WAM curator Fiona Rankin-Smith
Johannesburg was the place to be last week, with the opening of the gorgeous new Wits Art Museum attracting the entire local art world. Serendipitously acronyming to WAM, the new multi level space offers unique exhibition opportunities.
Opening night at WAM
For the opening, WAM showcased key pieces from the Standard Bank Collection of African art, and works from its own collection. Although there were a number of extraordinary paintings on show, and it was a pleasure to see them again, there was a slightly dated air about it all: a feeling of work being brought out of storerooms. Nothing much by the new generation of artists.
Levels are connected by shallow stairs
As one artist commented, the work will have to catch up with the space.
If WAM is to realize its full potential, corporate and other patrons will have to be found to fund acquisitions, retrospectives and exhibitions of the kind of quality which will regenerate the local art scene and place WAM on the international agenda as an important destination.
I can’t wait to see this happen.
A quiet corner on the lowest level of WAM
Golden knuckle dusters on Brett Murray’s ‘Hail to the Thief ll’
Earlier on the very same evening, social satirist Brett Murray had opened his ‘Hail to the Thief ll’ at the Goodman Gallery, releasing so many sharply barbed arrows aimed at government corruption that perhaps it was not surprising that given the sensitivity of our leaders, the Department of Arts and Culture subsequently phoned gallery owner Liza Essers to request a meeting about the work.
Brett Murray and Liza Essers
As this goes to press, that meeting has not yet taken place, but work ranged from an exquisite pair of gold plated knuckle dusters with VIVA enameled in red on each, to some distinctly unflattering representations of President Zuma. See it all online at http://www.goodman-gallery.com/exhibitions/265
Brett Murray’s Monopoly
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