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South African Journal of Art History Volume 27 (2012): Recent submissions

  • When the ‘Law’ no longer suffices: "Dexter" 
    Olivier, Bert (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    What are the hidden underpinnings of what may broadly be described as ‘vigilante’ stories, such as those in popular television series or films? What leads one to suspect that there are such out-of-sight presuppositions on ...
  • Signs behind Rossetti 
    Van Staden, Pieter Schalk (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    This article investigates related themes of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) in relation to his idealized representation of the human figure. Rossetti often represented the female figure in a ...
  • A critical reassessment of the explorer artist Charles Davidson Bell’s (1813-1882) "Cattle Boers' Outspan" (n.d) 
    Swanepoel, M.C. (Rita); Strydom, Richardt (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    This article investigates the depiction of Afrikaner ancestry in Charles Davidson Bell’s (1813-1882) "Cattle boers’ outspan" (s.a.) (fig. 1) within the genre of explorer art. This critical revisiting of Bell – better known ...
  • The influence of "botho" on social space in Botswana since independence 
    Steyn, Gerald (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    Since independence, Botswana has developed from one of the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country. In spite of rapid urbanisation and global capitalism, the ideology and philosophy of social interaction ...
  • The expertise of Architecture and its history 
    Quek, Raymond (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    Many historical architectural constructions have been recorded and studied, but not all have been theorised. There seems to be a disconnection at several levels between the discourses of architectural history and the ...
  • A projective site: inhabiting the metaphorical interval between the instrumental and symbolic meanings of architecture 
    Roberts, Nick (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    Historically, there have been two primary ways of perceiving space that have been considered opposed to one another. First is the analytical, measured space of representation - the drawings and models architects make, ...
  • Drawing and mark making in "Johannesburg 2nd Greatest City After Paris" 
    Oppermann, Johann (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    In the animation film, "Johannesburg[,] 2nd Greatest City After Paris" (1989), of the South African artist William Kentridge, he combines his charcoal drawings and mark makings with photography, in what he calls Drawings ...
  • Worshipping with the fourfold at the temple complex at Delphi, Greece, the Inner Shrine at Ise, Japan, and St. Peter's Basilica at Rome 
    Mare, Estelle Alma (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    The aim of this article is to critique Martin Heidegger’s fourfold as a static concept and to reformulate it as a dynamic concept to be applied as a criterion to assess the architectural excellence of the temple complex ...
  • Body, psyche and symbol: the paintings of Kevin Roberts 
    Stevens, Ingrid (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    According to Jung, everything is a manifestation of the psyche: thus the body in art is a manifestation of psyche, embodied in symbols. In the close link between body and mind, symbols relate to processes of human ...
  • Political imaginings in the visual art of South African Indians 
    Moodley, Nalini (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    During times of pain, trauma and disempowerment, the creative field of fine art affords an opportunity for communication and self-empowerment. In the 1980s, which was one of the most turbulent decades in South Africa’s ...
  • Iconic bodies: Ndebele women in ritual context 
    Van Vuuren, Chris J. (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    Ndebele women of South Africa have become prominent visual artworks in the international world of commodity tourism and African art. Pictures of women clad in ritual beadwork against the backdrop of their art on homestead ...
  • Geomantic mapping of the human body in Japanese landscape design 
    Van Tonder, Gert J.; Hare, Thomas (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    Harmony between the forces of nature and human activity was of great concern throughout the history of Japan. The divination of these important forces were governed through a canon of geomantic landscape design principles ...
  • Le Corbusier and the human body 
    Steyn, Gerald (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    Le Corbusier (1887-1965), the famous Swiss-French artist, architect and town planner – celebrated as he is – is also widely criticised for allegedly dehumanising cities, ignoring the dignity of the individual and for ...
  • Body construction and representation: anatomical waxes in the "Museo La Specola" 
    Schmidt, Leoni (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    The "Museo La Specola" in Florence houses a large collection of anatomical waxes, an art developed in that city under the patronage of the Medici family in the 17th century for the purpose of teaching medicine. This article ...
  • History is returning to design 
    Tzonis, Alexander; Lefaivre, Liane (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    I looked up “history” in the dictionary. The definition I liked best was, “study of the past.” Now any number of things can be the study of the past. Archaeology is the study of the past; it has more specific definitions ...
  • Ideas of space from Isaac Newton to Etienne-Louis Boullee 
    Terzoglou, Nikolaos-Ion (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    This paper aims to prove that a fertile dialogue between architectural history and the history of ideas can open interesting perspectives for the understanding of the process of design. This dialogue, offering a reconstruction ...
  • The women at Winburg’s Voortrekker Monument 
    Peters, Walter (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    The Voortrekker Monument at Winburg resulted from an open architectural competition held in 1964. This monument followed the national Voortrekker Monument depicting a shrine surrounded by a literal ox-wagon laager by Gerard ...
  • El Greco’s representation of the body of Christ in the "Crucifixion with Donors" : its mediation between the divine and the human 
    Mare, Estelle Alma (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    The focus of this research is El Greco’s representation of Christ on the cross in the "Crucifixion with Donors" (circa 1577-80, Musée du Louvre). This painting shows the semi-nude body of the centrally placed Christ figure ...
  • Le Corbusier’s town-planning ideas and the ideas of history 
    Steyn, Gerald (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    Since Le Corbusier so forcefully propagated a new urban and architectural dispensation, there is a misconception that he disregarded history and that he conceptualised projects rationally and without preconceived ideas. ...
  • Leonardo da Vinci’s architectural designs as thought experiments: the sources and influence of his ideas 
    Mare, Estelle Alma (Art Historical Work Group of South Africa, 2012)
    It is argued that Leonardo da Vinci’s architectural designs are uniquely original due to his ability to connect ideas derived from a wide range of sources and his own empirical researches. This attempt at understanding ...