My Favourite Artworks: Remembering Madiba, the Struggle for Democracy, and Goodbye to one of South Africa’s Best-Known Paintings

Published 22 December 2020 in Blog

Christopher Till, former Curatorial Director of the Javett-UP, gives his view of three iconic artworks currently on display.

The Javett-UP’s opening exhibition, 101 Collecting Conversations: Signature Works of a Century will end in January, and features some of South Africa’s most iconic works of art. In a month where we remember the passing of Nelson Mandela, our first democratic president, we wanted to explore one of the best-known artworks yet produced about Madiba’s legacy (Release by Marco Cianfanelli). This will also be the last month that Irma Stern’s, Arab Priest can be seen in South Africa for some time, as it will soon be heading home to the Orientalist Museum in Doha. Finally, we also wanted to highlight that art can be the work of a collective, using traditional textile arts, as in the magnificent and mournful African Guernica, produced by the Keiskamma Art Project.

Release - Marco Cianfanelli (2012)

This is a maquette of a sculpture designed and produced by Marco Cianfanelli, a Johannesburg based South African artist, together with the architect, Jeremy Rose, which is installed at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site, just outside Howick in KwaZulu-Natal.

The work itself was designed for a competition at Nelson Mandela Bay, but which did not go ahead. 

It has become an internationally known piece. As one walks down the pathway, there is a particular moment when the 50 poles – which are between eight and 12 meters high – come into focus and show the face of Nelson Mandela. It represents the spirituality of the capture site where Nelson Mandela disappeared for 27 years. And he reappeared. And now of course he's no longer with us. 

Visitors are very often spiritually moved by walking down the pathway towards the sculpture and seeing the face of Mandela appear. It evokes an emotional response in memory of a man who was so instrumental in releasing so many people from bondage and the apartheid government. 

The poles are made of steel, which have been laser cut and placed over a 30-metre length and 10 metre width. You can actually walk amongst the poles which which move in the wind, and again, it evokes a very spiritual experience.

Artwork courtesy of the Artist.

 Arab Priest - Irma Stern (1945)

Irma Stern, one of South Africa's foremost artists who worked extensively in the Cape, and her interest in Muslim culture eventually took her to Zanzibar. She was fascinated with what one might describe as Orientalism (the exoticising of Eastern culture by western artists). In this painting, she shows the figure of a man who is described as the Arab priest. 

The work is of interest not only because of its subject matter which became principal to her work, but it also has a story attached to it. It was offered for sale in 2011 by Bonhams in London, and the Orientalist Museum in Doha purchased the work for £3 million, making it the most expensive South African work at the time. In today's figures, that is around R60 million. 

When they came to collect the work, Bonhams said, "Well, we have a slight problem here." The problem was that the work is in South Africa, and the South African Heritage Agency (SAHA) said that it was a national treasure and could not leave the country. 

After threats of court action and mediation, finally, an arrangement was struck, whereby the work would be on loan to the Orientalist Museum in Doha, and that it would have to return every five years to spend one year in South Africa, and the work could be on loan extensively for 20 years, whereafter potentially it could be extended. So it gives an interesting insight into the value of artworks and the importance of national heritage. In this instance, national heritage factor potentially could have become a problem, but there was a solution to it.

Artwork courtesy of Qatar Museums.

Keiskamma Tapestry - African Guernica – Keiskamma Art Project (2010)

This amazing tapestry of considerable size is reflective of an extraordinary project in the Eastern Cape near the village of Hamburg. In this village, there is a collective community-owned project where over 100 hundred artists and craftspeople have developed artworks. The Keiskamma Tapestries, of which this is one, are inspired by the Anglo-Saxon Bayeux Tapestry (11th century), which tells the story of the conquest of England by the Norman invaders.

The tapestries range from A History of the Wars in the Eastern Cape, which is in Parliament, to this one, which is reflective of the very famous work by Picasso Guernica, which represented the tragic bombing of the town of Guernica by the Germans in the Spanish war. In a sense this echoes, the clash between the AmaXhosa in the Eastern Cape, and the British in the Frontier Wars, where the spectre of war and the tragedy of war is once more interpreted. 

Its significance is the story behind this project, which was created by a woman who studied art but is a medical doctor, Dr Carol Hofmeyr, and she decided to leave her practice in Johannesburg, and go to the Eastern Cape where she wanted to work as an artist. She was so moved by the plight of people in the area who were being decimated by HIV/Aids that she created a hospice in the little town. She combined both her talents in the first instance as a medical doctor, caring for those who were ill, and dying, but also breathing some hope into the community by teaching them how to create these tapestries.

This particular one you will see shows Xhosa women, it shows people dying, with the imagery of Guernica, representing the horrors that that represented. But below the work along the bottom edge, you'll see a whole number of little crosses and the names of those who died in remembrance of the people who were victims to the scourge of HIV, which is particularly pertinent now I would say, where we are currently facing the tragedy of the coronavirus.

Artwork courtesy of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum.