Gavin Jantjes
A South African Colouring Book
11 prints, plus cover
1974-75
Screen print with mixed media on paper
2003-16-1, museum purchase

The 11 prints plus cover that compose A South African Colouring Book offer critical commentary and reflection on South Africa's apartheid era by exploring racial classification, conflict and exploitation. As a starting point for the work, Jantjes' used his identity card and his handwritten notations on the three main racial groups identified in South Africa's Population Registration Act. In these powerful works, the artist plays with the irony of "color" to address the insidious means through which the regime "colored" the individuals within it.