Let these images be a tribute to the many artists who have died too soon and too young.

Empraim gatane, Cyprian Shilakoe, Julian Motau, Thami Mnyele, and to the freedom they longed for.

South African art, like all art, must of necessity be understood within a specific social context, in this instance that of the apartheid political structure. The South African landscape has been arranged and rearranged to suit the needs of racial capital and white supremacy. The images following this article are emb l ematic of some aspects of that political landscape and attempt to give a selective view of fragments of the visual cul t ure found on the Reef, where gold was discovered and mined and around which a metropolis grew. Out of the dusty metropolis of Johannesburg, an art culture underwent a painful and slow birth, and has ironically found its feet in the difficult times of the 1980s. South African fine art, mural art and poster art of the ' 80s has been bold and challenging, and above a ll affirmative of personal and social freedom. It has developed a capacity to address rather than suppress the immense force of the political manipulations that characterize life in apartheid South Africa. It has offered an alternative vision to that of the other competing visual ideologies of state and capital. This liberatory visual culture has penetrated the iron shield of Christian Nationa l Education and

has challenged the stranglehold of state television and corporate advertising. In the streets as well as the art schools, galleries and museums, a critical and liberatory vision of and for South Africa has matured. This new art cu lt u re has had to negotiate the many complex forms of repression, denial and co-option engineered in the name of ' civilized standards', 'racial purity' and ' corporate identity '.

A Critical Visual Culture

Art has had many definitions and it is made in th e name of many visual ideologies, some more poetic than others. The poetry of the apartheid state has been one of severe faces, stampeding horses and more recently, modernist abstraction (the image of reformed apartheid). A public art tour through Pretoria is not without its sculptural shocks and surprises: one of the more recent surprises being a group of three life size bronze giraffe, grazing in the streets of Pretoria. The state has lavished a select group of white artists with major public commissions.

In terms of some of the more recent ' refinements' of apartheid policy, with the so-called new dispensation and the tri-cameral Parliament, art was defined as an 'own affair', meaning that the different ethnic groups were required b y law to develop culture in racially segregated institutions and with varying degrees of state support or restriction. In this way, culture is carefully monitored and made available selectively so as to prevent the 'conscientization' of the masses. The state has constantly intervened in this process particularly as regards the mor e popular art forms such as posters, film and theatre and there has been censorship and control continually on the distribution of critical or 'protest' art Cultural venues are controlled so as to prevent the free flow of cultural ideas and to monitor the accessibility of liberatory visual ideology.

Despite this policy, a vibrant and independent non-racial culture has been forged by artists and cultural activists working in alternative, privately organized venues - community centres and art centres. Many artists have made a significant contribution towards the development of a critical visual culture. This has been particularly evident in the Cape, where the lack of galleries as a mediating force has left artists free of the pressure or temptation of serving the needs of an intellectual middle-class. However, because of the limited access to venues and the stringent control placed on the media, images of direct political engagement have generally not been seen by very many people inside the country. In fact, there are many people who have the perception that little or no 'political' art is produced, in particular by black artists. This has partly to do with the fact that activist artists have been forced to go into exile and that the galleries have not been viewed as the appropriate venue in which to display these images. Such images have been used within progressive organizational structures.

In particular parts of the country, art has consistently been used to reflect the socio-political environment, and as a tool in the development of progressive political organization especially in the production of posters and banners. The phenomenon of the ' people's parks' during 1984 was the strongest manifestation of a popular art movement that attempted to address issues related to environmental reconstruction and political conscientization. It is not surprising that this popular cultural upsurge was ruthlessly destroyed. In fact these parks with their rock gardens and tyre sculptures were viewed as potential 'ammunition dumps', This would not have been the first time that art was put to military purpos e . In times of war and shortage of materials in the West, steel and bronze sculptures and pieces of architecture have been melted down for weapons. In fact a common sculpture produced during the 'operation clean-up and 'people's parks' manifestation was a cannon constructed out of the rear wheels and drive shaft of an old motor-car.

Political Landscape

When one l ooks at the official history of fine art in South Africa , it could he argued that many artists have worked with little awareness of the destruction being wrought by the apartheid regime. This art of dreamers, mystics and myth-makers has led to a rude awakening in the 1980s. Many artists have correctly recognized the need for an art of beauty, for a release from the harshre alities of the political domain. But this ' apolitical ' art has, at times, been used against that very freedom that it seeks by being promoted so as to legitimize state power. For many artists the illusion of a South Africa of great beauty, and a romantic relationship to the spirit of Africa, sustained a never-ending fantasy and escape into mythologies and metaphors. Landscapes, wildlife and ' native ' studies

constituted the major concern of artists, followed by international modernism which also served to divert artists from the reality of apartheid. In 1976, the state could take an exhibition of traditional and modernist black art abroad and attempt to perpetuate the illusion of a benign enlightenment, a Garden of Eden.

The events of Soweto 1976 and the disruptions of the entire nation during the 1980s transformed the Garden of Eden into a political landscape, in which razor-wire and police roadblocks intruded upon the lives of everyone. Art too lost its innocence and it is probably true that almost every artist working during the 1980s produced work that reflected the harsh political realities that were experienced then by many whites for the first time, but had become almost second-nature to so many Blacks.

The great danger and challenge for art-culture in our time is the problem of co-option. Although artists in increasing numbers and with greater effectiven e ss are producing a critical art, it is seen, acquired and promoted within white-contr o lled middle-class structures. As such, it is tolerated and manipulated to perpetuate the illusion of reform while the working class and the mass democratic movement continue to suffer constant repression.

A reflection on the development of fine art as a conclusion to this contribution is best shown with a number of illustrations, each with a story of its own rooted in a far and recent past, sometimes already destroyed, sometimes found again in a different form: they give a far from complete, but nonetheless colourful i mpression of what the present has to offer and what the future holds in store.

The pictures contain fine art from inside South Africa, as it used to heor still is visible in the streets and elsewhere. From the limitations of a num b er of illustrations and the general framework of this book, it follows that the work of many well-known and unknown artists (living both inside and outside South Africa] is left aside: Thami Mnyele, Ben Arnold, Dumile Feni, Bill Ainslie. Gerard Sekoto, Louis Makubela, Gavin Jantjes and so many other fine art i sts from the ' other ' South Africa.

Illustrations

Illustrations 1, 2 and 3 (photographs by S. Sack) were taken in Sowpto durin g 1986. As one drives into Soweto on the Baragwanath Hospital highway , th e se three signs were the visual landmarks of the township landscape. They have al l been removed and replaced with new signs. The advertising billboards in Soweto tend to dominate the landscape and become transient l andmarks. They get woven into the social fabric and serve as literal and metaphorical indicators of the underlying social forces. Within the context of the huge military presence in the township at that time (. 1985-86), the meaning of the The Dead l iest Doom Ever sign (photo 2) takes on an ironic meaning, particularly with Soweto in the background.

The Gilbey's Gin advertisement, located opposite the Baragwanath nurse's residence, and surrounded by the debris that litters the entire township, provides an icon to alcoholic addiction (photo 3). The We Make Signs and Fine Art painting, a piece of non-formal advertising which only managed to stay on display for a few months before it was removed, is a moving testimony to the fallen artist about to be devoured by a bird of prey (photo I).

Illustration 4 (photograph by S. Sack): an advertisement in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, contrasting the South African reality, the good time, Coke is it and the security Peaceforce that makes it possible and impossible. In the background is the J ohannesburg to Soweto train.

Illustration 5 and 6 (photographs by Gideon Mendel): white kids in their white park (above); and Only Poorman feel it (down), a park made by youth during 1985 as a part of the ' Operation Cleanup ' organized by UDF affiliates.

Illustrations 7, 8, 9 and 10 (photographs by Cecil Sols): People's Parks or Peace Parks that were built in 1 985 in Mamelodi township, outside Pretoria. The public areas of the township were beautifully transformed. Grass, trees and flowers were planted and a variety of ' found object monuments' were made. Because these ' monuments' and ' signs' were mostly a celebration of the struggle, they were destroyed by the armed forces and conservative members of the community.

Hence what had been an attempt to initiate responsible action on the part of the local citizens was maliciously destroyed.

Illustrations 11, 12 and 13: black art has undergone significant growth in the 1980s. The educational opportunities have improved, although an enormous task remains, requiring external funding. These centres have evolved into an area of non-racial organization, in which equal partnership between black and white people is tested and negotiated. The prospects of diminishing resources, as the state delays the total elimination of apartheid and sanctions take hold, make th e future of this embryonic art movement quite uncertain. There has been an important consolidation of a number of alternative art centres: such as the Johannesburg Art Foundation, where Bill Ainslie has played a major role in facilitating and stimulating artists, both black and white; Fuba Acad e my, which after a number of years has established a matric programme for s t udies in Art, Dance and Music - Fuba also runs a g allery which, with the Market Gall e ries across the road, provides a varied programme of art and photographic exhibitions:

Funda Art Centre, located in Soweto, where the African Institute of Art has estab l ished the 'Khula Udweba' (Grow through Art) Teacher Training and Child Programme; other existing art centres are the Alex Art Centre in Alexandra township, Mofolo Art Centre in Soweto, the Community Arts Project in Cape Town and the Community Arts Workshop in Durban.

Illustration 11 is of a teacher who participated in the pilot study for the Khula Udweba Programme, making her first ever drawing using sticks and black ink.

I l lustration 12 is of Richard Mabaso. then resident artist at the Funda Art Centre, and a participant in the pilot programme for prospective community-based art teachers. Since this pilot study, a two-year programme has been running, teachers are now being assisted in the establishment of neighbourhood programmes in Soweto and Katlehong townships.

Illustration 13 is of part of the mura l at the entrance to the Fuba Academy in Newton, Johannesburg.

Illustrations 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 (photographs by Larry Scully) are of a miners' compound that was destroyed in the 1970s. It is not clear who painted these murals, which are reminiscent of the murals found on the walls of rural black homesteads. Traditionally these would be painted by women , but women wer e not allowed to stay with their husbands in the compounds. However , when the mines closed, the hoste l s were used by various homeless peop l e , and so it is feasible t hat the painting was done by a woman. These mura l s add some visual pl e asur e in what were appal l ingly overcrowded and severe living environmen t s. E ach compartment was the sleeping place for a miner and each dormitory slept sixty or more men.

Illustration 19: a piece of scu l pture by Michael Goldberg. E ntitl e d Hos t el Monument for the Migrant Worker 1978.

Illustration 20: the image of Samson was painted on the wall of the ICU (Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union) durin g the 1930s and is one of the few artworks that have survived from that era of working-class cultural action.

Illustration 21 is a work entitled Detainee by Paul Stopforth in 1978.

Illustrations 22, 23 and 24 are of a group of people who lived communal l y and

formed a theatre company called the J unction Avenue Theatre Company (present during the CASA Festival with Sophiatown). One Sunday in 1978 everyone painted a collective mural. The dog perched on the box and a local meths drinker named Samson (seated while being drawn by William Kentridge) and who had a reputation for being an abortionist, were incorporated into the mural. On completion of the mural, a discussion was held on issues relating to culture and politics.

Illus t ration 25: a work by Jo Schonfeldt, Untitled, an assembled sculpture in painted wood from the UNISA (University of South Africa) collection.

Illustration 26: a functional postbox by Doe Molefe and son, owned by the Gertrude Possel Art Gallery, Wits University.

Illustrations 27 and 28: drawings by William Kentridge.