Three Decades of Democracy: South African Works on Paper
Kay Hassan (South African, born 1956), Bus Ride, 1996, paper, Purchase with High Museum of Art Enhancement Fund and funds from Patricia Blanchet and Ed Bradley, Eugene and Norrene Duffy, and Pamola Powell and Guy Lescault, 2005.197.
On May 10, 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president of South Africa, marking the end of decades of systematic and legalized racial segregation known as apartheid. This installation commemorates the thirtieth anniversary of the end of apartheid through a presentation of South African prints and works on paper from the High’s collection. The eight artists featured make observations about South African social and cultural life, employing their art to resist, witness, and reflect.
Many of these artists attended the Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre. Since apartheid policies excluded or otherwise limited Black artists from attending university art programs, informal art schools such as Rorke’s Drift offered an alternative. Founded by evangelical Lutheran missionaries in rural KwaZulu-Natal province, it was renowned for its printmaking program.
4 a.m. on the Marabastad-Waterval Bus, 1980, printed 1985
David Goldblatt’s series The Transported of KwaNdebele illustrates the daily commutes of Black South African workers to jobs in major urban centers, journeys that could take up to eight hours. This photo from the series shows passengers falling asleep on the early morning bus from Marabastad to Waterval.
David Goldblatt
South African, 1930–2018
4 a.m. on the Marabastad-Waterval Bus, 1980, printed 1985
Gelatin silver print
Gift of Lucinda W. Bunnen for the Bunnen Collection, 1986.81.3
Taking Care, 1994
Billy Mandindi attended the 1989 anti-apartheid Purple Rain Protest in Cape Town, where police used water cannons to douse protesters with purple dye so they could be easily identified later. Reportedly, Mandindi went directly from the protest to the printing press. Unlike many of his previous works, which address violence and suffering under apartheid, Taking Care reflects optimism and hope for a democratic South Africa five years later.
Billy Mandindi
South African, 1967–2005
Taking Care, 1994
Lithograph
Gift of Harriet and Eugene Becker, 2004.233
Natal Where Art School Is, 1974
John Muafangejo left his home country of neighboring Namibia, which was also under apartheid administration, to attend art classes at Rorke’s Drift. There, he produced prints like this one, which illustrates the geography, wildlife, and culture of his rural surroundings.
John Muafangejo
Namibian, 1943–1987
Natal Where Art School Is, 1974
Linocut
Anonymous gift, 2005.321
Dedicated to Victor Nduhzkwana, 1996
Born in the Springs township outside of Johannesburg, Sam Nhlengethwa received his art diploma from Rorke’s Drift in 1978. His passion for jazz culture is visible in many of his prints, such as this lithograph depicting a musician playing the saxophone. The artist later cofounded the Bag Factory Artist Studio in Johannesburg along with other renowned South African artists such as David Koloane and Patrick Mautloa.
Sam Nhlengethwa
South African, born 1955
Dedicated to Victor Nduhzkwana, 1996
Lithograph
Gift of Harriet and Eugene Becker, 2004.232
Old Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1976
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.
Nils Burwitz
South African, born 1940
Old Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1976
Lithograph
Gift of Robert Scully, 2018.36
Bathing Between the Beacons, 1974
This lithograph is an example of Nils Burwitz’s protest art, the politics of which became increasingly evident in his graphic work by the 1970s. In Bathing Between the Beacons, chain-link fencing, crowd control barriers, and signage dictate who can access which sections of a beach in the seaside city of Durban. Beacons along the coastline restrict visitors from swimming outside of the zones allocated to their racial group.
Nils Burwitz
South African, born 1940
Bathing Between the Beacons, 1974
Lithograph
Gift of Robert Scully, 2018.37
pp 2–3, from the Apartheid Scrolls series, 1995
The prints from Rudzani Nemasetoni’s Apartheid Scrolls series are photoetchings produced from copies of his father’s passbook. Passbooks were internal passport documents used to restrict movement under apartheid, and non-White South Africans were required to carry them to gain access to certain areas. Over seventeen million Black South Africans were arrested or tried for violating pass laws between 1916 and 1986, and destroying one’s passbook was a powerful form of protest.
Rudzani Nemasetoni
South African, born 1962
pp 2–3, from the Apartheid Scrolls series, 1995
Photoetching on paper
Purchase with African Art Acquisition Fund, 2010.1
Dancing Woman from Zeno at 4am, 2001
This etching comes from a series of nine prints Kentridge produced along with his shadow-puppet play and film Zeno Writing. These works are based on the Italian novel Confessions of Zeno (1923) by Italo Svevo. In the book, the main character contemplates contradictions in human behavior. Kentridge contemplates the same in the context of post-apartheid South Africa.
William Kentridge
South African, born 1955
Dancing Woman from Zeno at 4am, 2001
Sugarlift etching
Gift of Nicole Kekah’s successors, in loving memory of their sister, 2013.119
