David Goldblatt (South African, 1930-2018) 'Abraham Thipe with one of his arrangements and his deckchair, Newtown, 14 August 1990'
Provenance : Provenance Acquired from a Johannesburg exhibition; Thence by descent; A private collection. Taken in the year that marked the end of white supremacy and domination in South Africa, a distinctive shift was detectable within Goldblatt's work. Capturing his acquaintance, Abraham Thripe, balancing in a chest stand on a plinth before an altar of bricks also composed by Thripe, we get a sense of a photographer capturing an Installation artist. Goldblatt said of the encounter 'He was engaged entirely in a world of his own making', ' He became a building, high-rise structure' (Goldblatt in 'A Model Brick', Art Africa by Luta Continua). By trade, Thripe was a brick seller (a common occupation for those operating under survivalist capitalism in the late 1980/90's South Africa). Contextually, the present photo was taken during the year that the Apartheid officially started its ending process. President F.W de Klerk lifted the ban on the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, and the Pan Africanist Congress. South Africa would then have its first democratic election in April 1994 where Nelson Mandela would be elected as President after being released in 1990. Ulrich Loock described these years as 'decisive dates for South Africa's transition to democracy', which 'saw Goldblatt occupied with his work on Structures, which involved time-consuming research into the circumstances and background of his pictures. He did not take any new photos during the period change and upheaval.' He wouldn't return to photography again until 1998. (Ulrich Loock, Intersection Intersected: David Goldblatt, p20.). The final photograph shown in the Structures book, A Man Building His House on His Own Plot of Ground, Marselle Township, Kenton-on Sea, Cape, 8 July 1990, encapsulates the regain of strength and adoption of hope. Capturing a man confidently assembling his own home on his legally owned land gave a promise of future prosperity. In the same way, Abraham Thipe with one of his arrangements and his deckchair, Newtown, 14 August 1990 displays a level of strength and zeal in the early days of post-apartheid South Africa. Thripe proudly displays his own brickwork against a background of skyscrapers and capitalist architecture, Goldblatt acknowledging the struggle and injustice in the fallout of the apartheid. Bibliography David Goldblatt, Ulrich Loock, Ivor Powell, Intersection Intersected: David Goldblatt, (Civilizacao Editora, Museu Serralves: Museu De Arte Contemporanea, 2008) David Goldblatt, In Boksburg, (Steidl, 2015), (The Gallery Press, first edition, 1982)
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