Art of the South African Township

by Gavin Younge and Rizzoli

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0847809730
• ISBN13: 9780847809738
• Release Date: October 1988
• Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Apartheid's samizdat

The book was written in the waning years of Apartheid. Though of course the author and the artists depicted did not know this. The best part of the book is the vivid colour and black and white photos of paintings made by black South Africans under the Afrikaner jackboot. There are also photos of the dusty townships, in which blacks and coloureds were relegated. Showing the enforced poverty and hardship that was the true face of Apartheid. The paintings themselves, and the accompanying narrative, show quite expressive talent. The reader should keep in mind that much overt commentary was often banned under the government's security laws. So that paintings were one of the few social spaces in which people could, sometimes and not necessarily all the time, express dissent. You might think of the paintings as Apartheid's samizdat.