Select Page

The first comprehensive exhibition of contemporary San art to feature at National Gallery

The first comprehensive exhibition of contemporary San art to feature at National Gallery

A landmark exhibition, ‘Roots of the First Tree’, featuring oil paintings, water colours, Lino prints and sculpture made by Ju?’hoansi, !Xung and Hai?om artists from resettlement farms in Omaheke and Ohangwena, will open on 29 August at the National Gallery in Namibia.

The National Art Gallery, PRO in a statement said that this will be the first comprehensive exhibition of contemporary San art ever to be shown in the National Gallery of Namibia.

The book ‘Roots of the First Tree’, by Karin le Roux, will also be launched at the exhibition. The book is an evocative description of the author’s collaborative and transformative art journey to remote Namibian resettlement farms to work with emergent San artists between 2002 and
2019.

It also features a gallery of works produced by the artists over a span of 17 years, the gallery added

“Now known to be the most enduring population in all human history and the largest human group anywhere on earth up till 20,000 years ago the voice of the San has rarely been heard above the noise of modern politics. Art has proved to be one of the most compelling mediums to help the artists themselves carve a path in a radically transformed and transforming new world,” the gallery highlighted.

The exhibition will be opened at 18h00 by Dr Peter Katjavivi, Speaker of the National Assembly.


Caption: Of the 55,000 San people who remain about 60% live in the Kalahari in Botswana, 35% in Namibia with the rest scattered all over southern Africa. (Photograph by Namibian.org)


 

About The Author

Intern

The Economist accommodates two interns every year, one per semester. They are given less demanding, softer issues to hone their skills, often with a specific leaning to social issues. Today, many of our interns are respected journalists or career professionals at economic and financial institutions. - Ed.