Gallery+Book Club

A black-and-white photograph of a cityscape, seen in the distance beyond and below a grassy hill occupied by seated figures.

David Goldblatt, Shebeen Highlands, Johannesburg, 1961, printed later. Carbon ink print. Yale University Art Gallery, Purchased with a gift from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979; with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund; and with support from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. © David Goldblatt 

David Goldblatt’s photograph Shebeen Highlands, Johannesburg (1961) is an image of quiet observation. It is composed from a distance, calling perspective immediately into question, as the soft highveld evening light catches the forms of several men atop a hill overlooking the city. Clare Patrick, Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions Marie-Solanges Apollon Research Fellow and NXTHVN alumna, leads a book club–style reading of All the Places by the South African poet and psychologist Musawenkosi Khanyile. The reading guides us in looking closely and reflexively at Goldblatt’s photograph and in contextualizing aspects of contemporary social landscapes in South Africa. Generously sponsored by Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979, and the Martin A. Ryerson Lectureship Fund. 
 
Come with all your curiosities; no prior knowledge of the text is necessary. Reading material will be provided. Space is limited.  

Offered in conjunction with the exhibition David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive. Exhibition co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Yale University Art Gallery, in collaboration with Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid.