Details

Title

Old Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa

Artist/Maker

Nils Burwitz (South Africa, born 1940)

Date

1976

Medium

Dimensions

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Credit

Gift of Robert Scully

Accession #

2018.36

On View

On View - Wieland Pavilion, Skyway, Gallery 415

This print depicts the urban landscape of Johannesburg’s Old Hillbrow neighborhood, designated a “Whites-only” area in the 1970s. Burwitz’s loose draftsmanship and use of linear strokes suggest a city in flux, socially and physically constructed by invisible forces. A dark cloud emitting sheets of rain hangs like an omen above the chaos of a neighborhood constrained by the racial politics of its time.

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