South African Black Artists In The Pretoria Art Museum Collection 1964 - 1994 at Pretoria Art Museum

When the Pretoria Art Museum opened its doors to the public on 20 May 1964, it had only one piece of artwork by a black artist. This artwork, by Simon Lekgetho, was part of the nucleus collection that hung in the City Hall and the Municipal Offices of the then City Council of Pretoria before the existence of the Pretoria Art Museum. For a museum that was tasked with collecting modern art through an informal policy that favoured South African Old Masters, ie the works of JH Pierneef, Frans Oerder, Maggies Laubser and European art that had influenced the development of early South African art, the collection of black artists was initially compromised.

However, over the years as our country witnessed the political repression of the 1960s and went through the 1970s, which saw the youth uprising of 1976, and the turn into the eighties wherein the apartheid government declared states of emergencies as our townships erupted in resistance, the museum slowly built a collection of South African black artists. The archives of the museum confirms it has more than 80 artworks by black artists. This exhibition aims to bring this body of work to the public’s attention and afford it the opportunity to reflect on the kind of works that have found their place into the collection in the three decades leading to 1994. On show, there will be works by Daniel Rakgoathe, George Pemba, Noria Mabasa, Jackson Hlungwane, Louis Maqhubela and Moshile wa Nthodi, to name a few artists.