The Standard Bank Gallery delves into the University of Fort Hare’s extensive art collection for the exhibition A Black Aesthetic: A View of South African Artists (1970-1990), shining a spotlight on the important but often overlooked art created by South Africa's black modernists. This is the first time since 1992 that Fort Hare's impressive collection (which is one of South Africa’s largest collections of black South African art) will be exhibited outside of the Eastern Cape.
 
The exhibition features work produced between 1970 and 1990, one of the tensest and most turbulent periods in South African history. Featured artists include Gerard Sekoto, Dumile Feni and Gladys Mgudlandlu and a broad variety of mediums are represented including etchings, woodcuts, linocuts, serigraphs, drawings, paintings and sculpture. From resistance art to abstraction and everyday scenes of both hardship and optimism, the works on display represent an important record of the artistic life of black South Africa during the final decades of apartheid.

The exhibition is complemented by a programme of free exhibition walkabouts. The walkabouts take place at 11:00 on Feb 23,  Mar 9, 16 and 30 and Apr 6.