Glittering auction lights up art world

HOWARD SACKSTEIN

Dripping in diamond jewellery and bedecked in flowing ball gowns, the stylish and well-heeled gathered at the black and gold pineapple building of The Marc to support local artists and raise money for one of the most iconic museums in the world.

One hundred and sixty-five guests including diplomats, designers, artists, lawyers, and art patrons were seen eating canapes while polishing their credit cards in anticipation of the night. More than one guest was heard calling their private banker to raise their credit limit for the evening.

Money raised from the glittering event supports residencies and internships for local South African art curators in Jerusalem and funds Ethiopian Israeli kids to visit the Israel Museum and its renowned art collection.

For many of these children, this is their first exposure to the various forms of art. The Youth Wing Outreach Programme of the museum, funded entirely by SAFIM South Africa, allows the children of Ethiopian immigrant parents to express themselves, for the first time in art, painting, sculpture, and photography.

The SAFIM board has also ensured that its resources have paid for programmes which bring disabled people to the Israel Museum as well as a project named “Bridging the Gap”, which brings together Jewish and Arab Israelis through the medium of art.

SAFIM is one of 17 such “friends” organisations around the world. Committed to the art scene in South Africa, this non-profit organisation has ensured that, so far, six interns have completed the coveted training and residency programme at the Israel museum, and are making a real impact on the local art scene upon their return to South Africa with jobs at the Zeitz MOCAA, Aspire, and the Norval Foundation.

SAFIM funds the SAFIM Zeitz MOCAA Curatorial Internship Bursary at Africa’s premier collection in the cavernous Silo building in Cape Town, as well as the SAFIM Gallery Assistant Bursary at the Norval Foundation in Tokai.

SAFIM has also ensured that the Israel Museum’s art collection is enriched by the inclusion of South African artists. In 2018, a Zanele Muholi photographic artwork was acquired for the museum’s internationally acclaimed collection and exhibited together with some of the museum’s African archaeological and cultural artefacts. So impressed was the museum with its new acquisition, it went and purchased a second Muholi photograph itself.

Amongst the works on auction at the charity event were a mixed-media piece by Chepape Makgato, Boy Full of Dreams; internationally acclaimed Gavin Rain’s At a Glance screen print on gmund paper; William Kentridge’s Leaf from his newest opera Waiting for the Sibyl; Candice Kramer’s Turquoise Girl Hiding oil paint on copper; and rising star Danielle Rovetti’s My Hiding Place crafted from concrete, oils, and resin on a stretch canvas.

At the entrance to the Israel Museum stands the Shrine of the Book, imposing buildings in the shape of an ancient urn in white, mirrored against a black wall. This architectural masterpiece houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, the 2 300-year-old biblical texts in Hebrew and Aramaic excavated from the Qumran Caves in the Judean Desert.

The architecture of this building portends a story narrated in one of the ancient scrolls within. The War Scroll tells the apocalyptic prophecy of a war between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness.

With all the money raised for such amazing causes, on that one night in Sandton, the Sons of Light had clearly won the night.