Ephraim Mojalefa Ngatane (1938 – 1971), The Soccer Match (detail), 1961, 55 x 75cm
TWENTY-TEN
The exhibition Twenty-Ten: A selection of works from the SABC Art Collection ran in the foyer of the Radio Park building in Auckland Park, Johannesburg during 2010.
As the national broadcaster, the SABC was proud to display a selection of work from its art collection on the occasion of the 2010 FIFA World Cup: South Africa. In celebration of the tournament being held on the African continent for the first time, the selected artworks depicted scenes from a cross-section of South African life and conveyed a mood of vitality, energy and sociality.
Sam Nhlengethwa (1955), Midnight Blues, 1999, triptych, oil and collage on canvas, 150 x 360cm
This exhibition focused on social connectivity and human relationships, with many of the artworks featuring public life, sports, games, dancing – all the varied popular activities that bring people together. There is a spirit of bursting emotion or theatricality in some works and of expansive freedom in others, while several exude the kind of exuberance, energy, joy or playfulness that we associate with leisure activities and public life.
Several of the artworks featured convey the emotional complexity that informs our human connectedness, the impacts of harsh socio-economic conditions on the psyche, the ways in which we effect and influence one another, and the mysterious emotional shifts that shape our transits between the private and public realms.