BMW AND FNB ART JOBURG'S BUSINESS OF ART IN CAPE TOWN

BMW and FNB Art Joburg's Business of Art in Cape Town

Compiled by Manelisi Manellie 

The BMW Young Collectors Company was established in 2020 as an initiative with FNB Art Joburg, a 100% black owned business, to showcase art from across the world and the African continent. This is to create an art collectors’ base in South Africa by providing access for young professionals to the art world with the aim of inspiring change and champion diversity through learning and experience.

After registering to be a part of the BMW Young Collectors Company, an impressively crafted synopsis was personally delivered in which, Mandla Sibeko (FNB Art Joburg Founding Director), writes, “through an exciting series of key events, its aim is to build an empowered community that will go on to shape the art eco-system of this country”.  This was followed by an invite to the Franschoek Gallery Hop, as part of the Cape Town leg of this thrilling series which prompted great enthusiasm for an incredible experience to be acquainted with the remarkable work from our own backyard.

The meeting place was at the BMW Cape Town Auto City on Saturday, 19 November 2022. It is here where guests were welcomed to an appetising breakfast buffet and a brief moment of introduction before a chauffeur-driven experience in the latest BMW M4. All through a glorious, sunny Cape Town morning, the experience began with a tour of the Leeu Estates art gallery, Everard Read. Upon entering this flawlessly landscaped location, guests were greeted to Boschendal MCC Brut Rosé and the exceptional work of artists such as Angus Taylor, Alexander Savvas and Tom Cullberg. Subsequent items on the programme included a walkthrough at Ebony/Curated, an exhibition tour of Boschendal Norval Art Gallery’s Private Collection and to round off event proceedings, a gallery walkabout and sundowners at Ellerman House in Bantry Bay.

During lunch at the Boschendal Farm Estate, a heightened frequency in a vibrant exchange of topical conversation and laughter was savoured. This was amongst an eclectic group of excellent black professionals who shared ideas, anecdotes and the depiction of the black experience across all spaces. In a discussion at Ebony/Curated with Trish Coetzee about the expectation of media and institutions to the art world, her response was direct and resonant, “The need for more representation and diversity”.

Fortunately, the Franschoek Gallery Hop managed to generate extraordinary models of black talent in the art world. Among them were Nandipha Mntambo, a name that will be difficult to forget once making the acquaintance of the penetrating work of this astoundingly talented artist. Having discovered Mntambo at Everard Read in the Michael Stevenson book, Nandipha Mntambo: The Encounter, the artwork produced by this provocative artist emits an immersion of beauty and intricacy that is impossible to pinpoint in just one piece. Nandipha Mntambo is clearly an artistic force and one to experience in its entirety, offering an extraordinarily creative and vivid perspective in fundamental structures of nature, history, society and the world. 

An additional manifestation of the series’ campaign for great talent and representation in the art world was from an incredible artist hailing from the Cape Flats. Warren Maroon ingeniously discharged grit and transparency in the Everard Read exhibited, Beasts Bounding Through Time. Maroon’s offering which is expressed by means of a wood, glass, rug and stainless steel production, identifies a universal state of distress in a distorted comfort. The piece presented a triggering confrontation of familiarity in terror, taking the observer where many fear to tread. The work of Warren Maroon inspired enormous curiosity of the depth and leaps that will be taken in the future of this remarkable talent.

It is through their art that Mntambo and Maroon adeptly address the social circumstances plaguing South Africa. This signifies the value of artistic storytelling as an illustration of underrepresented experiences which corroborates with the change that FNB Art Joburg strives for. Evidently, it can be remarked that the successful achievement of this feasible endeavour has the potential to inspire a societal convention of personal development instituted by the expression, demonstration and observation of art.

Undertaking this feat will require increased attention in contextualizing the meaning of art in society, as it is considerably recognizable that the existence of media coverage in the art world has dwindled in recent times. Assistant Curator for the Norval Foundation, Candice Thikeson substantiated this by stating that further media engagement, particularly written reports covering art, would be of great support to artists and the industry.

Having media attention of this nature potentially contributes value in moderating the low level of accessibility to art for many, especially for the previously disadvantaged. Owing to various factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, contentious politics and barefaced economic inequality, a noticeable level of fatigue to a point of despondency has defiantly plagued society. This state of affairs creates an opportunity for the media to act as a custodian of a much needed revival of South African nationhood by way of significant endorsement of South African and African art for our society and to the global art world.

The astute partnership of FNB Art Joburg and the BMW Young Collectors Company  has brilliantly identified a largely underserved and undervalued medium by taking advantage of the rich diversity and talent that the country has to offer. The opportunity that this initiative affords Cape Town in particular is insurmountable, as access to a gathering of this nature and value is seemingly discouraged and therefore few and far between. It is through such efforts that Africa’s identity and future is affirmed in a historically Eurocentric space that has long been called to be diversified.