Artist’s union
It existed until the demolition of Sophiatown in 1955 on the back of the Native Resettlement Act of 1954.
In 1985, David Koloane, who taught at Fuba and was its first curator, cofounded the Thupelo Art Project with artists Bill Ainslie.
Currently, Thupelo takes the form of a two-week workshop geared towards bringing together artists from diverse backgrounds and providing them with an intense and supportive environment in which they can experiment and exchange ideas.
Similar initiatives and institutions include the Katlehong Art Centre, founded in 1977 by members of the Katlehong Art Society (Morningstar Motaung, Stanley Nkosi, Napo Mokoena and Lucas Sithole) and the Eaon group founded in District Six in 1933 by Helen Southern-Holt.
All these institutions played a role in involving communities with artists, thus promoting the true essence of ubuntu within a state that perpetuated the myth of black inferiority. These institutions opened up possibilities by harnessing potential and allowing for exploration and experimentation with ideas, techniques and materials.
In commemoration of Fuba’s 40th anniversary, the Friends of Johannesburg Art Gallery and Keyes Art Mile will present an exhibition featuring Fuba alumni, alongside a curated programme of talks. The artworks in the exhibition have been borrowed from galleries as well as public and private collections to create a retrospective that pays tribute to the movement’s legacy. The exhibition is an ode to and celebration of Fuba’s contribution to South Africa’s contemporary cultural identity.
There is also a curated programme of talks.
Despite all the struggles and gains along the way, the art industry can still be exclusionary and exploitative — made more complex by the fact that it is an industry that relies on patronage and in which curators and galleries have to advocate for artists. It seems collective power might be a powerful option to ensure inclusion, recognition and reward for a greater range of artists.
What we can hope to gain from the creation of spaces such as Fuba is freedom: from the sharp reductionist gaze of the West, which is obsessed with funnelling work through the very same canon from which Africans were excluded; freedom to inquire and experiment; and freedom to fail and transform without ever having to explain our humanity.
This could be the freedom of spaces where blackness (in all its nuance, complexity and imperfection) can blossom and flourish, the freedom of spaces that act as loci of creativity and community; spaces where ideas are conjured and selves are made.