The Standard Bank African Art Collection
University of the Witwatersrand
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Type
Country
South Africa
Copyright
Please contact the collection holder
Access to the collections by appointment and materials are available for on-site reference
Language
English
Locations Discussed
Southern Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
West Africa
Central Africa
East Africa
South Africa
Note
In 1978 Wits and the Standard Bank established the Standard Bank African Art Collection, located at Wits and funded by an annual purchasing grant from the Standard Bank. The collection contains over 5 000 objects from across the continent - unrivaled southern African holdings and substantial and important West and Central African collections. More recently, works from East Africa have been added.
This internationally significant classical African art collection was initiated against the background of the exclusion of black artists from most histories of South African art and the initiation of research into this field by academics in different humanities departments at Wits in 1977. The Art History Department at Wits was the first of its kind in South Africa to introduce courses in African Art into the curriculum
Over 5 000 items