Art Towards Social Development

Description

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.

Art Towards Social Development

Thamsanqa (Thami) Mnyele

1982

Accession Number

244084

Medium

Lithograph in black and dark red on off-white coated paper

Dimensions

Sheet: 86 × 61 cm (33 7/8 × 24 1/16 in.)

Classification

Medu Art Ensemble

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Artworkers Retirement Society