ART IN GRAAFF-REINET www.rupertmuseum.org
Jan Rupert Art Centre
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f you are planning a road trip or visiting the Karoo, the small historic town of GraaffReinet will not disappoint with its current art, culture and architectural offering. Herewith three places to put on your what to do list, when next in town. JAN RUPERT ART CENTRE located in Middle street Inspired by the Rupert Museum’s permanent collections, this instalment of Nature Morte – A Still from Life is the second part, following the exhibition under the same title that was shown in Stellenbosch, it will be on show till end August 2022.
Still lifes and interior scenes are well-practiced genres in the visual arts. The significance of which is particularly relevant since the start of the pandemic, as we have experienced confinement to our domestic spaces the world over. Through the mediums of drawing, painting and print, the South African stylistic movements of the 20th and 21st century through the genre of stills are recognized, compared and
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celebrated. Prominent works by artists like Irma Stern, Jean Welz, Cecil Higgs, Alexis Preller, Erik Laubscher, Christo Coetzee, Penelope Siopis, Derrick Nxumalo and Marion Arnold amongst others, are included. A small but very prominent inclusion of 16th and 17th century Flemish still lifes from the Michaelis Collection of IZIKO National Gallery are incorporated with food and still photography by Cape Town based photographers Claire Gunn, Michelle Parkin and Nadine Greeff, for comparison. Keep an eye out on upcoming events www.rupertmuseum.org More on the building: The Neo-Gothic building was erected around c1870 by the London Missionary Society as a place of worship for the so-called Mantatees, a refugee Sotho tribe, which fled across the Orange River in the 1820’s. The building was restored on the initiative of Dr Anton Rupert and named in honour of his brother, Jan. It received National Monument (Heritage Site) status in February 1987.
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