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Catalog Data

Maker:
Georgia Papageorge, born 1941, South Africa  Search this
Medium:
Acrylic and graphite on canvas with photographs and plexiglass
Dimensions:
H x W x D: 170 x 170 x 4.7 cm (66 15/16 x 66 15/16 x 1 7/8 in.)
Type:
Painting
Geography:
South Africa
Date:
1994-1995
Label Text:
This painting is related to one of the artist's site installations called "Gondwanaland Circle and Lines Project," in which a 150-meter-wide semicircle was formed with painted red cardboard slates. Botswana's Sowa Pan is the bed of what was a vast inland sea. This painting is not a record of that installation but rather a meditation on the concepts of time and scale. Gondwanaland, in theory, was an enormous land mass that divided into the continents about 200 million years ago.
Description:
Square canvas with graphite drawn concentric circles, horizontally bisected by five color photographs of a salt pan with red rectangles. The photos are covered with a plexiglass panel. Three lines of cursive writing cross the canvas and the painting has an overall grey and ocher paint similar to the saltpan surface.
Exhibition History:
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, October 15, 2015-March 9, 2016
BIG/small, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 17-July 23, 2006
Insights, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., February 27 to November 28, 2004
Claiming Art / Reclaiming Space: Post Apartheid Art from South Africa, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., June 21-September 26, 1999
Horizons: Explorations at 360E of the Sowa Salt Pan, Botswana, Art First, London, June 20-July 13, 1995
Published References:
Art First. 1997. 3 Years On! London: Art First, pp. 34-35.
Content Statement:
As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
Image Requests:
High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
Credit Line:
Museum purchase
Object number:
97-22-1
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
Copyright:
© 1994-95 Georgie Papageorge
See more items in:
National Museum of African Art Collection
Data Source:
National Museum of African Art
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ys7a7132442-2e2c-4ae0-bbcb-bd4e1bebcc7e
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nmafa_97-22-1