National Treasures Exhibition launches at BASA Award Ceremony 2010

The 13^th annual Business Day Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) Awards, supported by Anglo American, takes place at Hollard’s Villa Arcadia in Parktown on August 30.

The prestigious award ceremony – which pays tribute to those businesses that are actively making a difference by sponsoring arts and culture events throughout the country – will also serve as the official opening of the historic National Treasures Exhibition, a celebration of the 100-year old collection of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG).

The exhibition is both significant and poignant. Rarely is an institution presented with the opportunity to relocate part of its collection to the home of its originator and founding patron.  Completed in 1910, Villa Arcadia which is now part of the Hollard campus,  was the Sir Herbert Baker designed residence of Randlord Lionel Phillips and his wife Florence. A leader herself in Johannesburg society, Florrie Phillips, together with Hugh Lane, was responsible for establishing the Johannesburg Art Gallery.

The work of over 50 artists will be on show, ranging from the historically influential to leading-edge contemporary. This is a South African collection with the exception of four European works from the Foundation Collection. They include a portrait of Sir Lionel Phillips by Giovanni Boldini (1903); a portrait of Lady Phillips by Antonio Mancini (1909) and a portrait of their daughter, Lady Nicholson by Antonio Mancini (1909). It is for historical relevance that these works have been loaned from JAG and temporarily returned to their former home at Villa Arcadia.

Other artists who form part of the National Treasures exhibition are Moses Kottler, Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern, Alexis Preller, Cecil Skotnes, Walter Battiss, Penny Siopis, Willem Boshoff, Jackson Hlungwani, William Kentridge, Conrad Botes, Hasan and Husain Essop and Mary Sibande.

The National Treasures exhibition also allows visitors the opportunity to contribute towards the maintenance and restoration of JAG by purchasing Creative Blocks from a 1000-artwork installation in the Music Room at Villa Arcadia. The Creative Block is a project that invites emerging and established African artists to transform standard wooden blocks (18 cm x 18 cm x 2.2 cm). Proceeds of a ‘Creative Block’, costing R1000, will be shared equally between the Friends of Johannesburg Art Gallery and the artist, by the Creative Block CC.

Creative Blocks are also presented to the winners of this year’s BASA Awards, on August 30.

The BASA Awards ceremony also features performances by the 2010 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winners Samson Diamond (music) and Melanie Scholtz (jazz), master of mime, Andrew Buckland, while Les Grandes Personnes (Big People) will be staging the Giant Match, 26 giant puppets, 60 people, all playing football.

About Business and Arts South Africa:

Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) is an internationally recognised South African development agency which incorporates the arts into, and contributes to, corporates' commercial success. With a suite of integrated programmes, Business and Arts South Africa encourages mutually beneficial partnerships between business and the arts. Business and Arts South Africa was founded in 1997 as a joint initiative of government and the business sector, to secure the future development of the arts industry in South Africa, through increased corporate sector involvement. Established as a Section 21 company, Business and Arts South Africa is accountable to both government and its business members.