The Long Day

From an exhibition curated by Heather Sealy Lineberry, Senior Curator, Arizona State University Art Museum, March 20-June 19, 2004.

The Arizona State University Art Museum and the San Diego State University Art Gallery present the first solo exhibition in an American museum of sculpture and prints by South African artist Claudette Schreuders. The artist has created a new body of work that in her words, "follows the theme of... making public that which is private or simply telling stories that have their origins in personal experience." Her sculpture is a poignant blend of personal experience and social and political history from growing up and living in post-apartheid South Africa. These quiet yet loaded works are enhanced by Schreuders's expressive carving style inspired by African and European baroque sculpture.

The Long Day features eleven new sculptures. These autobiographical figurative sculptures are inspired by family members, photographs, and memories and by the specific social experience of being female and Afrikaans. The artist has written that "[the] sense of [my] dislocation was not only the result of a European heritage within an African context, but also the marginalization that formed part of a restrictive [Afrikaans] society that set limits and threatened to reject those who did not conform." As Schreuders reflects in her statement, this body of work reflects her current experiences as an artist living and working in a suburb of Johannesburg. Some of these experiences are specific to her situation; others are daily and universal rites, like greeting a partner after a long day of work or wearing a pair of new shoes.

The exhibition was co-curated by Heather Sealy Lineberry, senior curator, ASU Art Museum, and Tina Yapelli, director, San Diego State University Art Gallery, where it will be exhibited from September 13 through October 13, 2004. The exhibition will travel to the Atlanta College of Art Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, from January 20 through February 27, 2005.

The exhibition, catalog, and educational programs were sponsored in part by Mikki and Stanley Weithorn, the San Diego State University Art Council, the Evelyn Smith Family Endowment, and the Friends of the ASU Art Museum. Special thanks to Jack Shainman and the Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

The Long Day. Photograph by Daniel Swadener.

Detail—The Long Day. Photograph by Daniel Swadener.

Detail—The Neighbor. Photograph by Daniel Swadener.

Detail—Officer Molefe. Photograph by Daniel Swadener.

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Three Sisters. Photograph by Daniel Swadener.

Detail—Three Sisters. Photograph by Daniel Swadener.

Detail—Missing Person. Photograph by Daniel Swadener.