Remnants

To coincide with its display of work by Ernest Cole, the South African photographer best known for his unstinting, career-long chronicling of the effects of racism in the United States, the Minneapolis Institute of Art is hosting a free exhibition of art made in or relating to Apartheid-era South Africa (24 April–2 November). Drawing largely from its own collection – particularly photographs taken by David Goldblatt, who might be said to have done for South Africa what Cole did for the United States – the show encompasses photography and prints as well as a painting by Cinga Samson from 2020 that depicts a group of Black men and women standing at the Rhodes Memorial in Cape Town. Other works include William Kentridge’s Sleeper Red (1997), a scathing print of a white South African recumbent on a bench, seemingly unfazed by social violence – here symbolised by a wash of deep crimson ground. A more optimistic note is sounded by the work of the photographer Zanele Muholi, with their striking portraits of queer Black South Africans.

Find out more from the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s website.
Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary

Street traders and the colonnade of the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication, Kliptown, Soweto (2014; printed 2015), David Goldblatt. Minneapolis Institute of Art

Inyongo 2 (2020), Cinga Samson. Minneapolis Institute of Art; © the artist

Sleeper Red (1997), William Kentridge. Minneapolis Institute of Art; © the artist