Iziko exhibition presented at Tate Modern

Last edited: October 27, 2010

Posted by Business and Arts South Africa

The groundbreaking exhibition, 2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, ran at the Iziko South African National Gallery (ISANG) from mid-April until early October this year.

Since its closing, curator of the show Riason Naidoo has been invited to Londonâ€™s Tate Modern to discuss the exhibition publicly in conversation with the Tate Modern curators and a select group of African curators from the continent.

Naidoo, the newly appointed director at ISANG set out to highlight the history and diversity of contemporary South African art over the last century, working with the national gallery collection and loaning works from 48 lenders from around the country that included art museums, corporate collections, commercial galleries, private lenders and artists themselves. The exhibition sparked debate and controversy not only nationally but in reviews in New York, London, Berlin and Amsterdam as well. Visitor numbers doubled.

The Free Flight Dance Company specially choreographed a one hour dance performance around the exhibition that attracted packed audiences and animated the artworks. Just before its closing ISANG ran Diss da Art, which encouraged youth to say why they disliked certain artworks on the show, which was a huge success. On the final weekend the exhibition culminated in a two day conference bringing together local luminaries of the South African art world.

For more information please click here to visit the Iziko Museum's website.