The March 16 Museumgoer column in the New Orleans Advocate | The Times-Picayune visits the Newcomb Art Museum on the Tulane University campus to explore the traveling exhibit “If You Look Hard Enough, You Can See Our Future: Selections of Contemporary South African Art from the Nando’s Art Collection.”
The Nando’s fast-casual restaurant chain, founded outside Johannesburg in 1987, has worked with the Spier Arts Trust to become the world’s largest collector of South African contemporary art, an assemblage of more than 30,000 pieces, many of which are displayed in more than 1,200 restaurants in about 30 countries around the globe.
The exhibit, which has already visited the African American Museum of Dallas and the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta, is on view through June 20, 2025.
Read the online version of the Sunday print story here. Listen to a podcast interview with exhibit curator Laurie Ann Farrell and Maurita Poole, executive director of the Newcomb Art Museum, here.
“To really understand the heart behind the collection, you need to know that it was started by a man named Dick Enthoven, and he was a friend of mine for more than 20 years,” said exhibit curator Laurie Ann Farrell. “He really believed in the arts as the connector between human beings and really championed the South African art scene like no one else.”
Enthoven speaks here. And more about the exhibit here.
Top image, provided by the museum: “Tied by Time” by Tamlin Blake, a hand-woven, six-panel tapestry made of recycled newspaper. Learn more about the work here.
More images from the exhibit, also courtesy of the museum:
Gallery photos, courtesy of me:
Special thanks to Laurie and Maurita, and to you for reading and maybe listening.
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