Gavin Jantjes

The Visual Century South African Art in Context 1907 – 2007

This handsomely boxed set of four volumes was published in 2011 by Wits University Press. It is the product of a massive project initiated and directed by Gavin Jantjes, a South African artist who has spent much of his professional life in exile in Europe. Mario Pissarra was the Editor-in-Chief. It is perhaps the most ambitious art publication of the Wits University Press. Veronica Klipp Director of Wits Press, commented: “We have never done anything like this before, it is WUP’s first big art project and took us four years to produce”. A project of this size places the WUP in a new publishing-house league. The work is structured around themes and chronological periods with a total of over 30 contributors researching and presenting a total of 35 essays. The common theme is a reassessment of the past 100 years of art from a post- apartheid and a far more racially inclusive perspective.

Each volume has its own editor Jillian Carman (Volume 1), Lize van Robbroeck (Volume 2), Mario Pissara (Volume 3) and Thembinkosi Goniwe, Mario Pissaro, and Mandisi Majavu (Volume 4). Each volume repeats the preface by Jantjes, but each has an individual foreword, a significant introductory contextual chapter and each chapter thereafter is a themed essay by individual contributors who are artists, poets, activists, writers, curators and academics. The mix of backgrounds of authors with both South African and international locations makes for a multiplicity of perspectives and the reaching out of art scholars to other disciplines for example, the link of art history and social anthropology or architectural history and art history. Each essay can be read independently but collectively the breadth of coverage over the four volumes present an important reassessment of the visual arts through a long century. An academic approach means that all the contributors are given brief biographies, all chapters are comprehensively referenced, the footnotes appear as very readable side notes on each page of text. The index for each volume is thorough and independent of all the other three volumes. Each volume presents a section of “Timelines” for the period covered in the volume, providing a context for South African and World art history and relating that history to historical highlights in South Africa and in the world.

It is a work that is encyclopedic in scope, but it is not an encyclopedia or a dictionary of the arts or in fact artists. It complements the work of Esme Berman and Grania Ogilvie. I see little point in the repetition of the preface, as the four volumes hang together and the handsome boxed presentation means that one would not wish to simply purchase one of the volumes. I attended the launch workshop in November 2011 and was disappointed that the participants appeared to be very largely art historians. Whilst these volumes enable art historians to address their colleagues, serious collectors of South African art, students, art museums and commercial galleries will all find these volumes of value.

It is a prestigeous project that has received support from the Department of Arts and Culture (the Minister Z. Pallo Jordan is the author of the first volume’s foreword), the Foundation for Arts Initiatives, the Africa South Institute and the University of the Witwatersrand. The logos of each body appears at the front of each volume and all are to be congratulated in having the confidence and the vision to sponsor a project of this type. It is an expression of confidence in multiple new beginnings in art. New assessments of old themes are undertaken with some surprising and interesting fresh insights.

The strength of the volumes is that they set new directions and new pathways and interpretations for viewing the visual arts of the past century in South Africa . Most importantly these studies build bridges between the country’s diverse cultural background and audiences. The work offers a framework and a context for understanding and interpreting the arts. It broadens the canon of what should be regarded as collectable in South African art and will encourage museums and galleries to see new opportunities in collecting, preserving presenting and educating in this field. Some of the topics covered include: tradition and modernity, representations of white nationalism in the decoration of public buildings and the re-evaluating traditional art. Primitivism in South African Art, race and art, formalism, exile and migrancy in art are other themes. A key question is the political purpose and intent of art and the extent to which art became a vehicle for , political resistance during the apartheid era. The impact of cultural boycotts, reaching international audiences and forming new identities were aspects of the new trends in South African art.

There are several contributions in each volume that are absorbing. For example, in Volume 1, I particularly liked the chapters by Frederico Freschi (analysis of the decoration of public buildings), Jillian Carman ( on art museums and national identity), Elizabeth Rankin and Lize van Robbroeck (on the formative influences on early black artists). However, across the four volumes, there is some repetition and it is difficult to follow the work or development of a particular artist but then no one artist has been singled out for individual treatment. Some may be disappointed that the wide coverage of the visual arts has not been thrown wider to include decorative arts or applied arts; others may feel that depth has been sacrificed to width of coverage and the multiplicity of themes.

The work is a triumph as a co-perative project and celebration of creativity. It presents analysis, interpretation and reflection at a particular moment in time. Of course it will date in scholarship but is likely to remain as a magisterial effort and work worth consulting and simply enjoying over time. The many illustrations will give delight as all volumes are richly illustrated with quality colour plates, and many photographs and illustrations of art works appear for the first time.… (lisätietoja)