Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, United States
09 May 2014 - 14 Sep 2014
Robin Rhode, Piano Chair (video still, detail), 2011. Animation; color digital video with sound, 3 mins., 50 secs. Edition of 5, exhibition copy. © Robin Rhode. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong
‘Contemporary Art/South Africa’ features more than 30 artworks produced in South Africa or by South Africans from the late 1960s to the present, a period of immense political and social change.
The artists in this exhibition—including Gavin Jantjes, William Kentridge, Santu Mofokeng, Zanele Muholi, Robin Rhode, and Sue Williamson—address key aspects of the experiences of South Africans, offering multiple perspectives on their lives, their society, and their world. Contemporary Art/South Africa features a small but growing body of South African artworks acquired in recent years by the Yale University Art Gallery, alongside loans from public and private collections. Organized by Yale students, the exhibition highlights the vibrancy of South African culture and society, and it invites viewers to question whether it is possible to understand a country through the art it has produced, and to understand contemporary art through the country in which it was made.
