Art: South Africa: Today

Art South Africa: Today was initiated by the Natal Region of the Institute of Race Relations, in conjunction with the Durban Art Gallery and the Natal Society of Arts, and became recognised as an important national exhibition series between 1963 and 1975.

Its aims were in keeping with the Institute's aims, in that it was open to all races, and work was selected on merit. The involvement of the Society helped it attract entries from established artists nationwide.

The first Art: South Africa: Today exhibition in 1963 seemed to catch the imagination of artists: 900 works from around the country were received, of which 155 were selected.

It certainly caught the attention of the security police. Until then almost all art exhibitions and competitions had been held separately for different races: this was the first time in then Natal that the work of black artists was integrated into a major South African exhibition. Remember, these were the dark days of apartheid, when mixing between black and white people infuriated the state.

The Bus Stop. Pencil drawing by Tsidiso Motjouadi 1963

The proportion of black artists entering or having work selected was small, but names which appeared in the catalogue were Sydney Khumalo, who won the Philip Frame Award for his terra cotta sculpture Girl With a Dove, Michael Zondi, whose wood sculpture Rachel was bought by the Durban Art Gallery, and Gladys Mgudlandlu, whose painting Nyanga Pondokkies won a prize.
Among the other black exhibitors were invited artists Gerard Sekoto, who sent paintings from Paris where he was living, Selby Mvusi, who showed two outstanding oil paintings Diaspora and Zululand, which were loaned by the then Salisbury Art Gallery, Eric Ngcobo, and Tsidiso Motjuoadi, who showed a pencil drawing The Bus Stop. He was later to become a well known Johannesburg artist.

Their names appeared alongside those of award winners Andrew Verster - little did we know that this young unknown artist would become a director of the African Art Centre in 1985 - Richard Wake, and Irma Stern, who won the Earnest Oppenheimer Award for her controversial painting Drawing Water.

The exhibition was considered avant guarde and prompted a great deal of controversy and criticism. Drawing Water, especially, sparked an outcry. It was felt by many that conventional representational art had been excluded - despite the fact that there were many perfectly 'under­standable' paintings, graphics and sculptures.

Nevertheless, the general debate and Press publicity - including an incomprehensible picassoesque style cartoon by Jock Leyden of the Daily News and a billboard by the Natal Mercury - drew nearly 1 000 people, the largest number ever to have attended an exhibition opening at the Durban Art Gallery. The exhibition, it was said, lifted the Durban art scene out of the doldrums.

It was through the 1963 Art: South Africa: Today that Michael Zondi and his work became known to the Art Centre.

Artist and sculptor Eric Ngcobo, a member of the organising committee, became a great friend and supporter of the Art Centre during the 1960s and 1970s. He also played a significant role in art education generally, introducing art as a matriculation subject - a first in African education - at Mzuvele School in KwaMashu, where he was principal, and going on to become a pioneer in the field of black art and education.

Following the success of the first exhibition, plans steamed ahead for the second Art: South Africa: Today in 1965. It was considered important enough nationally for several eminent art personalities to accept invitations to serve on the selection committee.

From a large entry only 55 works of high standard were selected, of which seven were by black artists: Wiseman Mbambo, Eric Ngcobo, Elliot Nyawo, Solomon Sedibane, Azaria Mbatha, Michael Zondi and Omar Badsha.

Azaria Mbatha won an award for his linocut The Revelation of St John, Michael Zondi for his wood sculpture Woman in Ecstasy and Omar Badsha for his linocut Five Penny Came. Other award winners were Bill Ainslie, Maurice Kahn, James Hall, Allison Kelleher and Lawrence Scully.

The Revelation of St. John by Azaria Mbatha.
Exhibited at Art South Africa: Today in 1965.

Dr M Bokhorst, director of South Africa's National Gallery and a member of the selection committee, was impressed with his first sight of Azaria Mbatha's winning work and bought it for the National Gallery. He also bought Zondi's sculpture. Once again the organisers felt the exhibition had achieved its aim of attracting work of a high standard, selected on merit, irrespective of race.

The number of entries received for the 1967 Art: South Africa: Today was considerably lower. There were 400, of which 65 were selected. In a press report it was noted that 'the works were of a high standard, but because of a South African provincial, snobbish attitude, the best known names had not submitted work'. This may well have been due to the fact that the work of a number of those 'names' had not been accepted at the previous exhibition.

Black artists who featured in this exhibition were Ezrom Legae, who shared the Oppenheimer Sculpture Award for his bronze Embrace with Joan Templer for her painting Wood Circle. Louis Maqhubela, Sydney Kumalo, Lucas Sithole - all established Johannesburg artists - Azaria Mbatha, Dan Rakgoathe and Wiseman Mbambo, a student at the Ndaleni Art School who won a study award for his wood sculpture Grief.

New artists whose work was accepted for the 1969 Art: South Africa: Today were John Muafangejo, who exhib­ited an oil painting Joseph's Dream, and Cyprian Shilakoe, whose etching was titled Boys. They were both students at Rorke's Drift who were later to achieve considerable recognition. Shilakoe became well known for his etchings before dying in a car accident in 1972.

Woman in Ecstasy by Michael Zondi 1965 The Oppenheimer Trust Award was shared between Durban's Omar Badsha, for his drawing Birth, then Rhodesian soapstone sculptor Sylvester Mubayi for Dzu-Dzu, and Steven Kass who sent work from the United States. The Art: South Africa: Today exhibitions continued through to the 1970s. In 1971 an eminent panel of judges - Professor Walter Battis, Esme Berman and Professor Neville Dubow - selected 119 works from a large entry. A strong political expression emerged from white artists: Paul Stopforth's Bill of White Rights and Department of Pinkness. Nils Burwitz's Johannesburg Exposure 1 and Jochen Berger's Senior and Junior. Kanu Sukha's The Minority Triptych depicted separate representation of the Indian community at that time. The Durban Art Gallery bought Nature Mort 1960, a painting by Harold Strachan, who was not able to attend the opening as he was under house arrest. But political expression was not overt among the black artists whose work was accepted: Azaria Mbatha, who showed one of his early silk screen prints Nebuchadnezzar, Omar Badsha, Cyprian Shilakoe and Tito Zungu. Shilakoe's Conspiracy, Where Have They Gone To? and Can you See the Crave Child? expressed an often mystical and depressing view of life, which continued to show in his later work.

Two works from the 1971 Art South Africa: Today. A srong political expression emerged from white artists: Jochen Bergers's Senior and Junior (top) and Nils Burwitz's Johannesburg Exposure 1 (above) illustrate this The sixth national Art: South Africa: Today exhibition was held in 1973 at the Durban Art Gallery, with Pauline Vogelpoel of the Tate Gallery in London being the sole selector. Among the black artists selected were several whose work had not been seen on the exhibition before. All - Raphael Magwaza, Judus Mahlangu, Vuminkosi Zulu and Paul Sibisi - had been or were at the Rorke's Drift Art School, indicating its growing importance. Legendary American art critic, Clement Greenberg, agreed to be the sole selector for the 1975 Art: South Africa: Today while visiting South Africa. Greenberg was considered one of the most important critics and writers in the art world in the 1950s and 1960s, and was a selector for national competitions around the globe. Organisers believed a foreign selector would add to the now prestigious national art exhibition – but, once again, selection for Art: South Africa: Today proved controversial. The works of several established artists were not accepted, including two or three by up and coming young artists who are now well established. There were criticisms that some of the selections were 'cliched' and that Greenberg had included what at the time was deemed to be craft. Work by a number of black artists was included in Clement Greenberg's selection, among them George Msimang, Joseph Ndlovu, Zion Ndlovo, Charles Nkosi, Judus Mahlangu, Paul Sibisi, Vuyiso Sondlo, Kenneth Thabo, Vuminkosi Zulu and Tito Zungu. With the exception of Msimang and Zungu, all had a connection with the Rorke's Drift school. In any event, Greenberg awarded the major Anglo American prize for a straight forward oil painting Qirl Reading by Christopher Haw. Once the controversy over selection wore off, I believe artists began to rethink their dependence on outside sources. This may have encouraged the emergence of a fresh artistic expression in the 1980s.

Baptism by Judus Mahlangu.
Art South Africa: Today 1973

The following year, 1976, was a watershed year in South African history, marked by uprisings in Soweto schools against the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, and the deaths of many protesters. It was the beginning of mass resistance to apartheid. Until then political protest art had not been particularly noticeable in KwaZulu-Natal, at least as seen by the African Art Centre.

Affected, however, was the next planned Art: South Africa: Today exhibition. It is possible the exhibition had run its course anyway, and that the psychological effects of the 1976 tragedies were merely a final reason to cancel it. National exhibition series have a limited life. Art: South Africa: Today exhibitions had made their mark on the South African art scene - and had opened the doors to more representative participation by artists of all races.

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