The Rose Art Museum of Brandeis University has co-organized an exhibition of South African Art with the South African National Gallery of Cape Town. The exhibition presents a range of creativity from the “New” or post-apartheid South Africa.

The works of art presented in this exhibition represent the coexistence of European and Native art of South Africa and the influences of one style on the other. These works are also a representation of the contemporary art of South Africa and the issues they address such as an opposition to the apartheid regime, safety and security in South Africa, AIDS, and personal identity. As a group, the art contrasts the different geographic area, race and economic divisions of South Africa.

During the apartheid years in South Africa, many laws restricted ethnic groups such as Africans, Indians, and Mulattos from social and economic freedom. The art of that period reflected mostly the works of the Caucasian race and did not represent the voices of the masses and other ethnic minorities.

Since the early 1990s, many works of art from the indigenous peoples and minority groups such as the Indians started to make its way into the public eye through art galleries and museums. Most of the art expressed the oppression of the people during the apartheid era. The art generally depicted opposition to apartheid and a search for personal identity. Traditional “European” scenes are less evident as artists express the social order of the day such as the migration of people from rural South Africa, to urban South Africa; from a third world South Africa to, an emerging first world South Africa; from an oppressed South Africa to, a free South Africa.

The exhibit interested me as a South African of Indian origin because most of what is portrayed in the art is issues that I am familiar with. Many of the issues such as security, personal identity, and racism are issues that are extremely close to all South Africans; issues that one faces almost everyday. Personally, I have not experienced any of the atrocities of the apartheid, but knowing that it was around during my lifetime and hearing many stories from my father makes it an issue close to heart. Indians were also oppressed and treated as if they were less than human during the apartheid. For me, just knowing that anyone could be treated in such a way brings about anger toward those who supported and may still support the apartheid regime. This anger was felt by many of the minorities, and is evident in most of the post-apartheid South African art.

The exhibit runs through June 29, 2003. For further information, visit www.brandeis.edu/rose

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