Goodman Gallery: A History of Continued Success

In the fifty-five years since its founding in 1966, Goodman Gallery of South Africa has established itself as a renowned and commercially successful art gallery of contemporary African art. Established during the height of apartheid, Goodman Gallery was the only venue to show Black African artists amongst their white counterparts. As the art world and market has expanded globally, so has the role of commercial galleries in maintaining, creating, and establishing new international artists’ work to be exhibited and sold. With the market becoming ethnically and culturally inclusive, the gallery has been a pioneer in embedding those goals in its mission since the beginning. Because it is unusual for commercial galleries to have a long commitment to confronting power structures, I will examine Goodman within a global context as both an anti-racist business and a space whose owner seeks equal representation in the art world by exhibiting new and established artists, including David Goldblatt, David Koloane, Sam Nhlengethwa, Sue Williamson, William Kentridge, Kapwani Kiwanga, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Shirin Neshat, and Alfredo Jaar. With an emphasis on its stated mission, I construct a narrative of the gallery as a critical space for social and political change within the growing interest of the Western market.