What’s On! (updated 05 November 2015)

STILLNESS and DARK CITY DREAMS by MICHAEL MEYERSFELD | 28 October 2015 to 31 January 2016 | North Gallery

The internationally recognised Johannesburg-based photographer Michael Meyersfeld is exhibiting two of his latest collections of photographs at the Pretoria Art Museum. Meyersfeld’s work schedule revolves around his personal fine art projects and commercial work for the advertising industry, both in South Africa and abroad. With his remarkable use of and play with light, he draws the eye to the mystery beyond the phenomenon. Close to 60 photographs will be on exhibition.

The collection titled Stillness represents a distilled and superbly refined body of work, where Meyersfeld uses a visual language to describe the human condition and prompts the viewer to rethink notions such as fragility, brevity and illusive peace.

Dark City Dreams consists of fifteen staged images that portray the intrinsic hope of Alexandra and furthers Ubuntu, the universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.

FRAGILE HISTORIES, FUGITIVE LIVES by KEITH DIETRICH | 21 October 2015 to 17 January 2016 | South Gallery

Fragile histories, fugitive lives is a compelling body of work by Keith Dietrich conceptualised to draw from our history and engage with current debates and issues. The works are stimulated by the artist’s serious historical research and have a direct relevance to our contemporary attempts to build a cohesive society. Through the interaction between words, images and materials, Dietrich has endeavoured to examine the interplay between histories and social and political differences in South Africa. By so doing, he has attempted to bring about a dialogue between the past and present, and between difference and diversity. As such, the artist believes that this work explores a new way of understanding the world folded into the self.

A STORY OF SOUTH AFRICAN ART | Ongoing | Albert Werth Hall

This selection of artworks from the permanent collection of the Pretoria Art Museum briefly reviews South African art. It includes the works by early 20^th century painters, Resistance artists of the 1980s, and artists of the 21^st century. The exhibition is based on the secondary school syllabus, and the artworks are rotated regularly.

COROBRIK COLLECTION

A selection of ceramics is on display, representing the development of studio ceramics and the work of traditional rural potters in South Africa over the past 30 years. Newly acquired ceramic pieces are added throughout the year.

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS

UMLAMBO UZWIWA NGE DONDOLO, by BAMBO SIBIYA | 19 November to 13 December 2016 | Preiss Hall

Opening: Thursday, 19 November at 18:30

Bambo Sibiya has performed extremely well in South African art competitions in recent years: in 2012 he was a finalist in the Absa L’Atelier top ten awards, and the winner of the prestigious Gerard Sekoto Award, which granted a three month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2013. Working at the the APS Gallery, he has also worked on the large scale linocuts of several leading artists such as William Kentridge, Diane Victor, Norman Catherine and Colbert Mashile.

Rich stylistic detail and textures mark Bambo Sibiya’s linocuts and drypoint works, which seem to give insight into masculine identity and community on the streets of Johannesburg.  Sibiya has found inspiration in the social realists – Hogarth’s social allegories, Goya’s Disasters of War and Diane Victor’s Disasters of Peace – and has been strongly engaged with the theme of poverty in his local community, including the role of single mothers as heads of their households.  In his current work Sibiya has shifted his focus to the lifestyle that developed around migrant communities.

For enquiries please contact the Alliance Française of Pretoria at 012 343 6563 or info.pretoria@alliance.org.za

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ART LIBRARY

We invite you to make use of our Art Library which houses books on South African Art, African Art,  Western Art as well as Crafts and Ceramics. Our library is accessible by appointment from Tuesday to Friday 10:00 to 03:00.

PUBLICATION | LUCAS SITHOLE 1931–1994 – HIGHLIGHTS

Published 21 years after Lucas Sithole passed away and more than 35 years after the first exhibition catalogue was printed in 1979, this publication covers major works in private, corporate and public collections throughout the world, being a brief introduction to 100 selected sculptures.

This publication should be a valuable document for museums, art libraries, researchers, educationalists and galleries. This monograph includes a brief biography, stories and legends about the sculptures of Lucas Sithole, a list of public and institutional collections, selected references and statements about Lucas Sithole, and extracts from the artist’s handwritten private diary from 1985.

The publication is available in South Africa from Clarke’s Bookshop in Cape Town (books@clarkesbooks.co.za) or from the publisher (the Haenggi Foundation Inc. at pelmama.thf@gmail.com). The ISBN is 978-3-033-04655-9.

 

GUIDED TOURS

Option A: South African Art

Time: Tuesdays to Fridays between 10:00 and 13:00

Duration: One hour

Number of visitors: No more than 100 per appointment

Cost: R20,00 per person for learners (entrance fee of R5,00 included); R37,00 per person for adults (entrance fee of R22,00 included)

Option B: Children’s Gallery

A fun-filled tour for children between the ages of 4 and 10.

Time: Tuesdays to Saturdays between 10:00 and 13:00

Duration: Two hours

Number of learners: 20 learners per hour (divided into groups of five)

Cost: R20,00 per learner (entrance fee of R5,00 included)

 

Bookings are essential and can be made with Mmutle Arthur Kgokong (tel: 012 358 6752 or fax: 012 344 1809).

 

Admission: Adults – R22,00; pensioners/students – R11,00; learners – R5,00 Open to the public: Tuesdays to Sundays, 10:00 to 17:00 Closed on Mondays and public holidays Pretoria Art Museum Cnr Francis Baard and Wessels Streets Arcadia Park, Arcadia Tel: 012 358 6750 | www.pretoriaartmuseum.co.za Email: art.museum@tshwane.gov.za GPS: Lat: 25°44’53.63”S Long: 28°12’45.20”E

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International Museum Week: 14 – 19 May 2013

International Museum Week

Memory + Creativity = Social Change

14 May – 19 May 2013

 

1.        What is International Museum Day all is about?

International Museum Day celebrates the importance of museums around the world on 18 May every year. It serves as a platform to raise awareness to the public on the role that museums play in the development of our societies. International museum day was established by international council of museums (ICOM) in 1977, to date more than 30 000 museums in 100 countries have participated, it’s a day dedicated to the celebration of Art, Science and history all over the word. International Museum Day gives communities around the world a great opportunity to visit, appreciate and support their local museum.

2.        History of Pretoria Art museum

The Pretoria Art Museum was erected by the City council of Pretoria in 1962 and it was opened officially on 20 May 1964 to house its growing art collection that had become a permanent collection since 1912. The collection was originally housed in the City Hall. In addition to collecting South African Modern art over the years the Pretoria Art Museum has acquired graphic works by a number of famous international artists.

3           Arcadia Park

The Pretoria Art Museum is located in Aarcadia park Cnr Wessels & Francis Baard (formerly known as Schoeman) street

4         REASONS WHY A GUIDED TOUR IS RECOMMENDED

• Although entrance fee to the museum if free during international museum week, a guided tour is still ideal to experience whats on show. The museum provides guided tours to make the present exhibitions accessible to the visitors. It is advisable to book for a guided tour because you will be taken around the museum by professionally trained tour guides who have better understanding of the visual arts and are armed with information on the current exhibitions on show.

•Guided tours give visitors the opportunity to interact with the exhibitions and ask questions regarding artworks on show

Mmutle Arthur Kgokong

Culture Officer: Education Development Programme

012 344 1807/8 (08:00 – 16:00)

mmutlekg@tshwane.gov.za

 

Rudzani Mabugana

Education Assistant

071 431 2666 (09:00 – 14:00)

rudzani.mabugana@yahoo.com

Stepping_Stone 2012

 

Notification for the exhibition
STEPPING_STONE
by
Azael Langa | Bongani Khumalo | Nkhensani Rihlampfu | Sinalothemba Nthuli | Siphiwe Makgoka
at the
Pretoria Art Museum, East Gallery 

until Sunday, 28 October 2012.

The Stepping_Stone exhibition is an initiative of the Trainee Curators involved in the Education and Development Programme of the Pretoria Art Museum. The exhibition aims to showcase the artistic talents of selected artists of Pretoria and Johannesburg. The exhibition does indeed give the artists a stepping stone to success as artists.

Enquiries: Abongile Gwele 076 734 5403 | Maryka Potgieter 072 457 2579 | Eliz-Marie Schoonbee 072 149 8430

Museum hours: Tuesdays to Sundays, 10:00 to 17:00
Closed on Mondays and public holidays
Cnr Francis Baard/Schoeman and Wessels Streets
Arcadia Park, Arcadia
Tel: 012 344 1807
Email: art.museum@tshwane.gov.za

GPS: Lat 25◦44’53.63”S; Long 28◦12’45.20”E

Supported by the Sport and Recreational Services Department

LETHABO LE KHUTSO:Cross-pollination

9 to 14 November 2010

 

The body of work comprising the Cross-pollination exhibition is the result of 15 weeks of practical art-making workshops in which the Education Assistants of the Pretoria Art Museum and adults from Lethabo le Khutso participated.

Lethabo le Khutso is a non-profit organisation committed to providing in the unique needs of adults with autism spectrum disorder, such as accommodation and skills training.

The aim with the workshops was to produce a varied collection of artworks. So the art-making techniques practised at the workshops ranged from drawing to weaving and printmaking, all of which were part of a programme that was conceptualised by the Education Assistants under the auspices of the Creative Industries Consortium. The Lethabo le Khutso artists exceeded expectations with their impressive creativity.

The Pretoria Art Museum provides educational programmes that introduce Tshwane communities to fine art through guided tours of its collections and practical art-making workshops. In this the Education Assistants play a vital role. Some participate in the workshops and others curate the resultant exhibitions.

The Cross-pollination exhibition opens on 9 November at 12:00 and runs until 26 November.

Corobrik Ceramc Collection Full Exhibition

The Corobrik Collection is a collection of ceramics that represents the development of studio ceramics and the work of the rural traditional potters of South Africa over the past thirty years. Linked to this development is also the growth of the Association of Potter of Southern Africa (APSA).

APSA was founded in 1972 and is the official representative body of potters in Southern Africa. It has branches in the Western and Eastern Cape, Kwa Zulu-Natal and has three branches that make up the Gauteng region. The objective of the Association is to promote ceramics in South Africa by improving the work being produced and to foster an interest in ceramics by the general public. This is done by presenting workshops and organizing exhibitions regionally, nationally and internationally. National Ceramics Quartely, a full coloured magazine is the official publication of APSA.

Initially the collection was started by Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery who in 1977 became the sponsors of the APSA National and Regional Exhibitions and purchased the winning pieces from this exhibition to start a contemporary ceramics collection. When in 1982 Corobrik became the sponsors of APSA the pieces acquired by SFW became the beginning of the Corobrik Collection. The acquisition of the winning pieces from the Exhibitions continued  and pieces were also contributed by APSA. This process continued until 1992 when Corobrik ceased the sponsorship of the exhibition and in 1996 created a trust between itself and APSA to ensure the future of the collection and to make funds available for the continued acquisition of contemporary South African ceramic art.

In the present economic and social situation in South Africa during this transition period, the support and sponsorship of   the arts by corporate business is very necessary and important. That Corobrik, the largest clay brick manufacturers in the country, have continued to sponsor this ceramic collection bears testimony to their commitment to the arts and is indeed welcome.

The Corobrik Collection is housed in The Pretoria Art Museum.

N.B. The Corobrik Full Exhibition of ceramics opens on 24 October at 12:00pm

the above information was taken directly from the Corobrik brochure.

ENTER EXIT: PIERRE CROCQUET, 4 March to 25 April 2010

Pierre Crocquet de Rosemond was born in Cape Town in 1971 and grew up in Klerksdorp, a conservative farming and mining town. After school he completed a financial course at the University of Cape Town and then left to live in London. During the five years he spent abroad, he studied photography at the London College of Printing, after which he returned to South Africa.

Pierre Crocquet became known for his photographs. Their unvarnished sense of reality demanded of the viewer to stay in the space where his pictures hang as long as possible, looking at the faces and their surroundings and becoming aware of what made them attractive in the first place.

In Enter Exit Pierre Crocquet has captured the existential realities of a small community on the periphery of sociopolitical developments in South Africa, whose daily lives have not escaped the effects of these developments. South African society has seen dramatic changes, but post-apartheid society is still divided, only primarily along economic lines. Social isolation through poverty has become commonplace. Crocquet forces viewers to hold up a mirror to his photographs and to transport the resultant images to any other postmodern society.

With his camera, Pierre Crocquet observes the sadness and the human beauty of young and old, and creates portraits that capture personality in a convincing way. He empathises with the people he photographs, observes their shortcomings, their hard lives, and their strengths. Never does he compromise their existence. The photos become a tale about life, naturally sharp down to the fold, from which one cannot easily pull away.

There will be two walkabouts with the artist, one on 12 March and another one on 9 April at 10:00. The artist will discuss his portraits in this exhibition, the complexities and his personal journey of photographing in a small community, as well as photography in general. Anyone interested can book with Mmutle Kgokong at the Pretoria Art Museum @ 012 344 1807/8 or mmutlekg@tshwane.gov.za. A catalogue of his work, published by HatjeCantz Verlag, will also be available at the museum.

Enter Exit is a collaborative effort of the Seippel Gallery and the Pretoria Art Museum.

 

Sacred Legacy: Edward Curtis and The Native American

20 January to 28 February 2010

Sacred Legacy is a unique photographic exhibition created expressly to celebrate the native peoples of the United States and their history and culture. The exhibition illustrates the broad and extraordinary diversity among the North American tribes, and pays homage to the famed photographer and ethnographer, Edward S Curtis.

Curtis was born in 1868 in rural Wisconsin in the North Central United States. He was well versed in the fundamentals of photography and became a serious and dedicated practitioner. In 1892 he acquired shares in a small photography studio in Seattle. He quickly positioned himself as Seattle’s foremost studio photographer, and this success gave him a new-found level of financial freedom that allowed him to spend time away from the studio to pursue his love of the great outdoors. This exploration led him to encounters with small pockets of Native Americans who still maintained some vestiges of their traditional lifestyles.

In 1906 Curtis began an undertaking that would consume him for the next twenty-four years; The North American Indian, a twenty volume, twenty portfolio set of handmade books. Each set contains over 2 200 original photographs plus extensive text covering the western United States and Canada. The Native American subjects themselves are the principle reason Curtis’s work has stood the test of time. Their powerful presence, dignity and emotional depth are all quintessential underpinnings of Curtis’s photographs. That all these qualities come through so profoundly in his most compelling photographs is not only a testament to his technical and artistic mastery, but perhaps even more so a reflection of the subjects themselves.

On exhibition at the Pretoria Art Museum is a selection of sixty of Curtis’s most evocative images. Each image has been printed in a size and medium intended to most fully enhance the impact of the subject. The prints are extremely faithful to the look, feel and dimensions of Curtis’s original, vintage prints. The images are representative of the diverse cultural geographic regions in which he photographed and illustrate his artistry in portrait, landscape and still life photography. A wide variety of print media were explored and employed for this exhibition.

Sacred Legacy is a collaborative effort of the Embassy of the United States of America and the Pretoria Art Museum.

CHILDREN TILE ART PROJECT

Hope for Life

‘My dreams my aspirations’

 

HIV/AIDS affects us all. Still today at the closure of the first decade of the twenty first century we still do not have a cure. More and more we are waking up to the realization and the acceptance that prevention is cure. The scourge of this fatal illness has ravaged our parents, brothers and sisters and has left behind affected vulnerable orphans.

This initiative of the Education and Development Programme of the Pretoria Art Museum, the Children Tile Art Project, has been incepted with the aim to involve vulnerable children from our communities in Tshwane, this project that gives them an opportunity to express their challenges, wishes and aspirations through practical art making processes; leading to the production of a body of work which is on exhibition during the month of December to mark the international HIV/AIDS month.

The Pretoria Art Museum is greatly indebted to the Hope For Life Orphanage, which has branches in both Lotus Garden and Jeffsville (Saulsville), for responding positively to the invitation by giving 16 children under the care of the shelter the opportunity to be part of the Children Tile Art Project for the current year.

The NGO Hope For Life provides

1. After care for the children

2. Help the children with school home work

3. HIV/AIDS counseling

The Pretoria Art Museum will also like to thank the team work of Art Beat Foundation and Ithuteng Art Outreach Project, who devices a four day workshop programme spaced over four weeks, of which the facilitators were meeting with the children once every Saturday. The following were the contents covered by the workshops:

• Introductory Guided tour to the Pretoria Art Museum and some art terms

• Drawing Techniques

• Composition and Collage

• Collagraph

The workshop remain true to the dictum

‘Skill transference and non content imposing’

This dictum saw to it that the facilitators only walked with the children shoulder to shoulder in terms of introducing the art making techniques however distancing themselves from determining the nature of the work done by the children once the theme ‘My dreams my aspirations’ was given to the children to work with. The facilitators were available for guidance, to help the children realize the finished pieces and their full potential in terms of their individuality, primarily and ultimately to represent Hope for Life when their work is considered as a collective. The Pretoria Art Museum is forever indebted to the knowledge, skill and dedication of the facilitators.

Lastly on behalf of the City of Tshwane the Pretoria Art Museum would like to extend warm thanks to SANAVA (South African National Association for the Visual Arts) and the trustees of the Charl Van Der Merwe Trust for once more making this Project a reality.

The Hope For Life children will be available for interactions and walkabout of their work on 11 December 10:00 to 12:00. The public is welcome to meet and interact with the children on that day.

for more details:

Contact: Mmutle Arthur Kgokong

Call 012 344 1807/8

mmutlekg@tshwane.gov.za

PELMAMA

This entry is taken from the speech presented  at the opening of the PELMAMA Art Exhibition held on 11 November 2009

Since the opening of the Pretoria Art Museum in 1964 there was a close relationship with the Haenggi’s. It started with a donation of a drawing by Frans Oerder to the Pretoria Art Museum by Madame Fernande Marie-Louise Haenggi.

Mr Fernand Haenggi was the Co-owner and co-director of Gallery 101, Johannesburg, established jointly with his mother, Madame Haenggi, and operating from 1961. The Gallery 101 Group had at its peak 3 branches in Johannesburg. He left the 101 Group in 1972 to start his own gallery, taking over the Hyde Park Corner Branch in Johannesburg, operating henceforth as Gallery 21 Johannesburg, concentrating on top modern South African and international art.

The character of Gallery 21 was somewhat different from the catch-all character of Madame Haenggi’s gallery.  Fernand leaned towards contemporary styles in both local and international art, and he tended to concentrate on a small group of artists, whom he nurtured and promoted.  He devoted energy and effort to fostering his exhibitors, exposing them on major exhibitions in South Africa and abroad, publishing books about their work and issuing folios of their graphic prints.   

Mr Haenggi was dynamically involved in the South African art market from 1961 until 1993, and also the driving force behind PELMAMA, when he decided to retire and settle in Switzerland, his home country. In 1979, Mr Haenggi organised a Lucas Sithole retrospective exhibition at Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg, which was then shown at the Pretoria Art Museum in 1979.

As from 1991, The Haenggi Foundation Inc. donated and loaned a number of important art works to the Pretoria Art Museum, in recognition of the many years of congenial cooperation. This included works by many exciting South African artists covering the period of the 1960’s to the 1980’s. It consisted of mostly graphic artworks and a collection of ceramics. The donation of ceramics was a very considerable addition to the small collection already brought together by the Art Museum and almost doubled the Museum’s ceramic collection at that stage. The Haenggi Foundation received a variety of art objects from the collection of Gertrude Agranat and some of the ceramics that came to the Museum stems from this bequest. From 1991 onward the Museum received various artworks on loan from the Haenggi Foundation.

All works of art donated over the years to The Haenggi Foundation by artists or private collectors have been passed on freely to public museums in South Africa, as part of the PELMAMA Permanent Art Collection. In 1995, the donation was extended to include works and items from the studio of Lucas Sithole. All the artworks donated and on loan became an integral part of the Pretoria Art Museum’s exhibitions.

On the occasion of Mr Haenggi’s 75^th birthday in January, 2009, all works until now loaned to the Pretoria Art Museum through The Haenggi Foundation Inc. are to be considered freely donated to the Pretoria Art Museum. This gift is all the more meaningful and significant in the light of the financial constraints under which art museums have to deliver, and the lack of funding for acquisitions.

With this exhibition the Pretoria Art Museum would like to acknowledge the generosity of Mr Fernand Haenggi for this tremendous donation.

 

Deborah Dinah Mbengwane

Academic Background

Bsc in Biochemistry (in progress)

Favorite artworks

Portrait by Jean Welz

Reasons for digging the artworks

The melancholic expression on teh face of the boy communicates the overall sombre fealing of the work.

Duties

• Tour Guide
• Admin Assistant for Educators Orientation Programme, Sunnyside Primary School