Thamsanqa (Thami) Mnyele (South African, 1948-1985)
Gordon Metz (South African, born 1955)
Art Towards Social Development
INV-2440
Thamsanqa (Thami) Mnyele (South African, 1948-1985)
Gordon Metz (South African, born 1955)1982
Art Towards Social Development
Thamsanqa (Thami) Mnyele (South African, 1948-1985) Gordon Metz (South African, born 1955) →Medu Art Ensembleprint
Date
1982
Medium
Lithograph in black and dark red on off-white coated paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 86 × 61 cm (33 7/8 × 24 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Artworkers Retirement Society
Portraying an artist walking a tightrope between the black and white realities of apartheid South Africa, this poster advertises the exhibition Art Towards Social Development, held during the Festival of Culture and Resistance. Organized collaboratively by Medu and other South African artists, the exhibition was among the first to assess the intersection of art and politics under apartheid.
As noted in press material, the show captured an “embattled people, a hopeful people, a people engaged in deciding how South Africa will emerge out of the abyss of Apartheid fascism and which direction it will take.” The nearby film offers glimpses of the exhibition, which subsequently traveled to Sweden and the African National Congress headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia.