David GoldblattThe Pursuit of Values
David
Goldblatt
The
Pursuit
of
Values
Museum
In this 2015 retrospective exhibition, curator Neil Dundas of the Goodman Gallery took the opportunity “to examine how Goldblatt’s life’s work has explored and expressed the values of South Africa and its peoples”. The Pursuit of Values included photographs from Goldblatt’s twin projects, South Africa – The Structure of Things Then and Structures of Dominion and Democracy, as well as a number of images that had not previously been exhibited or published.
For almost seven decades, Goldblatt has been paying fastidious attention to South Africans: their individual stories and collective histories, their homes, their journeys, their workplaces.
While he never shied away from the grim realities of apartheid – on the contrary, he captured these on film so that they could become more widely known – Goldblatt also sought and found moments of redemption, sympathy and even humour. Over the last twenty years his camera has been trained on the paradoxes of development and decay, liberty and instability, opportunity and chaos in post-apartheid (or, as some have described it, “neo-apartheid”) South Africa.
The Pursuit of Values was exhibited at at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg from 21 October to 5 December, 2015.
Artworks
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David Goldblatt
The City, The Firewalker and the aftermath of copper cable theft, Queen Elizabeth bridge, Johannesburg, 29 December 2011.
The 11 metre sculpture by William Kentridge and Gerhard Marx depicts
one of the women often seen on Joburg streets carrying a brazier with live coals on her head. She will set it up on a sidewalk where she will roast yellow mielies or sheep's heads for sale to passersby. The paving stones are scattered because someone tied a rope to the electric cable
under the lamp post to a truck and ripped the cable out to steal the copper wire (4_A0821, 2011
David Goldblatt
Memorial to the Enslaved by Wilma Cruise and Gavin Young. The white building was the Dutch East India Company's slave lodge in the centre of Cape Town. Some 9000 slaves, convicts and mentally disturbed people are thought to have been confined within it between 1679 and 1811. It is now a museum. 11 March 2012 , 2012
David Goldblatt
Memorial to Sister Dr. Mary Aidan Quinlan who was murdered on November 9 1952 by a mob near Duncan Village. It was the time of the ANC’s Defiance of Unjust Laws campaign. Several thousand people had gathered on Bantu Square, near Duncan Village, for what was supposedly a religious meeting for which the magistrate had given permission. Hidden in a house nearby, waiting to address the crowd were ANC leaders. At the last minute, the police, suspecting the true purpose, ordered the crowd to disperse, but opened fire before they could do so. Nine were killed and many wounded. The crowd became a vengeance-seeking mob into which, taking a familiar shortcut to her church, drove Sister Quinlan. Her car was overturned and set alight. She was killed and perhaps partly cannabilised. Running battles between police, troops and township people continued into the night. It was said that more than two hundred people were killed. She had devotedly served the Duncan Village community as a medical doctor. Koko Qebeyi, not born at that time, became an anti-apartheid activist and city councillor and arranged for the erection of this monument to a woman who had devotedly served the community of Duncan Village. Catholic Church, Duncan Village, East London. 13 October 2013 , 2013
David Goldblatt
The Women's Monument at the Union Buildings, Pretoria. It commemorates the march by some 20,000 women on 9 August 1956, through Pretoria to the Union Buildings, where they attempted to present a letter to prime minister JG Strijdom, protesting the 'pass laws' and in particular, the law requiring African women to carry 'passes'. Neither Strijdom nor anyone else in government accepted the letter. In 2006 this memorial to the march was unveiled. It is in the amphitheatre where the women gathered. The artists were Wilma Cruise and Marcus Holmes. It is not accessible to the public. 1 November 2013 , 2013
David Goldblatt
Freedom Park and the Voortrekker Monument, Pretoria. 26 May 2014 , 2014
David Goldblatt
The Thinking Stone, 32 tons of granite sculpted by Willem Boshoff. One of a number of artworks commissioned by the university after some Afrikaner male students were alleged to have urinated into the food of some black workers.
This 'sculpture-on-the-campus' project was undertaken in the hope that it would "promote greater respect for cultural differences and would instill a sense of belonging in staff and students". University of the Free State, Bloemfontein. 14 March 2013 , 2013
David Goldblatt
Refugees from Zimbabwe and refugees from violent acts of xenophobia on the Witwatersrand, sheltering in the Central Methodist Church, Kerk Street, Johannesburg. 22 March 2009. (4_A00482/4_A0469/ 4_A0482), 2009
David Goldblatt
The dethroning of Cecil John Rhodes, after the throwing of human faeces on the statues and the agreement of the University to the demands of students for its removal. The University of Cape Town, 9 April 2015 , 2015
David Goldblatt
The monument at left celebrates the fifth anniversary of the Republic of South Africa. The one at right is to J G Strijdom, militant protagonist of White supremacy and of an Afrikaner republic, who died in 1958. At rear is the headquarters building of Volkskas (‘The People’s Bank’) founded in 1934 to mobilise Afrikaner capital and to break the monopoly of the ‘English’ banks. Pretoria, 25 April 1982. , 1982
David Goldblatt
Thirteen kilometres of this coastline were a White Group Area, Bloubergstrand, Cape Town. 9 January 1986 , 1986
David Goldblatt
Remnant of a wild almond hedge planted in 1660 to prevent livestock from being taken out of the European settlement in South Africa by the indigenous Khoi. Kirstenbosch, Cape Town. 16 May 1993 , 1993
David Goldblatt
Copies of advertisements regarding destitute children that appeared in the Cape Government Gazette, form part of a memorial to children entitled We are still here. Between 1841 and 1921 some 7000 children were advertised as destitute in the Gazette. If not claimed by someone able to support them they were indentured, presumably as labourers. Memorial by Lovell Friedman and Leora Lewis, Longmarket pedestrian mall, Cape Town. 11 March 2012 , 2012
David Goldblatt
Cows at a taxi rank on Error Street, New Doornfontein, Johannesburg. 8 December 2012 , 2012
David Goldblatt
Frances Baard, militant trade unionist and leader of the ANC Women’s League, sculpted by Anton Momberg. Kimberley, 5 February 2013 , 2013
David Goldblatt
On August 16 2012 South African Police shot striking mineworkers of the Lonrho platinum mines, killing 34 and wounding 78 in seemingly wild shooting without good cause. The men were shot, some with their hands up in surrender, within a radius of about 300 metres of this koppie on which they met. Beyond is the Lonhro smelter, which stood idle during the strike. Marikana, North-West Province. 11 May 2014 , 2014
David Goldblatt
The City Hall, opened on 12 April 1910, and the Cenotaph, unveiled on 7 March 1926, Durban, Natal. 1980 , 1980
David Goldblatt
Sculpted by Kagiso Pat Mautloa, a memorial to those who died while in the detention of the Security Police in this building, John Vorster Square, now Johannesburg Central Police Station. 27 February 2012 , 2012
David Goldblatt
Life-size, life-like bronzes looking and "moving" forward in a Long March to Freedom, on the lawns of the Olievenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein. 18 May 2014 , 2014
David Goldblatt
Monument to the Cradock Four, who, while travelling from Port Elizabeth to Cradock, were abducted here by Security Policemen, then assaulted, assassinated and their bodies burnt on 27 June 1985. Vulindela Housing Estate, Coega, Port Elizabeth. 21 December 2014 , 2014
David Goldblatt
Built in 2013: The Zulu side of a Bridge of Reconciliation between the Voortrekkers and the Zulus at the Nkome or Blood River. This is the Zulu side of the bridge. The Voortrekker side is usually locked for lack of funds to fence it against unpaid entrance to the site. Blood River,KwaZulu Natal, 24 January 2015 , 2015
David Goldblatt
Sculpture of Susanna Smit, leader of a group of 400 Voortrekker women who in 1843 protested the annexation of Natalia by Britain. Vergezient, KwaZulu Natal. 28 March 2015 , 2015
David Goldblatt
Cafe-de-Move-On, Croesus, Johannesburg. 1964 , 1964
David Goldblatt
House near Phuthaditjhaba. QwaQwa. 1 May 1989 , 1989
David Goldblatt
A domestic worker's afternoon off, Sunninghill, Sandton, Johannesburg. 23 July 1999 , 1999
David Goldblatt
Portlands, Mitchells Plain, Cape Town. 08 February 1989 , 1989
David Goldblatt
The destruction of District Six under the Group Areas Act, Cape Town , 1982
David Goldblatt
Kite flying, near Phuthaditjhaba, in the apartheid bantustan of Qwa Qwa. 1 May 1989 , 1989
David Goldblatt
Assegais, shield, and 23-metre-high cross of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk in Afrika, (Dutch Reformed Mission Church to Africans), which stands above Dingane's destroyed capital, uMgungundlovu. The church was burnt down in 1985; Dinganestad, Natal. 1989 , 1989
David Goldblatt
Dutch Reformed Church inaugurated on 31 July 1966, Op-die-Berg, Koue Bokkeveld. 23 May 1987 , 1987
David Goldblatt
Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church), completed in 1984, Quellerina, Johannesburg, Transvaal 4_4627, 1986
David Goldblatt
Monument to the Afrikaans language, inaugurated on 10 October 1975, Paarl. 5 April 1992 , 1992
David Goldblatt
South-east wing of a hostel for Black male workers erected during apartheid as part of a scheme to make Joburg city and suburbs white. Alexandra Township. 1 June 1988 , 1988
David Goldblatt
Man building his house, Marselle Township, Kenton-on-sea. 08 July 1990 , 1990
David Goldblatt
Bus stop, Derby Road, Lorentzville, Johannesburg. December 1973 , 1973
David Goldblatt
"Ons vir jou Suid-Afrika" (we are for you you South Africa)" The Heroes' Acre: Military graves at the cemetery with Zamoukuhle township Amersfoort. 20 December 1986 , 1986
David Goldblatt
Flushing Meadows and lighting masts, Site B, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, 11 October 1987 Structures , 1987
David Goldblatt
The meeting place of the Jerusalema Apostolic Church in Zion, Melrose Bird Sanctuary, Johannesburg, 31 December 1987 , 1987
David Goldblatt
Dutch Reformed Church, built in 1911 Swellendam, Cape. 9 April 1993 , 1993
David Goldblatt
Self-portrait at Consolidated Main Reef Mines, Roodepoort. , May 1967
David Goldblatt
Members of the Constitutional Assembly on the steps of the Senate House in the parliamentary precinct, shortly after they had unanimously adopted the Constitution of South Africa, Cape Town. 11 October 1996 , 1996
David Goldblatt
Freedom Square: here, in the time of apartheid, on 26 June 1955, under harassment by the police, some 3000 people of all races, from all over South Africa, gathered in a Congress of the People and adopted the Freedom Charter, a template for the governance of a non-racial, democratic South Africa. The Charter became the basis of South Africa’s democratic constitution. Kliptown, Soweto, Johannesburg. 10 December 2003 , 2003
David Goldblatt
This monument, covering what was Freedom Square, commemorates the Congress of the People in 1955. Costing R160 million it has a hotel, conference centre, auditorium , galleries, shops, museum, plaza for informal traders, conical tower in which the Freedom Charter is displayed. The community of Kliptown in whose midst it was built, were not consulted. Most of the facilities are hardly used. Fearing that tourists might confuse Freedom Park, Pretoria with Freedom Square, Kiptown, the branding experts named it instead, the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication. Sisulu had very little to do with this place. Kliptown, Soweto, 22 June 2006 , 2006
David Goldblatt
Sarie Fink doing her hair; she lived with her aunt, who farmed here at Klein Rivier, Buffelsdrift, between Oudtshoorn and Uniondale, Western Cape. 23 November 2004 , 2004
David Goldblatt
From Devil’s Bellows Nek on Old Katberg Pass, Transkei, Eastern Cape, 7 May 2007 , 2007
David Goldblatt
Blue asbestos waste on the Owendale Asbestos Mine tailings dump, Near Postmasburg, Northern Cape. 21 December 2002 , 2002
David Goldblatt
Tailings dump after reclamation, Owendale Asbestos Mine, Northern Cape. 24 December 2007 , 2007
David Goldblatt
Polo pavilion, Kurland Estate, Plettenburg Bay, Western Cape. 9 October 2004 , 2004
David Goldblatt
In commemoration of and protest against farm murders, Rietvlei, on the N1 near Polokwane. 19 June 2004 , 2004
David Goldblatt
A consultation under a maroela tree between the Mohlohlo farming community and their lawyers, Richard Spoor and Steven Goldblatt, to discuss attempts by the Anglo American Corporation to force the community off their land to make room for a platinum mine. Mokopane, Limpopo Province. May-June 2006 , 2006
David Goldblatt
Women singing, Newtown Squatter Camp, Johannesburg. 1 November 2001 , 2001
David Goldblatt
Victoria Cebekhulu, housekeeper, in her employer’s dining room with her son Sifiso and daughter Onica, Johannesburg, June 1999. Victoria died of AIDS on 13 December 1999, Sifiso died of AIDS on 12 January 2000, Onica died of AIDS in May 2000 , 1999
David Goldblatt
Remains of households in a children's game called onopopi, and the shells of incomplete houses in a housing scheme that stalled, Kwezinaledi, Lady Grey, Eastern Cape. 5 August 2006 , 2006
David Goldblatt
The Women's Hostel, Alexandra Township, 26 June 2009. , 2009
David Goldblatt
Willem Voster with friends, family, home and garden, Merweville, Western Cape, 2 March 2009 (4_A0463) (4_A0467) , 2009
David Goldblatt
Berg-en-Dal Monument. Commemorated are 60 men of the South African Republic Police who died here in a bitter battle against overwhelming British forces in the South African War 1899-1902. The sarcophagus holds their bones. Dalmanutha, Mpumalanga. December 1983 , 1983
David Goldblatt
Berg-en-Dal Monument.and Sarcophagus, Dalmanutha, Mpumalanga. 24 June 2005 , 2005
David Goldblatt
Diepsloot, 15 August 2009
David Goldblatt
Mother and child, Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton. 8 March 2005 , 2005
David Goldblatt
Anna Boois, goat Farmer, with her birthday cake and vegetable garden, Kamiesberge, near Garies, Namaqualand, Northern Cape , 20 September 2003
David Goldblatt
Going to work, Mathysloop, KwaNdebele, 1984 , 1984
David Goldblatt
Going to work: 2:45 am, the first bus of the day. There being almost no employment opportunities in KwaNdebele, these people travel up to eight hours per day to get to and from work around Pretoria, Mathysloop, KwaNdebele , 1984
David Goldblatt
Boarding the first bus at Mathysloop. It should reach the terminal at Marabastad in Pretoria two and a half hours later at 5:15 am , 1983
David Goldblatt
On the Wolwekraal- Marabastad route the first passenger of the morning has his ticket clipped by the driver at about 2:50 am , 1983
David Goldblatt
Going to work: 3:00 Am early passangers on the Wolwekraal-Marabastad bus , 1983
David Goldblatt
Wolwekraal-Marabastad route: In the hope of sleep, many, after sitting down, cover their faces with cloths or rugs or caps; some try to cushion their heads , 1983
David Goldblatt
Going to work: standing room only now, on the Wolwekraal-Marabastad bus, which is licensed to carry 62 sitting and 29 standing passengers , 1983
David Goldblatt
Going to work: 3:30am, Wolwekraal-Marabastad bus, standing passengers have slumped to the floor , 1983
David Goldblatt
Going to work: Wolwekraal-Marabastad bus at 4 am: more than an hour and a half still to go. This bus took on its first passenger at about 2:50 am and will reach its destination in Pretoria at 5:35 am , 1983
David Goldblatt
5:40 am: after arrival at the Marabastad terminal in Pretoria, many of the passengers from the Wolwekraal bus join others to line up for local buses that will take them to work in the suburbs and industrial areas of the city. Some will travel for another hour. , 1983
David Goldblatt
Travellers from KwaNdebele buying weekly season tickets at the PUTCO bus depot in Marabastad, Pretoria , 1983
David Goldblatt
Going home: In the afternoon at Marabstad terminal in Pretoria, commuters start lining up for busses to take them back home to KwaNdebele , 1983
David Goldblatt
Pulling out of Pretoria the 7:00 pm bus from Marabastad to Waterval in KwaNdebele , 1983
David Goldblatt
Marabastad-Waterval route: about 8:30 pm, an hour still to go. , 1984
David Goldblatt
Going home: Marabastad-Waterval route: the most restful time on the bus is on the long run between Pretoria and the turnoff into the resettlement camps , 1984
David Goldblatt
8:45 p.m. Going home: Marabastad-Waterval bus: 8:45 p.m., 45 minutes to the terminal. , 1984
David Goldblatt
9.00 pm Going home: Marabastad-Waterval route: for most of the people in this bus, the cycle will start again tomorrow at between 2 and 3 am , 1984
David Goldblatt
5:52 a.m. Going to work in 2012: Buses from former KwaNdebele homeland stream down the road to Pretoria. , 2012
David Goldblatt
The hotel stoep, Cofimvaba, Transkei. 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
The home of a couple who went to Cape Town to look for work, Engcobo, Transkei. 9 October 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
Young men and a labour recruitment poster for the mines, Transkei. 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
Young men at breakfast, Near Coffee Bay, Transkei. (3_G1070 new), 1975
David Goldblatt
Old woman at a trading store. She said, "Ndimhle" – I am beautiful. Transkei. 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
A Homestead and Forest, Near Coffee Bay, Transkei , 1975
David Goldblatt
A peasant woman at home, Coffee Bay, Transkei , 1975
David Goldblatt
A peasant woman's lamp, Coffee Bay, Transkei , 1975
David Goldblatt
A coffin from the trading store, Hobeni, Transkei. 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
Going to the fields to hoe, Transkei. 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
Herdboy, Transkei. 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
Factories and worker's housing. Substantial inducements were offered to industrialists to set up plants in the Bantustans. Butterworth was at that time one of the more successful of these areas. Butterworth, Transkei. , 1975
David Goldblatt
The office of attorney, Z J B Mbuqe, in Umthetheleli, Transkei. 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
'Happy Days Store', Flagstaff, Transkei. 9 October 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
The crop, Transkei. 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
Woman collecting shellfish near Port St. John's, Transkei, 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
Circumcision initiate in the hut of the abakwetha, Transkei , 1975
David Goldblatt
Framework for a new dwelling, near Flagstaff, Transkei. 9 October 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
A Transkei family in their shelter, KTC squatter camp. The framework was made of strips of Port Jackson bush. For privacy black plastic sheets were used around the lower part of the shelter. For light, translucent plastic was used on the dome. Cape Town, September 1984 (2_31179), 1984
David Goldblatt
Hester Mostert fetching water from the river, Gamkaskloof, Cape Province (Western Cape) (3_C6464/5), 1966
David Goldblatt
Ella and Betty Marais swimming in the dam that their father, Freek Marais, built, Gamkaskloof, Cape Province (Western Cape) , 1966
David Goldblatt
Dr. Verwoerd and the Lantern Restaurant in the voorkamer of Lewies and Katrina Nel, Gamkaskloof, Cape Province (Western Cape), December 1967 , 1967
David Goldblatt
Ouma Hester Mostert, who came from Calitzdorp to Gamkaskloof as a seventeen-year-old bride, sitting at the door of her voorkamer. Gamkaskloof, Cape Province (Western Cape), 1968 (3_D9374), 1968
David Goldblatt
Koot and Hettie Cordier and their children going to visit their next-door neighbours, the Snymans, Gamkaskloof, (Die Hel) Cape Province (Western Cape) , Dec 1966
David Goldblatt
Ella, daughter of Freek and Martjie Marais, in the children's bedroom. Gamkaskloof, Cape Province (Western Cape), December 1967 , 1967
David Goldblatt
The brothers Stappies and Koot Cordier challenge me to a shooting competition. The target was a brown stone on a brown field about 50 metres away. As prize they put up a watermelon and I a couple of cans of beer. Gamkasfloof, Cape Province (Western Cape) , Dec 1967
David Goldblatt
Piet Swanepoel clears ground for planting on his farm in Gamkaskloof. He left the valley in 1992, the last of the Kloof farmers to do so. Cape Province (Western Cape) , 1966
David Goldblatt
Koot Cordier at his front door, Gamkaskloof, Cape Province (Western Cape), 1968 , 1968
David Goldblatt
Bringing in the harvest, Koksoord Plots, Randfontein, Transvaal (Gauteng) /(3_6894), 1962
David Goldblatt
The pensioner's daughter: she worked in a tobacco factory in Johannesburg and had bought her parents this furniture on hire-purchase. Randfontein. 1962 (3_5148), 1962
David Goldblatt
Sitting at the kitchen door, he said, affectionately, to the child, "Ja, wat maak jy hier jou swart vuilgoed" (Yes, what are you doing here you black rubbish) Wheatlands, Randfontein. September 1962 , 1962
David Goldblatt
Making a coffin for the body of a neighbour's servant whose family could not afford one, Bootha Plots, Randfontein , 1962
David Goldblatt
A plot-holder, his wife and their eldest son at lunch, Wheatlands, Randfontein , 1962
David Goldblatt
Klonkie with kleinbaas, Bootha Plots, Randfontein. January 1962 (3_6556), Jan 1963
David Goldblatt
Kleinbaas with klonkie, Bootha Plots, Randfontein. January 1963 , Jan 1962
David Goldblatt
A railway shunter who dreamed of a garden without concrete or bricks, watered by this dam, Koksoord, Randfontein. 1962 , 1962
David Goldblatt
Songs on Christmas Day and a flagon of Tassies, Koksoord, Randfontein (3_6419), 1962
David Goldblatt
Plots for sale, Wheatlands, Randfontein. 1962 , 1962
David Goldblatt
Couple in the Library Gardens, Johannesburg , 1948
David Goldblatt
Arriving family, King George Street, Johannesburg , c. 1955
David Goldblatt
In a department store, probably John Orr's on Von Brandis Street, Johannesburg , June 1965
David Goldblatt
Children on the border between Fietas and Mayfair, Johannesburg , c. 1949
David Goldblatt
Lunch-hour, Pretoria Street, Hillbrow , 1966
David Goldblatt
Hold-up in Hillbrow, Johannesburg , Nov 1963
David Goldblatt
Anna Lebako, a washerwoman from Soweto carrying the week's laundry to a white suburban family, Harrow Road, January 1961 , 1961
David Goldblatt
The moon over Diepkloof, Soweto , 1972
David Goldblatt
A man and a passing woman, Tladi, Soweto , Nov 1972
David Goldblatt
Ephraim Zulu watering his garden, 179 Central Western Jabavu, Soweto , 1972
David Goldblatt
Richard and Marina Maponya, Dube, Soweto. 1972 , 1972
David Goldblatt
Margaret Mcingana, who later became famous as the singer Margaret Singana, at home, Sunday afternoon. Zola, Soweto , 1970
David Goldblatt
Domestic worker on Abel Road, Hillbrow. March 1973 , 1973
David Goldblatt
A Woman With Her Bird In Her Lounge, Bez Valley, Johannesurg , Nov 1973
David Goldblatt
Fifteen-year old Lawrence Matjee after his assault and detention by the Security Police, Khotso House, de Villiers Street , 1985
David Goldblatt
Miriam Mazibuko waters the garden of her RDP house for which she waited eight years. It consists of one room. Her four children live with her in-laws. Extension 8, Far East Alexandra Township, 12 September 2006 , September 2006
David Goldblatt
Evening exodus on West Street: Blacks going for trains in Soweto, Whites in their cars to the suburbs, Johannesburg .1964, 1964
David Goldblatt
Shop assistant, Orlando West, 1972
David Goldblatt
Young man at home, White City, Jabavu, Soweto. 1 October 1972 , 1972
David Goldblatt
Young men with dompas (an identity document that every African had to carry), White City, Jabavu, Soweto , 1972
David Goldblatt
She said to him 'You be the driver and I'll be the madam,' then they picked up the fender and posed, Hillbrow. 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
Walking the 'madam's' dog, Hillbrow , June 1972
David Goldblatt
A woman and her dog, Hillbrow , 1972
David Goldblatt
Baby with child-minders and dogs in the Alexandra Street Park, Hillbrow , 1972
David Goldblatt
Schoolboy, Hillbrow, June 1972 , 1972
David Goldblatt
Ploughing, Transkei. 1975 , 1975
David Goldblatt
Lewies Nel in his voorkamer. On the battery-powered turntable Jeremy Taylor was singing 'Ag pleeze Deddy won't you take us to the drive-in'. Gamkaskloof, Cape Province (Western Cape) (3_C8097), 1966
David Goldblatt
Butchering a coal merchant's horse for its meat after it had been condemned and shot by a municipal inspector, Tladi, Soweto , 1972
David Goldblatt
An ex-miner who coughed, Transkei , 1975
David Goldblatt
Memorial to four members of the Colesberg Youth Organisation (CYO) killed here by the police on 3 July 1985. Kuyasa Township, Colesberg. 31 March 2014 , 2014
B. 1930, South Africa
Artist Bio
David Goldblatt (1930 – 2018) was born in Randfontein, a small mining town outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. Described by writer Mark Gevisser as ‘the visual conscience of South Africa,’ he photographed the structures, people and landscapes of South Africa for over seven decades. His work is contained in a number of books, including Some Afrikaners Photographed, On the Mines, Intersections, The Transported of Kwandebele, In Boksburg, Structures of things then, Fragments of Fietas and Ex Offenders at the Scene of Crime. Describing his work, he said, “I was drawn not to the events of the time, but to the quiet and commonplace where nothing ‘happened’ and yet all was contained and imminent”.
Goldblatt’s work has been exhibited widely around the world. Key exhibitions include Structures of Dominion and Democracy (2018) at Centre Pompidou, Paris; No Ulterior Motive (2022- 2025), a collaboration between the Art Institute of Chicago, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven and Foundation Mafpre, Madrid; David Goldblatt: 51 years (2002 - 2004) organized by MACBA, Barcelona and exhibited at Witte de With, Rotterdam; Modern Art, Oxford; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels; Lenbachhaus, Munich, and the Bensusan Museum and Library of Photography, Johannesburg; Intersections Intersected (2008 -2011), organized by Stevenson Gallery and exhibited at Open eye Gallery, Liverpool, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, Malmo Konsthall and the University Museum of Contemporary Art, Amherst. Museums where he has had solo shows include the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, Paris; Huis Marseilles, Amsterdam; Serralves Foundation, Porto; the Norval Foundation, Cape Town; South African National Gallery, Cape Town and Johannesburg Art Gallery.
Notable group exhibitions and biennales include ILLUMInations at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, South Africa in Apartheid and After, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2013); and Everything Was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s, Barbican Centre, London (2012). York.
Galleries where he has exhibited include Pace and Howard Greenberg, New York; Marion Goodman, Paris, Galería Elba Benítez, Madrid and Stevenson, Cape Town. He has been represented by Goodman Gallery since 2000 and has held numerous exhibitions at its Johannesburg, London and Cape Town galleries.
Selected collections include: Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate Modern, London; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; The J. Paul Getty; Museum, Los Angeles; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany and New York; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton; Musée del’Élysée, Lausanne; Carnegie
Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles. Goldblatt was the recipient of the 2006 Hasselblad award, the 2009 Henri Cartier-Bresson Award, the 2013 ICP Infinity Award and in 2016, he was awarded the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture of France.
