Polokwane: secret art powerhouse comes to light

By Andrew Lamprecht

The city of Polokwane, one of the 2010 Soccer World Cup venues, is one of the fastest developing areas in South Africa. Only designated a city in 1992, it adopted its current name in 2003, being known as Pietersburg before that. It may not be the first city to come to mind when one thinks of art in South Africa, but in fact it has a vibrant community of artists and art-lovers and boasts its own substantial art museum, housed in the Danie Hough Cultural Centre.

As the capital and located in the centre of Limpopo Province, it is ideally placed as a locus for the important traditional art that Limpopo offers. In addition several well known contemporary artists live and work in this area, including Samson Mudzunga, Jackson Hlungwani, Noria Mabasa, Phillip Rikhotso, Amos Letsoalo, amongst many others.

In this town, as it grew into a city, a little known but tireless couple has consistently championed the cause of contemporary art and built up (with modest means) a major collection as well as bringing a love and appreciation of art to the broader Polokwane community. Their names are unlikely to grace the “power lists” so beloved of other publications but in the context of how one can translate the love of art in to the practical, both through acquisition and also support and dissemination, they must be one of the most important, if under-recognised teams at work in the country today.

Johan van Rooyen, a medical doctor, and his wife Maria, an artist, have campaigned ceaselessly and in some unusual ways to get art
appreciated in the city. For almost two decades, and with a small amount of disposable income to spend on art, they have amassed a collection of institutional-quality contemporary SA art. Ignoring the fashion for Irma Sterns and Pierneefs, they chose to focus only on younger, living artists and often recognised their quality long before the market and critics caught up. With a keen eye for talent they bought William Kentridge, Kendell Geers, Wayne Barker and Bonnie Ntshalintshali at a time when few other collectors were paying much attention to them.

In some ways this type of collecting, informed by a good eye and a clear head and motivated above all by a love of art, and especially art of quality, serves as a good model for those who insist that the art market has crashed. The question will remain as to what type of art has crashed. It seems that the Van Rooyens, who have no intention of ever selling their collection, have still made a wise investment in the things that they choose to surround themselves with.
The walls of Dr Van Rooyen’s practice are a veritable art gallery in miniature, being crowded with
some of the most significant artworks produced by the middle and younger generation of our artists. At times these do not sit well with some of his patients who have been heard to mutter that ‘there is something not quite right’ about all this art. Nevertheless in this subtle way, he has caused countless visitors to spend their time contemplating art as they wait their turn to be attended to.

The Van Rooyens acknowledge the important influence that Wayne Barker has played in their art activities, noting how he introduced them to many of the artists they subsequently collected and got to know. Indeed it is likely that they have the finest collection of Barker’s art as his mid-career star begins to shine ever more brightly.

Perhaps there could have been no clearer sign that Polokwane had emerged from the shadows of its bigger coastal cousins and its neighbours in Gauteng than with the launch of Modern and Contemporary Art: Then, Now and Beyond, an exhibition of ‘41 old masters and 26 contemporary artists’ held as part of the Limpopo Arts Festival last year and spon
sored by Standard Bank. Curated by Dr. Fred Scott and Wayne
Barker under the co-ordination of Maria van Rooyen. This was a major undertaking with superb examples from many major names in the history of South African art since modernity, including Jane Alexander, Walter Battiss, Gerard Bhengu, Dumile Feni, Alexis Preller, Marlene Dumas, Irma Stern, Sandile Zulu and many more of the same ilk.
This major and impressive assemblage was as a result of a smaller but extremely well received show the previous year, Double 07, and on the basis of its success it was decided to host the event annually. Not to rest on her laurels Van Rooyen has now put together a residency programme for February 2009 in Polokwane, sponsored by Modern Autohaus BMW, and featuring seven contemporary artists addressing the issue of ‘mobility’.

In their modest but influential way Maria and Johan van Rooyen have demonstrated that a love for art and a passion for sharing it with their community will always pay off dividends that transcend those of the power-brokers and financial speculators.