blogs.timeslive.co.za/minor/2010/04/22/art-south-africas-call-for-zuma-to-change-his-tune


Dear President Zuma,

Please consider this request from your people:

Our excitement as a country is shared as we wait to welcome the world to South Africa for the FIFA World Cup. We're rebuilding roads, creating new transport systems, erecting hotels and reorganizing our cities to give our guests the very best our land has to offer. With you, we want this to be the most successful World Cup ever hosted.

The International Center of Photography in New York has announced the annual 2010 Infinity award winners, arguably the most important in the world of photography. Among those to be honoured is South African veteran photographer, Peter Magubane.

Internationally acclaimed artist, Kehinde Wiley, has partnered with PUMA to create four original works of art inspired by three of football's most decorated players, Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon, John Mensah of Ghana and Emmanuel Eboué of Ivory Coast. Wiley painted three individual portraits of each player wearing the Africa Unity Kit, and then a fourth 'Unity' Portrait was painted with all three players together, symbolizing the united countries of Africa.

Stephen N Welz says there is an interesting conundrum about South African art on auction.

Welz, who heads up fine art auction house Strauss & Co, says: "It is easier to sell a R1-million painting than a run-of-the-mill R10000 painting - unless the latter is a remarkable example of the artist's work. The lower market is feeling the pinch, but you'll find that those who could afford to pay R1-million can still afford to pay that."

This would suggest that entry-level collectors could pick up some bargains at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead on May 24, if they have the cash available. That is when Strauss & Co's next fine art auction takes places. Welz describes it as "undoubtedly the largest number of major paintings to come on to the market for a long time".

A selection of prime Irma Stern still lifes from different periods of the artist's career will take pride of place. Still Life with Gladioli and Fruit is estimated to fetch R4.5-million, and Welz says Still Life With Dahlias and Fruitcould set a collector back R6-million.

Also going under the hammer is JH Pierneef's 1949 painting Barberton, which should fetch up to R1-million. "It's one of Pierneef's more painterly landscapes," says Welz.

HIDDEN behind squeaky doors at the University of the Witwatersrand's (Wits) busy Senate House lies a treasure trove that is about to be revealed.By early next year South Africans will be able to visit the R38,5m Wits Art Museum and see 9000 pieces in a collection of art from across Africa.

Second art dealer dragged into dispute between high profile collector and leading New York gallery Jack Tilton is called to the stand by lawyers for Craig Robins and confirms the existence of a blacklist of collectors barred from buying Marlene Dumas' work

By Marisa Mazria Katz and Helen Stoilas | Web only Published online 21 Apr 10 (News)

Recently retired from Michaelis School of Fine Art, where he is a professor emeritus, Malcolm Payne is a key figure in this country's experimental and conceptual practice. Coming to prominence in the early 1970s, Payne has distinguished himself as a sculptor, printmaker and video artist. Seated in his Kalk Bay studio, surrounded by a suite of new beard paintings, Payne considers the early influence of Walter Battiss, Marcel Duchamp and musician Jeff Mpakati on his life and work. Dismissive of the way struggle art collaged stock images of violence, he also ventures a thought on how artistic practice can refashion the way we think and speak about art.

An indomitable figure in the recent history of South African art, Wayne Barker emerged during a period when the neo-expressionist idiom was at its height. Although celebrated for his mixed-media painting, his practice encompasses so much more: printmaking, installation, performance and curation, his various activities typically informed by his bawdy sense for fun and provocation. On the eve of his 25-year retrospective, Barker talks to Robert Sloon about destroying Pierneef, inventing Andrew Moletsi, opening the Famous International Gallery, interpreting the legends of South African life and why the studio remains his most important ally.