“Miriam Makeba,” 1955. Jürgen Schadeberg (German, born 1931). Courtesy of the artist, Le Pin-la-Garenne, France.

Darkroom: Photography and New Media in South Africa since 1950

A groundbreaking exhibition that highlights photography’s role in South Africa’s complex transformation will open at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on August 21, 2010. The exhibition, “Darkroom: Photography and New Media in South Africa since 1950,” will run until October 24, 2010.

This exhibition features the work of 18 photographers, new media and video artists, who lived and worked in South Africa during the apartheid era (1948-1994), though a few now live elsewhere. “Darkroom’s” eight sections highlight the ways that these artists have addressed South African culture from various perspectives, and their increased presence in the global art world since 1994. It examines the use analog and digital media, still and moving pictures, and two- and three-dimensional formats to express relationships between mid-twentieth-century approaches and more recent ones, and differing concerns among artists of successive generations.

“The social and political transformation of South Africa is one of the most remarkable stories of the second half of the twentieth century,” says Alex Nyerges, director of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. “To engage with it directly through the eyes of those who experienced and documented the anguish, turmoil and elation of the period is both uplifting and thought-provoking.”

This extensive exhibition is presented in conjunction with the Visual Arts Center of Richmond. Two-thirds of the exhibition will be at the VMFA, and one-third will be featured at the Visual Arts Center. A companion exhibition by contemporary South African artist and Richmond resident, Siemon Allen will be on view at the Anderson Gallery at Virginia Commonwealth University.

A preview for VMFA members is scheduled for August 20 from 6 to 9 p.m. On August 26, there will be a screening of the 2002 film “Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony” at 6 p.m. This award-winning documentary looks at the role of music in the struggle for freedom in South Africa. After the screening, producer Johnathan Dorfman will discuss the film.

About the Art:

Through the combination of vintage prints, recent photographs, photo-based installations, and video art, “Darkroom” underscores photography’s role in documenting some of apartheid’s most riveting moments, while considering myriad ways that South Africans resisted apartheid, and have emerged from it. These works have never been shown together in the United States in this context. “‘Darkroom’ provides a chance for audiences in Richmond and Birmingham to see works by these internationally celebrated artists who have contributed greatly to global trends in contemporary art through their perseverance and technical excellence,” says Tosha Grantham, exhibition curator. “Juxtaposing historical material and recent work emphasizes the camera’s power and possibilities,  and the ways that these artists have explored this conceptually in their work.”

Accompanying the exhibition is the catalogue “Darkroom: Photography and New Media in South Africa since 1950” by Tosha Grantham. The book won the gold medal in the Multicultural Non-Fiction Adult category of the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards.

About the Artists:

Darkroom includes18 artists who span four generations: fourteen are South African; four are from the England, the United States, and Germany, and either made South Africa their home or created significant bodies of work there. The works were made from 1950 to 2008. Featured artists are: William Kentridge, Robin Rhode, Jürgen Schadeberg, Nontsikelelo Veleko and Sue Williamson.

About the Exhibition:

* Title: Darkroom: Photography and New Media in South Africa since 1950
* Organizer: VMFA
* Location: VMFA and The Visual Arts Center of Richmond
* Dates: August 21, 2010 to October 24, 2010
* Curator: Tosha Grantham, Consulting Curator
* Itinerary: VMFA (see above); Birmingham Museum of Arts (January 23, 2011-April 16, 2011)
* Number of Works: 112
* Admission: $10; Admission is free for VMFA members and children ages 6 and under.
* Catalog: “Darkroom: Photography and New Media in South Africa since 1950” by Tosha Grantham with essays by Isolde Brielmaier and Tumelo Mosaka; preface by Deborah Willis, Softcover: $35. Winner of the Gold Medal in the Multicultural Non-Fiction Adult category of the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards.
* Sponsors: Generously supported by the Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Exhibition Endowment, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.

– The information above was provided by Suzanne Hall at VMFA.