R.I.P: 'Shock of the New' Art Critic Robert Hughes

The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) have recently announced a revised list of the artists who will be participating at the 2013 55th Venice Biennale.  South Africa’s exhibition, entitled 'Imaginary Fact – Contemporary South African Art and the A

The ‘Revisions’ exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery in 2006, and the eponymous book, which came out of the almost exhaustive private collections of Bruce Campbell Smith, now has an online version with an updated inventory of new ac

Zanele Muholi has recently been awarded a major freedom of expression prize at the Index on Censorship awards.  The awards' website states that prize was given in recognition of the work that Muholi has done towards revealing the plight of ‘specifica

The Department of Arts and Culture have announced on their website that the artists, title and theme have been decided upon for this year's Venice Biennale.  In a speech announcing this, minister Paul Mashatile stated that: 'This year our exhibition

You can’t say ‘honkey’. You can’t say the ‘n’ word, or the ‘k’ word. You shouldn’t really say ‘cracker’ or ‘boer’ (the latter not in a derogatory manner, at least), but the

The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) announced yesterday that a the National Arts Festival (NAF) have been selected to curate and stage the South African exhibition at the 55th La Biennale di Venezia. This ended the controversial public process i

There are now less than three weeks before the prestigious Absa L’Atelier art competition closes its submissions on 8 March, for 2013.  The event, held in partnership with SANAVA (South African National Association for the Visual Arts), is now in its

South African auction audiences have grown used to stratospheric prices for the paintings of Irma Stern, and at the Strauss & Co auction in Cape Town last week Stern’s beautiful Malay Girl in its glowing golden tones did not disappoint. When the h

The Sanctuary for Independent Art, in Troy New York, which was closed for five years following a fall-out with local government funding, has now been reopened thanks to the Andy Warhol Foundation. The institution’s closure - based on the ground

There were rumours dating back to 2011 that the Department of Arts and Culture had taken an expensive lease out on a building in Venice. The department neither denied nor confirmed this. Then suddenly a press release, sent from the Department of Arts

The Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) has confirmed spending R21.6-million on a building in Venice to house South Africa's exhibition at the Venice Biennale for the next twenty years. Chief Director of Communications for the department, Lisa Combr

Bonhams of London have announced that they are about to put on auction the Russian-born painter Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Chinese Girl. The painting, also known as the Green Lady is widely considered the most reproduced print in the world. The pai

The Curatorial Intensive, a programme run by the Independent Curators International (ICI), will be coming to South Africa for the first time this March. In association with The Bag Factory artist studios in Newtown, Johannesburg, the 5-day programme

Strauss and Co will be hosting their first auction of 2013 on 4 February in Cape Town: ‘Important South African & International Art, Furniture, Silver, Ceramics, Glass & Jewellery including Jewellery from the Erich Frey Collection & Cape Furniture fr

Ghent-based sculptor Berlinde De Bruyckere has announced, on Belgian radio, that the South African-born Nobel Prize winner JM Coetzee will curate her work on the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale this year. De Bruyckere, whose work predomi

Yesterday the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) sent out a press release calling for curators to 'submit a concept, motivation and profile for the South African exhibition to be realized within the framework of the 55th International Art Exhibi

It is a with great sadness but also in a spirit of celebration of a life of extraordinary achievement that I write this obituary for Professor Colin Richards, one of the South African art world’s brightest luminaries. Richards was a distinguish

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin have been nominated for this year's prestigious Deutsche Börse Prize. The prize is awarded every year to a photographer of any nationality, who has  'contributed significantly' to photography in Europe. Ad

A new African art fair, called '1:54', is going to take place in London from 17-20 October of this year.  Running alongside the annual Frieze Fair, the art fair will aim to host around 25 galleries from the African continent.  Taking its ti

It is with a sense of deep sorrow and loss that I learned of Colin Richards’ death. He passed away on the 26th of December after complication from a fall. It is a particularly difficult thing to attempt to memorialize a man whose life has encom

The Deccan Herald is reporting that two artists exhibiting at the Kochi Muziris Biennale have had their artworks vandalised. According to the paper, paint was splashed on a work by the South African artist Clifford Charles at the main venue of the Bi

Marlene Dumas and the founders of the Handspring Puppet Company, Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones, were recently awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Cape Town for their contributions to South African arts and culture. Dumas attended UCT’s M

In a strong departure from the MTN New Contemporaries Award's previous approach, this year's finalists were focused solely on modes of collaboration. This year's joint winners, Unathi Sigenu and Khanyisile Mbongwa, are both members of the collective

The director general of the Department of Arts and Culture, Mr Sibusiso Xaba, confirmed last week, to Die Burger, that South Africa had finally acquired an exhibition space at next year's Venice Biennale.  Speaking to Die Burger Mr Xaba stated t

Art collector Piet Viljoen has opened a new contemporary art space named The New Church. Situated in New Church Street in Tamboerskloof in Cape Town, the space, which is a renovated Edwardian house, will now exhibit selections of Viljoen’s prodigious

Below you will find a set of answers and questions concerning the legitimacy and functions of the proposed, and now soon to be formed, Visual Arts Task Team. The correspondence is between M Blackman (editor of ArtThrob) and Joseph Gaylard (Director

Mary Sibande and Anthea Moys have been awarded Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Awards in the categories of Visual Art and Performance Art respectively.The press release announcing the awards stated that Sibande 'is celebrated for her practice

Four of the five paintings that were stolen from the Pretoria Art Museum on Sunday have been found in a cemetery in Port Elizabeth. Brigadier Marinda Mills confirmed that four paintings were discovered by a member of the dog unit early on Tuesday mor

Several paintings worth approximately R10-million were stolen form the Pretoria Art Museum yesterday morning. It has been reported by several sources that  three gunmen demanded specific artworks from a museum staff member.  The gunmen, who

Media Statement 29 October 2012 Government and visual artists commit to work together and form a Visual Arts Task TeamThe Department of Arts and Culture hosted a two-day Visual Arts Indaba-Towards a Visual Arts Framework last week at the Cedar Park