Patron of the arts Dick Enthoven has passed away
South African businessman and patron of the arts Dick Enthoven passed away this week at the age of 85 after a battle with cancer. Enthoven is best known as being the owner of Nando’s, the Hollard Group of insurance companies, and Spier Wine Farm. Enthoven was instrumental to starting the Spier Arts Trust, which boasts a significant art collection as well as programmes for fine arts education and career development, including Spier Arts Academy, Creative Block and Qaqambile Bead Studio. Nando’s has also become an investor in contemporary South African art, with over 24,000 pieces in its collection. In addition to making Spier Wine Farm a centre for the arts with annual Performance Art and Light Festivals, Enthoven also helped establish and support the Dimpho Di Kopane performance art company. They achieved world recognition when they won the prestigious Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film festival in 2005 for uCarmen eKhayelitsha. Enthoven also provided the funding for William Kentridge’s ground-breaking film animations, 9 films (2004), as well as a major exhibition of South African contemporary
art, Personal Affects (2004), at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York. Recent years saw his support for 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair and the development of Victoria Yards in Johannesburg, as well as major funding for arts institutions such as Wits Art Museum and the Johannesburg Contemporary Art Foundation.
Curator Laurie Ann Farrell met Enthoven in the early aughts when she was working at the Museum for African Art in New York. Currently, Farrell is curating a major show from his collection, set to open at the African American Museum of Dallas this spring. She writes, “I started working towards a new exhibition honouring Dick’s legacy with South African art in late 2019. Each artist I’ve met since then has each shared a beautiful story about how Dick supported their artistic path. Some shared how he gave office space for their MFA exhibitions, others how his philanthropy, vision and friendships had championed their careers. I can only hope that our exhibition meant for Dallas in 2023 will hint at the majestic force of nature his contributions have made to South African art.”
SA artists at African Biennale of Photography in Bamako
Atiyyah Khan, Sethembile Msezane, Jo Ractliffe, Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose, Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo and Helena Uambembe are the South African-based artists represented at the 13th edition of Recontres de Bamako, along with a host of artists from across the continent and the diaspora. The official exhibitions will be presented at the National Museum of Mali, African House of Photography, Bamako Railway Station, Bamako District Museum, Modibo Keita Memorial, French Institute of Mali, Galerie Medina and the Ba Aminata Diallo Girls High School.
The curatorial team is comprised of Akinbode Akinbiyi (artist and independent curator), Meriem Berrada (Artistic Director, MACAAL, Marrakech), Tandazani Dhlakama (Assistant Curator, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town), and Liz Ikiriko (artist and Curator of Collections and Contemporary Engagement at Art Gallery of York University, Toronto) together with Artistic Director Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung. Titled Maa ka Maaya ka ca a yere kono—On Multiplicity, Difference, Becoming and Heritage, this edition is “an invitation to reflect collectively on these multiplicities of being and differences, to go beyond the notion to be unique and to embrace composite, layered and fragmented identities, as well as multiple, complex and non-linear understandings of space and time.”
Athi-Patra Ruga wins the 8th Ruth Baumgarte Art Award
Athi-Patra Ruga is the 2022 Recipient of the 8th Ruth Baumgarte art award. Previous recipients include William Kentridge, Michael Armitage, Nan Goldin, Mona Hatoum, Amelie von Wulffen, Kader Attia and Judith Hopf. The award will be presented in person in Vienna at the Albertina Museum on December 7th, and will be accompanied by a presentation of the artist’s work in conversation with a major exhibition of the work of Ruth Baumgarte.
Athi-Patra Ruga, Inyanga Yekhala (detail), 2020. Wool and thread on tapestry canvas.
