“Contemporary Art/South Africa,” Yale's first of contemporary African art, showcased over thirty works produced in South Africa or by South Africans, including objects owned by Yale plus a range of artworks borrowed from museum and gallery collections nearby. Many of the works, predictably, addressed political issues as they overtly deal with the struggle against apartheid. But “Contemporary Art/South Africa” was much more than that. And the exhibition as a whole was not at all predictable.
One of this exhibition's great achievements was its innovative approach to conceptualizing, defining, and visualizing the range of issues that define South African life today. The exhibition successfully connected current issues to those of the past and interrogated how these connections are expressed in the visual arts. This was partly achieved through a creative curatorial approach organized around three loosely defined themes: “Personal/Social,” “Art/Politics,” and “Here/There.” These themes were meant to guide—not dictate—our thinking about...