DUST IN THE GLASSHOUSE, the Atholl Collection of South African Art

247pp., 4to.,b/w & colour illus., hardback, London, 2024

Nine essays by Deon Viljoen explore themes of transformation and metamorphosis, resistance and affinity, highlighting the fragility of our relationships with ourselves, with one another, with nature, and with worlds beyond our grasp. Based on the Atholl Collection of South African Art, this volume also includes a full illustrated catalogue of the 178 paintings, sculpture and works on paper currently in the Collection, as well as biographies of the 35 artists represented - among others, Robert Hodgins, Deborah Bell, Simon Stone, William Kentridge, George Pemba, Stanley Pinker, Richard Mudariki, Chemu Ng’ok, Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern, Johann Louw, Kate Gottgens, and Georgina Gratrix.

The collective tenor of the art in the Atholl Collection is provocative and questioning. It creates spaces where the brutal and disruptive often spar with the sensual and seductive. The Collection spans roughly 120 years of artmaking at Africa’s southern tip and although rooted in the context of colonialism, apartheid, and post-colonialism it reaches beyond South Africa’s borders.

Deon Viljoen's books include Southern African Art 1850-1990 and South African Art, 1850-2002.