David Goldblatt: Intersections
June 17 – August 21, 2005
museum kunst palast
Ehrenhof 4-5, 40479 Düsseldorf
T 0049-(0)211 8996211
F 0049-(0)211 8929504
marina.schuster [at] museum-kunst-palast.de
Following last year’s exhibition Africa Remix at museum kunst palast with a selection of works by David Goldblatt (*1930 in Randfontein, South Africa), the museum is now presenting “Intersections”, a new group of works consisting of color photographs by the same artist.
David Goldblatt, works in the tradition of the great documentary photographers of the twentieth century, has been observing his native country with the camera ever since the National Party came to power in South Africa in 1948 and openly proclaimed the policy of apartheid. His images of life in the ‘homelands’, the workers in the gold mines and the growth of urban sprawl have been published in a large number of magazines and books. His main work, “South Africa: The Structure of Things then”, appeared in 1998. It shows locations prominent in South African memory, which reflect the country’s social upheavals.
Until well into the 1990′s, Goldblatt photographed exclusively in black and white. For decades, he had been developing an incisive brand of esthetics which never took a back seat to the documentary message of his photographs. Aware that a new epoch in the country’s history had dawned when Nelson Mandela’s government took over, Goldblatt began to look for new expressive possibilities and turned to color photography.
Although David Goldblatt is considered to be among today’s most significant proponents of contemporary photographic art, he has only become known in Europe in recent years. Two groups of his works were featured at the Documenta11: a selection from “Boksburg”, an older series on the life of white Africans, and a small selection of new color photographs from the “Jo’burg Intersections” series.
The museum kunst palast shows a new group of works called “Platteland Intersections”. Here Goldblatt’s photos depict the damage suffered by humans and countryside in a land whose people have had to reorient themselves entirely following the demise of apartheid.
“Platteland Intersections” will be contrasted with “Johannesburg Intersections”, which concentrates on views of the metropolis. This results in exciting constellations demonstrating the relation between political and physical geography in South Africa, made visible in the changes undergone by the city and the countryside. Thus a new image of the country in the twenty-first century is created. Scope of exhibits: appr. 70 to 80 photographs.
The exhibition is curated by Dr. Christoph Danelzik-Brüggemann. There will be a publication in English with a German translation insert. Publisher: Prestel Verlag, Munich.
Further station of the exhibition: December 10, 2005 February 26, 2006
Camera Austria, Reinhard Braun, Graz, Austria
Art Edition
On the occasion of the exhibition, 50 prints of the photograph Sarie Flink doing her hair, Kleine Rivier, Buffelsdrif, Western Cape. 23 November 2004 will be available. For further information please contact the shop on 0049/211/8924168.
The Stiftung museum kunst palast is a public-private partnership between the state capital of Duesseldorf, E.ON AG, METRO Group and degussa AG.
