On Sunday 15 July Fabian and I visited the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town. After purchasing an admission ticket at the entrance we walked through through about 20 rooms to visit every gallery in this medium-sized museum. There was a mix of permanent and special exhibits in a variety of galleries. The art was appointed with museum labels, the exhibits had themes and the curators were able to show different themes in different galleries, and overall the presentation of the museum was what I would call typical for a museum.
What was unusual was that as we went through the entire museum we encountered no other museum guests or any museum security. I would have expected that on a Sunday people in their leisure would visit the museum. The museum is located in the Company’s Garden, a central park, which was full of people enjoying themselves walking, socializing, and being at leisure. It was a nice day to be at the park and to stay outdoors. Did we have an unusual experience and happen to visit the museum for the hour when no one else was there or came there? Is Cape Town a place which trusts people to be alone with art without security in the museum, or perhaps do tourists like us seem trustworthy enough that the guards will take a break if only we are there? Alternatively, does Cape Town have a huge art gallery amid a population who do not find its collection and purpose meaningful enough to visit?
African art is unfamiliar to me and I would be unable to say how South African art differs from what is common in African art exhibits. The museum seemed to be presenting South African art. The art from people of indigenous descent seemed interesting and foreign to me. Mostly I could not interpret it. I could see that contemporary artists like keeping ties to whatever old cultural traditions remain. A difference between American art and art from anywhere else is that America does not claim many old cultural traditions, and that even the oldest are from the 1700s.
I understand the art from colonial locals well enough. There were European Age of Sail paintings of Cape Town seaports and older paintings of Europeans standing around or in stately buildings. There was a contemporary exhibit which showed a South African European descent transman in photos with indigenous descent transwomen sex workers. I sort of understood that in context the intent was to raise the social status of an outcast group. I wonder if anywhere and anytime other than Cape Town right now it would be possible for a white artist to do a show like this with the indigenous people and actually show respect to artist, subjects, and gallery visitors?
I had a nice experience visiting the museum. I enjoy all kinds of museums and this one did well as a national art gallery.
Either I had a strange experience of visiting an empty museum that is usually with guests or the museum does not get many guests. Suppose that the museum does not get many guests. Why might that be?
It would not be of location because lots of people are in the Company’s Garden. It would not be for anyone’s lack of leisure because the garden is full of people with time to enjoy. The admission cost is on par with other countries – 30 rand when 20 rand/hour is minimum wage. In the United States $15 is common admission when minimum wage is $7.50-15/hour.
It could be that the art does not match the interests of the local people. I like the art and the art suited me, but I am from a Western culture. It could be that my tastes and the tastes of the indigenous people are different, and the art museum I expect is not the art museum that communicates the art which is meaningful to Cape Town’s native people. This is assuming that there is a native culture and a colonial culture.
I do not have a sense for how Cape Town works. In some ways, like the way that a Western person can feel entirely at home in Cape Town, it seems like the global culture to which the world is heading works in Cape Town. In other ways South Africa seems to elevate people of colonial descent and put down people of native descent. The most obvious way this happens is in distribution of wealth – white people seem wealthier and are less often publicly visible in lower class jobs, while black people are more visible in poverty and less often present in the public places were I saw more affluent white people. The museum was from the 1800s so was founded with a legacy of colonial money. I can only imagine that old colonial money still influences it.
I wonder what circumstances could change to result in the museum always having visitors at the times when a museum should be most busy? What do local people think of this museum?