Makers and Shapers Profile

Goodman Gallery

Business

1966 - present

[Source - Nessa Leibhammer for FHYA, 2018, using an article in the Financial Times on 11 November 2016: Founder of the Goodman Gallery, Linda Givon (née Goodman) was born in Johannesburg in 1936. After graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BA degree, she studied in England. She completed an internship at the Grosvenor Gallery in London and returned to South Africa to establish the Goodman Gallery. It still exists today and now includes a branch in Cape Town as well. The Goodman Gallery opened in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg in 1966 at a time of extreme political fermentin South Africa. The Sharpeville massacre had taken place in 1960 and, two months before the opening of the gallery, the Prime Minister of South Africa and architect of the apartheid government, Hendrik Verwoerd, was assassinated. Contrary to the political dictates of the state Goodman pursued a course that was resolutely non-discriminatory. From the very beginning she exhibited and sold the work of black as well as white artists and gatherings at the gallery were multiracial. Because of this the gallery was frequently targeted by the security police during the days of the apartheid regime. From its inception the main focus of the gallery has been contemporary South African art. In 2008 the gallery was purchased by Liza Essers and its focus shifted to include the art from the rest of the African continent as well as art of the African diaspora. In its early days the gallery sold art from the rural areas created in a traditionalist style such as Ndebele beadwork, carved headrests and ceramic vessels from the KwaZulu-Natal region. However it has not carried any such material for many years.]