South African art

The findings provide a glimpse into how early humans produced and stored ochre – a form of paint – which pushes back our understanding of when evolved complex cognition occurred by around 20,000 – 30,000 years.

The scattered tribes of Khoisan and San peoples moving into South Africa from around 10000 BC had their own art styles seen today in a multitude of cave paintings.

In addition to this, there also is the Dutch-influenced folk art of the Afrikaner Trek Boers and the urban white artists earnestly following changing European traditions from the 1850s onwards, making for an eclectic mix which continues to evolve today.

This art form is distributed from Angola in the west to Mozambique and Kenya, throughout Zimbabwe and South Africa and throughout Botswana wherever cave conditions have favoured preservation from the elements.

A charcoal and oil on canvas work by leading South African contemporary artist William Kentridge was sold on auction for R3,5 million in London in 2012.

[4][5] The Bantu Education Act of 1955 barred Black South Africans from receiving formal art training during the years of apartheid and as a result, the artistic movements that had originated from this community have, until recently, been distinctly classified as “craft” rather than “art.”[6] Informal art centers, that were funded by European states, became one of the few avenues in which Black South Africans could receive some form of artistic development.

[9] After the Soweto Riots of 1976, a new social consciousness emerged that retaliated against the government's policy of segregation and effectively reexamined the classification of certain Black South African artworks.

[8] However, the emphasis to embody many of these social issues within Black South African art has a led to a stereotype that many young artists are now trying to escape.