Dear Lwandile Fikeni,

I write this article to provide my perspective on the Black Modernisms exhibition currently running the
Wits Art Museum. I am the one candidate who has yet to comment on the exhibition (Black
Modernisms) I assisted in putting together.

After careful consideration I decided to give my opinion on both the exhibition as articulated in your
article in the City Press dated 1st May 2016, as well as the transformation debate your article provokes.
My role in putting together the exhibition included locating the artworks during the preliminary planning
as well as photographing the work to help make final selection of artworks easier, and it translated into
the objects seen currently in the exhibition.

There is a need to concede that experience has often been used as a mechanism for gate keeping,
what I often refer to as strategic exclusion to uphold existing narratives. After all, the narrative of what
is considered important and valuable black African art is a construct of white/western ideology. As
Childers & Cullenberg (2010: 251) make an observation that conversation defines all the exchanges, the
chatter, the publications, the literature, the conferencesparticipation in these conversations
establishes who is countedThus, if persons want to enter into the arts, they can attempt to enter into
that conversation an activity, by the way, that is easier said than done. It would then be frivolous to
expect transformation to come from those experienced as they have gathered the experience by
upholding and advancing traditional narratives.

I therefore support Dr Mdlulis sentiment that there is a need for black scholars to be afforded the
opportunity to rewrite these long held narratives, and that the quest to gather experience often dilutes
these counter-narratives because training (on and off the job) often involves learning how to uphold the
traditional narratives. Traditional thinking cannot deliver the transformation required in the arts. What
evidence is there to suggest that in her more than 30 years of experience Professor Emeritus Anitra
Nettleton encouraged transformation in the traditional institutions of art conversation?
In todays knowledge economy, there is a need for allowing creative new approaches to redress past
injustices and give people a platform for self-representation. And traditional institutions of knowledge
and cultural preserves such as the Wits Art Museum, which prides itself on housing the largest collection
of African Art, need to provide a platform for emerging black academics to engage.

I recall, during my undergrad years of training at the Tshwane University of Technology, how my
drawings where hailed as powerful works of art partly because of the content, as they often were
depictions of black people in compromised scenes such as protests, township and violent scenes. That
form of art was readily accepted and somewhat led me to prompt other subject matter. Thats when I
started depicting white people, and instantly my work was considered irrelevant and out of context with
my reality as a young black artist. As a prelude to the exhibition (Black Modernisms), Professor
Nettleton chose to withdraw a drawing by Gerard Sekoto from the exhibition because it depicted a
white/European man, despite the reality that Gerard Sekoto spent a significant part of his life in the
West surrounded by Europeans. I therefore ask if this is not a typical example of gate keeping and a
mechanism to maintain control of the black subject, devaluing that which is considered out of context
with the subject line expected of black artists?

In closing, I question if the idea of bringing in an experienced black scholar was relegated because it
was perceived too lucrative a deal for a black scholar. I pose this question because artists such as
Marcus Neustetter, currently exhibiting Into the Light at the Wits Art Museum, have been allocated a
budget by the museum to produce a performance for the exhibition on the evening of First Thursday on
the 2nd June 2016. I recall during the interview, for the Research Associate position at the Wits Art
Museum, being asked what transformation means to me and how I would facilitate such a process
within the museum context during this time of academic unrest following protests such as
#Feesmustfall, #Rhodesmustfall, and demands for access to free education?. My response was that
there is a need for emerging scholars to be given a platform to creatively facilitate this process as
traditional mechanisms remain irrelevant and that established artists are not born established, they
embark on a process of growth through engagement in art conversations, and institutions such as the
Wits Art Museum need to create a platform to show work from emerging artists. Little did I know I
would be relegated towards becoming what you call a black token in South Africas predominantly
white art world.

Regards,
Bongani Mahlangu