T For Travel

It is estimated that almost three million tourists will descend on the cities and the towns surrounding Johannesburg next June, for the sixty four soccer matches that make up the whole of the 2010 World Cup.  The television audience for the final games alone is expected to reach upwards of twenty eight billion people from around the world.  All with their eyes not only glued to the games, but on the country of South Africa as well.  This is going to provide opportunities for the large businesses, the entrepreneurs, and the small businesses and boutique hotels.  South Africa has been developing and growing since the end of apartheid, but this will speed up that process tremendously and provide new opportunities for new ideas and local companies.

Some of the commercialism has been regulated, that having anything to do with the Cup itself, with restrictions being placed on the advertising, and the sales and marketing, however there are still many openings for the local companies and businesses to boost the sales of their goods and/or services.  The government is not getting too involved in the sector of the larger financial systems and companies,  as they will perhaps understand better how to take advantage of the opportunities for economic growth, aside from ensuring that the larger companies will support the small ones.

They do plan to intervene in the smaller companies run by people with less experience or those who have been marginalized.  One way in which they will help the smaller informal businesses is by providing them with the means to electronically process transactions, ensuring that the tourists will be able to use their credit cards.  The ripples that will be caused throughout the country when the tourists start arriving will serve to boost all, from the entertainment industry, to the arts and crafts markets, and even the health service industry.  And the hope is that this sort of growth will continue even after the games have ended, as the international audience will see that South Africa truly is a great place to visit.

Two incredibly respected artists in the South African scene are George Pemba and Gerard Sekoto.  Both of these men have taken little interest in formal studies of modern art as influenced by the European schools and artists, and have focused on the depiction of the environments and the realities of life in their country through expressionism that is forceful and direct.  Sekoto’s paintings from the beginning of the 1940′s focused on the scenes of the street, the environment and the buildings such luxury hotels.  South Africa city life was expressed without too much of the human elements being present in his work.  It was during this time, that he became the first black artist to be picked up by Johannesburg’s Art Gallery.  He began to introduce the human elements later, but the figures are often downplayed.  He left Africa in 1947 and began working in Paris, however he was ill much of the time and lived the rest of his life in poverty, never again reaching the successes that he had in his homeland.

Pemba, never left his village in South Africa, Motherwell Township.  He painted his entire life, into his nineties, but only received recognition when the public began to notice the works of black artists of South Africa.  Pemba painted the people, the poor leading their lives in a simple manner.  He was a humble man, painting humble people and managed to bring their humanity through to the canvas in the most fundamental of styles and feeling.  These two men influenced and inspired those that followed them.  The Polly Street Art Center was established in Johannesburg gave new artists the access to create the ever emerging South African style.  Oil paint was impossible to obtain during the years of apartheid and the artists found other ways, such as pen and ink drawing and wood sculpture to express themselves, often with passionate results, fueled by the times and the political atmosphere that they were living within.  These are moving works, powerful and human and will continue to inspire artists for many years to come.

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 Cape Town Festival has occurred each year for the last ten years.  This is a festival that happens each March and for those traveling from other regions, navigating around the city is made easier by any of the rental businesses and car hire in South Africa, and by public transportation, and by just simply walking through the downtown center.  This festival is a celebration of the diverse cultures and art forms of the country.  The festival was started by a man who was the editor of the newspaper, Cape Times,  Ryland Fisher.  His goal was to reinforce the idea that although there are so many different cultures in Cape Town, this is still just one city.  The arts have always been known to bring together diverse talent, which fosters a more tolerant and a more accepting attitude between those from different races, religions and belief systems.  This is certainly a time when a visit to the country would be most memorable.

The festival is catered to be accessible to those of various financial means, and interesting to those of all ages.  Not only is this a festival that draws people from around the country and the rest of the world, this is participated in and attended by the local populations as well.  Music line-ups in the past have included those from the world of jazz, such as Robbie Jansen, Leslie Kleinsmith, and Jonathan Rubain, as well as local musicians such as Coda, The Rudimentals,  Alistair Izobel, and Prime Circle.  The past festival held in March of 2009, was a celebration in and of itself as it marked the ten year anniversary of the special event.  The festival has found a home in the Company’s Garden, the largest public park in the entire country of South Africa.  Fisher states that it has been an amazing ten years, filled with the joy of knowing that this has brought the citizens of Cape Town closer together, artistically, socially and culturally.

In the city of Cape Town, South Africa, hotels, apartment buildings, restaurants and the house of the President, Tuynhuys, are all steeped in the history that permeates this city.  The Tuynhuys has gone through various stages and guises over the years, and is now associated with, and a symbol of the seat of authority.  This has been so for close to two hundred and fifty years.  This structure is stated as having been of modest and simply beginnings.  1674 is the year the site was first referenced, and was at the time, a garden shed used for the storage of the tools of the Dutch/East India Company.  This large garden was planted in 1652, by Jan Van Riebeeck. Thirty years later, the shed was rebuilt and became a guest house for the Governor during his summer time visits.  Records indicate that this has been a traditional summer house for all the governors from Holland throughout the seventeenth century.  This house later became the accommodations provided to international visitors of Simon Van Der Stel, the governor towards the end of the century.

By the end of the eighteenth century this building had been enlarged and reconstructed many times, and was surrounded by the gardens and the Greek and Roman sculptures that had been installed during this small hut’s transformation.  From the perspective of the design elements, this is an eclectic mix that draws from the Baroque style and Neo-Classicism.  East Indian and Dutch influences are also noticeable, and the plans for the building as it stands today were the work of an architect from France, Louis Michel Thibault.

Two of the men responsible for the artistic elements of the building are Jacobus Leeuwenberg and Anton Anreith, from Holland and Germany respectively.  Both artists are known to have worked throughout Cape Town during the late 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.  The actual construction of the building was done by slaves, native to the country and those from Java, Malaysia and Madagascar.  During this time, most of the artisans and artists creating the buildings of today were slaves.  And their handicraft and skill became so admired, that the settlers often studied and apprenticed under their tutelage.  This is one building with a past and a history that is so common among South Africa and should be part of any tour of the city of Cape Town.