Art Works

The art works managed by the museum will surprise and delight – represented is a range that includes not only works of a high quality from south africa but works by internationally recognised artists as well.

Among the many art works are linocuts by David Hlongwane, Vuyisani Mgijima and Kweti Ndzube – part of a two-day printmaking workshop hosted on the Island in 1997; and the Bill Davis Collection, which comprises 217 sculptures, paintings and woodcuts.

Naomi Jacobsen, Kobus Hattingh, the Zimbabwean artist Tawonameso and Amar Nath Sehgal of India are among recent sculptors to have presented works. Sehgal’s The Captive is a tribute to Nelson Mandela; the sculpture was unveiled in Paris by the UN Secretary-General in 1986.

The Transitions Series was created and exhibited by the community based Visual Arts Group in Cape Town. The collections also include works by Mary Townsend, Xolani Somana, Hekkie Moos, Settlers Chabalala and the writer-artist Breyten Breytenbach.

Albie Sachs, now a Constitutional Court Judge, was active in the struggle for many years. He lived in exile in Mozambique, where he lost an arm during a car bomb attack by apartheid agents.

Sachs, a great humanist and discerning art lover, collected extensively while in Mozambique.

This unique and fine collection of 95 art pieces reflects his ongoing engagement and solidarity with the people of Mozambique, and was acquired from artists that Albie Sachs came to know personally. The pieces range from those of anonymous rural carvers to some of the best examples of works by world-renowned artists and sculptors such as Malangatana Ngwenya and Chissano.

The Tyrone Appollis Collection includes a selection of 12 original works from an exhibition entitled Not a Moment Too Soon, which was hosted by the South African Association of Arts in 1994.

Tyrone Appollis is a well-known Western Cape artist, and some of his works are included in the permanent collection of the Cape Town-based South African National Gallery.

This series of five works entitled Remember our Fallen Comrades, dealing with Ruth First, Dulcie September, Ashley Kriel and the Cradock Four, all killed by apartheid agents under mysterious circumstances, represented South Africa in the Venice Biennale in 1995.

A collection of 36 linocuts, many of which were produced in the Community Arts Project in Cape Town in the late 1970s and the early 1980s.

Approximately 100 drawings by this well-known artist and writer. The subjects include portraits done in exile and at Somafco in Tanzania.

A collection of approximately 60 works by the American artist and illustrator, depicting the liberation struggle in South Africa.

A collection of 23 works by leading South African artists, including William Kentridge, Noddy Braytman and Catherine Harries.

For more than 40 years, Abe Berry produced editorial cartoons and political strips for The Star, then South Africa’s largest daily newspaper. He regularly lampooned the ruling National Party Government for their apartheid policies. His ‘day by day’ pieces were literally a daily record of life in this country over many years.

Abe was the only South African cartoonist to have no less than 10 features, with more than 70 cartoons, published in Punch magazine. His work was represented at more than 30 exhibitions, locally and abroad.