Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Controversy: On the South African National Gallery Director's job

Raison Naidoo, the director of South Africa's premier art museum, the Iziko: South African National Gallery for the past five years has written a public statement in response to the refusal of the authorities to renew his contract. Kendell Geers, the internationally-renowned South African artist has weighed in: he will not join forces with Naidoo's sympathizers, and wishes to see him gone, based on what he describes as an bad experience working with the "unprofessional" Naidoo and the SANG on a failed Kendell's retrospective. Naidoo, having listed the museum's accomplishments during his tenure, threatens to fight for his job. But, given that this matter will quite likely become a flaming platform for racial politics in the post-Apartheid Rainbow Nation's art world, how it plays out calls for our attention.

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