The Green Tailor's Birthday Picnic
About
The Green Tailor is a bespoke suit atelier in Pretoria, and is inviting everyone to celebrate 🪡💃🔥 their 11 years in business by experiencing the best art in Pretoria at the Pretoria Art Museum.
Why the Pretoria Art Museum?
Well first we ask the question. What is the sculpture on this poster?
So how did a Olmec Head get to South Africa? And why are the features of this Mexican sculpture so African?
The 2.2 meter tall Basaltic statue was a gift from Miguel Alemán Valdés a Mexican politician who served a full term as the President of Mexico from 1946 to 1952.
Velasco donated the two-metre-high statue to the city to mark 10 years of democracy in South Africa. The statue is a replica of 17 original sculptures found in the eastern jungles of Mexico by archaeologists in 1862. They were at first thought to be relics of the Mayan civilisation, but the mystery was solved in 1942 when it became apparent they belonged to the Olmecs.
How and why, with no known contact between South America and Africa 3000 years ago, were such colossal sculptures which are clearly African created?
What to see at the Pretoria Art Museum
Not only does the Pretoria Art Museum host one of the biggest art competitions in South Africa, The Sasol New Signatures, it boasts a dynamic and fresh art collection.
If you are an art historian or have more information about this story we would love for you to get in contact with us so that we learn more.
Contact UsThe Pelmama Permanent Art Collection
The Pelmama Collection which is in rotation annually features work by artists such as Judith Mason. Which was on display this year at the museum.
Including an artwork which shocked me to my inner being. You simply can not replace viewing the raw intensity of an artwork with an online image. Earlier this year I came into contact with this artwork by Judith Mason.
Artist: Judith Mason, 1938 - 2016
Title: The body on a beach in a dark night, 1966
Medium: Oil on board
Description:
This abandoned, disintegrating figure surrounded by night-lit seascape elements reflects the
pessimism I felt as a young political activist in the early '60's. South Africa was becoming increasingly
polarised, the Hungarian Revolution was recent history, and people were becoming more aware of the
ravages of Nazism and Stalinism. I was very affected by the writings of Nadesha and Osip Mandelstam
and the latter's question: "Whose blood will mend the broken back of two long centuries?" The body
here is a broken carcass, suggesting the animal inevitability of a life without transcendent grace, with
personal history as detritus.
Pelmama Web Catalogue:
More about Judith Mason
If you have ever visited the Constitutional Court you may have been fortunate enough to witness this blue dress by Judith Mason.
Artist: Judith Mason, 1938 - 2016
Title: The Man Who Sang and the Woman Who Kept Silent
Previous Events
Portrait Party at PAM - 2024
Additional Information
Address
Museum Fees
Note: Regrettably cash only
- Adults: R30
- Pensioners and Students: R15
- Learners: R10
- Wednesdays: R2
Contact Information
Telephone
- 012 358 6750
Email
About the Pretoria Art Museum
The Pretoria Art Museum came into being to house the Municipality’s growing art collection, which had been built up since the early 1930s. The Pretoria Art Museum was officially opened in 1964. As other South African art museums had already assembled examples of European art, it was decided to concentrate on establishing a representative collection of South African art. The Pretoria Art Museum has since been giving more attention to contemporary developments in Southern African art. The Pretoria Art Museums’ vision is to establish and conserve a representative, high-quality permanent collection of South African art, past and present, reflecting all genres, art mediums, art movements, influences and leading figures, supplemented by traditional South African craftwork.