11:30 - 13:00
Oral session
Room: Muirhead – Room 118
Stream: The Social Fabric of Whites in Southern Africa: A Historical Perspective of White Society
Chair/s:
Abraham Mlombo
Black and white in writing South African Jewish art history.
Karina Simonson
Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, Vilnius
Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, Vilnius

At the ASAUK 2018 I would like to present my research on the questions of“white privilege” in the works of and research on two South African Jewish photographers Leon Levson (1883, Lithuania – 1968, Malta) and Eli Weinberg (1908,Latvia1981, Tanzania).

In my opinion, it is very important to understand and analyze the influence of the privileges white artists in South Africa had (and still have) - on their creativity, reception and distribution of their works, as well as its financial expression. Artists’ perspective is closely connected with the privileges they own, or are denied of. White South Africans often used (and still use) European art history and iconography in constructing their images or conveying the message of the art work. In the second part, the paper will analyse Eurocentric writing of African history and the place of South African Jewish photographers in it. Is this place rightfully earned? Or is it the aura of Jewish social sensitiveness to the suffering of black Africans that made them appear there? Could it be, that together with their white status, it acted like a compensation for a lack of talent in some cases? Therefore Leon Levson and Eli Weinberg being white but Jewish immigrants bring up a complex problem to analyze.


Reference:
Tu-A51 Social Fabric of Whites in Southern Africa-P-001
Presenter/s:
Karina Simonson
Presentation type:
Panel
Room:
Muirhead – Room 118
Chair/s:
Abraham Mlombo
Date:
Tuesday, 11 September
Time:
11:30 - 11:45
Session times:
11:30 - 13:00