Every year, ARTnews releases a Top 200 Collectors List. Highlighting the collector’s profiles from across the world and the art genre of their interest. This year, a few collectors from Africa made the list. Check them out below;
Louis Norval – Cape Town, South Africa
Genre: Contemporary African Art, Modern South African Art
Norval, a property investor based in South Africa, has been collecting art for 20 years. The investor is the founder of the Norval Foundation, which opened in 2018 and is located in Cape Town. The foundation displays art from Norval’s personal collection as well as other artists’ work, both foreign and local.
Artists in the Norval collection include; Irma Stern, Alexis Preller, George Pemba to name a few. The foundation is also dedicated to research to further the narrative of South African art. Additionally, the space contains an exhibition venue and small galleries, it also accommodates a library and artist’s residence.
Gordon Schachat – Johannesburg, South Africa
Genre: Contemporary Art
Schachart’s art collection made its debut at the FNB Art Joburg Fair in 2009. A piece called Security by Jane Alexander and Tumela Mosaka took centre stage. A few artists in this collection include Robin Rhode, Alexis Preller and Willem Boshoff. The banker has since opened Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF), a space to host exhibitions and other programs.
JCAF opened in 2020 and is unique in the way that only 5 people are allowed in at a time. According to the foundation’s director, Clive Kellner, it is to encourage close looking and focus on the pieces displayed. The foundation is described as “not a museum or gallery but a foundation that does not own art or house a private collection.” JCAF’s goal is to showcase exhibitions that for the next few years bring women artists from the South to the forefront.
Emile Stipp – London; Pretoria, South Africa
Contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, with a focus on video art
Stipp is a member of the African Acquisitions Committee of the Tate Modern. He is also a board director for auction house, Aspire Art. Artists included in Stipp’s collection are artists who are from both africa and the diaspora. Such as Nicholas Hlobo, Edson Chagas and Zanele Muholi. The collector’s focus being mainly video art includes artists like Kudzanai Chiurai, Emeka Ogboh, and Donna Kukama.
The Tate Modern and the Art Institute of Chicago have been kind receipts of donations from Stipp. “I feel lucky to have been able to support contemporary artists from Africa for more than 20 years now.” Stipp to ARTnews.
More on the Top 200 Art Collectors list can be found here.
