The University of Pretoria Museums has recently loaned a significant sculpture in its collection to the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch. The bronze portrait, titled, Sidwane Tokozile (1921) by the renowned South African artist Anton Van Wouw (1862-1945) was chosen to be exhibited in the exhibition Faces and Figures: Selected 20^th Century South African Artists. Sidwane Tokozile, after whom the bust was sculpted has also posed for another work by van Wouw, titled Sidwane Tokozile (Coffee drinker). The founder of the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch, the late, Dr Anton Rupert (1916-2006), was a major donor and contributor to the University of Pretoria’s sculpture collection. Dr Rupert also financially supported the establishment of the Mapungubwe Gallery at the University of Pretoria Museums in 1999. The University of Pretoria and Rupert Foundation have a long-standing partnership going back more than a quarter of a century.

The exhibition Faces and Figures: Selected 20^th Century South African Artists explores the work of renowned South African artists such as Gerard Bhengu (1910-1990), Irma Stern (1894-1966), George Pemba (1912-2001), Maggie Laubser (1886-1973), Gerard Sekoto (1913-1993) and Moses Kottler (1896-1977). The exhibited works are created by some the most prominent South African artists of the 20^th century, and which also contributed to the genre of Modern Art within South Africa. This exhibition furthermore explores the relationships between the artist and its sitter and how the artist’s define and express the human figure through art. Artworks in various mediums from the Rupert Museum’s permanent collection with the University of Pretoria Museums’ temporary loan of the sculpture Sidwane Tokozile are showcased in this exhibition.

Faces & Figures: Selected 20^th Century South African Artists is on exhibition until 12 April 2020. For more information, please see https://rupertmuseum.org/6/