Die Helde Akker Ventersdorp Transvaal

Provenance

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, 2004.

Private Collection.

Notes

Another example from the edition is in the collection of the Tate Museum, London, England and The Walther Collection.

"There were two graves. Hennie Labuschagne was 24 when he was killed during the “unrest” of the 1986 in the Port Elisabeth township of KwaZakhele. Vicky Olver was 20 when he died at Oshiwelo, South West Africa, in what the government called “The Total Onslaught” by SWAPO, the ANC and their Angolan and Cuban allies seeking to wrest control of the South West Africa from South Africa and to bring majority rule to South Africa. The inscription above the gate is from Die Stem, the Afrikaans national anthem, “We are for you South Africa”."¹

^1. Marian Goodman Gallery (2014) David Goldblatt: Structures of Dominion and Democracy, exhibition catalogue, unpublished, page 8.

Literature

Leslie Lawson (2001) David Goldblatt 55, Phaidon Press: New York, another example illustrated with the title The Heroes' Acre, Ventersdorp, Transvaal, 1 November 1986. This cemetery was built for white members of the security forces killed in the Total Onslaught. Only two national servicemen are buried here. One was killed in the black town-ships and the other in a military operation in Namibia. The inscription above the gate is from the Afrikaner national anthem and translates as 'We for you, South Africa'.

David Goldblatt (2001) David Goldblatt: Fifty-One Years, Barcelona: Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, another example illustrated with the title Die Heldeakker, The Heroes' Acre cemetery for white members of the security forces killed in "The Total Onslaught", the war against liberation forces in Southern Africa, Ventersdorp, Transvaal 1 November 1986.

Exhibited

Marian Goodman, Paris, David Goldblatt: Structures of Dominion and Democracy, 6 September to 18 October 2014, another example from the edition exhibited.

Museum of Modern Art New York, David Goldblatt: Photographs from South Africa, 16 July to 16 October 1998, another example exhibited.