This is important because, as a practising artist, I had some experience of exhibiting my own artwork and of working in an art museum very early on in my career. This gave me a good foundation in becoming a curator. Under apartheid, where racial discrimination was legal, many Black artists did not have the opportunity to exhibit their work in museums or even commercial galleries.
At a certain point, I started to use my skills and experience to tell some of those South African stories that were not being told. Born in , his work reflected his obvious talent and also revealed hidden histories. The show at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg received incredible media coverage, and many museums and collections subsequently acquired his work.
It was rewarding for me to see him receive the deserved recognition while he was still alive. At the time of the exhibitions, Clarke was 83 years old. He was a talented artist but because he was Black and lived most of his life during the apartheid years he had not received the proper opportunities and exposure. In I did a project from the Drum magazine archives β the internationally renowned magazine that empowered Black writers and photographers in South Africa and later in the rest of Anglophone Africa, in places like Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, etc.
The photo exhibition focused on the Indian community in Durban, where I was born, revealing the multiple and complex identities within the community and challenging racial stereotypes. Soon after the Drum exhibition and book, I was appointed director of the South African National Gallery, a position I held for six years In my first year I curated a very large exhibition of art works entitled From Pierneef to Gugulective that used all 12 gallery spaces of the museum. Some artworks were from the National Gallery's collection and the rest were loaned from 48 different collections from around the country.
The show was meant to be representative of South African art over a century from , including the apartheid years The exhibition received local and international attention, and I was invited to MoMA New York and the Tate Modern London , and numerous other institutions in other countries to speak about it.
