Masterpieces from Matisse in South Africa

This year’s National Arts Festival may have come to an end but you can still get your art fix at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg. A large number of works by Henri Matisse will be on display for all to enjoy, thanks to support from the Embassy of France to South Africa. This is the first wide-ranging…

Public art is more than just another bright wall

Visitors to the small town of Clarens in the Free State, perhaps there for a quiet break or for the beer festival, often don’t notice the nearby township of Kgubetswana. This may change since Sven Christian and a team of artists set about painting over the town in October 2014. What begin as a once-off…

Spoken word poetry, graffiti and art as the act that activates the activism

“When I was younger my parents told me I suffered from verbal diarrhoea,” says Iain EWOK Robinson. Now, the writer, poet, teacher, graffiti and street artist or as he defines it, a “spoken word flavoured hip-hop activist” works with words and a culture defined by expression.

The little weak left arm – the pitfalls in South African arts development

Writer and poet, Andrew Miller shares his thoughts on the necessary skills required to develop as a South African artist.  He suggests that most artists tend to focus only on their strong points to the detriment of their overall development. He suggests, “focus on developing your weaknesses as a way to re-understand the process of…

Debate: Shakespeare Now and Then

‘Shakespeare’ is an encompassing and weighty word that needs no introduction, yet can all-too often conjure up stuffy images of men in collars and puffy-pants, seriously reciting soliloquies to a drowsy audience. Love it, despise it, or simply do not understand it, Shakespeare undeniably carries with it a complex context of imperialism and colonial baggage,…

Debate: 40 years of theatre in South Africa

The four panellists had their work cut out for them covering the transformative and explosive past 40 years of South African theatre. Marcia Blumberg of York University, Canada, focused on the impact of the TRC on SA theatre. A fast-paced recap of the TRC reminded us how it was the first commission of its kind and that “there…

Arts important in education

Picture credit: proudlysa.biz Veteran Eastern Cape actor and the grandfather of South Africa theatre, Dr John Kani, delivered a lecture about the role of the arts in South African education in the 2013 Think!Fest lecture series. He said that there were no art schools in South Africa that can teach learners art from primary school…