Functionality and social modernism in the work of untrained South African artists

Abstract

Many artists from rural areas in the global south are driven by the functionality of the art object and of naturalism in communicating the urgency of redressing sociopolitical conditions. This article does not advocate a return to the totalising idea of an ‘undifferentiated’ Africa as found in Outsiderist views on Africa, which still reflect stereotype and the conjuring of sensational spectacles of perceived Others. In sectors of the global south art production provides mostly untrained artists with a resourceful platform for examining notions of modernity, difference and transculturality.