Everard Read
Post-modern art gallery paired with an elliptical annex wrapped in soaring aluminium fins.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Everard Read in Johannesburg traces Africa's oldest art gallery back to a 1913 shop selling silver and secondhand furniture in a raw young mining town, with paintings almost an afterthought in the window. It follows the gallery's namesake, who returned from the Second World War determined to make art the point, just as South Africa slid into apartheid isolation from the world's museums and collectors. It also considers CIRCA, the fin-wrapped oval annex the gallery built next door in 2009. Stand between the two buildings to take in over a century of history in one glance.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Johannesburg Art Gallery
Sir Edwin Lutyens designed gallery holding one of Africa's largest fine-art collections, now closed for restoration.
Goodman Gallery Johannesburg
Contemporary art gallery known for confronting apartheid-era censorship and later political scandal.
Keyes Art Mile
Contemporary art precinct of curated galleries, design studios and restaurants along a tree-lined street.
Arts on Main
Converted early-twentieth-century warehouses housing artist studios, galleries and a lively Sunday design market.
Wits Art Museum
University museum housing over twelve thousand African artworks, from historic masks to contemporary sculpture.
Newtown
Former fruit market turned theatre and arts district where apartheid-era audiences defied segregation laws.