These days, contemporary South African art is undergoing an awakening totally different from the hopeful, celebratory, and overwhelming determinism it nursed during the transition from apartheid to democracy. The promise then was to move forward into a new and inclusive national culture. Almost thirty years later, this remains a mirage. Today, the enthusiasm for structural change in the visual arts and across all sectors is less ebullient, more realist and critical. And while this push is certainly welcome, a blind spot has been the false assumption that such an approach has no precedents in