Iziko South African National Gallery

The Cape’s national art collection has been developing for around 150 years.

The current Iziko South African National Gallery building in Company’s Garden opened in 1930.

Its collection brings together historic European art, South African modernism, resistance art, contemporary African work, photography and new media.

That mix is more interesting today than searching for one compulsory masterpiece.

Like many galleries shaped during the colonial period, the institution built its artistic canon unevenly. Certain artists and traditions were given central positions while others remained far less visible.

Contemporary projects, including Breaking Down the Walls, directly revisit that history and question older methods of collecting and display.

So the gallery can be read as more than a collection of individual works. It is also an ongoing argument about who was once allowed to represent South African art and how that answer is changing now.

In short: 🎨 Around 150 years of collecting · 🏛️ Current building since 1930 · 🇿🇦 South African modernism · ✊ Resistance art · 🌍 Contemporary African art · 🔄 Reworking the old canon