The Joburg Art Gallery

The Johannesburg Art Gallery, located in Joubert Park in the CBD, is the major fine arts museum in Joburg. It has an impressive pedigree.

The original building was designed by Edward Lutyens and now consists of 15 exhibition halls and sculpture gardens. It houses collections of 17th-century Dutch paintings, 18th and 19th-century British and European art, 19th-century South African works, a large contemporary collection of 20th-century local and international art and a print cabinet containing works from the 15th century to the present.

The initial collection was put together by Sir Hugh Lane and exhibited in London in 1910 before being brought to South Africa. Florence, Lady Phillips, an art collector and wife of mining magnate Lionel Phillips, established the first gallery collection using funds donated by her husband.

Lord Phillips

Lady Phillips donated her lace collection, and arranged for her husband to donate seven oils and a Rodin sculpture to the collection.

The current collection includes works by Auguste Rodin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas and Henry Moore, and South Africans such as Gerard Sekoto. It also houses an extensive collection of the work of contemporary local artists.

new lighting unveiled

Unfortunately the museum and Joubert Park itself degraded along with the rest of the CBD when it was abandoned in the late twentieth century. But the good news is that just like the CBD, it too is undergoing a massive regeneration. In fact the museum took this opportunity to unveil the new Phillips LED lighting system which is being installed to replace the old obsolete lighting.

The JAG is not only a collection of masters. It also presents contemporary temporary exhibitions. We went to the Gallery to attend the closing party for their latest exhibition called Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women, and Art. It was a multi-media exhibit featuring sculpture, photography, paintings and drawings and several films and performance pieces on video.

It was thought-provoking and understandably somewhat disturbing. Digesting some of the more disturbing aspects was made a bit more palatable through artistic interpretation. It drew from an international list of artists including Marina Abramović and Yoko Ono.

This 45 video was made from Yoko's performance at Carnegie Hall in 2010. In it, people come up to Yoko who is seated in a chair and cut away pieces of her clothing. It got the point across.

Even though we were there for the exhibit's closing party, there was plenty of time to walk around the rest of the museum to see the permanent collection on display. The few parts that were not undergoing renovations anyway. Unfortunately though, the gift shop was closed.

I want to go to the opening party when the renovations are complete. Hopefully the gift shop will be open too!