Artists

in

action

Three new publications revisit the artists, ideas and histories that have shaped South African art over the past 50 years.

It's time to look back and take stock with three current local art publications.

'There's Something I Must Tell You by Sue Williamson

Sue Williamson emerged as an artist in the 1970s, powerful in her anti-apartheid stance and in the urgent manner in which she explored the complexities of the South African milieu. She had worked as a journalist and her instinct was to look deep and document, to honour the "ordinary" and to excavate the story - or the testimony - behind every image.

'A Natural History of the Studio' by William Kentridge

In Joburg last month, an eager crowd gathered at Love Books to listen to world-renowned artist William Kentridge. It was a rare opportunity to see and hear him, as he spends much of his time abroad or in his Houghton studio. He was discussing his book A Natural History of the Studio, which is based on a series of lectures he gave at Oxford.