Javett - UP celebrates the Cultural Legacy of Michael Javett

In his distinctly unobtrusive and eminently influential manner, Michael was the driving force behind the creation of the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria (Javett-UP), an extraordinary Centre that first opened its doors in September 2019. Built on the belief in the emancipatory potential of the arts in society through multidisciplinary curatorial and pedagogic initiatives, the Javett-UP was created through a partnership between the Javett Foundation and the University of Pretoria. While Michael has passed from us, his intense curiosity about what makes us human, from many different perspectives and why we create, is reflected in his and his family’s unique collection of key 20th-century South African artists, and the Bongi Dhlomo Collection of the Javett Foundation, both housed at Javett-UP.

Michael Javett passed away just a few days before the birth of the last art project in which Michael was directly involved, Mihloti ya Ntsako - Journeys with the Bongi Dhlomo Collection, a book currently being printed. It chronicles the coming into being of the Bongi Dhlomo Collection, a unique compendium of 138 artworks produced in the 20th century by both well-known and lesser-known black South African artists. Mihloti ya Ntsako is due to be launched at the Javett-UP on 25 November, in what is now destined to be a poignant and fitting celebration of music and art within Yakhal Inkomo, the inaugural exhibition of the Bongi Dhlomo Collection.

This book bears a tribute to Michael at the start of the book that reads: To Michael Javett. Without your generosity and vision, these journeys would never have been possible. Thank you. Bongi Dhlomo, the artist, curator and cultural worker who put together the eponymous collection of 20th century black art for the Javett Foundation, said that during a conversation she had with Michael in 2018 he said to her: “I want to ‘see’ your ‘eye’ in telling the story of how black artists saw and interpreted their world through their art production. But I also want to ‘see’ how black artists ‘saw’ their immediate community. How they felt about their existence. How they ‘saw’ South Africa.”

Throughout the book about this unusual collection process, Michael is “deliberately rendered invisible”, consistent with his character and his desire to centre Bongi as the prime driver of the project. And that is how he was, always there, minding from the wings and never wanting to take centre stage.

On his passing, Bongi said: “Michael - a pillar of strength. Without your support and enthusiasm we would not have this amazing collection and book. It is dedicated to your insistence that the collection should be accompanied by a narrative that indicates what artists were thinking as they created the artworks. We thank you Michael, we say farewell to you and how we wish you could have seen the book. We shall miss you.”

Gabi Ngcobo, Curatorial Director of the Javett-UP had this to say about Mr Javett’s passing, “I met Michael Javett for the first time in 2019. After a series of conversations about the Javett Family Collection, about the future of Javett-UP and about education, which he was most passionate about, he entrusted me with curating the collection for the opening of Javett-UP. I feared that my critical approach to the collection might dissuade him and the Javett Foundation, but I received immense support as he saw my concept as important for unpacking aspects of works of art that are not always spoken about in art history. The exhibition All in a Day’s Eye: The Politics of Innocence in the Javett Art Collection became a landmark curatorial undertaking that created a lot of debate and invited students and young people to engage with its questions.”

Javett-UP CEO, Lekgetho Makola, notes that our staff and partners will continue to build on the critical contribution that Michael Javett has made towards the democratisation and access to artistic education for our youth and diverse societies, to the betterment of our country and the region.

Michael Javett studied law at Wits University and then practised as an attorney at Webber Wentzel. He moved to London to join the international law firm Allen & Overy and subsequently pursued a career as a merchant banker at Hill Samuel. He then returned to South Africa where he established the Unisec Group that was later sold to Standard Bank. He also established Tolux SA, which has since become Brait. From 2006 he focused on philanthropy and was instrumental in establishing the Javett Foundation, and more recently Javett-UP, which took many years of planning.

Mihloti ya Ntsako chronicles the coming into being of the Bongi Dhlomo Collection, a unique compendium of 138 artworks produced in the previous century by both well-known and unheralded black South African artists. Overseen by Bongi Dhlomo, one of the most accomplished artists, curators and arts administrators of her generation, this remarkable collection was formed to provide aesthetic glimpses into the personal and collective experiences of black South Africans during the tumultuous twentieth century, and to facilitate meaningful dialogue between contemporary audiences and the country’s recent history. 

Written by art historian Pfunzo Sidogi, this book situates the artworks in the Bongi Dhlomo Collection within the broader socio-political, economic and cultural currents of the twentieth century. His essay also explores the nature of the collaboration between the Javett Foundation, financiers and legal custodians of the collection, and Bongi Dhlomo, the de facto patron and collector of the artworks. In a valuable first-hand account, Dhlomo reflects on the significance and meaning of this rare intervention into private institutionalised art collecting in South Africa. With further essays by Thembinkosi Goniwe, Tumelo Mosaka and Mmutle Kgokong.

The exhibition Yakhal’Inkomo and its programme explore how Black South African visual artists, musicians, poets, theatre makers, film-makers and writers forged acts of creative defiance during the most tumultuous times under apartheid (1960s to late 1990s). Working across media, artists not only recorded their pain and trauma, they redefined and celebrated their identity against the cultural imposition of the state. While the voices and actions of many of these artists were limited by censorship and suppression, their contributions were instrumental in keeping Black culture alive and resilient during the struggle years.

The title Yakhal’ Inkomo is derived from a 1968 jazz recording by the saxophonist and jazz composer Winston Mankunku Ngozi. Translated as “the bellowing bull”, it refers to the bull’s fundamental role in African life, symbolizing spiritual passage, awakening and resilience as well as material wealth, strength, collectivity and community. Ngozi’s anthem delves into the Black psyche and conjures up feelings of deep remorse, anguish and anger. But it is also a testament to the strength and resilience of creativity in the face of grief and dispossession. As a metaphor for this exhibition, we understand the bull’s cry as an awakening that unified Black people to confront and resist oppression Drawn primarily from the Bongi Dhlomo Collection, the artworks included in this exhibition explore the complexity of the Black experience of urbanization, estrangement, displacement, spirituality, and the texture of ordinary life. They capture seminal moments in the history of people’s defiance of state oppression. Recovering dialogues between Black artists across genres and media, the exhibition traces decades of exchange that corresponded to the growing restlessness and active resistance of the Black community.

These works provide an opportunity to recover and acknowledge this past, and to envision future possibilities of mobilizing its power in the present. In other words, the exhibition takes ownership of this history and explores what it means to be Black in South Africa today. Yakhal’Inkomo is guest-curated by Tumelo Mosaka with Sipho Mndanda as co-curator and Phumzile Twala as Research and Education Coordinator.