UCT Works of Art Collection celebrates new talent 

After many months of deliberation, the UCT Works of Art Committee has started a new project that will allow the university art collection to house artworks by noted and important emerging and established artists whose work is not currently represented in its collection. 

The collecting of art at the University of Cape Town had its genesis in the early years of the University and grew from there to a substantial collection of approximately 1700 works. The bulk of this collection stems from early South African modernism and from the 1980 and early-1990s. The vision and mandate of the committee have for a long time been focused on ensuring greater diversity and representation of contemporary artists in the collection. Whilst this is a goal widely supported by university stakeholders, the fiscal strains the University is facing under Covid-19 and the very real and very urgent multiple needs to make education more broadly accessible by providing bursaries, outreach projects and support structures have meant that this mandate and vision cannot be achieved only by purchasing new works to add to the existing total collection. 

Due to these fiscal constraints, the UCT Works of Art Committee has engaged in lengthy debates and deliberations and has agreed that addressing gaps in the collection – primarily the lack of representation of current artists – is best achieved by the auctioning of select pieces from the collection, and the use of funds thus raised to address collection shortfalls. 

In identifying which works to sell, the UCT Works of Art Committee focused primarily on two areas: work by artists who are greatly over-represented in the collection and work that is very expensive to keep in the collection. 

The University is offering work on auction through a number of recognised industry-leading auction houses, and the Works of Art Committee is looking forward to re-investing funds gained in this way into supporting the art and careers of current emerging and celebrated Southern African artists.