Most of the beautiful and ancient art in the world today, is in South Africa.  And now, some of the most diverse and exciting new work is being produced by the contemporary and modern painters of this country.  Many of the buildings showcase new work including the restaurants, the government buildings and offices and even the luxury hotels.  Cape Town artists, and artists from the entire region had been focusing on depicting and describing the new world during the times of the colonial era.  Often times as reporters reporting back, such as with Thomas Baines.  He toured the country making sketches and paintings of the natural world, the people, the flora, the landscapes and the fauna, much in the same way a court-room artist records that which the cameras do not see.

Then the artists began to shift their focus during the end of the nineteenth century.  They started to create works for the sake of art in and of itself, not as reports sent back to the city, but as the expression of what life was like living in South Africa, and being South African.  Anton van Wouw, sculptor, and Hugo Naude and Jan Volschenk, two painters, began to give a sense of art that is locally rooted in the culture and the society of their homeland.  And through these works began to gain an identity that is purely South African.

Two of South Africa’s female artists working in the early 1930′s, Irma Stern and Maggie Laubscher, created a bit of a scandal when they began employing techniques of expressionism, using bold colors and strong compositions that expressed their own personal views, which caused them to clash a bit with the more traditional and old fashioned ideologies and subject matter.  And during the years of apartheid, the art sometimes attacked the oppression and the racism, while at other times succeeded in lifting up those who were struggling.  There are many galleries and museums throughout the country of South Africa, wherein it is most suggested one should spend time with the history and the beauty, and tour what was and has been, and what will become for South African art in the future.

The Changing Art of South Africa is a post from: T For Travel

Related posts:

1. Black Artists of South Africa
2. South African Bead Society
3. The Economic Opportunities for South Africa