Walter Battiss & Marguerite Stephens, Fruits of Life, c. 1979 (painting) 1981 (weaving design)

Why don’t you feast your eyes?  The Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg is hosting an exhibition curated by Neil Dundas – Battiss and Company – that explores the role of Walter Batiss in South African art history, on until August 6.

Who says winter time is boring? Cape Town has an abundance of choices.
Don’t miss the Alumni Auction from 12 Jul 2011 to 20 Jul 2011 at the Michaelis Gallery. The exhibition and auction feature over 80 artworks, celebrating Michaelis graduates such as Marlene Dumas, Jane Alexander, Brett Murray, Mikhael Subotzky, Berni Searle, Gavin Jantjes, Barend de Wet, Hasan Essop, Husain Essop, Bongi Bengu and Ed Young, amongst others.
The proceeds will go towards special projects at Michaelis – in particular bursaries and scholarships for talented students. The auction will be run by South Africa’s leading auctioneer & MD of Strauss & Co., Stephan Welz on Wednesday 20 July at 18:30.

There’s another compelling exhibition: Made in Translation that draws on Iziko’s collections of copies of rock art with a central theme of translation. It  explores ways in which translations from the landscape have been made and in so doing places images of rock art in the context of other forms of translation.
All rock art copies are seen as acts of translation, primarily translating the ‘unboundedness’ of the paintings as they exist in the landscape, into the framed image of the copy.

Paintings and engravings are everywhere in the southern African landscape. They are scratched into the surfaces of boulders, carved into the rock banks; painted onto the shelters of the mountains, and buried in the graves of those who once understood their meanings. They are the creative expressions of ideas that were once alive in conversations around campfires and in the rites of passage that marked the milestones of human life. Today the impulses that gave rise to them have become hotly debated.

The exhibition showcases a diverse range of translations: a collection by Leo Frobenius, who explored southern Africa during 1928 to 1930 with a team of ethnographers and artists;  copies by George Stow, Helen Tongue, Dorothea Bleek, and Charles Schunke – with insights of contemporary scholars, historical and contemporary photographs; and translations of San texts and stories.

At the SA Museum until November and curated by Pippa Skotnes, Director of the Centre for Curating the Archive, Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town and Petro Keene of the Social History Collections Department.

To find out more about the San/Bushmen, visit !Khwa ttu, a fascinating spot that aims to restore the heritage of the San and educate the general public about the world of the San. Take a 45 minute drive north up the R27 and have a delicious meal while there – see the Mail & guardian review ”Fine desert menu at San cultural centre”.