Ndaleni Art School : A Retrospective

Catalogue of the exhibition held at the Tatham Art Gallery, 24 September-7 November 1999. At 111 pages, an extremely detailed and comprehensive document on a little know aspect of South African art.

This research exhibition focused on the work of teachers and artists who studied at the Ndaleni Art School near Richmond.

Although primarily intended as a place to train teachers, the school offered black South Africans the largely unheard-of opportunity to learn art history and to train as artists. This opportunity came at a price: Upon completing the course, the students were to teach in a Bantu school for at least a year, entangling them with the apartheid state.

For that reason, people who tend to think of art in terms of the struggle against apartheid,  overlook it. Anyone who was affiliated with the government or worked with the government has frequently been viewed as a collaborator, and as in some way morally and ethically suspect.

A good example is Selby Mvusi, the well-known South African artist who was one of Ndaleni’s first students. Mvusi never admitted that he trained at Ndaleni for two years because it was an embarrassment.

This catalogue of the retrospective exhibition at Tatham Art Gallery is one of the few insights into this overlooked area of South African art history.

Some minor wear and creasing on the top corner of the front and back cover. Otherwise in excellent, clean condition. Internally As New and unread.