and content for this book, in which we grappled with the fact that there is a need to record, and a very strong argument to be made of the value of recording, a hundred years of this building. At the same time there is nothing obvious about how you relate that story, or those many stories, into the archive, because essentially this becomes the recording of a particular archive that could go in any number of directions. It could be a very straightforward celebration of the history of JAG; it could be something that simply records that ‘we came from this place, and now we are at this place, and these are the exhibitions that we have done’. Or it can be what I hope for it to be, something a lot more complex and nuanced; something that identifies the gains and accomplishments and the shifts that have happened in the Gallery over a hundred years, but that also does not look to whitewash the issues that remain

I was explicit in my invitations to all of you about my reasons for bringing you here, that the focus and intention of this discussion is not to thrash out the issues of the past or current leadership of the Gallery, but to collectively consider the possibilities for JAG going into the future – to have an engaged conversation around, firstly, why JAG still exists – because there is nothing obvious around the fact that it does still exist! It exists still in spite of itself, in spite of the lacking support from the City over the years; in spite of its challenging location ... I have specifically made this a closed forum, because it could not be manageable otherwise. But it is a carefully considered forum that I have assembled to discuss where and what JAG is today, and what we envision going forward for the Gallery. We are grappling with how to encompass the contradictory aspects of JAG without ignoring its strides and successes, but also, as I said, without whitewashing its serious challenges. JAG is not an uncomplicated space. Its vulnerability, for many years, structurally and existentially is acknowledged.

Another thing I want you to consider here today, is that our discussion is not only about the conceptual direction of the space. The challenges JAG faces exist also at an absolutely practical level: what do you do if the building that houses the potential for meaning and possibility, and for growing a representative collection and bringing in audiences, is itself a threatened space?

Part of the discussion that I had initially with Nonto and Khwezi was that a book is never going to contain everyone and everything that can be said about a space. I have tried very hard to bring in many voices to the book, that I believe are people

who have strong voices in the arts community, who have a strong connection to Johannesburg, and/or who have some connection to the Gallery, but it is not ever going to be everybody. The question is then, how do we fill in some of those gaps? We cannot account for every person’s voice, but we can consider how a discussion such as this can be guided to raise issues that need to be raised, and how we hypothetically – at this point it is always going to be hypothetically, because the Gallery will continue to change according to who is employed here, and whoever shapes its projects and functions – collectively consider what might still happen here? That is where I would like to start with to frame our conversation.

TM: How does one structurally salvage the building? The building itself has been in structural crisis for years already, and despite a current grant to fix the roof, there is still a great deal that will remain in a state of neglect. What are these other areas that need structural and practical attention, upgrading and design, and what does one do about them?

Antoinette Murdoch (AM): Since I started at the gallery six years ago, one of my main priorities has been the practical side of JAG, because in my opinion, there is no option to move the Gallery, because this is an ideal place – an interesting space where Europe and Africa meet ... There are thousands of people in the surrounding area that should participate in what we have got here. [Some members of the City] view JAG as just a burden to maintain ... It has taken six years of begging and pleading with the City to get the Gallery to a point where it can host art. We can’t have a building that is falling apart; if we do, we can’t exhibit art, and without exhibiting art we can’t develop audiences, which to me is one of the key things. After this period of time, with much help from Alba Letts – then Director for Arts, Culture and Heritage – the City agreed to

make available R24 million. That was last year, and you will notice the knocking from the roof [as renovations are now in progress], where the entrance tiles and screed are being stripped and replaced. … Everybody knows that the Meyer Pienaar building has been leaking, apparently since the first day, but now, after 30 years, the issue is finally being dealt with. I am most certainly not the first Head that has begged and pleaded for money for the maintenance and upkeep of the Gallery. I know that it has been an ongoing issue, and was most certainly something that Clive Kellner and Rochelle Keene had tried to deal with. There is also work being done on the air conditioning on the Lutyens roof. Those three things are happening at the moment.

[Ed:Subsequent to this forum,just before going to print,AM wasinformedthattheCityhascommittedafurtherR50million for renovations to the JAG building in 2017.]

TM: What other things are needing to be done to the building, just to make it a functional safe space for art – what money is available for the required upkeep, storage, safety, etcetera of the work?

AM: To clarify, our purchasing budget comes from the Anglo American Trust. When the Meyer Pienaar building was completed in 1986, which was funded by the City and Anglo American, there was R4 million left over. That money was then invested in a trust fund, and from the interest of that account, artworks are purchased. The City does not contribute to the acquisition of artworks. Now, it is a wonderful thing, but it is also problematic in terms of storage. Small parts of the Gallery have subsequently been ‘stolen’ to create additional storage space, which is not ideal, obviously, because the basement gallery is becoming smaller and smaller to make space for the wonderful acquisitions that we have. But we cannot complain about our acquisitions! So that is one of the issues that should be dealt with urgently. JAG has a wishlist that is about five typed pages long, but a lot of those things can be done over a long period of time. I would agree that the International Museum Standards are the first things that we need to look at: regulating temperature, humidity and light. So in future, there needs

to be a serious look at the storerooms being kept at the optimum standards. The City also gives us an annual budget. Our budget last year was R23 million, which included covering staff salaries, which make up a big part of that; and operations. This year it has been cut to R10 million, which includes the R7-8 million required for staff. The budget has been cut by more than half from the last financial year to now, and this has been going on for many years.

TM: How many staff does the Gallery employ?

AM: The [internal] staff is 24 people (includes security staff); plus cleaners – employed on a contract basis (where obviously a chunk of the money goes to the contractor, who employs six people) – so 30 staff members all in all working for JAG.

Nontobeko Ntombela (NN): I feel like there is constantly an issue around understandings of what JAG is, or who JAG serves. For JAG to constantly have to deal with administrative questions that become redundant or unproductive says a lot about what the City’s understanding is of the institution itself. So then the question is, who does the institution serve? And do those people understand that they have an institution that serves them? I feel like this conversation should be addressing, yes, the practical and the infrastructural issues, but the infrastructural issues are always going to be there. So what is the infrastructure? And who is it serving? And maybe then the conceptual question of who JAG is serving might be answered, maybe in a practical way too.

Raimi Gbadamosi (RGb): Something strikes me as bearing a similarity to cities that I seem to spend a lot of time in at the moment, that is Detroit and Johannesburg. They both carry a similar history in terms of their institutions, both in terms of the racial make-up of the cities, and government politics. Recently the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum (DIA) also faced a considerable pressure on their funds. What they managed to do was to convince the local government to raise a tax, which supports the DIA alone. There has been some concern around this, because there are other museums around the city that don’t benefit from this. This actually relates to what Nonto was

addressing, of who does the museum serve? A lot of the city does not feel as if the DIA serves them. And so the people who use the DIA predominantly come from the suburbs, into the city, to visit the museums. Those that live around it directly just see it as this building that they can walk through on a cold day, or maybe pop in, if they can afford to, for a coffee. There are these pressures – the government has one set of pressures, and the museum has others. I think raising a tax may be one way of dealing with it. But it will just go back to what Nonto has just pointed out, namely, who feels that the museum serves them? If the local community does not engage with this actively, then it will become very hard to raise the tax on the local community who, allegedly, the institution ought to be serving.

NN: Maybe to add onto this, and to be frank about it, I think there is also this delusion that we are serving an international community that doesn’t really exist. And I think we should really be honest about who is it that these institutions, in an African context, are aiming to serve.

Donna Kukama (DK): We need to rethink what the model of a museum is, because I think that is where the core problem lies. How JAG exists now, in this space, is completely unrelated to what goes on outside it. So the museum model itself might need to be rethought and reconsidered. That then could inform how the budget gets to be spent, and for what types of activities. The idea is not to say, oh lets be all-inclusive, but to say that we have been following this kind of Western model of a museum, but it is quite lost where it is right now. How can we still activate cultural activities without changing the role of the museum, by rethinking what this model is? I think that is what is important. The collection is another thing. I am wondering what the possibilities are of having the collection elsewhere? Or having it travel?

AM: You mean keeping the collection in storage?

DK: It feels like the collection just sits there in storage and gets leaked on from the roof. Are there ways of resolving the problems of the collection taking over the exhibition space? Can it not move?

AM: JAG took part in the Turbine Art Fair this weekend – which I know largely services a certain demographic – but it’s the first time we’ve done it; and we also took part of the collection out to Villa Arcadia [previously the home of Florence and Lionel Phillips, now owned by Hollard] a couple of years ago, but it definitely has positive engagements taking the collection to the people, rather than expecting the people to come here. The collection doesn’t sit in the storerooms and get rained on, and we try and have parts of it out in the Gallery as much as we can. We have just had an exhibition in Italy of over 60 works from our collection; we are busy with a project in Rio, and on the Reunion islands. So we have constant loans going around internationally as well. We are also representing Candice Breitz at the 2015 FNB Joburg Art Fair – so I think that we have started touching on those things; but it can be done more, within a restricted environment in terms of funding. We are restricted in that capacity to be actively doing that kind of thing all the time. There are obviously also restrictions in terms of international museums standards where you have to control the temperature, and there are certain pieces that travel better – those that are covered with glass, as opposed or raw paintings that are quite difficult; so you have to consider all of those things. But a very good idea. On the point of funding, I wanted to say that a lot of what we’ve managed to do is through the Friends of the Johannesburg Art Gallery; and the most recent cash injection that we’ve received was through a William Kentridge donation. In a lot of ways the Friends of JAG fund saves us.

NN: A couple of comments with reference to what Donna said. The one is: isn’t the relationship with the Friends also part of the problem? I’m not saying this in a bad way in terms of what the Friends have done, but it means that when one reaches frustration justifying to the [City’s] administration why you do what you do, JAG does ultimately find a solution [through the Friends stepping in to help]. Therefore, when the administration sees that there is someone else who has come to the rescue, the City feels relieved of that responsibility.

AM: It is a Catch-22 situation. We could down tools and say we are not working anymore; that we have the exhibitions that are currently on, and that can stay up, and we are not going

to change them, or do anything. Unfortunately I don’t work that way. I will find anyway possible to put on the exhibitions we have planned.

NN: I am not asking this question suggesting, lets give up; but what I am saying is that it also begs the question, again, of who is being served here? And if those people aren’t demanding and putting that pressure [on the City], then that responsibility is only sitting with the person directing the organisation [JAG].

AM: That is why everybody must come on board.

NN: But that is what we need to define: who is that ‘everybody’?

Usha Seejarim (US): I think part of the structure also includes, and it has already been touched on, the hierarchy outside, beyond the Gallery, which includes the City. This has come up in the Acquisitions Committee several times; but I think salvaging the structure includes building that relationship in a healthy way. The City needs to become our friend. I think this forum needs to look at ways in which that can be made possible. Because if that can happen, I think it would help significantly.

John Fleetwood (JF): Can I make a pragmatic statement?

While you were speaking earlier, I was doing this incredible research on the Internet. It says that Lutyens’ appointment as JAG architect was regarded as a plum job, and that there was a considerable outcry from local architects because of the commission being from outside the country. Then it speaks about why the building was not built out of brick, but out of stone, but was then left incomplete up until 1986 … So this analogy of a building being incomplete somehow continues. And it also speaks about who was commissioned to do it. I think one of the first questions that I am trying to answer is, what are we storing here? And for whom? I think that the analogy of the building being incomplete is still much the same as what it stores. What is its value for people in this area? I think we need to come to a realisation in 2015 that the world is getting poorer and that art is not the priority for survival. So the City is not going to help us. I can guarantee that at this moment a city like Johannesburg does not have the ability, from tax

or from structural engineering, to commit to something that is not an absolute necessity. Their priorities are health, education, infrastructure, water, electricity. I cannot see how art is even mentioned there. So, what is art? And where does it function? And to whom is it important? And how does that frame this art Gallery? It has to serve [people] here, and if it does so successfully to some extent, then it can go further. I’m also wondering, can one rent JAG’s spaces out for conferences? For housing schools? So that there is activity, and an income. But what we need to keep in mind is that a museum for the City of Johannesburg is perhaps a lost concept.

AM: We have actually dealt with that for many years and we currently have a church group that attends here every Sunday.

JF: And they bring in income?

AM: Yes. We also have yoga sessions every three months; we rent out the boardroom; we rent out the auditorium … That profit goes towards the Friends of the Johannesburg Art Gallery that serves us in turn. In that way we are very active, but I hear you. In fact, over the last ten years already, internationally it is a thing that museums talk about all the time –about these kinds of activities that happen within the museum to make it an alternative space, rather than just a space to come to see art. I absolutely agree with you.

TM: I would like to just pick up on some points from Nonto, and Usha, and from Donna, which speak to some of the questions that I have listed. The critical question here is what and who does JAG serve, and how should JAG serve, and do the people identified as needing to be served, as Nonto mentioned, do they even know that this institution is there to serve them? It also picks up on Donna’s question around the model of the museum, and what Usha has spoken about in terms of, if we are thinking of the museum structurally and there’s any further development around the structural component of the museum, how is that considered conceptually to accommodate the needs of this new model of a museum that would accommodate this audience. Critically, we cannot ignore the fact that we need to identify who the audience is.

I think what is absolutely critical to JAG going forward is a selfdefinition that is clear, where the use of its limited resources pushes a mandate and an objective that defines art probably not in a way that Florence Phillips defined it when the collection began. And probably not in the way that Lutyens envisioned the Gallery serving the city, because the city was also a very different space at that time – not only was it a different space in terms of who was targeted to visit the Gallery, but who was in fact allowed to enter the city, never mind who knew about or wanted to visit an art gallery in the city, was completely constrained. Those for me become extremely necessary questions to tackle.

Usha so rightly pointed out that the conceptual needs of the Gallery must be integrated with the physical vision for the Gallery, which Nonto has pointed out as being completely interrelated with the administrative function of the Gallery. What should JAG mean to the City. What does and can it mean for the artists and art community of the city, and who are its projected audiences. What is JAG’s standing on the continent? What will maintain JAG’s relevance. What should and can the arts community hold JAG accountable for? What are the mechanisms of transformation of the space conceptually, ideologically, and physically? What is the reality of being in this part of the city and the constraints that it brings. What are the practical realities of being in this part of the city?

AM: I will just clarify that a lot of what we do in the Gallery is the result of directives we receive from the City: I mean direct directives, as in ‘This is what you must do’. ‘We want to see this.’ The City requires that you are evaluated through KPIs (key performance indicators), and you have to deliver a weekly report of what you do.

RGb: When I had a show here – I don’t drive, so Uber brought me back and forth, this is relevant – each time I came here, I would be asked where I was going. I would tell them I was coming here, obviously, and each time I would be asked how much it costs to get into the museum and what is in the museum. Now these are people who live in the city. They have access to this. So people need to know that this place exists, and

that it exists for them. That would be a primary thing. I think that the sheer lack of knowledge, let alone the significance that the museum has, becomes clear mainly on opening nights.

AM: We don’t have budget for marketing and publicity. How do we reach people without spending money?

RGb: Well, churches manage it! Seriously, they don’t advertise. And yet people know of their existence. They use word of mouth. They find ways of doing things. This is a community of artists who are used to working with very little money, and yet manage to create great profiles for themselves. It astounds me that the resources that artists bring to bare upon their own existence aren’t brought here.

Natasha Christopher: I think Raimi has a valid point about the approachability of the building. When you go into [Joubert] Park you find that people who use the Park regularly are unaware of what goes on in the building. The building itself is not inviting; it is closed off from the surroundings. There is no communication between the Park and the museum – no signs, no open doors, nothing visible to indicate a welcoming space. But it’s not simply about signs. What does this place look like from the point of view of the Park – if you are watching from the Park, what do you see? How do we diffuse the space between the building and the surroundings?

The irony (is it irony?), if we look at the history – is that along with the art museum, Joubert Park was designed as an exclusive space. We are dealing with a legacy here, a white elephant maybe, a building/institution that signifies the folly of the early 20th century Johannesburg gentry. And we are trying to rectify that, instead of asking the tough questions, instead of tearing that apart and creating a new form.

RGb: And with all the police outside the building, one would think that this was a police station.

AM: A lot of people do!

RGb: So if I was a member of this local community, I would probably not want to interact with the police under any circumstances, and so I would not come into this building. There must have been close to a hundred officers outside the building when we arrived this morning. So the nature of the place has been obscured so much that its local communities are not aware [of it]. It is these kinds of things that have to be addressed. The very nature of the building has to connect with its local community; there are hundreds of thousands of people who live around this building.

JF: I know it costs money, but what would a billboard cost for this space? If you have a relevant billboard that people can identify with, that might start to get people inside this building. We also need to establish what is the passion that is going to drive the Gallery going forward?

US: Years ago I did a course on monitoring and evaluation, and we did a case study that has always stuck with me. It was about a theatre, and engaging a specific community, a diasporic community of Mexican people. This theatre company wanted to encourage a culture of theatre, so they took a different approach: instead of thinking what they think should come there, they took the demographics of the community and said, okay, this is a Mexican community, let’s engage culturally. They organised a whole lot of Mexican theatre and did a number of other things. Tickets were not sold from the theatre, they went on sale in local shops. They took the audience into account and worked in a reverse kind of way. What I am getting at is that we keep saying, we are here in this space, surrounded by this community. For me the key thing is to find ways to engage this community so that there is ownership of this space, in a real way. What would it take to find this person, staying in that flat, to want to come here and look at the space, where that person says, “This is part of my environment”?

DK: How can this space also go out to them? I think that was really what I meant when making the point of rethinking the model of the museum.

US: Exactly, and there must be models around that we can find and look into, and see how other people have solved this problem. It is about an active community engagement process. Maybe we look at, not art students, but social development students, or models of engaging communities; have it happen in a way that doesn’t demand a new position being created at JAG, or a marketing budget. There must be a way.

DK: We could also rethink exhibition spaces; it could just be a shifting, ongoing exhibition space where different artists show, and directly people will be attracted, and they will understand what is going on here.

TM: A sense of ownership develops through interaction and knowledge, and desire. But when you develop strategies to build a sense of ownership and identification for the communities on JAG’s doorstep, are you offering things that have interest and meaning to yourself, or are you asking them what they would want to receive?

US: For communities in this area, their definition of art may not be what is in this collection. How to find the marriage between the two in a constructive engagement?

RGb: I want to respond to the question earlier about how does one deal with the local government. I think that where cultural projects have been successful, it has been diplomatic. Most people who enter into politics, enter into politics because of politics – they want to be politicians. It is not because they want to save the local museum. It becomes quite expedient, because they will do what is going to best serve them. So one needs to start thinking about this diplomatically. Diplomatic missions. I have not been to the Council Chamber of the City. But this becomes very important. If one wants to affect state policy, one engages with the state. Most artists and cultural practitioners in the city I know who engage with the state complain about the lack of readiness of the state to engage with cultural institutions. If a hundred people went to every council meeting with regards to this museum, probably in a year, or in two years, the amount of money coming to this museum would increase radically, because it would become a viable and real

constituency of whom those in council are aware. If they know that you vote for them, they will respond to your needs. The sooner one engages with these people practically, the more likely the money is going to emerge.

US: A question about money that gets left over from a budget: is it a possible to do what was done with the Anglo money being invested in a trust, where you could use the interest?

AM: No. If the City gives you budget for something, you have to spend it.

TM: I think that is an incredibly interesting proposition though. Could one not make the case to the City, with the Anglo American fund as an example, and say to them that this is a way that JAG is being strategic and is showing initiative; that JAG recognises that the City cannot prioritise funding to the Gallery as an institution every year, that they have just cut your budget in half, and one way in which you could make greater use of the money that they do give you, is to invest it.

AM: You know I used to think anything was possibly until I started working at the Council. Now there are also things that are impossible. But there is nothing that can’t be asked for through a series of report writing, where we can lay out the business sense of it.

RGb: How much would the museum need as an endowment to run itself? Let’s say you would get a ten percent return. The banks charge more than that, so you would get quite a large sum. So the R30 million a year to run this place would be an imaginable endowment that you would need. Then you would need three hundred million – and it is possible for an institution of this nature to raise that amount of money – through government, private enterprise …; through selling artworks, whatever it may be, even deliberately plundering your own collection. So you raise three hundred million, and you live off of that interest and whatever the government decides to give to you.

JF: I strongly support that. I think that some of the pitfalls one needs to consider though, are that as soon as the City knows

that there is an endowment, they would believe that their role can diminish. And I think one needs to balance that out. But I think that it is possible if you have the right support and the right infrastructure, and the right vision.

US: Wouldn’t less money from the city also mean more autonomy for JAG?

JF: Exactly, and that is what you want. So for me there are two things here: whether you want lobbying to convince the City; or whether you want to build entrepreneurially towards selfsustainability. For me those are the two options, and for me, I believe you would want to be self-sustainable.

AM: That is what they did with the Johannesburg Civic Theatre [now the Joburg Theatre]. Bernard Jay and a few big businessmen made an arrangement with the City and the theatre that they could use the theatre rent-free. That was basically the City’s contribution, as far as I know. But then it was much easier for them to commercialise a theatre than it is a gallery. But that kind of public partnership is possible, and the City has already done something like that.

Stephen Hobbs: Two thoughts. The first is actually sitting down with the right property-related people in this area and understanding the sectional title and condition of these buildings. The assumption is that the surrounding buildings would be under sectional title, so there is not one owner. That should allow a shift in the attitude of using the space, its safety and security etc. So there are two relationships. There is the functionality of the building, and then the functionality of the surrounds. I am interested in thinking about examples of other institutions that have gone through the same building decline problems. The National Portrait Gallery [in London] was a case in point. There are numerous institutions in the United Kingdom where sandstone buildings have experienced water penetration. One can look at how they fixed those things; what were their council relationships, etc. And then, the obvious stuff: having conversations without the actual art object in the room, and measuring that – that is the digital space, and bringing those possibilities out into the open; offering screenings, making

public displays of artworks, finding ways of putting stuff that is inside, outside. These are not new ideas. They speak to event and spectacle, and they are not necessarily costly.

TM: Your point around ways of putting what is inside, outside, touches on what Donna was speaking about earlier, in terms of envisioning a new model for the museum, and in what form – structurally, or not – the museum actually exists; that is, does it necessarily exist only in the structural confines of the building?

SH: I just want to throw something in. [The Trinity Session] was commissioned to create a programme two years ago, where we were given a 60 000 pound budget for a project between South Africa and the United Kingdom [UK]. We had been working extensively with the Jeppestown community at the time, and a group of artists there – a very similar kind of situation to here – a migrant residential footprint, where families come in, maybe stay for a three to five year period, and then move on to wherever jobs are; there is never a stable base of residents. We spent a lot of time on a series of workshops; we brought our UK partners to Jeppe Park, and we took South African artists to the UK, and we set up a series of projects that engaged directly with the residents of that neighbourhood, where they became contributors to the narrative. On the 19th of July last year, at minus two degrees in Jeppe Park, 400 Jeppestown residents came out to be a part of a project that was for them. It is impossible to run programmes like that month by month in terms of the intense activity that is involved with the residents in the area, but that exercise demonstrates a moment of success of being able to pull residents out of their homes under duress, i.e. in bad weather, into an environment where the entertainment is there and is created with them. Again, that is not a new idea. I know projects like that have been done here [at JAG], but I frankly think it is that, or move the collection. I am genuinely not in support of moving the collection though. No matter how many times the collection is curated, what is the frame of reference of success for this institution? It can’t be Western standards, because those are mismatched. We need to think of what are the African standards.

RGb: Something that strikes me in that example: first of all, you have a budget of R1,2 million to carry out an event which culminates on one day. With R1,2 million I think that this museum would be able to do something quite similar, so that needs to be taken into consideration. I also, for quite a long part of my life before I came here, dealt with this question of what it means to be an African – both in Britain, and being on the continent. So I began to wonder, what does an African want in a museum, seeing that museums have existed in Africa before Europeans arrived? They existed, they were sustained, they were held as places of importance; people recognised that it was a representation of both an individual and a collective history. So the idea of the museum is not alien to Africa. I think that it is perfectly possible to make people who live close to this museum aware that there is a museum for them. I do go back to the R1,2 million though, because this is a sizeable amount of money. I also think there are very simple things that can shift. If the entrance of this museum moved from the side of the building, for instance ... It took me months to realise where the front entrance of this museum was! The first time I came here, I was brought to the back, and I assumed that was the entrance, because each time I came to the museum, that was how I got in. And it literally took me months to figure out that it was somewhere else. I am yet to go to any other museum in the world where the entrance is not obvious to its public.

SH: I think there is a tremendous amount of structural change that needs to happen in order for the institution to speak to a constituency who, in theory, should know that museums have been on the continent way before colonisers visited. Which I support. The R1,2 million: it is not sustainable on an ongoing basis, because nobody earned any money on that. It was an act of social, cultural, artistic and institutional will. So it was a bubble of remarkable exchange. The continuity and legacy associated with that is traceable and can be mapped, and people can speak fondly of the experience and how it impacted their lives. The sustainability of that requires perhaps less than R1,2 million in a funny sort of way, through a different type of financing model to look at those exchanges becoming rich and self-sustainable, based on the energies of different individuals who can run with projects. And I don’t mean inside this building,

I mean outside the building – making ambassadors for the place, and so forth. I don’t know the extent to which those kinds of projects have been thoroughly addressed, unpacked and analysed in a collective way with the relevant participants, but it seems like a worthy exercise. Talking to users of the environment, but not regular users of this building, has critical information in it, which could lead to a number of transformations in its architectural and content forms.

District Six Museum [in Cape Town] is an example of how effectively a community can guide the development of a museum; the Queens Museum in New York is another, where there is such a high level of community ownership through the narrative and design, through oral history, of the impact of the shifting architectural environment, that when you walk into that building you are engaging with it and you know it is a museum for the people, by the people. There seem to be some serious consequences for that approach, because it would shift the power dynamics, and it would shift a lot of things that the staff here are required to do to run this form of institution. Just the maintenance on the collection alone is an astonishing inhibitor from a cost point of view that does require a level of restructuring of the content at some level.

TM: I don’t know if we can speak about an audience. I don’t think that we can assume that everybody that JAG is catering for is going to be catered to homogenously. I think that we need to recognise that as paradoxical as it is to have what has functioned for a century along its initial conception, that is, to have a Western fine art museum in the middle of a city that is very much not that, we need to consider the paradoxical nature of who the audiences are as well.

NN: One of the things that keeps coming back to me is this idea of transparency – I suppose it ties back to what Tracy is saying about parody. What if we were to understand the conversation from the Gallery and its public, and have a similar understanding and conversation of what is expected of JAG from the administration’s point of view. These tensions start to happen because there are directives [from the administration], but I don’t know what those directives are as a

member of the public outside of it: I don’t know what the municipalities are expecting us to deliver, and I can only have an opinion on what I want to see in the Gallery. So when I am speaking, I am focusing my attention on the Gallery, because the Gallery is not fulfilling what I want it to; yet the Gallery itself is being directed from elsewhere to deliver something that I am not satisfied with.

I am saying this in order to go back to when you [TM] sent your invitation, and why you wanted to have a conversation with us. Was it really to say all is well and good, and to document what has been done, and does that mean plugging my voice in a testimony to what I have done, and what kind of relationship I have with JAG today? Do I imagine the relationship and portray the relationship in a very straightforward way within the publication? To go back to why I am here, yes we can throw around ideas, but in reality, only very few of us are going to have time to follow up on anything that we throw around at this table, and it becomes another pipe dream – another wishlist gets drawn up, and twenty years down the line we come to the same thing. It is about calling it and saying what really is: we are just laying out some of our fascinations, some of our wishes, and maybe also just pointing out some of the problems and relationships that exist within the institution. And transparency goes back to, whose ownership? We say we imagine the Gallery for an African audience, and of becoming an African museum, yet we contest that there are police outside, and that this is a misrepresentation of the space. Maybe that is a definition we must accept. Maybe we need to understand and think about JAG as a gallery that must adapt to its nature, to what it is. The fact that people mistake it to be a police station or prison, how could it capitalise on that as a space that behaves in a particular way and has things inside it, and how could that be communicated? And I think that is where the most basic ideas could potentially bring a different way of understanding JAG: of JAG as a space that could be adapting to its environment. We had Metro cops there when I was working here, and they are still there, and they are not going to move, because there are very few spaces they are going to feel like they can occupy. So I think, also, that attitudes have to change. And whose attitudes are they? My own,

first of all, needs to change. What do I demand from JAG? I feel like there is a big space of opportunity for JAG to be at the forefront of defining the space, and this place of forever looking at ‘we must be making reference to elsewhere in the world and plugging ourselves into other ideas’ – Brazilian or Asian ideas, for example – and forgetting that those ideas may be helpful to us to build on or consider as a whole, but what do we actually want to mould ourselves into? Could we use this opportunity to imagine JAG being something that has never been there before – something that is completely new? My experiences of travelling in other parts of Africa, is that these kinds of spaces don’t even exist. Here we do have the opportunity, we do have the infrastructure, but how do we utilise it in a way to offer another example –whether it fails or is successful – that questions and tests, and that starts to look at the museum from an African point of view? Again, ownership and transparency, a shifting of our attitudes, and language, is something that we really need to test out, and I see this publication as a possibility of arguing for those things.

[Ed:Those who were invited to be part of this discussion,but whowereunabletoattend,weregiventheassurancethatthey wouldneverthelessbegiventheopportunitytoaddtheircomments,havingbeensentthetranscriptofthesession.Additional contributions follow.]

David Andrew: Three things come to mind as I think about a contribution to the conversation that took place on 23 July:

1. Firstly, my step-father’s funeral in Pietermaritzburg on 13 May, and a walk from the Metropolitan Methodist Church down one of the main streets, Langalibalele Street (previously Longmarket Street), to see the ‘city’ and how it had changed, or stayed the same, for that matter. I didn’t get very far, but recall passing by another substantial church building (steeple, nave and aisles) in Langalibalele Street that had been completely repurposed and owned in ways unimaginable to its earlier users – if I remember correctly it housed a number of different spaces for the selling of meat, for groceries and electrical appliances. The cross at the entrance existed pragmatically with the colourful signs of goods to be purchased and the names of the retailers.

The church had evolved into a space that fulfilled multiple functions responding to the rapid changes in the once Victorian city.

2. Secondly, John Kelsey’s injunction to artists to “risk their own definition”. I have picked up on this point below. In summary, in JAG’s case, this might entail a different language of engagement with the Joubert Park and other constituencies – perhaps encouraging a space which invites a long-term presence that allows Joubert Park and inner-city residents to be in the space on a day-to-day basis – a reimagined ‘school’ of sorts, perhaps one that engages Grant Kester’s insistence on the “durational” quality of the dialogical. Could this become a space for the Another Road Map School? One that is more celebratory, even carnivalesque?

3. And thirdly, assessing a Master’s research report recently with the title: “How much is the community of Jourbert (sic) Park involved in the Johannesburg Arts Gallery today?” by Sizwe Radebe. Here I include some reworked fragments from my report:

The candidate sets out to address a question relevant to the future of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), namely: How much is the community of Joubert Park involved in the JAG today? As such, there is a direct quality to the terms of the research report – the candidate sets out to gather primary responses to the question from a range of stakeholders and residents from the area in order to gather evidence that enables a response to the question. A historical contextualisation, and some of the projects and exhibitions associated with the Gallery, frame the research report. The candidate concludes by offering a reflection on the research findings … which allow for a set of proposals to be made for the future relationship of JAG and the Joubert Park users/residents, the most significant being the signalling of the need for further research in this area: “A continuation of this research, an exploration of what may interest the Joubert Park community in JAG, is having the community itself being part of this museum” (p 54).

The candidate aims to establish to what extent the communities living in the Joubert Park area are able to access, and are indeed interested in accessing the JAG space. The research question is pursued through a contextualising of the “JAG project” since its opening in the early twentieth century. The candidate then engages in a series of informal interviews with visitors to the Joubert Park, and a further series with those who have had a more formal affiliation with the JAG (Murdoch, Kellner, Nehuleni, Venter). The candidate concludes that there is much to be done in relation to deepening the dialogical relationship between the Joubert Park communities and the JAG. A number of possibilities are surfaced, including what the candidate refers to as the introduction of “cyber technology” to draw in new constituencies.

The candidate writes in a compelling manner – compelling because, just as much as the style might at times be different to a conventional academic form, it captures an attitude that seems appropriate for this research. It is a form that emphasises the need for an institution like the JAG to “risk its own definition”, to use John Kelsey’s words, as it interrogates its future role.

Would the work on “undoing architecture” by Alex Opper have provided conceptual tools for a more critical conclusion to the study? What would it mean to consider how the JAG might undergo a process of “undoing” so that its authoritarian presence as a “prison or morgue” (p 24) or “police office” (p 48) is disassembled by, and with, the Joubert Park communities? The work of others comes to mind too: Grant Kester’s work on dialogical aesthetics and the importance of the “durational”. It seems clear that the JAG, in tandem with its various city and private associates, needs to do more in relation to engaging the Joubert Park communities, but concomitantly, the research report needs to offer more in terms of understanding the messy complexity of addressing this challenge.

Here the candidate’s gesturing towards cyber technology (p 42) playing a greater role in attracting a different audience to the JAG, and the acknowledging of the Looking as Learning and Gerard Sekoto Day (p 42) programmes as being worthy of extension, deserve mention. As such, this is a study that other

researchers will access and use as the future of JAG continues to be debated and decided upon. In many ways the research report represents the starting point of what might be a much lengthier research process. The quoting of Anton Hendriks’s (director of the JAG from 1937-1964) on pages 26 and 27 points to how the candidate opens up spaces of potential for a more critical reimagining of the gallery:

A modern art gallery … has an active function to perform as an educational institution in the life of the city. In order to convert the Johannesburg Art Gallery from a static show place to an institution which will fulfill this function as part of city life, the existing collections … must be built up … and new exhibits must be shown from time to time (quoted in Carman 2003:241).

However, as I note in the conclusion to this report, I am not sure that these moments of prising open the “static show place” in order to engage the shifting socio-political and aesthetic landscapes of southern Africa are always recognised.

This is a significant study – while some might argue against its often colloquial style, my sense is that this is an appropriate form of writing in the manner in which it speaks to how JAG will need to engage its “closest audience”. The candidate seems to make an argument through the form – here the research report positions itself as stating: JAG, if you are to address what is acknowledged to be one of your key constituencies, you will need to adopt a different language and form of engagement. Or, at the risk of repeating myself, as art critic John Kelsey would suggest, JAG needs to “risk its own definition”. The candidate argues his position in a direct, even humorous way. The style of writing is engaging in the way it promotes the need for something more mobile as opposed to the static quality that is JAG. Whether this is intuited or not, the candidate begins to make a strong argument for a different evolution of art and its consumption. Having said this, there seem to be some contradictory positions present, particularly in relation to the argument for JAG becoming “a haven of tranquility” (p 47). Surely a very different space is required? The notion of a “haven” seems to hark back to what Lady Phillips would

have understood as JAG’s mission. Similarly, “A gallery or museum should be a peaceful place where even the underprivileged can relax and create an imaginary world …” (p 48). This seems to go against the import of the sentence quoted earlier in this report: “A continuation of this research, an exploration of what may interest the Joubert Park community in JAG, is having the community itself being part of this museum” (p 54). Similarly, on page 55, the candidate identifies areas for further research in the future, citing the need for a focus on school children and an operational plan for engaging the Joubert Park community. It seems to me that the import of this research is the manner in which it points to perhaps a need for a more radical engagement with the notion of the museum as “peaceful place where even the underprivileged can relax and create an imaginary world” (p 48).

Koulla Xinisteris: There has been a lot of discussion about the need to integrate people from the surrounding areas into being part of JAG’s audience – and I think that’s important, in fact, imperative. And some of it has already happened. But nobody appears to be considering reviving JAG’s lost audiences – those who used to come to the Gallery, and are already interested in art – which is also important: it is important for the whole of the arts community; it is our art space where ideas are and should continue to be played out.

As much as JAG’s mandate should be about transforming the museum; about lobbying, integrating new audiences – which should also include the policemen that gather outside its doors! – it should not be an either/or vision: it should be both – bringing in new audiences, as well as bringing back the already established audiences. The museum should be a broad bridge, rather than just looking to integrate its surroundings; it should be tapping into the unseen or less established artists in the city – giving them visibility. And work from the collection could also travel to places.

1 Mile2 62, 156-7

Abramović, Marina 60, 63, 99, 110, 113

Accentedness (Carli Coetzee) 132-7

Acculturation 133

A Fragile Archive 63, 82

Africa Remix 61, 96-7, 100-105, 154, 158-9

Anglo American, Johannesburg Centenary Trust 46, 58, 144, 170, 172-3

Ars Moriendi (How to Die Well) 62, 72, 96, 142

Art and Ambiguity 57, 144-5, 147, 172

Art Gallery Management Committee/ Art Gallery Committee 18, 20, 25

Artists Under the Sun vi-vii, 13, 45, 182, 184

Beit, Otto 17, 44

Boshoff, Willem 54, 56, 58-60, 94, 150

Brenthurst Collection 46, 57, 144-5, 172, 180

Cape Town Triennial 54-57, 183-4

Carman, Dr Jillian 2-3, 12, 16-33, 39, 43, 47, 50, 53-4, 56-8, 62, 91, 93, 130, 134, 141, 143, 160, 162, 193

City Beautiful 12, 19, 33

Cole, Ernest 62, 78, 178

Condition Report 63, 130-1, 137-142

Culture and Resistance Symposium and Festival of the Arts 98

Curriculum 63, 108, 131, 135, 137, 160

Dhlame, Happy 61, 63, 184-5

Dhlomo-Mautloa, Bongi 2, 4, 7, 46, 56, 58, 148, 180-82, 184

Drill Hall 13, 152-3, back fold out

Dunga Manzi/Stirring Waters 61, 96, 145-6

Education, curriculum 34, 38

Eloff, Jan 34, 38

Erasmus, Nel 2, 4, 45-6, 53, 63, 166-9, 173

Evocations of the Child 58, 145

Fairfax, Miss Eve 44-6, 57, 163, 170-1

Feni, Dumile 56, 59-60, 63, 92, 98, 160, 183-4

FIFA World Cup 9, 77

Foundation Collection 9, 57, 60, 63, 86-89, 106, 162, 175

Friends of, the Johannesburg Art Gallery/ Friends of JAG 2, 9, 45-7, 57, 122, 124, 174, 188

FUBA (Federated Union of Black Artists)

Academy Archives 47, 92, 162, 182, 184

Gaba, Meshac 61, 96-7, 159

Geers, Kendell 57, 59-60, 94-5

Goldblatt, David 54, 56, 58-60, 62, 66, 96, 109, 148, 186

Gothic wooden carvings 46, 52, 131, 137, 139, 142

Greenhouse Project/Centre 47, 148, 154, 156

Gutsche, Thelma 16, 18, 32-3, 45-6, 170, 174

Hassan, Kay 58, 62, 96-7, 159, 183-4

Hendriks, Dr P Anton 25, 29, 44-5, 50, 52, 55, 139, 142, 167-8, 193

Hillbrow 98, 113, 143, 152, 156-7

Howden, Robert 18, 20, 24, 44

Imbali, Visual Literacy Project/Teacher Training

Project 46, 108

JAG Art Gallery Committee 7, 9, 12, 33, 46, 180, 184

JAG mission statement 165, 178

JAG/SNAG 9, 63, 118-127, 164, 178, 198

Jaques Collection, headrests 46, 144, 172

JDA, Johannesburg Development Agency 47, 120

Johannesburg Biennale 47, 57-58, 94-5, 100, 173, 177, 180, 184

Johannesburg Circa Now 3, 60, 106-109, 179

Joubert Park Photographers Association/ Freelance Photographers 59-60, 106, 148, 150-1

Joubert Park [Public Art] Project (JPP) 4, 106, 109, 114, 148-154

Keene, Rochelle 2, 4, 46, 57-8, 60, 148, 167, 174-5, 187

Keleketla! Library 152-3

Kellner, Clive 2, 4, 12, 47-8, 61-2, 72-3, 96-105, 134, 142, 158, 167, 176, 178, 187, 193

Kentridge, William 47, 55-63, 75, 85, 97-100, 105, 154, 159, 184, 186, 188

Kinshasa:The Imaginary City 61, 67, 97

Koloane, Dr David 2, 4, 13, 56-7, 59, 182-5, 186

Lane, Sir Hugh 9, 12, 16-18, 33, 45, 50, 52, 63, 87, 162, 166-7, 173-4

Lapeng, Crèche, Child and Family Resource Service 4, 47, 148, 160-1, 198

Leibhammer, Nessa 58, 60-3, 79, 142, 144-7, 178

Leisure 3, 11, 34, 43, 154

Letts, Alba 9, 178, 186

Looking as Learning 62, 130-3, 135-7, 193

Lowen, Johnathan, collection 46, 57, 144, 172

Lutyens, Sir Edwin/Lutyens building 3, 4, 6, 9, 12-13, 16-33, 39-42, 44, 47, 54, 56, 94, 97-8, 118, 122-4, 146, 168, 170-4, 176, 178, 187-9

Manaka, Matsemela 90, 93

Mancoba, Ernest 56, 58, 92, 183

Market Photo Workshop 59-60, 62, 106-7, 109, 114-17

Matters of Spirit 62, 142, 146, 178

Medu Art Ensemble 62, 96, 98, 104, 159

Meyer Pienaar, building, extensions, Gallery 5-6, 16, 19, 22-4, 27, 29-32, 46, 57, 63, 118-19, 122, 124-5, 170, 173-4, 178-9, 187

Miles, Dr Elza 47, 58-9, 62, 162

Milner, Lord Alfred 36, 39, 41

Ming dynasty 131, 137, 139

Mnyele, Thami 56, 62, 96, 98, 104, 159

Mohl, John Koenakeefe 45, 56, 182

Murdoch, Antoinette 2-4, 9-10, 47, 63, 83, 110-13, 118, 122, 158, 167, 175, 178-9, 186-90

Neglected Tradition,The 3, 12, 56, 90-3, 172

Nel, Karel 54-5, 57-8, 60-1, 63, 94-5, 144-5, 172, 184

Neluheni, Musha 2, 4, 9, 62-3, 79, 135, 142, 156-7, 186

New Strategies 59, 130, 133-5

Ngatane, Ephraim, 56, 92

Oberholzer, Councillor JF ‘Obie’ 46, 173

Off the Beaten Path 63, 110-113, 178

Oppenheimer, Harry 46, 57, 144, 172

Outside Inside 3, 57, 94-5

Pemba, George 56, 58, 60, 183

Phillips Gallery 23-4, 26-7, 98, 113, 122, 174

Phillips, Lady Florence 6, 12, 16-17, 32-3, 39, 43-4, 47, 57, 93, 166-7, 170, 172-3, 188-9, 193

Phillips, Sir Lionel 12, 16, 32, 39, 44, 188

Pim, Howard 17-18, 25, 44, 51-2

Polly Street, Art Centre 55, 63, 91, 137

Rand Regiments Memorial 17-19, 33, 42

Respectability 3, 11, 14, 34, 37-9, 43

Rorke’s Drift 60, 63, 91, 137

Rose, Tracey 62, 81, 159, 178

Searle, Berni 61, 69, 96-7

Sekoto, Gerard 44, 46, 50, 56-7, 91-3, 183, 193

Senior, Pat 46, 166-7, 170, 175

Solomon, JM (Joseph Michael) 19, 174

South African School of Mines and Technology 16-17, 20, 44, 50

South African War 11, 17, 34, 36, 38-9, 42

Till, Christopher 2, 4, 46, 57, 63, 90, 124, 144-5, 166-7, 170-3, 182, 184

Tributaries exhibition 91, 93

Van Wouw, Anton 7, 21, 44, 53, 55

Villa, Edoardo 45, 53, 55-6, 60, 90, 184

Without Masks: Afro-Cuban Art 62, 76-77, 178-9, 199

Zuid-Afrikaanse Republic (ZAR) 11, 34

Please note that this index is not inclusive of all artists/ exhibitions/subject matters referenced in this book. Inclusions have been based upon names/key subjects referred to in the included authored texts only.

Central to the activities of JAG is the work done by its volunteer guides. The first training programme was initiated in 1975. In 1976, Lorraine Deift (featured above dressed in red) and Bea Katz (featured above dressed in pink) began their training as voluntary guides. Bea Katz retired in 2014 and Lorraine Deift still guides with great enthusiasm. In 1988, JAG had a record 37 trained guides.

TOP LEFT: Guide conducting a tour of JAG, 1978. Image courtesy of Rand Daily Mail. TOP CENTRE: Mayor’s lunch for guides, 1979. Featured to the left is Pat Senior, then JAG Director. TOP RIGHT: Guides in front of gallery, 1990s. SECOND ROW LEFT: Mayor’s lunch for guides, 1981. THIRD ROW LEFT: Guide conducting a tour, date unknown. BOTTOM LEFT: Guides in the gallery space, 1997. ABOVE: JAG’s current volunteer guides.

TOP LEFT: Lapeng Crèche children in education studio.

TOP RIGHT: Sekoto Day activities, 2012. SECOND ROW RIGHT: Children visiting JAG on Heritage Day 2014. THIRD ROW LEFT: JAG bus, 2010. THIRD ROW CENTRE: Art This Way installation on Joubert Park fence for Art Week 2014.

THIRD ROW RIGHT: Park photographers taking portraits in the courtyard. BOTTOM LEFT: Stephen Hobbs conducting a walkabout of his JAG/SNAG installation. BOTTOM RIGHT: JAGed educational supplements from various exhibitions.

TOP LEFT: Opening of Artist’s Proof Studio ‘Coming ofAge’ exhibition, 2012. TOP RIGHT: So Long,Wish You Were Here graffiti exhibition by Two By Two Studios, 2014. SECOND ROW RIGHT: The Giant Match, performance by French puppetry troupe Les Grandes Personnes, 2010. THIRD ROW LEFT: Opening of Alan Crump: Fearless Vision exhibition, 2011. THIRD ROW CENTRE: Seitisho Motsage installing Common Threads tapestry exhibition, 2015. THIRD ROW RIGHT: Seitisho Motsage, Tulani Skosana and William Mabidilala installing Close to Dali exhibition at the Turbine Art Fair 2015. BOTTOM LEFT: Opening of Without Masks, Afro-Cuban exhibition, 2010.

Views of JAGs vast collection in storage. TOP: Contemporary store room. CENTRE LEFT: Furniture store room. CENTRE RIGHT: Main store room. BOTTOM LEFT: Contemporary store room. BOTTOM RIGHT: Print store room. All images by ©David Ceruti.