David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive

A black-and-white photograph of a woman standing outdoors between two sections of a chain-link fence. Holding her arms out in a T, with either hand grasping a fencepost, she addresses the camera with a confident gaze. The woman wears a dark pageboy hat and a white polo shirt tucked into a short, plaid skirt. In the background is a low brick building with a slanted roof. — David Goldblatt, *Miriam Diale, 5357 Orlando East, Soweto, 18 October 1972,* 1972, 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.
© The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

A photograph of many identical built structures on a low hill covered in grass the color of sand. The buildings are low to the ground and made from solid blocks that appear tannish-gray in color. Between two windows on the front of each is a door-shaped opening. The structures are without roofs. A light-blue sky occupies the upper third of the image. — David Goldblatt, *Incomplete houses, part of a stalled municipal development of 1,000 houses …* , 2006, printed later. Pigmented inkjet 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. © The David Goldblatt Legacy Trust

The first major traveling retrospective on South African photographer David Goldblatt

February 21–June 22, 2025

The Yale University Art Gallery is pleased to present David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive, a major traveling retrospective exhibition that spans the seven decades of the South African photographer’s career, from the 1950s through the 2010s, demonstrating Goldblatt’s commitment to showing the realities of daily life in his country.

David Goldblatt (1930–2018) is internationally renowned for his incisive documentation of life in South Africa, particularly during the apartheid era. This exhibition showcases approximately 150 images, including early black-and-white photographs as well as color prints from later in his career. Goldblatt’s photography focuses an unflinching lens onto South African society, capturing the nuanced realities of apartheid and its aftermath. From his most iconic series to such little-known works as Sunday morning: A not-white family living illegally in the “White” group area of Hillbrow, Johannesburg, 1978, these pictures illustrate the everyday effects of the country’s racial segregation policies on its people and environment.

Organized into thematic sections that reflect Goldblatt’s approach and subject matter, the exhibition explores aspects of South African life via images showing a range of sites and activities, from informal settlements and mining communities to portraiture and social gatherings. Photographs are presented in ways that facilitate conversations between them, amplifying Goldblatt’s narrative and artistic dialogues within the sociopolitical breadth of his work. This presentation aims to present his pictures as dynamically interconnected rather than as a static history.

In addition to photographs, the exhibition features Goldlbatt’s original book maquettes along with archival materials drawn from the David Goldblatt Photographs and Papers collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which includes contact sheets, notes and correspondence, and magazines that first published his work, all of which offer insights into Goldblatt’s working process and his significant contributions to documentary photography. Complementing the exhibition are photographs by some of Goldblatt’s peers, such as Ernest Cole, Santu Mofokeng, and Jo Ractliffe, as well as a generation of younger South Africans, many of whom Goldblatt mentored, including Lebohang Kganye and Zanele Muholi, placing Goldblatt within a broader and intergenerational network of photographers.

David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive opened at the Art Institute of Chicago (December 2, 2023–March 25, 2024) before moving to Fundación MAPFRE in Madrid (May 23–August 25, 2024). The exhibition’s tour concludes at the Yale University Art Gallery (February 21–June 22, 2025).

Related Publication

Accompanying the exhibition is the fully illustrated catalogue David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive. From the artist’s black-and-white photography, taken between the 1950s and the 1990s, to his post-apartheid, large-format color work, photographs in the volume are approached thematically—under such headings as “Assembly,” “Extraction,” “Disbelief”—drawing out the artist’s core interests in working-class people, the landscape, and the built environment. Objects from Goldblatt’s personal archive are also reproduced. To create a more inclusive dialogue around Goldblatt’s work, the catalogue features contributions by contemporary photographers and scholars. Some write about Goldblatt’s photographs, whereas others discuss his influence on their work. The wide-ranging voices foster a broad frame of reference for his oeuvre, countering a frequent misunderstanding of apartheid as a situation peculiar to South Africa.

280 pages / 9 1/2 x 11 inches / 178 color and black-and-white illustrations
Published in association with Fundación MAPFRE and the Art Institute of Chicago and distributed by Yale University Press / 2023
Hardcover
ISBN 978-0-300-27341-0
$65; Members $52

Exhibition Credits

Exhibition co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, in collaboration with Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid. Exhibition and publication made possible by generous support from Jane P. Watkins, M.P.H. 1979.