The Museum of Modern Art presents Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now on view through August 14, 2011.
The exhibition Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now, drawn entirely from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, brings together nearly 100 prints, posters, books, and wall stencils by approximately 30 artists and collectives that demonstrate the unusual reach, range, and impact of printmaking in South Africa during and after a period of political upheaval. From the earliest print, a 1965 linoleum cut by Azaria Mbatha, to screenprinted posters created during the height of the antiapartheid movement, to recent works by a younger generation that investigate a multiplicity of formats in the wake of apartheid, these works are striking examples of printed art as a tool for social, political, and personal expression.
The exhibition is on view from March 23 to August 14, 2011. Among the artists included are Bitterkomix, Kudzanai Chiurai, Sandile Goje, William Kentridge, Senzeni Marasela, John Muafangejo, Cameron Platter, Claudette Schreuders, and Sue Williamson, with the majority of works and artists on view for the first time at MoMA and many for the first time within a U.S. museum. The exhibition Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now is organized by Judith B. Hecker, Assistant Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books, The Museum of Modern Art.
During the oppressive years of apartheid rule in South Africa, black artists had limited access to opportunities for formal training. But far from quashing creativity and political spirit, these limitations gave rise to a host of alternatives, including studios, print workshops, art centers, schools, publications, and theaters open to all races; underground poster workshops and collectives; and commercial galleries that supported the work of all artists—making the art world a progressive force for social change. Printmaking, with its flexible formats, portability, relative affordability, collaborative nature, and democratic reach, was a catalyst in the exchange of ideas and the articulation of political resistance.
Impressions from South Africa is organized around five themes: the use of linoleum cut, which exemplifies the accessibility and bold expressiveness of printmaking; the suitability of printmaking, particularly screenprint and offset lithography, for disseminating political statement; the use of intaglio, which has a strong history of graphically narrative work full of political allusion; the integration of photography and printmaking to expand on the notion of the documentary; and, finally, the variety of topics and formats present in postapartheid printed works, many of which revitalize these other techniques and strategies.
The first section addresses the technique of linoleum cut (or linocut), a medium collectively developed by students at arts schools and community workshops that, beginning in the 1960s, were open to black artists when universities were not. At the time linocut was also a relatively inexpensive printmaking material within the country and frequently used at these schools. Among the artists on view in this section are Azaria Mbatha, John Muafangejo, and Charles Nkosi, who trained at the historic ELC Art and Craft Centre at Rorke’s Drift in KwaZulu-Natal in the 1960s and 1970s. This section also features works created later at Dakawa Art and Craft Community Centre, near Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape. The notable linocut Meeting of Two Cultures (1993) by Dakawa student Sandile Goje directly addresses the topic of apartheid’s demise, one year before the country’s first nonracial democratic election. For this work Goje has infused the graphic nature of linocut with satirical elements to present a reconciliation: a rectangular Western-style suburban brick house, with plump legs and ample clothing, shakes hands with a circular thatched
During the height of the antiapartheid movement in the 1980s, poster production flourished in workshops, collectives, unions, youth organizations, and the alternative press. Screenprinting and offset lithography were common methods, both incorporating photographic and ready-made imagery; offset was also attractive because its high print runs fostered broad dissemination. Posters on view in this section were created by artists and activists working collectively with Medu Art Ensemble, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), Save the Press Campaign, and Gardens Media Project, along with the country’s most broad-reaching antiapartheid organization, the United Democratic Front (UDF). The UDF was effective in galvanizing the public through their printed materials and protests in the 1980s, as exemplified in the poster One Year of United Action (1984), on view here, which celebrates the UDF’s first anniversary. This work is typical of the directness and symbolism of the group’s imagery—dramatically printed in red, black, and yellow, it emphasizes the racial diversity and heroism of its constituents.
Image: Claudette Schreuders, The Couple from Crying in Public. 2003. One from a series of nine lithographs with chine collé, composition: 13 x 9 3/16″ (33 x 23.4 cm) Publisher and printer: The Artists’ Press, White River, South Africa. Edition: 30. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Fund for the Twenty-First Century © 2011 Claudette Schreuders.
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