Re-Visions - Expanding the Narrative of South African Art, edited by Hayden Proud
reviewed by Carol brown
Collectors and collections are in the news these days and have, in many cases, replaced the roles of museums. One of the main reasons for this is that, in Africa generally, government support for art museums has not been forthcoming and, in many cases, national and parastatal museums have become part of larger 'clusters' with heads who are not art specialists and who do not allocate sufficient resources or support art museums under their portfolios. This has led to static collections and often insufficient funding to curate significant shows. In the days of the Renaissance, families like the Medicis were the art patrons and it appears that this is the case today.
In an unusual move, the SA National Gallery recently held an exhibition of a private collection, the Campbell Smith collection. The circumstances of showing this collection are described in Hayden Proud's preface to the book, although the possible attendant problems are not mentioned. By foregrounding the collection of one individual in a highly respected institution one could be accused of being party to providing the collector with an economic jumpstart in the increase of the value of his particular artworks. One of the most famous private collectors in Western contemporary art is Charles Saatchi who singlehandedly elevated a group of young British art students to superstar status by buying out their entire final year show and then putting his financial muscle and exceptional promotional mechanism into making their works the most sought after commodities in contemporary art.
Collectors have also been in the news lately with the selection for the African Pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale. Chosen to represent the continent was the Sindika Dokolo African Collection of Contemporary Art. This was created in Luanda (Angola) in 2004 by the Congolese businessman and art collector Sindika Dokolo, together with the Angolan artist Fernando Alvim. The Collection's aim was to promote the knowledge of the contemporary art scene throughout the African continent. The Collection comprises 500 works by 140 artists from 28 different nations. This choice has aroused a great deal of debate, but then what's new in the art world?
I do however feel that given the many issues around private collections, collectors and the economics of collecting, that the book missed a perfect opportunity to interrogate these. In the case of black artists this is particularly interesting. I remember Trevor Makhoba, for example, selling his paintings on the street in the early 90's for R100. We have all heard stories of Gerard Bhengu going from house to house selling his drawings for the price of a meal. There are numerous other instances. Perhaps that study is still to come but I felt that the book put a gloss on these interesting and important aspects of collecting. In France today there is a law regarding the resale of artworks where the family can now claim a royalty payment and in this way the artists or their heirs still benefit and it is not only the collector who reaps the rewards. This is a matter to explore in South Africa where collectors have made enormous profits and the black artists or their heirs still do not reap the rewards.
It is indeed a lavish volume with no expense spared. The high number of colour plates provides an excellent visual reference of the artworks making it a unique resource for the researcher. Due to the costs of photography and printing, the earlier books documenting the careers of black artists such as those by Manaka, EJ de Jager, Sack etc. were lacking in good illustrations, and an artbook without good illustrations is definitely the poorer. However, the biographies in Re-Visions are somewhat abbreviated and I felt this was another lost opportunity. The addition of bibliographic references could have made the book more useful for serious researchers. However, the selling price of R400 unfortunately makes it inaccessible to the average buyer.
The repeated criticism of Gavin Younge and Sue Williamson's early publications provided an easy comparison to boost the merits of this particular book. However, these are unbalanced comments. Those books were both produced in an era where there was less access to the work of black artists due to their absence from both public and private collections. It should also be noted that both these authors (who are also artists) have played a very important role in teaching, exhibiting, producing other books and articles which have provided source material.
Finally, despite my reservations, there is no doubt that the book itself has been beautifully produced. It is well designed, has writing by respected authors and it adds to the general literature on the neglected history of art by South African black artists.
Hardcover: 360 pages
Publisher: SA History Online and Unisa Press (2006)
Edited by Hayden Proud
Language: English
ISBN 1-874817-33-2
Selling Price: R400
