The Joburg Art Fair
by Carol Brown
It's been said that the contemporary art world became 'event-driven' during the 1980s with the evening sales at Sotheby's and Christie's in London, which became about being seen and networking as much as about buying art. Art collecting was no longer a private obsession but became a public display of wealth and culture. Art Fairs then burst onto the scene, rivalling the aucutions, and became the primary market forces which developed their own brands by promoting certain artists whose names shot to prominence.
Linda Givon of the Goodman Gallery took her artists to Basel Art back then and started putting South African contemporary art on the map. Now, Art Fairs include Miami Basel, Frieze and The Armory show amongst others. A quick Google gives an idea of the scope of these and of how many individual galleries use them to market their particular artists. The Armory Show in New York, for example, features 175 galleries.
The Joburg Art Fair, brainchild of Ross Douglas of Artlogic, marks the first of its kind in South Africa and, even more importantly, the first time that there has ever been an art fair concentrating on contemporary African art. The timing of this is perfect as art from the African continent is now one of the most important collectables.
We need to approach this field with a certain academic caution as there is an ongoing discussion as to what is African. With globalisation, people (read artists) have become mobile and maybe someone who is categorised as African has never set foot on the continent. Sometimes it means 'black' and sometimes it is someone whose ancestors came from the continent. However, this is a discussion for another context.
One point which I wish to make however is the change in the collecting patterns of African art especially in Europe and America. In the UCLA journal African Arts from Winter 2005, renowned African art scholar and curator Susan Vogel writes about the shift in interest from traditional African art to contemporary African art. South African collectors have only woken up to the importance of art from the rest of the continent in the last few years and, until 'Africa Remix', hardly any such art had been seen here.
The advent of the Joburg Art Fair is a significant step in the direction of giving the public an opportunity to see and buy what the rest of the world is looking to. The work to be shown is all cutting-edge contemporary and of museum quality, and collectors and curators from all over the world will be converging on the Fair. There are 27 galleries which have stands at the Sandton Convention Centre, and these include the country's top galleries as well as those from Morocco, Berlin, London and New York. Their artists include names such as El Anatsui, whose recent sculpture from bottle tops was featured at the Venice Biennale. Another artist making international waves is Bill Kouelany who was a prizewinner at the 2006 Dak'Art and who was significantly featured at Documenta. As far as South African artists go, names such as David Goldblatt, Zwelethu Mthethwa and Guy Tillim feature prominently amongst many others.
As well as the 27 participating galleries there will also be a curated show. Fair organisers Artlogic commissioned Simon Njami to curate a show. Njami is one of the current superstar curators whose latest achievements include 'Africa Remix' and the Bamako Photographic Biennale. The show will bring together his personal selection of artists, most of whom are not linked to a particular gallery, under the theme of 'As You Like It'. He has taken the title from a comment made by Jean Michel Basquiat, who, when asked to explain his work to a critic made the comment 'As you like it', which to Njami signified the disjuncture between the production of the work and its public reception.
The show also departs from the usual commercial focus of the Fair and will be an event in its own right open to debate and discussion. Participants include Bill Kouelany, Salifou Lindou, Joël Mpah Dooh, Mohamadou N'doye, Malala Andrialavidrazana, Omar D, Thando Mama and Zen Marie. Local star now resident in New York Robin Rhode will be a featured artist.
The show will have a catalogue, a programme of talks, art books and educational tours. It is certainly going to set 2008 off on an exciting footing and finally get African art into our consciousness, if not onto our walls.
Opens: March 13
Closes: March 16
Joburg Art Fair
Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
www.joburgartfair.co.za
I include here some comments about Art Fairs as a result of interviews I have conducted:
Q: Is there such a thing as contemporary African Art?
Andrew Lamprecht: Yes.
Polly Nooter Roberts: African art has always been contemporary. Artists who are classified contemporary African artists often resist categorisation, and would prefer to be identified as contemporary artists.
Johannes Phokela: I guess there's some form of contemporary art practice anywhere in the world, whether it be through western influence or some remote rural practitioners of woodcarving and mud painting. Maybe the African continent will in future function as one...
Q: What's the best thing about Art Fairs?
Andrew Lamprecht: The potential shags you meet there.
Polly Nooter Roberts: I have not had enough experience with Art Fairs to answer this question. But my husband Al (Professor Allen Roberts of UCLA) says that there was an art fair every year in Ann Arbor, Michigan that tied up the town and caused such disruption that a popular bumper sticker read 'It isn't Art, and it isn't Fair'.
Johannes Phokela: It's like a supermarket where you can have different types of baked beans, ie. from the budget genetically modified to organic.
Q: . What was your first African /SouthAfrican art purchase and what was your most recent?
Clive Van den Berg: My first was a painting by Penny Siopis and my most recent was a video work by Michael MacGarry.
Garth Walker: William Kentridge (early 80s) and Jodi Bieber (late 2007)
Marilyn Martin: The first was a watercolour by Peter Clarke, purchased in 1967; it has lived in my bedroom all these years. The latest was a Brett Murray.
Q: What's the most memorable African/South African artwork/exhibition you have ever seen?
Clive Van den Berg: Andrew Putter's work on Spier Contemporary.
Polly Nooter Roberts: The most memorable South African exhibition I have seen was 'Positive 2005' on HIV/Aids awareness arts at the Durban Art Gallery in 2005. It was a striking array of works by many artists whose work will soon be seen again in the soon-to-open exhibition 'Make Art/Stop Aids' at the Fowler Museum at UCLA in Los Angeles. For further information, please see the Fowler Museum website http://www.fowler.ucla.edu.
Johannes Phokela: SASOL wax show and 'Africa Remix'.
Garth Walker: The William Kentridge retrospective at JAG and at the same time and venue, 'David Goldblatt: 51 years'.
