Publication Details
Gavin Jantjes: To Be Free! A Retrospective 1970–2023
Exhibition Booklet
Paperback
280 pages, 137 visuals
16.5 x 11.5 cm
English and Arabic
Published by Sharjah Art Foundation
2023
Overview
This guide documents the collaborative exhibition Gavin Jantjes: To Be Free! A Retrospective 1970–2023 by The Africa Institute and Sharjah Art Foundation. It includes a foreword by Hoor Al Qasimi and a critical essay about the artist by the exhibition’s curator, Salah M. Hassan.
The publication explores Jantjes’s multifaceted career as a painter, printmaker, writer, curator and activist. Shaped by his early years in Cape Town during the South African apartheid (1948 –94), the artist’s journey reflects his pursuit of artistic freedom, as he broke away from Eurocentric views and expectations of Black creativity. Divided into sections spanning 1970 to the present, the exhibition explored different phases of the artist’s life. The guide inversely follows the presentation’s layout, highlighting major works and milestones from each of its curated sections. It also delves into the artist’s anti-apartheid activism, transformative role in global art institutions and figurative portrayals of the global Black struggle for freedom, as well as his transition to nonfigurative painting.
Gavin Jantjes: To Be Free! A Retrospective 1970–2023
To Be Free! traces the multifarious journey of Gavin Jantjes as a creative agent of change, celebrating his multifaceted roles as painter, printmaker, writer, curator and activist.
Al Qasimi, Hoor
Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, established the Foundation in 2009 as a catalyst and advocate for the arts in Sharjah, in the region and around the world.
Hassan, Salah M.
Art historian, critic and curator Salah M. Hassan is Director of The Africa Institute, Sharjah, and Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Africana Studies and the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies, Cornell University.
Jantjes, Gavin
Activist, painter, printmaker, curator and writer Gavin Jantjes was born in Cape Town, South Africa, just as the apartheid regime was beginning its ascent.