The Goodman Gallery is pleased to announce that we have reached a joint settlement agreement with the ANC with regard to Brett Murray’s controversial artwork The Spear. ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu and Goodman Gallery Director Liza Essers met at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg today and discussed the details of the settlement with members of the press. The meeting revealed that both parties had been in discussion for days in order to establish common ground and a basis for resolution. While the settlement has striven to strike a balance between the parties concerned in a spirit of amicability, we feel that we have maintained our integrity as a contemporary art space dedicated to freedom of expression and to the voice of dissent.

The joint settlement agreement – between President Jacob Zuma & the African National Congress and Goodman Gallery & Brett Murray – recognises that all parties “have struggled to achieve the right to human dignity and culture and the freedom of expression and have a mutual desire and joint responsibility to maintain these rights as fundamental freedoms in our young democracy”.

It agrees that as The Spear painting has been defaced, it will not be displayed in the Gallery. With regard to giving offence to President Zuma, the Goodman Gallery and Brett Murray intended no insult to him as a private person. Furthermore, the agreement states that “the debate engendered by this work has been robust and rich and will continue, but what is clear is the real distress and hurt that this image has caused some people… and the Gallery regrets the pain that the display of the painting has caused.”

Within the settlement the ANC has agreed to withdraw the application currently before the South Gauteng High Court.

The agreement concluded by saying that the parties “recognise the legacy of the Goodman Gallery in promoting art as a tool of protest throughout our history and in encouraging social dialogue in our country and beyond.”

Jackson Mthembu also stated at the meeting today that while the ANC does not agree with many of the other works on Hail to the Thief II, they are happy for the rest of the exhibition to remain on display. Although it was not included in the agreement, the Gallery will remove the image of The Spear from its website when it is next reviewed as a gesture of goodwill. Hail to the Thief II will be open to the public once again tomorrow and will be up until 16 June 2012. We apologise for any inconvenience caused during our closure and for our inability to assist our artists, clients and suppliers during this time.

As this was a difficult time for the Gallery, we would like to make a note of thanks to various people for their support. We thank William Kentridge, Senzeni Marasela, Karel Nel and Vulindlela Nyoni for their articulate and insightful statements, and Jane Morris from The Art Newspaper for her thoughtful letter of support. We thank Ghada Amer and Reza Farkhondeh for their initiation of a petition in support of freedom of expression in South Africa. We thank Bongi Dhlomo and David Goldblatt for bravely volunteering, of their own volition, to be there when Neil Dundas accepted the memorandum from the ANC at the protest March on Tuesday. We thank the City Press for their strength and all journalists who wrote in support of freedom of expression. We thank all of our clients, colleagues, artists and friends who sent through kind and supportive messages and offered valuable guidance. A special thanks to David Unterhalter, Anthony Stein and the rest of the legal team.

Finally, as expressed by Liza Essers at the press conference today, we thank all of the people of South Africa who raised their voices over this issue – both for and against the painting. It is through this process of discussion, debate and expression of diverse views that our democracy will evolve.