In the early 1990s SA artist Beezy Bailey created an alter ego, Joyce Ntobe, in response to what he believed was the "inverted racism" of local art institutions ahead of the country’s pending democracy. Bailey believed these institutions were being overtly politically correct by choosing works based on skin colour rather than merit.To prove his point he submitted three linocuts under the guise of Ntobe to the prestigious Triennale art competition. The works were quickly snapped up by the National Art Gallery, despite it having rejected work by Bailey under his own name.What’s interesting is that when creating the Ntobe works Bailey played directly into the clichéd expectations of a privileged white viewership, producing compositionally sound but simplistic linocuts depicting scenes from Ntobe’s supposed home life and her occupation as a domestic worker. Later works were more sophisticated oil paintings of shanties and township homes in flattering light. When Bailey revealed that he ...
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