Sunday, March 29

On Saturday at the Joburg Art Fair the highlighted event was the keynote speech by invited guest, Klaus Biesenbach, Director of PS1 in New York, and curator at large at MoMA. No title for this speech appeared on the programme, no theme, and perhaps this was the problem. The suave curator appeared to be speaking from the hip.

Klaus Biesenbach in Johannesburg

Biesenbach opened his attack by saying 'I don't like art fairs' where you can 'buy things to carry back under your arms', contrasting them to biennales, under the direction of a single curator, which provide 'an incredibly important way for people to talk'. He did concede that an art fair 'might be bearable and useful in a city like Johannesburg, where there is an art scene.' His audience, largely only too well aware of the differences in intent of an art fair and a biennale, was not receptive to this prescriptive approach.

William Kentridge, with whom Biesenbach has worked closely on Kentridge's current exhibition at MoMA, responded from the floor that the Joburg Art Fair was obviously not a biennale, but whatever its limitations, for the art community of the country, it was 'our best and only meeting point', where artists and curators gather to talk and see what is going on.

And so saying, Kentridge summed up what seemed to be the general feeling about this year's Art Fair. Of course there is the usual component of less than great work, but overall there is much to see, the contributions from foreign galleries are welcome, and one feels the big galleries have gone to considerable trouble to present new work from their top artists.

And it is a real opportunity to talk, even informally.

Saturday, March 27

It's the first official day of the art fair, and the talk around the media table is about what a washout the opening night afterparty was. It was all supposed to happen at the Monarch Hotel in Rosebank, but when partygoers found that the cheapest wine at the Monarch was R220 a bottle, they predictably, moved on.

Looking at ArtHeat correspondent Matthew Blackman behind his shades, it's clear that other party venues were more hospitable ...


An equaly beautiful pair of eyes is to be seen on Barend de Wet's Insincere Object with Insincere Title. This painted bronze cast from a knitted creation of Barend's has knitting ball eyes, painted in a shade of green that used to be reserved for public lavatories, but that Barend has had specially mixed to a hue now known as Barend de Wet green.



Barend de Wet’s knitted bronze object

On the Centre for Contemporary Art (Lagos) stand, Moroccan artist Safaa Erruas is showing delicate small works which are almost white on white, utilising fines wire, drops of silicone, pins, and pricked paper surfaces. Luckily, Safaa brought these small works with her in her suitcase, as the large works she was hoping exhibit got stuck in transit somewhere ...

Friday, March 26

It was a night of 1000 kisses, kisses that grew increasingly sloppy with the free flowing of the wine, as the local artworld gathered en masse in the Sandton Convention Centre for the opening of the 2010 Joburg Art Fair.

The subdued atmosphere of the previous year (I wasn't there, but by all accounts the mood was gloomy) seem to have lifted. Buyers crowded the aisles and red stickers began to make their cheerful appearance.

Last year, the Michael Stevenson Gallery reputedly failed to sell a single work. Times have changed. This year, the gallery made the decision to show the work of a single artist, Penny Siopis, and the space was sparely hung with six of her paintings. By the end of the evening, half had been sold.

There is generally more space around, more space within the gallery booths themselves and in the centre of the exhibition space, a welcome exhibition by Source of some of the most innovative design in South African furniture and lighting by young designers.

Again, several galleries from outside South Africa's borders are here: the October Gallery, from London, Gallery Watatu from Kenya, Galerie Beatrice Binoche from Reunion Island, and Peter Hermann from Berlin.

A highlight of this year's fair is Siemon Allen's Records, a long corridor space lined with two metre square images of of 78 r.p.m. vinyl records of African music, well worn, well rubbed. The installation is part of the Gordon Schachat Collection.

But there is lots to see, on every hand. But only till Sunday. Don't miss it.

Opening night at the Art Fair

Siemon Allen's Records

March 21 2010

So much has been happening it's been hard to keep up. Jane Alexander's sculptural piece Racework - in the event of an earthquake which went on the block at the Strauss & Co auction on March 15 broke the R1 million rand mark, selling for R1 058,300. A tribute not only to the strength of the artwork, but to be read as a promising sign for the future of top quality contemporary art at auction. The buyer has not yet been disclosed, but it is known that the work will stay in the country.

RoseLee Goldberg, director of Performa, ex Capetonian Mark Coetzee, and N'Gone Fall, the lively curator from Senegal flew in to judge the Spier exhibition, and it was great to see them all. RoseLee gave an inspiring and energetic lecture on visual art performance at Michaelis, to a packed hall.

Spier Contemporary 2010 opened to muted applause. Spier, the art world appreciates your extremely generous sponsorship and applauds your democratic ideals in encouraging artists who are not professionals, but this time around there is too much work on show of poor quality. Survey shows are by their very nature controversial, but as one Cape Town artist put it bluntly, there is so much bad work, than when you do see a good piece it looks like an accident.

Suggestions have been made that next time there should be separate sections for established, professional artists and those who have not yet reached this level.
But Spier, please accept these comments in a spirit of constructive criticism. We want to see the exhibition continue and go from strength to strength.

And finally, very sadly, the grand old man of South African art, the irrepressible Robert Hodgins has taken his leave of the studio where he painted so many sublime works. R.I.P. Robert.

Monday, March 1

Seldom has there been so much interest in a local auction of contemporary art as there is in Important South African Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture, scheduled to take place in Cape Town on March 15 under the hammer of Strauss & Co.

The reason: for the first time ever, a Jane Alexander sculpture will go on the block, providing a unique opportunity for collectors and art institutions, both here and abroad, to acquire a major work by this widely admired sculptor, whose work is seldom on the market, and who, famously, is not represented by a gallery.

This remarkable piece is entitled Racework - in the event of an earthquake. In the Strauss & Co catalogue, Lucy Alexander gives a description: 'This pair of boys dressed as men overtly exhibit compliance with social norms, dress, sobriety and restraint: in turn they will be rewarded and given leave to control. One is suited for the West; the other is masked for the East '. A small seated figure with a human body and an animal head, a tractor and a scythe complete the tableau. The artist made the piece in 1998, following a visit to Tokyo, where her earlier work, Bom Boys was exhibited as part of 'Africa Africa'. The auctioneers have listed the estimate as R800 000 - R1000 000

The auctioneers are probably holding their breaths to see if an earthquake will occur in the saleroom. Will the work sell well - reaching or far surpassing the estimate? Should it not sell, it would be bad not only for Strauss & Co, but for the artist, indicating a lack of interest from the market in acquiring her work. However, if the work sells for way above the estimate, the auctioneers would be well pleased but it might set an impossibly high new benchmark for Alexander's work overall - a benchmark which the rest of the market might not be able reach. Thus there might be a dropoff in other sales of Alexander's work.

It is not only Alexander herself who will be affected, but the sale will be a testing ground for the auction market's appetite for contemporary art in this country - up to now, the auction stars have been from the generation which included Gerard Sekoto and Irma Stern.

Ultimately it is the artists who are most affected by the aftershocks of auction sales. Watch this space for a reportback.

Sunday, February 21

Symposium of the week: Dada South? Exploring Dada legacies in South African art, organized by exhibition curators Roger van Wyk and Kathryn Smith. Here are some (very) random quotes from speakers on the first day:

Thembinkosi Goniwe: Why is South Africa always trying to connect with Europe and jumping across the rest of Africa?

Marc Dachy: (Quoting from the poems of Tristan Tzara):
Gadji beri bimba glandridi laula lonni cadori
gadjama gramma berida bimbala glandri
galassassa laulitalomini

Kemang Wa Lehulere: Is it not a failure of Dad to recognise African culture, taking a language in its own right?

Kendell Geers: I regard the art system as a global money laundering system.

Nina Romm: Kendell, in your presentation (of The History of Fuck, edited by Geers) why did you only show cunts and no cocks?

Kendell: Nina, Nina, Nina, (scanning furiously through images of spread legs and finally finding an erection shot) there are lots of images of cocks!

Nina: (later in the day, having asked the audience to come up and view photographs of her early student work which included photographs of her with a black penis attached) I want four people to say which work they think should have been included on the Dada South? show and wasn’t.

Saturday, February 13

One area of Cape Town that is changing like wildfire is the strip along Albert Road bounded by the Woodstock Industrial Centre at one end, where Kathryn Smith and Christian Nerf are living and working in their space Serialworks, and at the other end by our studio, All Star Studio, located in Spencer Road at the far end of Salt River.

A very few years ago, this area was solid workingclass, the calls from the mosques marking out the working day. The Cape Town garment industry had not yet been macerated by China, and little businesses serving the CMT (cut, make and trim) trade like the Frillee Pleating Company lined the streets.

Then Gilles de Moyencourt abandoned his midtown antiques business and bought a building which he called Albert Hall, with a bar downstairs. The fledgling gallery WhatiftheWorld moved in to the first floor, and the old Biscuit Mill was renovated and the Neighbourhood Goods Market started up on Saturday mornings.

In the last few months, a great new restaurant Superette opened next door to Albert Hall, and already it's hard to find a lunchtime seat. At the same time as the artists began to move in, the immigrant community started their small businesses too, and Congolese restaurants like Jinja started up, and hairdressing boards with painted images of styles made their appearance

I thought about all this driving to Serialworks on Friday night to watch Ben Lewis’s documentary on the contemporary art world, The Great Contemporary Art Bubble. I’ve run out of space to tell you more about this, but you can read more about this fascinating view from an insider at http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/comingup/greatcontemporaryartbubble