ARTLife THE SOUTH AFRICAN
April 2010
For the full online edition go to: www.artlife.co.za SUBSCRIBE: 1 year’s subscription to your door: R 360 - Incl. SA Art Times and Business Art. E-mail: subs@arttimes.co.za
Where Art and Life meet
‘Siebe on the way to the waterfall’ by AntheA Delmotte, Oil. See Piketberg’s Gallery feature inside for more
Published monthly by Global Art Information Editor: Gabriel Clark-Brown editor@arttimes.co.za PO Box 15881 Vlaeberg, 8018 Advertising: Eugene Fisher sales@arttimes.co.za Subscriptions: Bastienne Klein subs@arttimes.co.za Tel. 021 424 7733 Fax. 021 424 7732
News: news@arttimes.co.za Shows: show@arttimes.co.za Artwork: art@arttimes.co.za
Newspaper rights: The newspaper reserves the right to reject any material that could be found offensive by its readers. Opinions and views expressed in the SAArt Times do not necessarily represent the offi cial viewpoint of the editor, staff or publisher, while inclusion of advertising features does not imply the newspaper’s endorsement of any business, product or service. Copyright of the enclosed material in this publication is reserved.
Peter van Straten: Pleasure Threshold (The light that burns) Oil on canvas. To be seen at The Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town 31 March - 15 April. Threshold sees four artists, Anton Brink, Brad Gray, Anthony Scullion and Peter van Straten, use distortion, fantasy, surrealism and satire (amongst other devices) to investigate the realm between sanity and insanity, dreams and reality. Despite distinct differences in their technical and philosophical approach to painting, all four find kinship in manifesting images that appear hallucinatory or dream-like and yet somehow reflect a tangible emotional and psychologically reality. For more see: www.everard-read-capetown.co.za
2 G
MICHAEL HEYNS
BORN 1942 - PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA Michael’s artistry was nurtured at the art school of the Pretoria Technical College, where he attended the practical classes of the University of Pretoria’s Fine Arts degree. Music has played an important role in his life and has since remained part of his inspiration. The “musical themes” of his abstract compositions capture rhythm and sound waves. In 1967, during his final year, Michael was awarded the SA Arts Association’s New Signatures award for his painting Seetoneel. His first one-man exhibition was held the following year. At this occasion, Anna Vorster described his painting technique as contrasts of tonal values expressed in an ensemble with emotional connotations. As if to illustrate his own development, his next exhibition explored organic growth, nature and efflorescence. Found objects and treasures such as pebbles, seed-pods, bamboo trunks and pomegranates served as a referential source, particularly for his earlier sketches. Michael’s distinctive paint application, sometimes wet layers on dry paint, pale colours on a dark background and subtle shades of colour have become distinguishing features of
his work. Accents of colour, such as bright cycad pods, red poppies and indigo colours have always been crescent. Music together with poetry has formed an essential component of his creativity. For example his exhibition cased on youth and crucifixion referred to N P. van Wyk Louw’s poem Beeld van ‘n Jeug: Duif en Perd. Some of his favourite poets are Ingrid Jonker and William Rowland. Dr Rowland was involved in a painting incorporating body and hand prints, which suggest the confinement of the home/body in which we dwell. Michael and his wife Susan have upon occasion joined forces and exhibited weavings. Susan is one of the foremost weavers in Pretoria and has woven several of Michael’s designs. Michael has also collaborated with weavers such as Waltraud Hindlov and Anna Viljoen. Michael has not shown interest in landscapes. His main interest has been to portray man in various forms. Initially as invisible wearers of jeans and T-shirts with bodies incorporating an underlying sensuality and even eroticism: here the human body is depicted in a Platonic sense, as a
model of physical and spiritual beauty but is however unable to shed its human ballast and corporeality. Another image he uses is that of the Pierrot-figure or faceless mask: that of the individual hiding behind a facade. His works incorporates a juxtaposition between the realistic and the symbolic. Jung no doubt would have referred to this phenomenon as archetypes, primeval images of the human spirit. Many, though being established symbols, are uniquely portrayed according to the artist’s own intuition crafted through his use of images which he transposes spontaneously. The dove and butterfly represented in his earlier work, derived from his own environment but acquire a spirituality and a renascence. The pomegranates which have appeared throughout his paintings and clay objects were not only chosen as symbolic of abundance or the universe (as stated in the Bible) but for their specific colours and textures and in particular to express the image of blemishes appearing over the course of time on bruised skin. This is based on tragic images found in Michael’s iconography of Elvis Presley in his last years as well as of faces of boxers.
According to Plato the human head is symbolic of the world, of unity. Michael’s uninhabited, magical figures and subsequent heads have since transformed into people having eyes and mouths. In Egyptian hieroglyphs the mouth denoted speech and the creative word denoted power. The depiction of garments also contain a totemistic meaning i.e. to either protect man, isolate or give man dignity and an identity. A technique may be flawless but if it does not possess sensibility, a vision or musicality, then it is heartless. Michael’s use of colour is expressive and evocative, stimulating awareness. The artist has many options besides illustrating social injustice. Michael chooses to depict his own experiences and concerns, and contributes to art essentially in terms of his empathetic commitment. Michael is fond of this quote from Tolstoy concerning art: “Art is a human activity consisting of this that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through and that others are infected by these feelings and also experience them.”
Alice Art Gallery proudly present
a Solo Exhibition by Michael Heyns Opening Sunday 23 May 11am Exclusive wine tasting by
the Wine O’s of Veenwouden private cellar and Delamotte Champagne 217 Dryf Ave, Ruimsig Papawers oil on canvas, 70x80cm
Van Blomme en Goeters oil on canvas, 150x120cm
Rooi Papawers oil on canvas, 80x120cm
Contact Alice on 083 377 1470
‘Chasing jakaranda flowers’, Oil, AntheA Delmotte
‘Siebe on the way to the waterfall, Oil, AntheA Delmotte
The Waterfall
Jakeranda Tree, Oil, AntheA Delmotte
‘Keana by die vlei’, Oil, AntheA Delmotte
AntheA Delmotte and Renier Theron at the opening of the AntheA Delmotte Gallery in Piketberg. photo by Vanessa de Villiers
AntheA Delmotte Gallery opens Piketberg Gallery
Piketberg, just over an hours drive from Cape Town
atmospheric, impasto oils that demonstrate observational and technical skill. Harling’s link with the agricultural reality of the region is displayed in a large red abstract painting representing 61 farms in the Riebeek Casteel area with the colour red symbolizing both the sun – and cultivated shiraz grapes, harvested for wine. Appropriately enough the exhibition was opened by Renier Theron, a viticulturist and occasional charcoal artist from the wine farm Simondium who proclaimed “we are all artists in one way or another” during his opening address. Evidence of this fact in the form of the Murg informal Academy’s three dimensional, slick and teasing Pregnant Griffin Bunny, a combination of wood, metal, wool and sheep’s teeth is a quirky visual object that provokes ideas with its ten pink metal dugs extending from a smooth wooden belly. Crudely chiseled surfaces contrast to create leaps of the imagination. Artists Lesley Aylward, Melissa Bradnick and Rubin Van Wyk form this incarnation of Murg’s collaboration “to facilitate innovation with local artists” said Aylward.
Veronica Wilkinson. At a well attended opening late February artist AntheA Delmotte established a new gallery for the visual arts in Piketberg. This group show that will run for two months introduces artists in the area to visitors with artwork both traditional and innovative in style that shows their visions and realities. Delmotte is well known in art circles for her solo and group participation in shows at galleries that include the Cape Gallery and Everard Read Gallery as well as exhibiting in Europe and elsewhere around South Africa. Her work was selected for the Sasol new signatures exhibition in 2007 and she plans another solo show in July. Her hopes are that she will have ongoing exhibitions that will change every two months at this new gallery to showcase and support artists in and around Piketberg. The work she produces in oil is drawn from real life, much of it painted in natural light enhanced by the idyllic setting of her natural farmstead surroundings in Piket-Boberg. Friends, children, landscapes, buildings and natural vegetation are all captured with a sure eye and deft brush to share her delight and pleasure in the celebration of life and nature that is central to her art. Among the work that she has selected for this exhibition Delmotte includes three finely detailed pencil and embossed compositions entitled “Paradys Vrug 2” framed within embroidery hoops by well known artist Sandra Hanekom. Hanekom graduated with a Fine Art degree from the University of Stellenbosch and displays a sensitive flair that complements self-taught artist Teresa Harling’s exquisite small,
Piketberg Gallery, early morning artist whose technical competence and imagination are complemented by her skill in a wide range of materials. Kemp won an award in the 2003/4 wine-label art competition at the annual Riebeek Valley Olive festival for “Olivia” festival wine and has worked in book illustration, cartooning, journalism and translation. Another experimental artist who uses unconventional material is Neville Craemer, a technical designer and artist who employs a wide range of media to explore his artistic sensibilities. His Metal and Pop Babes were inspired by aluminium ship designs and translate into the aluminium foil and paint compositions that lend another dimension to the selection of work on display. The modest gallery is housed within the compound of the renovated and refurbished Feather Inn, 1 Kerk Street, formerly the Commercial Hotel built in 1895. It became a temporary garrison for British soldiers during the Anglo Boer War (1899 – 1902). Gallery Hours: Mondays – closed. Tuesday to Friday 8 - 15:00; Sat and Sun 9:30 - 15:00. Contact email: anthea@lantic.net or telephone 073 2817273.
Annelie Venter, Tee by Clare in die Katzefhuis
Now owned by George and Nola Fletcher, the Feather Inn offers comfortable accommodation and a bistro offering simple meals in a tranquil, unpolluted environment giving the gallery a warm, accessible atmosphere.
On the opening evening a bizarre mixed media sculpture by Susan Kemp welcomed visitors. This life-size female figure constructed from found objects, fiberglass and paint is one of the innovative works on view by a versatile
Tel: 022 913 3651/ Email: feathersinn@mweb.co.za
Treat yourself to Frederike Stokuyzen’s new book: Born to be an Artist
Available from the following: The Cape Gallery: www.capegallery.co.za Tel: 021 423 5309 | Stellenbosch Art Gallery Tel: 021 8878343 Hout Street Gallery Tel: 021 8725030 | Walker Bay Gallery Tel: 02831 22928 Fernwood Press, E-mail: ferpress@iafrica.com Tel: 021 786 2460
Frederike Stokhuyzen exhibits at The Cape Gallery: 18 April 2010 The Cape Gallery, 60 Church Street seeks to expose Fine Art that is rooted in the African Tradition, Rotating exhibitions add to the diverse and often eclectic mix of workon show. Frederike Stokhuyzen exhibits at The Cape Gallery on 18th April 2010 Images from left: View from the Glen to Camps Bay, 46 x 64 cm, Devils Peak from Rondebosch Common, 64 x 46 cm
3106 CGAD Art Times Frederike.indd 1
THE CAPE GALLERY
Mon - Fri: 09h30 - 17h00; Sat 10h00 - 14h00 Tel: +27 21 423 5309 Fax: +27 21 424 9063 E: cgallery@mweb.co.za W: www.capegallery.co.za American Express, Mastercard, Visa and Diner cards are accepted. Reliable arrangements can be made to freight purchases to foreign destinations.
3/8/10 2:10:30 PM
ANTON SMIT Kindred Forms of Resonance By Kathleen Thomas “Late yestreen I saw the new moone lie, Wi the auld moone in hir arme…” he bellows low with a feigned Scottish accent, tool in hand and a twinkle in his eye. Spoken verse, the echoes of emotive lyrics and the rasping of sculptures in progress are customary sounds emitted from the studio. Larger than life, Anton Smit is the embodiment of poetry, a apt term for this sculptor, derived from the Greek for “making.” A self-taught artist, Anton forms his own language through sculpture, the manifestation of his passion for expression and his profound Faith. Human form is of constant fascination, and a reoccurring theme of Anton’s sculpture. His perfectly exaggerated proportions, elegant lines and intuitive marks are evidence of his on going search for the fundamental nature of humanity and divine intervention. The viewer completes the circuit of energy Anton invokes in every piece, drawing on the power and mystery of asking the right questions. Smit’s sculpture is on permanent display at the Pietersburg and Pretoria Art Museums and in major art collections around the world, including prominence in the Delaire, Graff Collection and the Anton Rupert/Rembrandt Foundation in Stellenbosch. Anton Smit is one of South Africa’s most established sculptors. International recognition came during 1990 through exhibitions in Rome and Milan, an invitation to exhibit in New York and Hong Kong as well as a return exhibition in Italy in 1993. Showings have followed in Bonn, Washington, Singapore and Köln. His latest endeavor is the Anton Smit Sculpture Park. The three-hectare grounds are situated on the northern side of the Bronkhorstspruit Dam, on a plateau over looking the water. Amongst the backdrop of natural limestone formations, the manicured lawns and succulent gardens, the Park makes for a lovely environment to view the expansive collection of monumental sculptures and installations. The Park is a destination of creativity attracting tourists and art buyers. It expands the traditional confines of a museum, ensuring a truly unique and inspiring experience. It is only 40 minutes from Pretoria and 60 minutes from Johannesburg, but a world away.
The South African Society of Artists (SASA) Merit Exhibition Until Wednesday 31st March 2010: The Sanlam Hall, Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town
SASA’s prestigious Merit Exhibition showcases new, recent works by members who excelled at the previous SASA Annual Exhibition, according to the scores determined by a panel of six independent judges. The exhibition opens daily between 9:30am and 5:30pm for the duration of the show. Below is a selected few from the show
Bill Brown, Brass Bell resturant at Kalk Bay Station, Acrylic
John Robert, Still life on raffia chair
Bill Brown, Hout Bay from Kommejie, Acrylic
Bill Brown, Towards Lookout Beach, Plettenburg Bay, Acrylic
Karen Burns, Repose, Oil
Marion Langton, Silvermoon, Watercolour
Ross Walters, Dreams, Oil
Mary Serrurier Velddrif, Oil Mary Serrurier, Rain approaching, Oil
Sue Joyce, Fog rolling in Llandudno, Oil John Robert, Camel trees, Oil Sylvia de Villiers, Celebration, Oil
Marion Cross, Coral Sunrise, Oil
Geoff Price, Pelargoneums on Seeberg, Acrylic
Di Ackerman, Breathing space, Acrylic
Barbara Lewis, Jo-Jo, Oil.
Nola Moller Simple life, Oil
Di Ackerman Pale blue door, Acrylic
Marion Cross, Blauberg Babe, Oil
Geoff Price, Houseboat, Acrylic
Di Ackerman, Karroo veranda, Acrylic
Paul Birchall, View towards the studio, Oil
Di Ackerman, A time past, Acrylic
Ginny Hickling, Tribute to Darwin, Oil
Afterwards 1
Afterwards 2
Cosmos
Rick Becker I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music Joan Miro My art - deeply interwoven through my being, is my music, my poetry... the evidence of my existence, which, at a superficial glance, could be labeled chaotic or abstract. Yet like all things in life, when considered with a degree of sensitivity, reveals a deeper level of engagement with this mystery we casually call life...it is my solid, passionate response to the stimuli of being alive with it’s imperatives to question ... who I am, who you are and why are we here? Around me I see confusion, pain and chaos. I see beauty, kindness and forgiveness. I see disorder. I see order. This is how I then paint... some works are
Top to bottom: Abandoned Car1, Abandoned Car2, Wolwefontein
Beyond The Dream
The End of Summer
no 4 - Rush Series
What Lies Beneath (2)
no 22 - Rush Series
Euphoria
La Femme
geometric, clinical, painted smoothly and planned to some extent. Others are very spontaneous; the paint applied thickly with a palette knife - a relinquishing of the need to be in control as I allow the paint to run, using diverse methods with liberal experimentation to usher the image into unexplored, intuitive landscapes where colour and energy can speak a truer word than reams of intellectualization. Images are there: waiting to be recognized and that is exciting....invariably I am just as surprised at the end result as anyone else. I’m part spectator, part contributor in the divine process of creation. There are days when I simply cannot paint, and if I do, the artwork will acquaint itself with the blade of an axe. However, when “it’s happening” and the inspiration is there, nothing else matters at that moment in time and I feel God’s pleasure in me being both authentic and purposeful!
Nude 1
‘Of Time, Space and Now’
‘Ascent’
‘Entering the Void’
‘Nostalgia for a Lost Communion’
‘Beatrice’
‘The Gap Between Perception and Thought’
Johann Moolman Moolman’s exhibition “Recent Works” is currently showing at The Gallery, Grande Provence, Franschhoek and will be on view till 18th April 2010. For further information please contact The Gallery on +27 (0) 21 876 8630 or gallery@grandeprovence.co.za. Website: www.grandeprovence.co.za The majority of contemporary mainstream art is primarily concerned with urban issues of a socio political nature. Working from within a rural environment Moolman is more concerned with deriving inspiration from the subconscious and the esoteric. Together with an astute awareness of contemporary international trends in art, Moolman also derives inspiration from classical African art, Bushman art, archaeology and the archaic myths, symbols and artifacts of “man”. The above is expressed in both abstract as well as figurative form. In the works on exhibition the profile is used as the most economic symbol of “man”. Images are juxtaposed based on the concept of opposites for example yin yang, positive negative and male female. Formalistically the work
attempts to combine drawing, sculpture and painting. The panels are installed in the gallery and become low relief projections off the walls into the gallery space.
Cape Town based Fine Artist Ilse Kleyn with “His Banner over me”. Oil on canvas. Size : 1350 x 700 mm. R6600. Contact Ilse at +27 845042814 / +27 21 9814630. www.artofkleyn.co.za or e-mail at ilse@artofkleyn.co.za
LEOPARD OUT OF THE WOODS (1,2m x 900mm) Oil on canvas by Stephanus J Botha. 083 700 3818 prost@thabanet.co.za
Clive van den Berg
Artist Des Khourie limited Edition series no. 11. Stolen on 11/08/2009 in Primrose. We are asking for dealers & Art Galleries to keep an eye out. Please contact Cindy on 0118737877
Elinor Carleton-Smith Currently exhibiting at The Cape Gallery.Title: Camp’s Bay Beach in Spring,
Judy Woodborne: 9th May -29th May 2010. Title: The Constellation of Pisces, 43 x 83 cm
Peter Grey: 30th May – 26th June 2010. Title: Life Model, 50 x 99 cm
Makiwa Mutomba: 27th June - 17th July 2010.Title: Premiere League, 69 x 122 cm
TO BE SEEN AT THE CAPE GALLERY March - July 2010
Robert Hodgins
For further details see: www.capegallery.co.za
Lisa Brice
www.artthrob.co.za - Editions Available
www.artthrob.co.za is South Africa’s longest running visual art publication, started in 1997 by Founding Editor Sue Williamson. Twelve years on it remains an authoritative voice on South African contemporary art.ArtThrob is funded by sales of original prints, sold through Editions for ArtThrob. Over the years ArtThrob has been privileged to offer prints by artists Jane Alexander, David Goldblatt and Robert Hodgins. ArtThrob will be at the Joburg Art Fair 2010 to launch the third of our Portfolios with works by William Kentridge, Candice Breitz and Willem Boshoff. Contact Editions Manager Natasha Norman at editions@artthrob.co.za.
The Passions and subversive instincts of Elizabeth Riding Elizabeth Riding has earned herself a singular place in the world of South African art. It is no wonder that her paintings occupy prime places in public and many private collections. At a first glance, her works could be seen and admired as masterly copies of 18th, 19th and Renaissance art, all representing the grandest aesthetic traditions of classicism and neo-classicism. For her forthcoming exhibition in 2011, she elicited to copy the immensely beautiful paintings of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, a 19th century painter who was highly acclaimed for his wistful ancient world images and richly adorned settings. Alma-Tadema’s works excelled – to use the description of Gombrich – in their “carefully graded tones of light and shade” and also in their exquisite “pose
and restraint in composition.” She applies the same techniques and artistic approach to her own portraitures. Her portraits transcend mere photo-realism and gently reflect the depths of the human personality which is hidden behind the facial image. A closer look at her works reveals a much deeper and everabiding passion, which is to explore the wondrous possibilities of the act of painting. Past master pieces are studied in minute detail to detect how colouring, tone values and shadings are used to create visions of grace and beauty. Colour, to Elisabeth, is something sensual and very real. Driven by this passion, she painted a huge panel of various excerpts from famous Van Gogh self-portraits and other paintings of his, constantly searching for the meaning which
underscores the artist’s use of colour. This is a quest which Van Gogh himself confessed to pursue. Modern 20th century art, often in a radical and revolutionary fashion, broke away from settled academic traditions to become bold, free and subversive. The question that Elizabeth poses in her work is whether with the exuberance, the unfettered expression and conceptualisation of modern art, something very essential has not become lost. Whether true craftsmanship, the qualities of paint and the subtleties of colour have not fallen along the way. In short, whether the ideal of beauty in art has not become obsolete. Seen in this way, the art of Elizabeth Riding springs from her own subversive instincts. Pieter van Heerden, Director, Association of Arts Pretoria
Sam Nhlengethwa: ‘Tribute William Kentridge’, Lithograph
The South African Print Gallery Dealers with interesting artists and exciting prints 107 Sir Lowry Road, Woostock, Cape Town. www.printgallery.co.za