THE HISTORICAL RECORD

The living archive.

Art leaves a record. Return to the exhibitions, artists and ideas that continue to shape the conversation.

A GROWING COLLECTION

Browse by the original source publication date. Historical selections are reviewed and added over time; coverage is not exhaustive.

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488 reviewed stories

CriticismSouthern Africa

An Ernest Mancoba symposium questions the limits of artistic categories

Reflecting on an Ernest Mancoba symposium at Cape Town’s A4 Foundation, ArtThrob argues that fixed artistic and national categories can flatten a complex life. The essay considers Mancoba’s movement between South Africa and Europe, his family’s collaborative intellectual life, and his work across abstraction and figuration. It welcomes renewed attention while questioning attempts to fit the artist neatly into a single modernist or national canon.

ArtThrob20 Feb 2020

CriticismSouthern Africa

Michael Armitage’s Accomplice explored painting, politics and material

ArtThrob’s review of Michael Armitage’s Accomplice at Norval Foundation examined paintings responding to Kenya’s 2017 elections. Drawing on a conversation between the artist and curator Owen Martin, it considered how moving bodies, landscapes and blurred imagery convey political experience. The critic also explored Armitage’s use of Lubugo bark cloth, whose uneven surface becomes part of the paintings’ composition and connects material choices with cultural history.

ArtThrob19 Feb 2020

OPENING THE JOURNAL

The living archive.

An Ernest Mancoba symposium questions the limits of artistic categories

Michael Armitage’s Accomplice explored painting, politics and material

The living archive.

An Ernest Mancoba symposium questions the limits of artistic categories

Michael Armitage’s Accomplice explored painting, politics and material

Review: Givan Lötz’s Unearthly unsettled familiar forms

ArtThrob’s guide to the 2020 Investec Cape Town Art Fair

Alida Rodrigues reworked colonial-era portraits through botanical collage

Sabelo Mlangeni and Igshaan Adams examined family and belonging at blank projects

Review: Barthélémy Toguo’s Bilongue connected portraiture and colonial memory

Inaugural Stellenbosch Triennale foregrounds public access to African art

A Cape Town symposium revisited Ernest Mancoba’s art and legacy

Six projects shortlisted for the inaugural Social Impact Arts Prize

ArtThrob revisited two Western Cape graduate exhibitions from 2019

René Tavares connected Tchiloli with migration and collective memory

Remembering Santu Mofokeng’s attention to everyday life

Stellenbosch’s 2020 triennale announcement set out a continent-wide programme

Strauss & Co previewed a pan-African contemporary auction in 2020

Laura Vincenti discusses pan-African participation at Cape Town Art Fair

Aspire and Piasa announced a joint African art auction in Cape Town

DuduBloom More explored trauma through mixed materials