MESSAGES AND MEANING

MTN South Africa showcases MTN Art Collection in collector’s edition book

The exhibition Messages and Meaning, which comprises some 130 artworks from the MTN Art Collection, opened at the Polokwane Art Museum on June 4. Many of the artworks on display are also featured in a sumptuous book, Messages and Meaning: the MTN Art Collection, published by the MTN SA Foundation.

Arguably one of the most ambitious art books to have been published on a collection in South Africa to date, all the proceeds of the book sold at the Polokwane Art Museum will go towards its library and education programmes.

Messages and Meaning: the MTN Art Collection affords students, researchers, lecturers and artists unique access to the artworks of which MTN is custodian.

“The MTN SA Foundation is committed to sharing its artworks as widely as possible, having already donated copies of this comprehensive publication to a large number of libraries and art organisations” says Eunice Maluleke, general manager of the MTN SA Foundation.

The book recounts how the MTN Art Collection, which totals some 1,400 works, was initiated almost serendipitously in September 1997, when MTN made a modest purchase of artworks: a woodblock by Lucky Sibiya, two screenprints by Mmakgabo Sebidi, and some beadwork pieces from KwaZulu-Natal. This marked the beginning of what was to become a leading corporate collection of South African art. Now 12 years old and comprising African and South African works – both classic and contemporary – the collection’s holdings have been energetically researched, published, travelled, exhibited, discussed, debated, and admired.

Messages and Meaning: the MTN Art Collection captures some of these exchanges and explores the diverse messaging strategies artworks engage. It also celebrates the wealth of South African and African artistic ‘voices,’ and the heritage they continue to create. Thirteen writers, art historians, anthropologists and curators have contributed essays to this extensive volume: Andries Oliphant, Emile Maurice, Nessa Leibhammer, Khwezi Gule, Pattabi Ganapathi Raman, Philippa Hobbs, Ronel Kellner, Colin Richards, Clive Kellner, Wilma Cruise, Judy Seidman, and Elizabeth Rankin. The writers share their insights on the artworks in the Collection, the messages they embody, the stories they tell, the ideas they communicate and the spaces they occupy – both architectural and psychological.

This comprehensive volume also explores the many-layered role of the MTN Art Collection: its value as a tool for social investment, an educational resource, a means of inspiring in-house communication and debate, and a showcase of South African and African art to visitors. Edited by MTN’s resident art curator, Philippa Hobbs, this publication aims to be an informative, diverse and sumptuous read for years to come.

Published by David Krut Publishing, the book features 308 pages in full colour. ISBN 0-9584860-6-9