Gavin Jantjes: To Be Free! A Retrospective 1970–2023

This guide documents the collaborative exhibition Gavin Jantjes: To Be Free! A Retrospective 1970–2023 by The Africa Institute and Sharjah Art Foundation. It includes a foreword by Hoor Al Qasimi and a critical essay about the artist by the exhibition’s curator, Salah M. Hassan.

The publication explores Jantjes’s multifaceted career as a painter, printmaker, writer, curator and activist. Shaped by his early years in Cape Town during the South African apartheid (1948 –94), the artist’s journey reflects his pursuit of artistic freedom, as he broke away from Eurocentric views and expectations of Black creativity. Divided into sections spanning 1970 to the present, the exhibition explored different phases of the artist’s life. The guide inversely follows the presentation’s layout, highlighting major works and milestones from each of its curated sections. It also delves into the artist’s anti-apartheid activism, transformative role in global art institutions and figurative portrayals of the global Black struggle for freedom, as well as his transition to nonfigurative painting.