THE venue was a hotel bar in Braamfontein last Sunday, where I was to meet someone on an unrelated matter, when I had a brief chance encounter with a media lawyer.
We ended up discussing the role in society of art in general and political cartoons in particular.
The discussion between Liah - her first name - from Vancouver, Canada, and myself was quite spontaneous to say the least.
Liah said she was a legal intern at a Johannesburg-based litigation centre and one of the cases she and her team at the Southern African Litigation Centre were working on was that of a Zimbabwean artist who faces certain charges in Zimbabwe related to an art exhibition he mounted that authorities there concluded was insulting to President Robert Mugabe.
Now Liah is part of the legal team in Johannesburg crafting a defence strategy for the artist.
We engaged in this lively discussion, including how art is starting to play an important role in politics as a medium of communication - and the legal implications of the Protection of Information Bill on media freedom.
The short of it is that politicians are starting to react to art in a way they have not done in a long time, which in all respects is a good thing for art and artists in general.
This means that artists are increasingly starting to have social relevance and political teeth to bite the system.
Cartoonists, particularly those on newspapers, have in recent years propelled themselves into the mainstream of political reportage through their often hard-hitting caricatures of powerful political figures.
The work of newspaper cartoonists, particularly those who work in the genre of political satire, is increasingly assuming the same public importance traditionally carried by words churned out by writers in the newsrooms.
Quite encouragingly for cartoonists, Museum Africa and Sowetan are collaborating to showcase a selection of old and new political cartoons.
Through accompanying text and images, the cartoons are contextualised to take viewers on an unusual journey through South African history.
By no means meant to be a comprehensive history of the country, the cartoons show small slices of the past, giving an insight into the political and social situation of the time.
Dating back to the late 1700s and going right up to the 2000s, the selection shows how political cartoons can be used both as a means of oppression and as a means of protest and change.
They include major historical events and themes such as colonial settlement, the South African War, the rise of the National Party, apartheid laws and transition to democracy, and depict caricatures of well-known political figures such as Cecil John Rhodes, Paul Kruger, Jan Smuts, Hendrik Verwoerd, Thabo Mbeki, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Tony Leon, Robert Mugabe and many more.
The selection features the works of well-known South African cartoonists such as Abe Berry, Dov Fedler and Zapiro, among others.
Curated by Museum Africa's Linda Chernis, the exhibition Cartoons in Context opens on October 20.
Fedler, one of the cartoonists whose work is part of the exhibition, will speak at the opening.
After unsuccessfully studying architecture for two years at the University of the Witwatersrand, Fedler entered the job market working at an advertising agency.
He stayed in the advertising field for the next seven years. It was during that time that Fedler began freelancing as a cartoonist, starting out at the Rand Daily Mail. His first published cartoon depicted the moon landing in 1969.
Fedler began his cartooning career in the turbulent 1970s and continued to make satirical political commentary through the dying days of apartheid, the advent of democracy and the post-1994 era.
He has since worked on a freelance basis for various publications, including Star, Financial Mail and the Cape Times.
"'I'm never idle. I love working and intend dying near my drawing materials," he says.
Fedler lists being invited to the US as a guest speaker at the Association of International Cartoonists in 1994, shortly after South Africa's first democratic elections, as among the highlights of his long and successful career.
"I was received by my American colleagues as some kind of hero and though there were three Pulitzer prize winners in attendance, it was I who was the main attraction simply because of my association with the country. It was the first time I realised that perhaps I was, after all, doing something meaningful."
Museum to exhibit SA cartoons
THE venue was a hotel bar in Braamfontein last Sunday, where I was to meet someone on an unrelated matter, when I had a brief chance encounter with a media lawyer.
We ended up discussing the role in society of art in general and political cartoons in particular.
The discussion between Liah - her first name - from Vancouver, Canada, and myself was quite spontaneous to say the least.
Liah said she was a legal intern at a Johannesburg-based litigation centre and one of the cases she and her team at the Southern African Litigation Centre were working on was that of a Zimbabwean artist who faces certain charges in Zimbabwe related to an art exhibition he mounted that authorities there concluded was insulting to President Robert Mugabe.
Now Liah is part of the legal team in Johannesburg crafting a defence strategy for the artist.
We engaged in this lively discussion, including how art is starting to play an important role in politics as a medium of communication - and the legal implications of the Protection of Information Bill on media freedom.
The short of it is that politicians are starting to react to art in a way they have not done in a long time, which in all respects is a good thing for art and artists in general.
This means that artists are increasingly starting to have social relevance and political teeth to bite the system.
Cartoonists, particularly those on newspapers, have in recent years propelled themselves into the mainstream of political reportage through their often hard-hitting caricatures of powerful political figures.
The work of newspaper cartoonists, particularly those who work in the genre of political satire, is increasingly assuming the same public importance traditionally carried by words churned out by writers in the newsrooms.
Quite encouragingly for cartoonists, Museum Africa and Sowetan are collaborating to showcase a selection of old and new political cartoons.
Through accompanying text and images, the cartoons are contextualised to take viewers on an unusual journey through South African history.
By no means meant to be a comprehensive history of the country, the cartoons show small slices of the past, giving an insight into the political and social situation of the time.
Dating back to the late 1700s and going right up to the 2000s, the selection shows how political cartoons can be used both as a means of oppression and as a means of protest and change.
They include major historical events and themes such as colonial settlement, the South African War, the rise of the National Party, apartheid laws and transition to democracy, and depict caricatures of well-known political figures such as Cecil John Rhodes, Paul Kruger, Jan Smuts, Hendrik Verwoerd, Thabo Mbeki, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Tony Leon, Robert Mugabe and many more.
The selection features the works of well-known South African cartoonists such as Abe Berry, Dov Fedler and Zapiro, among others.
Curated by Museum Africa's Linda Chernis, the exhibition Cartoons in Context opens on October 20.
Fedler, one of the cartoonists whose work is part of the exhibition, will speak at the opening.
After unsuccessfully studying architecture for two years at the University of the Witwatersrand, Fedler entered the job market working at an advertising agency.
He stayed in the advertising field for the next seven years. It was during that time that Fedler began freelancing as a cartoonist, starting out at the Rand Daily Mail. His first published cartoon depicted the moon landing in 1969.
Fedler began his cartooning career in the turbulent 1970s and continued to make satirical political commentary through the dying days of apartheid, the advent of democracy and the post-1994 era.
He has since worked on a freelance basis for various publications, including Star, Financial Mail and the Cape Times.
"'I'm never idle. I love working and intend dying near my drawing materials," he says.
Fedler lists being invited to the US as a guest speaker at the Association of International Cartoonists in 1994, shortly after South Africa's first democratic elections, as among the highlights of his long and successful career.
"I was received by my American colleagues as some kind of hero and though there were three Pulitzer prize winners in attendance, it was I who was the main attraction simply because of my association with the country. It was the first time I realised that perhaps I was, after all, doing something meaningful."
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