Jabulisa 2010
the Art and Craft of KwaZulu-Natal

• Opens Tuesday 8 June at 18h00

Update: Extended until Sunday 07 November.
Schreiner Gallery closes Thursday 30 September.
KwaZulu-Natal Rooms close in stages from Sunday 26 September.

The exhibition has been extended in the Main Exhibition Room until the hang of Fabulous Picture Show. Part of the exhibition will be taken down to make way for re-hanging of the Gallery's permanent collection.

KwaZulu-Natal Galleries cater for the display of works with emphasis in this province from the landscape to the people and spiritual elements that set this province apart from others, this will include artworks that have been on loan to The National Gallery in Cape Town.

Once again, Jabulisa 2010 will be a special celebration of contemporary visual creativity by artists and crafters resident in KwaZulu-Natal. This event is organised and sponsored by the Natal Arts Trust.

As with Jabulisa 2006, a choice selection of the art and craft from the province has been made by experienced selectors in the 5 regional areas. All the selected works from these regions will be shown in an exhibition which will open at the Tatham Art Gallery on Tuesday 8 June 2010 to coincide with the Soccer World Cup.

Jabulisa 2010 will be displayed in all the ground floor galleries. The exhibition will highlight the variety of contemporary themes, styles and media that are prevalent among the artists of KwaZulu-Natal.

An illustrated catalogue of the exhibition will be on sale in the Tatham Shop.

The exhibition will close on Sunday 26 September 2010. Most of the artworks on exhibition will then travel to the other art museums in KwaZulu-Natal.

The Tatham Art Gallery Collection 1903 - 1974

• The Perimeter Gallery

This display shows selected artworks from the Gallery's permanent collection. Some very large works could not be displayed for lack of space. Artworks are grouped by the years in which they came into the collection, between 1903 and 1974, providing an overview of artistic development and changing tastes over a period of more than 70 years.

Included is a portrait of Mrs Ada Tatham, who started the collection. There is also information about other curators who were responsible for the growth and maintenance of the collection.

Robert Gwelo Goodman
(1871- 1939)
Morning Glory: The Valley of a Thousand Hills, Natal
Oil on canvas

The magnificent gift from Colonel Whitwell is not included in this display. It is on view in other rooms on the same floor. Further information about this period of the Gallery's history is available in the newly launched publication, Storm in the Wheatfield.

KZN Midlands Matric Art Exhibition 2010

Mfundo Luthuli, Alexandra High School
School Boy
Acrylic on paper

• Main Exhibition Room
• Opens: Tuesday 20 April at 18h00
• Closes: Sunday 23 May at 17h00

• Collection of works: Monday 24 and Tuesday 25 May between 10h00 and 16h00

This year the Matric Art Exhibition in the Tatham Art Gallery has a more local flavor, as the Provincial Education Department is not directly involved. All Government and Independent schools in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands offering art as a Matric subject were invited to submit artworks, from which selectors chose representative examples for the exhibition.

Megan Beckett, St. Anne's College
Stonehenge
Oil on canvas

Durban and other areas are holding their own exhibitions.

As usual, teachers and learners have worked hard and a feast of innovative subjects and media is waiting for viewers.

Kerryn Moolenschot, St. John's College
Struggle
Acrylic on board

Besides paintings, drawings, prints, sculptures and ceramics, there are installations and other works that fall outside traditional categories. Come and see!

For further information contact Thulani or Pinky at 033 392 2801.

African Colour Notes: Nicky Chovuchovu

• Schreiner Gallery
• Opens: Thursday 18 March 2010 at 18h00
• Closes: Tuesday 27 April 2010 at 17h00

Nicky Chovuchovu, who makes vibrant acrylic paintings about the people of KwaZulu-Natal, was born in Zimbabwe. He believes that tolerance and proper understanding are vital in the smooth integration of people from different cultures and geographical areas.

He hopes that this exhibition will create an environment where anyone will be free to ask questions that they may not be able to ask otherwise. He wants to clarify that despite differences we are one. Nicky maintains that cultures can integrate with very exciting results, and wants to prove that non-South Africans can contribute positively to our society and economy.

Nicky will be Artist in Residence between 11h00 and 15h00 on the following days: Tuesday 30 March, Wednesday 31 March and Thursday 01 April 2010.

Whitwell Collection

Donated by Colonel Whitwell this collection consists mainly of 19th and early 20th century British and French artworks including paintings, drawings, prints and objets d'art. There are also diverse pieces from Japan, China, Russia and Persia.

On Display

The Whitwell Collection 1923 – 1926

• Lorna Ferguson Room, Upstairs Passage, Prints Room
• Closes 2012

This exhibition celebrates the most generous donation in the history of the Tatham Art Gallery.

Between 1923 and 1926 over 400 artworks and objets d'art were presented to the Pietermaritzburg Art Gallery by Colonel Robert Harvey Whitwell. Whitwell retired from the Indian Army Medical Service after twenty years service in 1900. He was well-off and had a long-standing interest in art. Due to the hospitality he received on a fleeting visit to Pietermaritzburg in 1919 he decided to put together a collection of work to supplement those already in the City's fledgling Gallery.

Positive responses and caring correspondence from the Mayor and Town Clerk of Pietermaritzburg spurred Whitwell's generosity. The Gallery benefited by receiving a unique collection of works by British and French artists who represent more contemporary trends in European painting around the turn of the twentieth century. Many of the objets d'art reflect similar trends.

Colonel Whitwell was determined that his name be kept out of the press. As a result, his magnificent gift has never received the acknowledgment it deserves. We have decided to celebrate Colonel Whitwell by displaying his gift in its entirety, as far as possible in the way he would have wished to see it.

Colonel Whitwell was always insistent that his gift be opened in the rooms set aside and specially redecorated in the City Hall on a St George's Day, as it was on that day which he visited Pietermaritzburg in 1919, for various reasons this was never possible. We therefore open the show on St George's Day this year.

This exhibition coincides with the Gallery's 20th year in the Old Supreme Court building and the launch of the first volume of a book on the history of the Gallery collection.

Curriculum Curricula

• Main Exhibition Room
• Closes Sunday 8 September 2013 at 17h00

This exhibition features artworks from the Gallery's permanent collection that have a bearing on the national art syllabus for schools. Six themes were used as guidelines to show the growth and development of visual art in this country: Early South African Art; Crafts and Design; Art and Spirituality; Contemporary Arts; Art as a Reflection of Society; Resistance Art.

These categories are interlinked, and are not restricted to the artists featured and their work. They are bite sized chunks for learners to understand how artists contributed to changing the South African visual arts landscape.

Research files related to the artists on display are available in the Gallery's resource centre, but booking is essential. Call Kobie at 033 392 2819.

• Art Through Technology?