0 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A ‘NATIONAL’ GALLERY WHEN THE NOTIONS OF ‘NATION’ TRANSFORM RADICALLY? An analysis of the Iziko South African National Gallery’s practices and policies In historical contexts Marc Barben BRBMAR005 Thesis presented for the degree of Masters in Art Historical Studies Department of Art History UniversityUniversity of of Cape Cape Town Town Supervised by Anna Tietze and Marilyn Martin February 2015 I know the meaning of plagiarism and declare that all the work in the document, save for which is properly acknowledged, is my own. 0 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town 1 Abstract While much has been written on the European display of non-western art and artefact collected from their colonies in Africa, less has been documented about the European settler arts institutions, like the South African National Gallery (SANG), whose distant location away from the imperial centre initially presented particular challenges. In South Africa, since colonialism, these challenges have been expanded by settler nationalisms, a racially oppressive regime, a liberation movement, and a relatively peaceful transition to a democracy. In its form and its function, the SANG has reflected the redefined nationalisms that accompanied these historical moments. In light of the global history of national galleries and more recent theoretical discussions about cultural institutions, this study probes the complex layering of histories evidenced in collection and exhibition practices at the SANG in its historical contexts. Historically South African galleries have reflected colonial and later apartheid ideologies. With the transition to a democratic society in 1994, the ‘new’ South Africa ushered in a radically redefined national identity. If national collections reflect the nations to which they belong, this study questions the SANG’s ability in reflecting successive redefinitions of South African nationhood, and its adaptability in meeting shifting social and political requirements. By examining shifts in collections and display practices and policies, in the SANG’s historical contexts, this paper ultimately asks the question: What does it mean to be a ‘national’ gallery when the notions of ‘nation’ transform radically? 1 2 Acknowledgements Anna Tietze Marilyn Martin Mary Simons Michael Stevenson Matthew Alexander King Lucienne Bestall Michélle Bestall Virginia MacKenny Lynne Aschman UCT Libraries Iziko SANG staff Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg 2 3 Table of Contents Introduction. 1 i. Research Questions 6 ii. Literature Review 7 iii. Abbreviations 13 PART 1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SANG IN THE CONTEXT OF CONSISTENT TRANSFORMATION Chapter One: The National Gallery in the Context of a Constantly Redefined ‘Nation’ (1871 – 2014) 15 1.1. ‘An Art Gallery for South Africa’ in the Cape Colony, 1871 15 1.2. The Construction of a Gallery in the Context of Union, 1910 17 1.3. Emerging Nationalism and a Shifting Political Landscape, 1924 23 1.4. Edward Roworth and the Stratford Report, 1947 26 1.5. The Bailey Bequest, 1947 29 1.6. Apartheid and the International Exhibition of S.A. Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, 1948 33 1.7. John Paris and the “truly national” Gallery, 1949 34 1.8. The New Republic of South Africa, 1961 35 1.9. Raymund van Niekerk and the Resistance to Apartheid Cultural Policies, 1976 37 1.10. Preparing Ourselves for Freedom, 1989 38 1.11. When the Notions of ‘Nation’ Transform Radically, 1990 33 PART 2 COMPARATIVE ANALYSES OF POLICIES AND PRACTICES Chapter Two: Articulating Nationhood: SANG Policies In Context 45 2.1. The Stratford Report and the Drafting of Formal Policy 46 2.2. Under the Slogan ‘Apartheid’ 53 2.3. “Forget about a Monet for the National Gallery” 56 2.4. Museums in a Changing and Divided Society 59 2.6. The Art Museum for the Nation 60 2.6. The White Paper on Arts, Culture, and Heritage and the ‘Southern Flagship Institution’ 66 2.7. More inclusive, More Critical, More Diverse, and More ‘Representative’ 70 3 4 Chapter Three: Describing the Stories of South African Art: SANG Collection Practices In Context 73 3.1. Social Missions of Art 76 3.2.Narrating Nation 78 3.3. Constructing the Narrative: Writing the Story of South African Art 81 3.4. Reconstructing the Narrative: Rewriting the Story of South African Art 89 3.5. Complicating the Narrative: The Bailey Bequest 94 3.6. Contradicting the Narrative 100 3.7. Recounting the Narrative 103 3.8. Compromising the Narrative 105 3.9. A Future Untold? 108 Chapter Four: Performing Nation: SANG Exhibition Practices Post-1994 in Context 111 4.1. Historical Precedents: We Build a Nation 112 4.2. Getting Our Houses in Order 114 4.3. Powerful Vehicles for Writing and Rewriting Art History 118 4.4. Contemporary South African Art: 1985 - 1995 119 4.5. A Decade of Democracy: 1994 - 2004 124 4.6. 1910 - 2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective 131 4.7. Mediating the Past, Present, and the Future 135 PART 3 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A ‘NATIONAL’ GALLERY WHEN THE NOTIONS OF ‘NATION’ TRANSFORM RADICALLY? Chapter Five: Reflecting on the Question: “What Does it Mean to be a ‘National’ Gallery?” 139 5.1. Material Culture, Patronage, Memory, Nationhood, and Modernity 142 5.2. What Does it Mean to be a National Gallery in the South African Context? 144 5.3. Is the Iziko SANG at Risk of Misrepresenting the Story of South African Art? 147 5.4. “Perceived as elitist, white-dominated, traditional institutions” 149 5.5. Limitations, Shortcomings and Areas for Future Research 151 In Conclusion 153 Postscript 159 Reference List 161 4 1 Introduction The question: “What does it mean to be a ‘national’ gallery?” elicits no single answer. The title of ‘National Gallery’ does not automatically designate the role of collecting and exhibiting only, or primarily, the nation’s art. Indeed, many national galleries and museums prioritize international art and thus aim to be encyclopaedic, offering a global art history. Where a national gallery does aim to prioritize the ‘nation’, it may do so by tracing the nation’s history through its art – even if its history, and its definitions of ‘nation’, may be matters of contention. A third possibility is that such a gallery might try to represent the ‘nation’ proportionally – adopting a policy of buying and exhibiting art in proportion to the nation’s various constituencies. Characteristic of South Africa’s history of radical social, cultural and political transformations, the South African National Gallery (SANG), at different points in its past, has to a greater or lesser extent, tacitly implemented one or the other of the aforementioned strategies. The outcome is a complex composite of distinct and sometimes contrasting directions. This study attempts to reveal how the SANG’s answer to the question What does it mean to be a ‘national’ gallery? – as manifested in its policies and practices – has differed historically and shifted in response to the transforming social, cultural and political environments and requirements. The central competencies of public art galleries are conservation, acquisition, exhibition, education, research and publication. Thus this study examines how, evidenced by these competencies, the SANG’s perception of its own function has been reimagined in accordance with successive redefinitions of South African nationhood. This study illustrates the SANG’s varying functions as a public art institution, and investigates rhetoric and discourses involved in the support or subversion of those various functions. If national collections mirror the nations to which they belong, when the imagined South African nation changed, so did the responsibilities of the SANG. Prompted by the political transition to democracy in the 1990s, the ‘New’ South Africa was seen to offer a radically different conception of the country’s nationhood. Yet it was not delivered on a clean slate. Primarily this study examines the repositioning of the SANG in the periods directly before, during and directly after 1 2 South Africa’s radical transformation from apartheid to democracy. References to a broader history of the Gallery provide context and draw a parallel with previous constitutional, social and political watersheds of South African history. Within this context, I shall consider the cultural, social and political activities that reflected and influenced those moments. Initially the relationship between the state and what became the SANG was impacted by factors relating to a colonial environment. With the political context shifting to Union in 1910 the nature of the relationship changed. It changed again with the introduction of apartheid in 1948 when the SANG accommodated a shift toward an exclusive Nationalist ideology. By looking at this history, I hope to provide a more nuanced interpretation of the most recent repositioning. The SANG’s contributions to the nation-building and cultural reconstruction of the 1990s – with watchwords of social cohesion, reconciliation, and transformation – are thus contextualized in relation to previous configurations. A great deal has been written on the European display of non-western art and artefacts collected from their colonies in Africa, but far less has been documented about