On collecting southern African art: interrogating private collecting practices and the construction of 'traditional' southern African art as 'national' and 'cultural heritage'

Abstract

This dissertation critically engages Karel Nel’s personal/private collection of southern African art in relation to other collections to which he is connected. An examination of Nel’s collecting practices is conducted, after an extensive comparison with the public collections held by both the Wits Art Museum and the Johannesburg Art Gallery. I then investigate the degree of influence between his private collecting praxes and the collecting praxes of the selected public institutions. It is argued that this helps to establish the degree to which private collecting influences the creation of what is understood as ‘national’ and ‘cultural heritage’ in public collections of southern African art.