To exhibit or be exhibited: the visual art of Vetkat Regopstaan Boesman Kruiper

This article examines the visual art of the late San ‘Bushman’ artist Vetkat Regopstaan Kruiper. The significance of Kruiper’s artistic work is explored in order to call into question two problematic assumptions: first, that visual art amongst the San ended with rock art, turning the ‘Bushman’ artist into a vanished specimen, and, second, that what is found amongst the San today is not, strictly speaking, art. Anchoring these assumptions is the pigeonholing of ‘Bushmen’ as objects to be gazed at. Taking its theoretical departure from Lee and Hitchcock’s call for an ‘expanded anthropology’, the article views Vetkat’s art as both an act of authoring citizenship and belonging in contemporary South Africa, and as a form of exhibition-resisting exhibition.