Among the works on display at the exhibition are photographs from the artist’s most important series, such as “Kasyklose”, “Africans in photographs”, “Buksburg”, “Soviet” and “Struktūros”. The artist’s works will be presented in Lithuania for the first time. Visitors will be able to visit the exhibition until 2025. February 9
“The opening retrospective of David Goldblatt’s photographs is another extremely ambitious initiative of the Lithuanian National Art Museum, which, together with other international exhibitions held in Lithuania and abroad in recent years, puts the name of the museum in bright letters on the international map of museums.
I am grateful to the partners of this exhibition and the professional team of the National Art Gallery, that the exhibition of the world famous photography grand, which speaks about humanistic values and the consequences that happen when they are changed, is opening in Vilnius”, says the general director of LNDM dr. Arūnas Gelūnas.
“LNDM National Art Gallery is proud to be able to introduce Lithuanian viewers and guests of the country to the most significant works of world photography classic David Goldblatt, brought from the Republic of South Africa. This is a unique opportunity to see the original prints and hear the artist’s own stories about these photographs.
Today, as the world art community is increasingly turning to non-Western modern and contemporary art, this exhibition addresses us with an extremely relevant postcolonial voice.
We are happy to have a very fruitful collaboration with a curator living and working in Poland, an expert on this photographer’s work who curated his exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris, Karolina Ziębińska and the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, and we are grateful to David Goldblatt’s family for supporting our project.
Property of The D. Goldblatt Estate and Goodman Gallery/David Goldblatt. Owner of separate land with servant’s daughter. Whitland, Randfontein, 1962
in 2015 while in Lithuania, D. Goldblatt also visited the National Art Gallery – even then we talked about organizing his exhibition in Vilnius. It’s amazing that it actually happened,” says the director of the National Art Gallery of LNDM, dr. Lolita Jablonskiene.
An important part of the world’s photographic heritage
“Reality somehow attracts me. It excites, irritates, entices. I want to touch it, experience it, see it as vividly and clearly as possible. Not to acquire, appropriate, colonize or use, but to experience its essence and embody it in photographs,” said photographer D. Goldblatt.
According to art critics, his photographs are characterized by social sensitivity and political awareness. The artist captured images of apartheid, the state’s policy of racial discrimination and segregation. D. Goldblatt’s works are considered extremely important in the 20th century. part of the world photographic heritage.
In the exhibition “David Goldblatt: (In)visible Structures”, visitors will see D. Goldblatt’s monumental series of photographs “Structures”, started in 1983. and continued for more than three decades. It presents a visual history of South Africa’s public spaces and landscapes dating back to the colonial period.
Property of The D. Goldblatt Estate and Goodman Gallery/David Goldblatt. A meeting of Methodists that sought ways to overcome the racial, cultural and class barriers that separated them. 1980
The photographer, demanding attention from the viewer, invites to delve into the purely practical functions of various structures, and to notice other aspects that determine their form, the values reflected through them and the consequences that may arise from it, as well as to think about how the appearance of such structures can affect entire communities. According to D. Goldblatt himself, the environment we create with architectural and similar structural elements “eloquently reveals our needs, inclinations, desires and values”.
The exhibition also presents D.Goldblatt’s first photo series that earned him recognition. Although he started taking photographs as a teenager, the artist took up this activity professionally only at the age of 33, when he worked for various corporations and magazines, but also devoted time to personal creative ideas.
In his first mature series of photographs, “Mines”, created since 1947, D. Goldblatt focused on the gold mining industry, which was the basis of South Africa’s economy for most of the 20th century.
in 1968 in the series “Africans in photographs” revealed the daily life of the mostly rural and often poor white population of South Africa. A decade later, the artist photographed black people living in Soweto, South Africa’s largest racially segregated housing estate on the southwestern outskirts of Johannesburg.
Property of The D. Goldblatt Estate and Goodman Gallery/David Goldblatt. Colonialist Cecil John Rhodes is deposed after his statue is pelted with human excrement during a “Rhodes Must Fall” student protest. The university agreed to the students’ demand to demolish the statue. University of Cape Town. 2015
Later recorded white middle-class life in Boksburg, a gold-mining town near Johannesburg.
“In each of the photographer’s series, the central position is occupied by the people whom D. Goldblatt captures in their living spaces, while capturing the environment that they have shaped and that shapes them.” Instead of resorting to the belligerent rhetoric of documentary photography, the author chooses a neutral observer’s gaze at first glance, but it contains a strong social criticism”, says the curator of the exhibition, Karolina Ziębińska.
Connection with Lithuania
The world-class artist D. Goldblatt was related to Lithuania – the photographer’s grandparents were Lithuanians from the 19th century. at the end of the year he lived in Lithuania, in the town of Papilė in Akmenė district. Oppressed by poverty and escaping persecution, they emigrated and settled in South Africa.
Visitors to the exhibition will be welcomed in 2015. a photograph that D. Goldblatt created together with his family while visiting his ancestors’ birthplaces in Lithuania and Latvia. It shows a memorial stone commemorating the murder of 50 Jews and 5 Lithuanians by the Nazis in the Papilė forest.
The exhibition concludes with a photograph of another stone, Willem Boshoff’s “Thinking Stone” sculpture, taken at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. The effects of 46 years of apartheid and the strict racial segregation implemented during it are still felt here. The stone symbolizes the hope that it is possible to create a very diverse, but at the same time united society.
D. Goldblatt has received the highest global awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. His work has been presented in the main art institutions of the world: the National Georges Pompidou Center for Art and Culture in Paris, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Jewish Museum in New York, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, etc.
The exhibition is organized in cooperation with the Johannesburg-based Goodman Gallery, which helps D. Goldblatt’s family to take care of the preservation and dissemination of his creative legacy in the world.
The exhibition is accompanied by a special program of events and education, which NDG implements together with Artscape and Sienas Grupe.
The exhibition “David Goldblatt: (In)visible Structures” at the LNDM National Art Gallery will be exhibited together with the exhibition of works by Pranas Domšaitis, another artist who created in South Africa and is associated with Lithuania.
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Is regarded as a powerful chronicler of South Africa’s complex socio-political landscape through his photography. His work transcends mere documentation, offering a poignant critique of both historical and contemporary social issues. As evidenced by exhibitions like ”David Goldblatt: (In)visible Structures”, his photographs delve into the connections between people and the environments they inhabit, illustrating how societal structures shape individual lives.
Goldblatt’s photographic legacy includes significant series that not only highlight the impact of apartheid but also capture everyday life across various communities in South Africa. His narratives often reflect the struggles and resilience of marginalized groups, making his body of work a crucial contribution to global photographic heritage.
In addition to his impactful social commentary, Goldblatt’s personal ties to Lithuania enhance the depth of his narrative, reminding viewers of the interconnectedness of history and heritage across continents. His exploration of cultural memory extends beyond South Africa, inviting dialogue about identity, belonging, and the legacies of oppression, making his exhibitions not only visually striking but also thematically rich and deeply reflective.
As attendees experience Goldblatt’s work, they are encouraged to engage with the complexities of the subject matter, fostering a deeper understanding of the forces that shape societies and individual lives. Through an artful lens, Goldblatt remains an essential voice in contemporary photography and social discourse.
