The monument at left celebrates the fifth anniversary of the Republic of South Africa. The one at right is to J G Strijdom, militant protagonist of White supremacy and of an Afrikaner republic, who died in 1958. At rear is the headquarters building of Volkskas (‘The People’s Bank’) founded in 1934 to mobilise Afrikaner capital and to break the monopoly of the ‘English’ banks. Pretoria, 25 April 1982
David Goldblatt
Artwork 1982
David Goldblatt's black-and-white photograph 'The monument at left celebrates the fifth anniversary of the Republic of South Africa. The one at right is to J G Strijdom, militant protagonist of White supremacy and of an Afrikaner republic, who died in 1958. At rear is the headquarters building of Volkskas (‘The People’s Bank’) founded in 1934 to mobilise Afrikaner capital and to break the monopoly of the ‘English’ banks. Pretoria, 25 April 1982' shows an architectural scene with buildings and statues.
Artwork: David Goldblatt, The monument at left celebrates the fifth anniversary of the Republic of South Africa. The one at right is to J G Strijdom, militant protagonist of White supremacy and of an Afrikaner republic, who died in 1958. At rear is the headquarters building of Volkskas (‘The People’s Bank’) founded in 1934 to mobilise Afrikaner capital and to break the monopoly of the ‘English’ banks. Pretoria, 25 April 1982 (1982). Silver gelatin print on fibre-based paper. 44 x 54 cm. Private collection.
Artist David Goldblatt Title The monument at left celebrates the fifth anniversary of the Republic of South Africa. The one at right is to J G Strijdom, militant protagonist of White supremacy and of an Afrikaner republic, who died in 1958. At rear is the headquarters building of Volkskas (‘The People’s Bank’) founded in 1934 to mobilise Afrikaner capital and to break the monopoly of the ‘English’ banks. Pretoria, 25 April 1982 Date 1982 Materials Silver gelatin print on fibre-based paper Dimensions 44 x 54 cm Edition Edition of 10 Credit Private collection

Nineteen years after Goldblatt took this photograph, the underground parking lot beneath the square collapsed. The monument to J G Strijdom fell through the floor; his bronze head breaking clean in two. That the collapse occurred on what used to be Republic Day – a public holiday celebrated under the apartheid government to mark South Africa’s secession from the Commonwealth in pursuit of its racist ideology – was a coincidence of poetic justice (that, or an act of sabotage). The event eloquently resolved the debate around the monument, which was largely unwelcome in the new South Africa. In its place, a gaping hole remained. The square was later repaved and renamed, and a new public sculpture dedicated. It now commemorates the 1956 Women’s March, which began at the square and ended at the Union Buildings, and is named for the anti-apartheid activist and first woman elected to the executive committee of the ANC, Lilian Ngoyi.

This photograph is included in The Structure of Things Then, 1998; Fifty-one Years, 2001; Kith Kin & Khaya, 2011; The Pursuit of Values, 2015; and Structures of Dominion and Democracy, 2018.

“I was drawn,” the late photographer David Goldblatt wrote, “not to the events of the time but to the quiet and commonplace where nothing ‘happened’ and yet all was contained and immanent.” A preeminent chronicler of South African life under apartheid and after, Goldblatt bore witness to how this life is written on the land, in its structures or their absence. Unconcerned with documenting significant historic moments, his photographs stand outside the events of the time and yet are eloquent of them. Through Goldblatt’s lens, the prosaic reveals a telling poignancy. Even in those images that appear benign, much is latent in them – histories and politics, desires and dread. His photographs are quietly critical reflections on the values and conditions that have shaped the country; those structures both ideological and tangible. Among his most notable photobooks are On the Mines (1973), Some Afrikaners Photographed (1975), In Boksburg (1982), The Structure of Things Then (1998), and Particulars (2003).

Installation photograph from the ‘Picture Theory’ exhibition in A4’s Gallery. On the left, David Goldblatt’s monochrome photograph “Miners’ bunks in the abandoned Chinese compound, so called because it probably housed indentured Chinese labourers between 1904 and 1910, after which it accommodated black miners. Simmer & Jack Gold Mine, Germiston” is mounted on the gallery wall. On the right, Goldblatt’s monochrome photograph ‘The monument at left celebrates the fifth anniversary of the Republic of South Africa. The one at right is to J G Strijdom, militant protagonist of White supremacy and of an Afrikaner republic, who died in 1958. At rear is the headquarters building of Volkskas (‘The People’s Bank’) founded in 1934 to mobilise Afrikaner capital and to break the monopoly of the ‘English’ banks. Pretoria’ is mounted on the gallery wall.
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