Bushmen was the name the European colonials used
to describe the oldest of the African races; a rather short
and light skinned people. For thousands of years they have been
pushed southwards. From their original homelands in northern
Africa they migrated south to central Africa before finally
settling in southern Africa were they live today.
In a canvas town, Schmidtsdrift camp, in the northern part of
the Cape Province, approximately 5 500 people from the !Xu and
Khwe tribes lived in the 1990s. They had moved from Angola.
To help fill a cultural and social vacuum and give substance
and meaning to a group of people who had lost contact with their
ancestral home lands and not integrated with their new fellow-countrymen,
an art centre was established in 1993.
The
IK Foundation Bushman Art Collection, is a collection of !Xu and Khwe
folk art from the first generation of the Schmidtsdrift camp. The
collection comprises one hundred or so art works including linoleum
cuts and gouache and oil paintings. The works, which are typical of
this remarkable environment, have broken with tradition and are new
and vibrant.
The
inspiration lies in yearning and despair, myth and novelty, colourfulness
and subtle story telling - they are not an extension of primitive
or primordial art. It is true that the beautiful rock paintings of
the Kalahari Desert were painted by the San people but between then
and now is a 100-year gulf. Perhaps the question is, has new ground
been broken or has lost ground been reclaimed under totally new conditions?
The first generation of modern San art has awakened great interest.
There have already been a number of exhibitions in South Africa, Asia,
North America and Europe. The IK Foundation Bushman Art Collection
is a collection of works from eight artists born between 1927 and
1960. The works were all produced between 1993 and 1995. As such it
is more than a unique collection of international interest, it is
also an important documentation of an aboriginal people!
The exhibition is well suited to art galleries and museums of ethnography.
BOOKS & EXHIBITIONS
The pleasure of making items of cultural and natural historical
interest available to the public is an inspiring and important part of the
work of IK Foundation & Company. The results of IK projects are generally
published in book form or shown in the form of an exhibition - sometimes
it is a combination of both. When it is judged the subject is suitable and
important, IK also publishes books and produces exhibitions in collaboration
with other well-respected organisations.
It is however, primarily our own projects that lie behind the factual and
beautifully produced books and exhibitions that IK creates. No matter the size of the project, IK always
demands the same high quality, i.e. well researched, long-term and correct
content in combination with excellent design.
On the next few pages you
can read more about IK exhibitions and books.
IK also uses other forms of
media to broadcast the results of its work, these include seminars, radio,
film and the Internet. Visitors to the web site can buy books "off the shelf".
The
IK Foundation Bushman Art Collection, is a collection of !Xu and Khwe
folk art from the first generation of the Schmidtsdrift camp. The
collection comprises one hundred or so art works including linoleum
cuts and gouache and oil paintings. The works, which are typical of
this remarkable environment, have broken with tradition and are new
and vibrant.
The
inspiration lies in yearning and despair, myth and novelty, colourfulness
and subtle story telling - they are not an extension of primitive
or primordial art. It is true that the beautiful rock paintings of
the Kalahari Desert were painted by the San people but between then
and now is a 100-year gulf. Perhaps the question is, has new ground
been broken or has lost ground been reclaimed under totally new conditions?
The first generation of modern San art has awakened great interest.
There have already been a number of exhibitions in South Africa, Asia,
North America and Europe. The IK Foundation Bushman Art Collection
is a collection of works from eight artists born between 1927 and
1960. The works were all produced between 1993 and 1995. As such it
is more than a unique collection of international interest, it is
also an important documentation of an aboriginal people!
