New Iziko SANG Director
Thursday, March 19, 2009
We've heard rumour that SANG has finally gotten a new director, Raison Naidoo, starting in May. There's not too much information about him out on the web (hence this very exciting picture). Apparently he's worked for DAC.We're officially wishing him Good Luck and Godspeed.
Correction: His name is Riason Naidoo. Thanks to an anonymous commenter for pointing out my spelling. Apologies. He has most recently been co-ordinating the South Africa/Mali project.
posted by Robert Sloon at 11:29 AM
15 Comments:
Riason Naidoo (note spelling) curated that 'The Indian in Drum' and another show involving seminal Durban Indian photographer Ranjith Kally.
See this snippet from the Goodman site:
'While Kally’s works have been caught by the occasional international curator and included in the odd show his first solo exhibition in a career spanning 58 years was held at The Goodman Gallery in 2004. The show was initiated and curated by artist/curator Riason Naidoo who has been working with Kally over the last 6 years.'
Cool guy, was a few years ahead of me at Wits.
i've had some encounters with Riason, also at Wits. he was kind of a dick, actually. mediocre in terms of his art work, always thought he was better than everyone. i guess that's how he wound up pursuing a career as a curator: he can still treat everyone as beneath him, but doesn't need to make anything interesting himself (not to belittle curators, just him). all this being said, i must admit that the curatorial projects Riason has done lately look really good; and perhaps he's less of an ass since all this time has passed - I know I am. i wish him and SANG luck.
And the exciting, rubber burning souped up car goes with his durban-indian vibe!
a subtle race joke!
awesome!
bunny chow!
bollywood!
funny accents!!!
GHANDI!!!!!!!!!!!
Anonymous 9.30: go fuck yourself, you racist scumbucket.
On another note, Riason will bring valuable skills to the dob having experience in curating (usually not a major consideration when appointing SANG staff) and excellent connections in DAC and wider. His exhibitions are well-thought trough and have ahad an impact on how we understand representation in SA.
Also give the guy a chance. Remember how many people bitched about Clive Kellner when he was appointed? Now those same people are crying: how will JAG cope without him.
Best wishes, Riason.
The souped up car is the first image that comes up when you type my original incorrect spelling into Google Images. The same way I get most of ArtHeat's images.
But it would be quite nice if his name was really Raison as that is the French for getting it right. So then we could say, told you so.
I'm excited to see what happens at SANG now. It's been a tiny bit unexciting for a tiny slice of time, like, about fifty years.
When Ms Martin was appointed she had previously been noticed for 1. Teaching Drawing to Wits architecture students and 2. Organising - in defiance of an international boycott, widely endorsed by South African artists - the South African participation to the Chilean Bienale which served to legitimise & celebrate the murderous rogue junta of Allende and their U.S. backers.
Mr Riason can only be - by comparison- a whiff of fresh air.
It was the Pinochet regime. Martin taught art and architectural history, not drawing. There's a lot of misinformation and twattish so `south african' amateurism and arrogance expressed here. Lissen you dumclucks, when will you realise that the SANG is also an art MUSEUM, not an projection of your febrile ICA contemporary-art-egos?
Waaaz a time when directors of the national gallery had a profile and a public persona like Martin did before she got inn. Who he?? Why nothing on the web?? Yet another political appointment like Martin's waz??
Her predecessor was a dentist. Dr. Van Niekerk.
Pinochet Regime. Torture. Death Squads. International Isolation.
Pinochet's Chile and Botha's South Africa were international polecats, and they were in a loving embrace.
Yes anonymous of 5.53, you are right: of course it was Pinochet. He is the notorious dictator to whom I referred. I know that, it was a slip of the tongue. But what has the ICA got to do with this? And do you know what a "twat" is?
Don't conflate SaNG director Dr Raymund van Niekerk with SA's dealings with the Pinochet regime. He bought agitprop SA art like Paul Stopforth for the Gallery and got threatened by the Nats. I heard that FW De Klerk even tried to fire him. You young 'uns must realise that its not as simple as it appearz...in fact he was probably the most professional gallery director SA ever had. He defended his staff when they got in trouble with the security cops and got threatened in private at goverment do's. Let's hope the nu director has got thesame courage to stand up and criticise and not be just annother ANC paluka.
ICA is institute of Contemporary Art. Twat is what some people have instead of brains or memory. Cheers Lionel.
A twat is a punani, fool.
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