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Iziko South African National Gallery

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{{Infobox museum

|name = Iziko South African National Gallery

|image = South Africa National Gallery.jpg

|caption = Iziko South African National Gallery

|pushpin_map = Cape Town Central

|map_caption = Location within central Cape Town

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|mapframe-caption=Interactive fullscreen map

|mapframe-zoom=10

|mapframe-marker=museum

|mapframe-wikidata=yes

|coordinates={{WikidataCoord|display=it}}

|established = {{start date and age|df=y|3 November 1930}} (built 1914–1930)

|dissolved =

|location = Government Avenue, Company's Garden, Cape Town, South Africa

|director = Riason Naidoo

|type = Art Museum

|website = {{URL|iziko.org.za/museums/south-african-national-gallery}}

|embedded = {{infobox |child=yes

|label1 = Governing body

|data1 = Council of Iziko Museums of South Africa }}

}}

The Iziko South African National Gallery is the national art gallery of South Africa located in Cape Town. It became part of the Iziko collection of museums – as managed by the Department of Arts and Culture – in 2001. It then became an agency of the Department of Arts and Culture. Its collection consists largely of Dutch, French and British works from the 17th to the 19th century. This includes lithographs, etchings and some early 20th-century British paintings. Contemporary art work displayed in the gallery is selected from many of South Africa's communities and the gallery houses an authoritative collection of sculpture and beadwork.

History

File:South African National Gallery (rear).jpg

At a meeting in the Cape Town Public Library, convened on 12 October 1850, proposals were discussed to erect a building in the Company's Garden for the purpose of exhibiting art.{{cite book|last=Berman|first=Esmé|title=Art and Artists of South Africa|year=2010|publisher=G3 Publishers|location=Cape Town|isbn=978-1-86812-345-2|pages=376–379}} This occasion was the inaugural meeting of the South African Fine Arts Association, founded by Thomas Butterworth Bayley and Abraham de Smidt.{{cite book|last=Goodnow|first=Katherine|title=Challenge and Transformation: Museums in Cape Town and Sydney|year=2006|publisher=Berghahn Books|location=Paris|isbn=978-92-3-202816-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rylDbHz5io8C&q=South+African+National+Gallery}} The Association went on to arrange the first ever exhibition of fine art in South Africa. This took place on 10 May 1851 in the school rooms in the Company's Garden in Cape Town. Its primary raison d'être remained the establishing of a permanent home for a National collection.

The National collection was founded in 1872 with a bequest of paintings from the estate of Thomas Butterworth Bayley. In 1875, the Association was able to purchase premises in the current Queen Victoria Street where the nucleus of the Art Gallery was exhibited. By the South African Art Gallery Act of 1895 the South African Government took over the collection in trust and purchased the premises from the Association for R12 000. A board of five trustees were elected in 1896 to manage the collection.

The National Gallery Act made provision for the building of new premises, but foundations were only laid in 1914. The collection was kept in a wing of the South African Museum from 1900 and the current building only officially opened to the public on 3 November 1930, by the Earl of Athlone.

File:Numinous Beast by Bruce Arnott 1978.JPG, 1978]]

Notable contributions by Dr Alfred de Pass, Hyman Liberman, Sir Abe Bailey, Sir Edmund and Lady Davis and Lady Michaelis expanded the scope of the collection over the years. In 1937, the building was expanded to accommodate purchases that included South African artists. The first pieces by South African artists, by Anton van Wouw (African Head) and Neville Lewis (Adderley Street Flower-sellers), had been purchased in 1926.

Selected collection highlights

Abraham Van Beerstraten - The village of Midlum - Google Art Project.jpg|Abraham Van Beerstraten

Robert Gwelo Goodman - City Hall, Cape Town 1917 - Google Art Project.jpg|Robert Gwelo Goodman

Thomas Baines - Wagon Crossing a Drift - Natal - Google Art Project.jpg|Thomas Baines

Wolf Kibel - Interior - Google Art Project.jpg|Wolf Kibel

Iziko_sang_Holiday_Time_in_Cape_Town.jpg|Holiday Time in Cape Town

List of directors of the Iziko South African National Gallery

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Name

!Years in office

Prof. Charles du Ry{{Cite web |title=Review of 'A History of the Iziko South African National Gallery: Reflections on Art and National Identity' {{!}} The Heritage Portal |url=https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/review/review-history-iziko-south-african-national-gallery-reflections-art-and-national-identity |access-date=2024-04-16 |website=www.theheritageportal.co.za}}1973–1976
Dr. Raymond van Niekerk1976–1989
rowspan="2"|Marilyn Martinrowspan="1" | 1990–2001 as Director of South African National Gallery
rowspan="1"| 2001–2008 as Director of Art Collections, Iziko Museums
Riason Naidoo2009–2015

Notable artworks

Permanent collection artists (non-exhaustive)

See also

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.abebailey.org/ The Abe Bailey collection]
  • [https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/south-african-national-gallery?hl=en Iziko South African National Gallery] within Google Arts & Culture
  • {{commons category-inline}}

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{{Cape Town}}

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Category:Art museums and galleries in South Africa

Category:Museums in Cape Town

Category:Art museums and galleries established in 1930

Category:1930 establishments in South Africa

South Africa

Category:Art in Cape Town

Category:Neoclassical architecture in South Africa