The MTN Collection at the Pretoria Art Museum
by Robyn Sassen
The year 2004 represented one decade of democracy for South Africa. And it was celebrated emphatically, particularly on the cultural front: the galleries, the stages and the art bookshelves were dripping with it, quickly forcing it as a sexy, pithy rubric on which to hang many a creative initiative. Whether the exhibitions engendered by it attained cultural and critical respectability and relevance because of this is moot. But does it matter?
One of the last corporate shows along these lines was MTN's. Begging comparison with the SABC art collection show at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, 'Resistance, Reconciliation and Reconstruction' was shown at the Pretoria Art Museum and is billed to travel the country during this year.
Like the SABC show, it is divided into categories. And, like the SABC show, it details South African histories as reflected in the creative sensibilities of artists. Unlike the SABC show, it has just three sections, making for greater readability. And unlike the SABC show, it reflects not only on MTN's holdings, but includes important works from other collections. This enables the exhibition to correlate with MTN's art education mission, but not to rely only on what MTN has acquired.
At the Pretoria show, the division between resistance and reconcilation was made palpable with a darkened, curtained off space in which Zwelethu Mthethwa's, Stills from the Crossings (2001) was set up to play on a loop. The emotional shifts in perceptions between a lit gallery with works hung traditionally on walls, a darkened space with moving images projected on screen, and another lit space with traditional work shown, was effective and meaningful.
The work documents rural baptism in an area near Paarl in the Cape. Mesmerising in its languid chronology, the work is a potent marking point in the exhibition, and offers literal and metaphorical transition between the anger and violence of resistance and the goal-focused clarity of reconciliation. It was also like a rite of passage to the exhibition itself.
As is the wont of group shows that tie work together with a common theme, there is disparity between works. They say different things. The angle of approach of one will contest that of another. Positioning them alongside one another can be complex and sometimes discomforting. But is this complexity or discomfort necessarily pejorative? It rests on curatorial astuteness and the line taken is that local history is replete with conflicting opinion, attitude and bias. That's what makes it rich.
Ephraim Ngatane's Untitled (Portrait of Dumile Feni) (1964) hanging cheek by jowl with pieces by Guy Stubbs and Velaphi Mzimba does make idiosyncratic socio-political comment. The upside of this is that it provides a view of apartheid and South Africa's burgeoning identity that is not straightforward but layered and intricate.
So we see Mmakgabo Sebidi and Gerard Sekoto and Pat Mautloa and Gerard Bhengu sharing wall space. A work by John Brett Cohen is allowed to talk with one by Santu Mofokeng. They are linked by the medium of photography, but not necessary their take. There are thematic concerns grouped: the crucifixion idea is used by George Pemba, Judus Mahlangu, Charles Nkosi and Sifiso ka Mkame, differently and similarly. We see serious, dramatic pieces and ones casting a witty eye over the human landscape.
Landscape, as the nature of South African visual culture manifests, is a central subtext to the show. Brett Murray's quirky wrought iron ironic comment on the landscape in Empire (1997) and Jo Ractliffe's Vlakplaas: 2 July 1999 (1999), a 'drive by shooting', dovetail with more traditional panoramic understandings of our land. Kim Berman's book State of Emergency III (1987) comprising concertina-bound monotypes and drypoint on paper, is displayed as a continuous art work, hung vertically, which emphasises its landscape-like subtleties.
Indeed, there is a healthy representation of artists' books: by Berman, Christine Dixie and Sue Williamson, which is an interesting move from the conventional display of contemporary art. Still labelled as something of the poor relative in visual culture, artists' books seldom get this type of exposure.
The exciting thing about this exhibition, moving through its three consecutive grand moments in South African contemporary history, is that many of the pieces have not been available for public consumption over the years. Yet they're important enough to be reflected and re-reflected in history books, art history books and lectures.
These include Willem Boshoff's Seven Pillars of Justice (1997), Yinka Shonibare's Diary of a Victorian Dandy: 14.00 hours (1998) and Paul Stopforth's Elegy (c.1980), to name but a few. This too illustrates curatorial astuteness: these works were snapped up years ago, in the heat of history in the making, seen then as important as they remain today.
With respect for the country and its history, the exhibition is well put together: Bongi Dhlomo-Mautloa, Monna Mokoena and Philippa Hobbs co-curated. The highlight, however, is the catalogue. It features an essay by Dhlomo-Mautloa, which reflects movingly on how local history in the making touched her own existence. Typographic errors aside, this essay, the short biographies, quotes and reproduced works of selected artists are a compelling account of the South African narrative, which should prove meaningful to visitors and learners.
At the back of the book is a timeline of South Africa from 1912. It details not only historical landmarks, but also interjections of when artworks were made. A fantasy timeline in the world's 'real' priorities, it lends potent dignity to the arts. For instance in 1976, when B.J. Vorster unwittingly initiated the Soweto uprising, Charles Nkosi was printing Pain on the Cross a series of linocuts.
The message engendered is that art is as significant as history, and the issue of political art and the politics of representation remains healthily grey. It also poetically fits MTN Foundation's art educational mission, and sets a believable standard.
Closed: January 31
Pretoria Art Museum
Corner Wessels and Schoeman Streets, Arcadia, Pretoria
Tel: (012) 344-1807 or (Nthombi Thabethe) 083 577 7147
Email: artsinfo@tut.co.za or thabet_n@mtn.co.za
Hours: Tue - Sun 10am - 5pm, Wed 10am -- 8pm
