1944
Nelson Mandela joins the African National Congress at age 25.
1947
Painter Gerard Sekoto sails for Paris.
1948
The Nationalist Party under Dr. D. F. Malan comes to power and institutionalizes apartheid in South Africa.
1950
A series of Nationalist Party government acts are passed. One of them, the Group Areas Act, leads to the forced removal of non-white communities from their homes to areas designated as appropriate to their racial status. Such areas are generally lacking sufficient shelter and sanitation.
1950
The General Assembly of the United Nations declares apartheid to be based on doctrines of racial discrimination.
1951
Nelson Mandela is banned under the Riotous Assemblies Act.
1952
Polly Street Art Centre opens in downtown Johannesburg under the direction of Cecil Skotnes
1953
The Bantu Education Act is passed, denying a high standard of education to those classified as non-whites.
1955
The Freedom Charter is adopted at the Congress of the People in Kliptown.
1956
156 leaders of the Congress Movement are arrested nationwide on charges of high treason. The “Treason Trial” follows over the next four years, ending in the acquittal and discharge of all of the accused.
1961
The ANC takes up arms against the South African government, goes underground, and continues to operate secretly.
Robben Island is turned into a prison.
1961
South Africa is declared a republic, independent of the British Commonwealth.
1962
Opening of the Evangelical Lutheran Center at Rorkes Drift, KwaZulu Natal, where a whole generation of black artists will take classes.
1963
Singer Miriam Makeba addresses the United Nations’ Special Committee Against Apartheid in New York. A new law allows the state to jail people for 90 or 180 days without bringing charges.
1964
Nelson Mandela and other members of Umkhonto weSizwe are sentenced to life imprisonment at the Rivonia trial.
1966
The Goodman Gallery opens in Johannesburg, under the direction of Linda Givon/née Goodman.
1967
Chief Albert Luthuli, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former president of the banned ANC, is killed under suspicious circumstances while taking a routine walk near his home in Groutville.
1967
Photographer Ernest Cole’s book, House of Bondage: A South African Black Man Exposes in His Own Pictures and Words the Bitter Life of His Homeland Today, is published in New York by Random House.
1968
Artist Dumile Feni goes into exile.
1969
Winnie Mandela is arrested with 21 others and detained for five months. She is interrogated and tortured. An attempt to rescue Nelson Mandela from Robben Island, initiated by a group of British antiapartheid activists, is aborted after state security infiltrates the plan.
1972
The Black People’s Convention is formed to coordinate the Black Consciousness Movement.
Military conscription for white youths is extended to one year.
1974
New York critic Clement Greenberg is invited to judge the national art exhibition, Art South Africa Today, at the Durban Art Gallery.
1975
The People’s Republic of Angola is born.
1976
South African troops invade Angola, advancing almost 900 km into
Angolan territory before withdrawing.
Police open fire at a demonstration in Soweto, Johannesburg, involving more than 10,000 school students protesting against Bantu education and the imposition of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction. The uprising spreads to other parts of the country and results in more than 1,000 deaths.
South Africa’s first nationwide television service is officially opened by the prime minister, who issues a warning against slanted news and unbalanced presentations.
1977
The period for continuous military service for white youths is increased to two years.
Steve Biko, leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, dies in police detention after torture and beatings by security police.
1978
P. W. Botha replaces John Vorster as prime minister.
1979
108, 911 families are relocated as a result of the Group Areas Act.
A conference entitled The State of Art in South Africa is held at the University of Cape Town. Artists pledge not to participate in any national and international exhibitions that are organized through the government.
1981
The Committee of Artists of the World against Apartheid is established in Paris with the support of the Special Committee against Apartheid.
1982
Culture and Resistance: Art Towards Social Development, a symposium and exhibition, takes place in Gaborone, Botswana, establishing a keynote for resistance art in the 1980s.
1984
Bishop Tutu is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The United Democratic Front, a thinly-disguised cover organization for the banned African National Congress, is launched.
Troops and police move into townships at the end of 1984 and engage in running battles with youths–armed with stones and petrol bombs–in an effort to re-establish control.
1985
The ANC calls on township residents to make the townships ungovernable.
Tributaries, an exhibition curated by Ricky Burnett and showing the work of art-school-trained white artists together with self-taught black artists opens at the MuseuMAfricA.
1987
Sculptor Nelson Mukhuba commits suicide at his home in Venda.
1988
The first exhibition at a public art institution showing the work of only black artists opens. The Neglected Tradition: Towards a New History of South African Art (1930–1988), curated by Steven Sack, opens at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
1989
F. W. De Klerk replaces P. W. Botha as prime minister and immediately declares the need for change.
In Paris, the exhibition Les Magiciens de la Terre, curated by Jean-Hubert Martin, opens in May at the Pompidou Centre. Esther Mahlangu is the only artist representing South Africa.
Publication of Resistance Art in South Africa by Sue Williamson in Cape Town (David Philip Publishers) and New York (St. Martins Press).
David Goldblatt founds the Market Photography Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, to train young photographers.
1990
Nelson Mandela is released from prison. The ANC is unbanned: recognized and legalized by the South African government.
Photographer Ernest Cole dies in New York.
Art from South Africa, an exhibition curated by David Elliott and co-curated by David Koloane, opens at the Museum of Modern Art in Oxford, after consultations with the cultural desk of the ANC in London and intense dialogue with progressive artist groups within South Africa.
1991
205 white government schools admit black children for the first time.
In New York, Dumile Feni dies of a heart attack shortly before his return to South Africa.
1993
South Africa is invited to participate in the 45th Venice Biennale after a 27-year absence.
Gerard Sekoto dies in Paris.
1994
In April, South Africa holds its first democratic general election. The ANC wins 63 percent of the votes.
1995
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is set up under Bishop Desmond Tutu.
The 1st Johannesburg Biennale opens at various venues in Johannesburg, with Christopher Till, Director of Culture for the city of Johannesburg, and Lorna Ferguson as curators.
A number of South African artists participate in Africa ’95, an art exhibition in London.
1996
The new South African constitution is adopted.
Faultlines: Inquiries into Truth and Reconciliation, an exhibition curated by Jane Taylor, opens at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town.
The former political prison, Robben Island, is declared a national monument, and the entire island becomes a museum, with former political prisoners giving guided tours of the jails.
1997
The 2nd Johannesburg Biennale opens under the artistic direction of Okwui Enwezor with the title Trade Routes: History and Geography. The exhibitions are based in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Economic problems force the Biennale to close ahead of schedule.
South Africa’s online visual arts magazine, www.artthrob.co.za, is introduced, edited by Sue Williamson.
Documenta X opens in Kassel, Germany, an exhibition curated by Catherine David. William Kentridge is the sole South African artist represented.
1998
David Goldblatt becomes the first South African photographer to hold a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The exhibition Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa opens in New York at the Museum for African Art, curated by Frank Herreman. It is the first major show of contemporary South African art in New York.
1999
South Africa holds its second democratic election. The ANC wins the election and Thabo Mbeki is inaugurated as the second president of a democratic South Africa.
2000
Artist Tito Zungu dies in Durban.
2001
The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945–1994, curated by Okwui Enwezor, opens in Munich and later travels to Berlin, Chicago, and New York.
The Apartheid Museum opens in Johannesburg.
2002
South African president Thabo Mbeki is publicly opposed to the provision of AIDS drugs in South Africa, arguing that they are dangerously toxic and questioning whether HIV or poverty is the true cause of AIDS.
An exhibition of work by South African artists addressing HIV/AIDS forms part of a conference titled Aids and South Africa: The Social Expression of a Pandemic, presented at Wellesley College outside Boston.
Art South Africa, South Africa’s first glossy art magazine, is launched in September by Bell-Roberts Publishing, edited by Sophie Perryer.
2003
A new gallery, Michael Stevenson Contemporary, opens in Cape Town.
The first Art Award exhibition, sponsored by mining magnate Brett Kebble, opens at the Cape Town Convention Centre. Sculptor Doreen Southwood wins the main prize (worth R100 000) for her work The Swimmer.
2004
A number of exhibitions celebrate 10 years since the first democratic election. Curated by Emma Bedford, A Decade of Democracy: South African Art from the Permanent Collection, opens at Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town. Democracy X, curated by Rayda Becker at the Castle of Good Hope, also in Cape Town, is an extensive exhibition drawing on many museum collections. In the United States, a similarly named exhibition, A Decade of Democracy, Witnessing South Africa, curated by Tumelo Mosaka opens at the National Center for Afro-American Artists, Boston.
Constitution Hill, the site of the country’s new constitutional court and museum, opens in Johannesburg in March, featuring a large art collection and many commissions.
Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in Contemporary South African Art takes place in two venues in New York: the Museum for African Art and the Cathedral of St John the Divine.
Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent opens at the Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf.
2005
Painter Marlene Dumas’s work, The Teacher fetches $3.34 million dollars on auction at Christie’s London.
2007
The Goodman Gallery opens in Cape Town, the only South African gallery to be located in two cities.
2008
Africa’s first art fair, the Joburg Art Fair, is held at the Sandton Convention Centre, attracting 6500 visitors.