Imbali Artbook

The Imbali Artbooks, Adventuring Into Art, are an eight-volume boxed set designed as an engaging resource for teaching visual art. The books feature carefully structured art-making activities alongside insights into the work of South African and international artists. They encourage an accessible – but not simplistic – approach to looking at art and its role in everyday life, while guiding teachers and students in interpreting, understanding and discussing the work of South African artists.

The eight books are developed from over three decades of Imbali’s workshops and research into South African, African and global art. The series spans a wide range of themes and topics. It begins with an introduction to the elements of art and abstraction in Getting Started, then moves to Faces, Bodies, Things, Places and Warzones before concluding with Inner Worlds. The set progresses from the unknown to the known, and then back again.

Overall, the books aim to provide teachers, students and art lovers with engaging and relevant content, while simultaneously fostering an appreciation for South African and African heritage. In doing so, they encourage out-of-the box thinking and the creation of innovative, expressive artworks.

Imbali distributes the Artbooks free of charge to under-resourced rural and township schools across all nine provinces. We also offer teacher training workshops to introduce the book set and demonstrate how it can be used in the classroom.

Imbali believes strongly that:

All children should have access to creative education to develop creativity, critical thinking, innovation and healthy self-expression.
Historical and ongoing imbalances in arts education must be addressed.
Training and access to appropriate materials are key to addressing these imbalances.
The standard of art teaching in under-resourced schools needs to be elevated.

The Imbali Artbooks:

Develop creative thinking, innovation, critical analysis, assessment and problem-solving skills.
Support teachers in teaching visual literacy.
Provide guidance on art-making skills and techniques.
Promote awareness and appreciation of South African and African arts and culture heritage.
Encourage learners to observe, question and engage with their communities.
Foster self-expression, confidence and a sense of individual identity.

Endorsements of Imbali Artbooks

“What an incredible set of books. It is just amazing how they capture all the facets of making art. They include everything that teaching art should include: art history, art appreciation, customs, the sociological and psychological underpinnings of art all combined. That is exactly how art classes should be taught. And to have everything so succinct and clear. They are really wonderful books.”

Adventuring Into Art is a guide to teaching art for South African teachers. The information is divided into themes that bring together related ideas; springboards, which provide historical and artistic context through short essays; activities, which offer practical classroom guides; and artist profiles, which features relevant artworks and biographies.

Abstraction; the visual language of art; an art vocabulary; line and its expressive possibilities; lines and sound; lines and movement; using different media to create expressive lines; colour; colour theory; colour-mixing and using paint.

Portraiture in South Africa; making a self-portrait; identity – photographing ourselves; self-portraits in charcoal; the traditions of masks in Africa: masks and power; making a “power mask” and performance.

Expression through the body, artists’ depictions of the body in action; sculpture and the human figure; traditional child figures in South African art; figure drawing; carving; assemblage; construction; gender prejudice; feminist artists; self-image and body mapping.

The lives of objects and their meanings; objects of ritual, the still life in South African art; drawing and painting still lifes; keeping a sketchbook; self-portrait in objects; texture in art; rubbings; Dada and objét trouvé; museums; a miniature museum; creating sculptures in papier maché; Pop Art; advertising and consumerism.

Artists and the environment; landscape painting and drawing in South African art; other kinds of “landscapes”; San conceptions of the land; depictions of the land and its colonial and other histories; drawing and painting outdoors; perspective; land art and site specific art; environmental awareness through performance and installation.

Art and war; poetry about war; art under Apartheid, art and resistance; documentary photography; curating your own exhibition; poster art in South Africa; designing and making posters, silk-screening; stencilling; graffiti and mural art.

Early symbolic object-making; San Rock art in South Africa; some cultural traditions and rituals; art and the missionary influence in South Africa; ritual objects; Jackson Hlungwane’s “New Jerusalem”; symbolism and surrealism in South Africa and creating surrealist imagery.