Iziko South African National Gallery marks 150 years of diverse art collection
Andrew Lamprecht is the curator behind the Iziko gallery’s exhibition marking 150 years of art collection. Picture: Leon Lestrade
The Iziko South African National Gallery has reopened with an exhibition honouring its art collection over the past 150 years.
The exhibition, titled Breaking Down the Walls - 150 years of Art Collecting is an immersive experience of the gallery’s art collections, which date back to 1872.
The extensive visual showcases put together by curator Andrew Lamprecht, are broken up into topical sections, instead of thematic or chronological order.
More than 11 000 artworks were inspected for two and half years to choose the 500 pieces that are now a part of the exhibition.
“I thought about things like ‘gender and agenda’, and ‘lost and found’ and started building the exhibition around those,” he said.
Lamprecht highlighted how work by a black South African only entered the gallery’s collection in 1964 for the first time.
“Thus, there is an imbalance in the holdings. The exhibition reflects and considers this imbalance while celebrating the attempts to redress it in more recent decades,” he said.
“The exhibition also looks to the future in highlighting new acquisitions and policies aimed at broadening the scope of art collected at the gallery.
“A lot of the things we brought into the room were not considered artwork when it was created, but we’ve given it the full dignity to be seen in that light now.”
Lamprecht said it is vital to note that this is the gallery’s 150th anniversary and that it is not a celebration.
“This used to be a colonial gallery and we are not celebrating that early period, just noting it - which is why this is an anniversary,” he said.
“This is an opportunity to see parts of the collection from the last 150 years. We created this because we want everyone to feel included in the art.”
Thania Petersen is a multi-disciplinary artist whose ‘I am Royal’ collection was included in the exhibition. Last year, Petersen was an artist in residency at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA)
The piece is a collection of images as she journeys back in time to explore her ancestral connection. In the images, she uses ceremonial clothes used in the Malay traditions and is posed at locations that are known for issues like slavery and forced removals in Cape Town.
“I am Royal” is her reclaiming those spaces and asserting the narrative from victim to victor.
Petersen said it’s exciting to have this collection be part of the exhibition.
“This was my first collection as an artist. I created it because I saw a lack of representation of people who look like me,” she said.
“We were under-represented and this collection was an attempt to correct that. We belong within this landscape and I wanted to represent that in my art.”
Petersen said she felt honoured to be featured in the exhibition.
“I am a big fan of the national gallery. It belongs to the people and we are the people. The work there belongs to us because it is by our people,” she said.
“It means the world to be featured in a place that serves our people.”
When you enter the galley, your eyes are cast straight ahead to the atrium where an art installation named “Messages from the Moat” is displayed.
The artwork, which was the possession of the gallery since it was created in 1997, has been displayed as part of the exhibition for the very first time.
“Messages from the Moat” holds glass bottles in a net shaped like a boat. Each bottle represents the lives of slaves traded under the first colonisers of the Cape of Good Hope, the Dutch East India Company.
Each bottle is engraved with the details of the slaves. The installation was created by British-South African artist Sue Williamson.
Williamson emigrated with her family to South Africa in 1948. She started creating work regarding the social change in 1970 and later became known for her portraits of women involved in the country’s political struggle.
Williamson said the piece was inspired by wanting to create an artwork that reflected the slave transactions in the 1600s.
“Messages travel across the sea in a bottle. Each of the 1 400 bottles in this piece reflects those messages from the slaves,” she said.
“Breaking Down the Walls - 150 years of Art Collecting” is on show at gallery for the next year. The gallery is open Monday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm. Tickets are R30 for adults, R15 for children aged six to 18 and children aged five and under enter free.