Opening 19 October, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) will present a major retrospective of internationally-renowned South African photographer David Goldblatt, featuring 357 works spanning seven decades of his photographic career. As part of the Sydney International Art Series, this will be the largest presentation of his work to be seen in Australia!
Photographer David Goldblatt was one of the greatest photographers of our time, noted for his portrayal of South Africa during the rise and dismantling of Apartheid. With their intense human focus, his photographs offer powerful reflection and insight into South Africa’s turbulent history.
“I suppose at best, I had hoped we might see ourselves revealed as it were, by a mirror held up to ourselves.”—David Goldblatt
This exhibition looks back across his career through key photographic series, as well as Goldblatt’s only Australian work exploring the asbestos mining industry in the West Australian ‘ghost town’ of Wittenoom.
NSW Minister for the Arts, Don Harwin MLC said: “This landmark exhibition for the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia offers a rare glimpse into the remarkable life and legacy of David Goldblatt. Throughout his career, his photos were the sobering display of racial divide in South African society, capturing everyday life throughout the traumatic decades of apartheid. The NSW Government is proud to support this exhibition as part of the Sydney International Art Series 2018-2019.”
This exhibition, curated by MCA Chief Curator Rachel Kent in close collaboration with the artist, marks over seven decades of Goldblatt’s photography. Presented in groups and extended series, his photographs encompass the history of South Africa’s mining industry, white middle class, forced segregation of black and Asian communities into townships under the Group Areas Act, and stories of the country’s ex-offenders and their crimes. They also include Goldblatt’s parallel documentation of South African and Australian asbestos mining, including the West Australian ‘ghost town’ of Wittenoom and the human cost of this industry.
A landmark exhibition for the MCA, David Goldblatt: Photographs 1948–2018, the show marks the photographer’s final project before he passed away in June 2018. This exhibition encompasses the entire scope of his career featuring his key black-and-white and colour photographic series, as well as early vintage prints, it is contextualised by never-before seen material from his personal archive, a new feature-length documentary screened alongside the exhibition, plus an audio guide with David Goldblatt talking on some of his most renowned works.
What: David Goldblatt’s Photographs Exhibition
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia
When: 19 October 2018 – 3 March 2019
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Johannesburg,
1963