Giving Direction: Figuration, Past and Present

Much of contemporary African art can be described as ‘figurative’ in nature, and, as the title suggests, the exhibition will elucidate a very rich figurative tradition among African historical, modern, and contemporary artists whose work has become the essential antecedents of the very powerful figurative exploration so evident in contemporary African art today.

Strauss & Co’s first offering of the year will be a prestigious non-selling exhibition, titled Giving Direction: Figuration, Past and Present. On view at the historical homestead of Welgemeend in Cape Town, the exhibition and its accompanying schedule of events will run from Monday 14 to Sunday 20 February 2022, timed to coincide with the Investec Cape Town Art Fair. Accompanying the exhibition will be an in-depth exhibition catalogue, with a foreword written by accomplished art critic and writer, Nkgopoleng Moloi.

Exhibition exploring Figuration in Contemporary African Art starts the year for Strauss & Co

Figuration is a powerful conceptual thread linking historical, traditional, modernist, and contemporary art in Africa.

Strauss & Co’s first offering of the year will be a prestigious non-selling exhibition, titled Giving Direction: Figuration, Past and Present. On view at the historical homestead of Welgemeend in Cape Town, the exhibition and its accompanying schedule of events will run from Monday 14 to Sunday 20 February 2022, timed to coincide with the Investec Cape Town Art Fair. Accompanying the exhibition will be an in-depth exhibition catalogue, with a foreword written by accomplished art critic and writer, Nkgopoleng Moloi.

“This exhibition is not an historical survey of figurative art from the continent,” explains Strauss & Co cataloguer and co-curator, Leigh Leyde. “Rather, it aims to ask questions and contribute to the dialogue around African-ness, as an essential identity marker, and to showcase a post-modern contemporary art praxis that uses figuration as a means of articulating, critiquing and transgressing personal and public representations and stereotypes.”