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

The original classical facade and portico of Johannesburg Art Gallery, with entrance steps, a streetlamp and parked cars, photographed in 1988. — Johannesburg Art Gallery, photographed in 1988. Historical venue context, not a view of the 2005 Dumile Feni retrospective. Photo: Janek Szymanowski / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.Janek Szymanowski · CC BY-SA 3.0

CriticismSouthern Africa

Dumile Feni retrospective reunited work from South Africa and exile

A 2005 Johannesburg Art Gallery retrospective brought together Dumile Feni's work from South Africa, London and the United States. Curated by Prince Dube, it combined drawings and other artworks with films, interviews and photographs. Reviewing the exhibition, Jacqui Brener welcomed the renewed attention to Feni's career and exile, while arguing that a more selective presentation could have made the extensive display easier to follow. The exhibition was scheduled to close on 10 April.

ArtThrob8 Apr 2005

CriticismSouthern Africa

Mozambican photography reached Johannesburg through Illuminando Vidas

Illuminando Vidas brought photographs of Mozambique made between 1950 and 2001 to Johannesburg's Bensusan Museum of Photography. The presentation included thirty-six images by sixteen photographers, among them Ricardo Rangel and Kok Nam. Robyn Sassen's review recognised its range, from war and racism to everyday pleasure, but criticised the limited contextual material available to visitors. Published in April 2005, the review records an exhibition that had already closed on 20 February.

OPENING THE JOURNAL

The living archive.

Dumile Feni retrospective reunited work from South Africa and exile

Mozambican photography reached Johannesburg through Illuminando Vidas

The living archive.

Dumile Feni retrospective reunited work from South Africa and exile

Mozambican photography reached Johannesburg through Illuminando Vidas

Dak’Art 2002 tests new identities and the boundaries of African art

Johannesburg planned billboard-scale public art for its inner city

New Durban galleries signalled a broader local art infrastructure

Peter McKenzie reflects on collective photography after apartheid

Musée Dapper reopens with expanded space for African art

Dak’Art 2000 prompts contrasting views on exchange, painting and installation

Haitian painting takes centre stage at Paris’s Halle Saint Pierre

Three women painters articulate distinct practices across Morocco and Gabon

Bamako’s 1998 photography biennial brings Ghana and North Africa into focus

Between biennials, Bamako’s photographers confront the economics of making images

Antoinette Jean on Haitian painting, dignity and the work of a gallery

Johannesburg Biennale sets out Enwezor’s transnational programme

MoMA surveys Richard Hunt’s welded forms in a 1971 retrospective

MoMA’s 1971 Bearden exhibition explores the rituals of everyday Black life

Harlem children’s paintings become a ninety-foot community mural

Haitian painters feature in MoMA’s May 1952 acquisitions record