The idea of modernity as an ontological status or experiential reality that is exclusive to the West has been contested by a number of authors, theorists, and art historians over the past twenty years. This paper tackles the particular ways in which the modern has been constituted for and about black South African artists, particularly those who have lived most of their lives in “rural” areas as opposed to those living in large cities. What constitutes “rural” as an identity or status opposite to “urban” is contested today more than it was in the 1980s. This is partly because labeling an artist as rural participates in the conflation of distance between people in time with distance between people in space that Johannes Fabian (1983) pointed to as characteristic of the West's engagement with the so-called primitive. It also calls up the specters of the categories of “folk” and/or “outsider” art...
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Summer 2020
June 01 2020
Realism, Rurality and Modernity: Samuel Makoanyane, Julius Mfete, Zolani Mapente
Anitra Nettleton
Anitra Nettleton
Anitra Nettleton is currently a professor in the Visual Arts department of FADA at the University of Johannesburg. She is also professor emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she taught African art history for forty years. She has published widely, with Southern Africa as her special focus. anettleton@uj.ac.za
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Anitra Nettleton
Anitra Nettleton is currently a professor in the Visual Arts department of FADA at the University of Johannesburg. She is also professor emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she taught African art history for forty years. She has published widely, with Southern Africa as her special focus. anettleton@uj.ac.za
Online Issn: 1937-2108
Print Issn: 0001-9933
© 2020 by the Regents of the University of California.
2020
The Regents of the University of California
African Arts (2020) 53 (2): 66–79.
Citation
Anitra Nettleton; Realism, Rurality and Modernity: Samuel Makoanyane, Julius Mfete, Zolani Mapente. African Arts 2020; 53 (2): 66–79. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/afar_a_00529
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