South Africa, Johannesburg Art Gallery

South Africa, Johannesburg Art Gallery

The art gallery is located in the Joubert Park area, a few blocks from the main Johannesburg railway station. The building was designed by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and consists of 15 exhibition halls, as well as several exhibition areas in the open air to large sculptures. His archive is a collection of British and Dutch painting of XVIII-XIX centuries, a collection of European painting of the XIX century, as well as a large collection of contemporary works of South African and international artists.

Collector Dorothea Sara Alexander Florence Phillips, wife of mining magnate Lionel Phillips formed the first collection of the gallery at the expense of the funds contributed by her husband. After moving to Johannesburg, she began to purchase paintings to create an art gallery, which later became the Art Gallery of Johannesburg. She purchased a collection of paintings by the British collector and artist Sir Hugh Lane, exhibited in London in 1910. Lady Phillips donated her lace collection and persuaded her husband to hand over for the gallery seven paintings and a sculpture of Rodin.

Johannesburg Art Gallery

Collection gallery includes works by Auguste Rodin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Herbert Ward and Henry Moore, as well as the work of South African artists – Gerard Sekot Walter Battissa, Alexis Preller, Maud Sumner, Sydney Kumalo and others.

The Johannesburg Art Gallery was opened to the public in 1910 on the grounds of the University of Witwatersrand. Architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, who was invited Lady Phillips, arrived in South Africa in 1910 to explore the area and begin the construction of the gallery building. But the construction was not completed according to the sketches of the architect. Five years after the construction began, the building opened its doors to the public without ceremony, immediately after the outbreak of the First World War.

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In the late 1940s, the gallery building was expanded in accordance with the design of the architect Lachens – the western and eastern wing of the building was built. The northern wing of the gallery with a modern facade was built during the last reconstruction of the building in 1986-1987.

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