SmartPass Cape Town | SA National Gallery & Art Museum

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Any art enthusiast should put SA National Gallery & Art Museum on their itinerary when visiting Cape Town.

Considered the country’s premier art museum, it houses outstanding collections of South African and African works, as well as those by British, French, Dutch and Flemish artists. You can also enjoy temporary exhibitions from national and international artists, which complement the permanent collections on show and take a more intimate look at societal and social topics.

Highlights:

South Africa’s premier art museum

Collections of South African, African, British, French, Dutch and Flemish art

Paintings and works on paper

Photography

Sculpture

Beadword and textiles

Architecture

The Experience:

The African Art Permanent Collection offers a great insight into the history of independence, division, and democracy that have shaped the nation over the last 150 years. There are around 3000 works on show by various South African artists, representing diverse expressive styles in media, beadwork, sculpture, metalwork, weaving, wood carving, bone, and horn.

The Collection of Contemporary Paintings and Sculpture showcases works from the 1960s-1970s to the present day, and consists predominantly of works by South African artists. Some of the most celebrated pieces include Mary Sibande’s 2010 large-scale sculpture titled The Reign, Noria Mabasa’s 2008 wooden sculpture Ndi Mukegulu a ne a khou thsimbila na vhaduhulu vhaue vhavhili / Grandmother and her two Children, and a crocheted lace portrait by Pierre Fouché titled The Kiss (2008).

You can also see examples of many other leading South African artists of the early and mid-20th century in the Modern Painting and Sculpture Collection, such as Gerard Sekoto, Alexis Preller, Irma Stern and Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef. Well-known works include The Kraal (1949) by Preller, the Golden Shawl (1945) by Stern, Street Scene (1939) by Sekoto and N’tabeni (1930) by Pieneef.

The current temporary exhibition, At Face Value, is an extensive and diverse collection of portraiture with varying focus, from the face, to the environment, and the social relationship between an artist and sitter. Discover more about these complex constructions of identity that shed both light on societal and historical issues, as well as personal expressions of power and status.

IMPORTANT: This experience is normally R30 but is included in your SMARTPASS, see the prices for all Passes HERE.

see the: full list of attractions included »