Standard Bank first opened its doors in 1863. Sheep farmers were the institution’s main clients back then, and I picture all those Victorian bank managers with their mutton-chop sideburns and cravats in dusty one-horse towns throughout the country dealing with drought and fluctuating prices for bales of wool shipped to London.
It is wool that has brought me to lunch at Standard Bank’s sparkling Rosebank offices, where I meet Dr Same Mdluli.
She is the charming and erudite curator of the Standard Bank art collection — and she has wool on her mind.
She has just launched the Standard Bank Art Lab — an innovative space in Nelson Mandela Square with an exhibition of mohair tapestries featuring evocative collaborations between master weavers and artists such as Sam Nhlengethwa, William Kentridge and Penny Siopis.
When I saw all this media stuff about me being the first black curator at Standard Bank, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh — this is huge.’
— Same Mdluli
She says the theme “Follow the Blue Thread: It’s Woven Into Who We Are” reimagines the corporate collection not as a static archive, but rather as a living resource.
But first the lunch.
While we are sitting in the private dining room salivating over the menu — courtesy of The Pantry, and clearly powered by the culinary excellence of Marble restaurant’s David Higgs — Same takes me through her personal journey in art.
Both her parents studied in the US and then lived in Baltimore, before returning home with their young family in 1995. She went to the National School of the Arts and made friends with a talented cohort including designer Thula Sindi and ballet dancer Thoriso Magongwa, now based at the Czech Republic’s National Theatre.
She followed a practical path in her academic career.
“For me, going to technikon made sense because its programme emphasised the practical side of art-making. So I know how to stretch a canvas from scratch, because that’s what they taught you. I thought it was better to get the basics first and then move on.”
And move on she did when she attained her PhD from Wits. Her thesis examined an exhibition titled Tributaries that catapulted a group of Limpopo artists and their carvings into the mainstream in the 1980s. The group’s disappearance a few years later sparked her interest in curating and the power of exhibitions.
Her work with many of the country’s most prominent galleries and artists, as well as her growing awareness of the power of exhibitions to reframe narratives of representation, helped her decide to leave academia.
“It was at the height of #FeesMustFall. It was an intense moment to be a scholar, because you were caught in the middle. Are you on the side of the students or the university? For me, that was a big determining factor.”
The job at Standard Bank came up and she took it, not realising quite how big a role player she would become by stepping into this role.
“It didn’t hit me until I was appointed. When I saw all this media stuff about me being the first black curator at Standard Bank, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh — this is huge.’ I realised the significance of being at the helm of an institution with a legacy of having hosted exhibitions by Picasso, Miro and Chagall. There were also questions around a young black woman in that role, because there were expectations about programming. People asked, ‘What is she going to bring?’”
The art collection began in the late 1960s, at Standard Bank’s Fox Street headquarters, and has grown into one of South Africa’s biggest corporate collections, now integrated into the design of the bank’s buildings.
With more than 1,200 works by 250 artists — including Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern, William Kentridge and Mary Sibande — the collection reflects the evolving narrative of South African society through painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics and tapestry.
Anchoring the collection is the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg, opened in 1990. It is a vital public space for artistic engagement that has expanded to include the Art Lab.
“For me, it made sense to inaugurate the Art Lab with the tapestries. They tell a beautiful story, not just about the collection, but also the craft itself, as well as the value of collaboration. In a digital age in which we are consumed with technology, the love of handmade items is very human. The earliest tapestry we have was acquired in 1976. It was made by Miriam Ndebele, one of the first weavers from Rorke’s Drift, and Alina Ndebele, who is still alive. She started her own weaving school, where she taught young women the craft.
“I think art is more than just something aesthetic you enjoy looking at — it’s also about representation. Art has the power to highlight and address important social issues.”
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