APPENDIX B.

PROTEST WORKS 1968 TO 1976

"A Record of Incompleteness"

The paucity of serious documentation of protest art - a condition the present study hopes to begin to redress - is evident when one attempts to compile a comprehensive record of protest work produced in the 1970s. The whereabouts of actual works are unknown; exhibition catalogues are incomplete; and one has to gather together titles from miscellaneous sources (dimen­sions and provenance are rarely recorded). Field work proved to be costly, and the exercise involved the pursuit of some very sketchy references. The goodwill and assistance of artists, gallery and library staff, members of the public and fellow academics was, therefore, greatly valued.

In the Acknowledgements, I mentioned several people who were most generous in their attempts to assist me in retrieving neglected material, and here I wish to add Timo Smuts, Paul Grendon, Jenny Stretton, Erika Kruger-Marx and Rayda Becker. Several others, unfortunately, ignored my requests for assist­ance. Letters and question­naires received no replies from Clifford Bestall, Paul Stop­forth, Malcolm Payne, Jean Powell, Andre van Zyl, and the South African Association of Arts gallery in Cape Town. Attempts at securing inter­views with the artists mentioned here were also unsuccessful. Notices in local and national newspa­pers and newsletters requesting information that could have added detail to the record have also elicited few responses. Appeals for information concerning a number of works for which documentation is virtually non-existent were placed in the Daily News, Sunday Tribune, Cape Argus, Weekly Mail, Post and Natal Society of Art's Newsdart . In the course of my research, I utilised the resources of the HSRC data-base, the Insti­tute of Contemporary History of the University of the Orange Free State (which provides a press-clipping service), the documen­tation centres of the Univer­sity of Zulu­land, University of Durban-Westville, Univer­sity of Cape Town and Fort Hare, the Killie Campbell Africana library, the munici­pal libraries in Durban and Johannesburg, and the various libraries of the University of Natal. I also made considerable use of the Michaelis art library in Johannesburg and the art library of the Durban Art Gallery in my search for catalogues and references to newspaper articles.

In the Introduction I mentioned my attempts to trace docu­men­tation of murals, graffiti and posters produced prior to 1976. All of the people whom I consulted (including Omar Badsha, Paul Grendon and Gavin Younge) agreed that such forms were produced on a very small scale but none was aware of any specific documenta­tion. It was further suggested that these "popular" forms of protest might have been recorded incidentally in press photographs or in the work of photographers such as David Goldblatt. I had, however, already searched without success through magazines such as Drum, Speak and Staffrider, as well as through newspapers such as Ilanga, Africa South, The World and Post, the most likely sources for such photographs.

As I mentioned in the Preface, galleries which held some of the works relevant to this study often had no available photo­graphic documenta­tion. This entailed the researcher bearing the exorbitant cost of a professional photographer specially commis­sioned to take a single slide. The alternative was to wait until the gallery decided to document a number of works that included the particular pieces. All of this is a serious impediment to re­searching an under-documented area.

What follows, therefore, is a historical record of incompleteness - "the state of protest art" - and a spur to researchers to continue to recover a crucial decade of artistic endeavour in South Africa.

1968: Reconciliation Azaria Mbatha, recorded in Ogilvie, 1988.

1969: Birth Omar Badsha, Art South Africa Today exhibition July 1969.

Honkies Hole M. L. Dunbar, Art South Africa Today exhibition July 1969.

1971: Boss Jochen Berger, Art South Africa Today exhibition, August/September 1971.

A Working Class Hero Cliff Bestall, Art South Africa Today is Something to be exhibition, August/September 1971.

Against Escalation in Thirty Nils Burwitz, Art South Africa Today Three Stages exhibition, August/September 1971.

Arrest Norman Catherine, Art South Africa Today exhibition, August/September 1971.

Conspiracy Cyprian Shilakoe, Art South Africa Today exhibition, August/September 1971.

Black Factory Prayer Timo Smuts, Art South Africa Today exhibition, August/September 1971.

Department of Conser- Paul Stopforth, Art South Africa vation for the future Today exhibition, August/September of Pinkness 1971.

Forge Paul Stopforth, Walsh Marais Gallery, Durban, December 1971.

Natural Causes As above.

Nature Morte, 1960 Harold Strachan, Art South Africa Today exhibition, August/September 1971.

The Waiting Room Mohammed Timol, Art South Africa Today exhibition, August/September 1971.

Joint Bantu Football Gavin Younge, School of Architecture, Association University of Natal, Durban, October 1971.

Hansard Series As above.

1972: War and Peace I-IV Omar Badsha, Natal Contemporary Art exhibition, January 1972.

Boss Exit Jochen Berger, Association of Arts Gallery, Cape Town, June 1972.

Detention Series Mahommed Timol, NSA, Durban, June 1972.

We Need More Damn Hands Andre van Zyl, Association of Arts on the Farm Gallery, January 1972.

It is a Queer Thing As above.

that the Negro etc.

What the Native can As above.

produce under Supervision

Experienced Cook/House- Gavin Younge, Natal Contemporary Art maid exhibition, January 1972.

Garden Boy As above.

1973: Barometer of Average Nils Burwitz, NSA, October 1973.

Sensibilities (Now part of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection in London.)

Beast's History Nils Burwitz, NSA, October 1973.

It's About Time As above.

1974:

Colour Test Malcolm Payne, serigraph 63x90 cm., recorded in Berman, 1983.

Landskap vir nie- Timo Smuts, Gallery 66, Worcester, Blankes October 1974.

1975:

A Desperate Perhaps Paul Stopforth, Art South Africa Today exhibition, July/August 1975.

Resistance Register Paul Stopforth, Gavin Younge and students at the Natal Tech Art School.

(Photographs available from Younge.)

Revolution: Film for Gerrit Hilhorst, Art South Africa a Self-destructive Today exhibition, July/August 1975. Situation

1976:

Personal Particulars John Ngqutyi, recorded in Bunn and Taylor, 1987.

Rioters' Digest Gavin Younge and students of Michaelis School of Art. (Photographs available from Younge.)