The South African Art Times: SA’s leading visual arts publication | April 2012 | Free | Read daily news on www.arttimes.co.za ART TIMES
The Truly Amazing Life & Art of Barbara Tyrrell
Adieu, John. Sweet heart. RIP John Hodgkiss Photo: John Hodgkiss The Good Read: SA’s Art Materials Scene Photo: Jenny Altschuler
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EDITORIAL LETTER TO In this news publishing business if an edition looks like the one you planned for a month ago, you know that THE EDITOR you have totally lost touch with your audience. At the beginning of this month we had most of our contents sorted, however the discovery of Barbara Tyrrell’s life story, and of course kind John Hodgkiss’s First of all thank you for the Art Times it is such passing, changed everything in the last week. April 2012 a good read and it certainly has filled a gap in Last December when we were literally on the printer’s Daily news at www.arttimes.co.za our art world. I look forward to all your issues. runway, engines booming, the cover artist chose to Congratulations! pull out, as they felt that their work should represent
them, not their face (fair enough). In such an The article Lloyd Pollock wrote is so spot on and environment Murphy’s law goes kangaroo our Jeremy Lawrence’s piece say exactly that which unimagined plan B had to kick in, just moments before I’d like to have. They are both excellent writers the printers - who were on tight December deadline and as writing is not my forte I will keep mine - thrust back on the joystick. brief. The Gallery is dead. It should reflect the
Happy 100th Barbara, may you have a long and people and the richness of our culture. Old and As the nature of news and newscasting is changing ever more inspired life. From all of us at The AT new. we are happy with our 48 pages for now. This allows us to reach a 30% growth from 6 000 to now over 8-9 Editor: Most Galleries have facilities to sit and take in a Gabriel Clark-Brown [email protected] 000 readers per month (we reach well over 50 000 per refreshment to reflect and discuss the exhibitions. month with our AT News Network) making The AT a Advertising: I believe the Friends of National Gallery raised good means of disseminating art news and Eugene Fisher [email protected] the money for the equipping of the last restaurant. information in SA. Any additional savings on pages Another facet is being able to buy postcards or Subscriptions: goes into outreach projects such as schools and Tracey Muscat souvenirs to send to friends or keep so the fame [email protected] growing our twice daily online news on of the Gallery is extended. It’s called simple mar- www.arttimes.co.za This past month’s online reader- News Production: keting. The Shop is now also a thing of the past Megan Rainier [email protected] ship theme seems to reflect that an art illuminati exist, as 2-3 people wrote in accusing ”higher forces” of Listings: The National Gallery has long worried me and I pushing bad art, or certain folk that manipulate the Tracey Muscat [email protected] have approached Mr Naidoo re a coffee station or market. This would be interesting to cover for an refreshment bar where one could have a coffee Admin: edition - who controls what and whom ? together Bastienne Klein tea, juice and reflect on the exhibition one has [email protected] with other art related paranoia. Quite frankly, I don’t seen. I very often visit and wish to meet a friend believe for a second that anyone is out to get anyone, Daily Website: there but in order to complete the outing one has Liesel Botha [email protected] there are just too many amazing artists with diverse to move elsewhere to relax and reflect . This has interests to singularly control any market. Send Artwork To: resulted in exploring the Company gardens more
Designer [email protected] fully and so sometimes there is no time to take on What also seems to be a recurring theme lately the gallery as well! So the gallery is not the draw Letters to the Editor: [email protected] is some artists who are pushing their merits and card it could be. Designers: achievements in the open media -a bit too far to The Easterbunnydrankthelastofmyfamousgrouseagency believe. Initially these artists’ international claims and Another concern is what is the Gallery’s plans showmanship are firstly entertaining and then ridicu- PO Box 15881, Vlaeberg, 8018. to take advantage of our wonderful accolade as lous, and after a while embarrassing. Firstly these type Tel. 021 424 7733 Fax. 021 424 7732 World design Capital? of artists can’t restrain from calling themselves (or via Contributors: their PR agency) “geniuses”, and then take it further I know the private sector is engaging on this Carl Collison with Big Names Dropping, the more popular names Michael Coulson important opportunity to embrace the challenge dropped the better. These names of big artists and big Nushin Elahi and reflect the incredible talent Cape Town has Lloyd Pollak money are dropped from here, there and especially... to offer. everywhere else - where facts realistically can’t be I have heard that budgets are low and Arts don’t Deadline for news, articles and advertising is the weighed up. They do this with the hope that some 18th of each month. The Art Times is published in get much.. but it is ironical how much is spent on naïve programme manager or buyer, not checking the last week of each month. sport in this country when Stadiums beautiful their facts, will believe them and assist in opening Newspaper rights: The newspaper reserves the though they are now pose financial difficulties and wallets or newspaper or TV channels to more naïve right to reject any material that could be found are actually white elephants! offensive by its readers. Opinions and views ex- viewers. Art fame is usually hardfought for and slowly pressed in the SA Art Times do not necessarily built on many people’s respect and one on one inter- Art enriches people, People enrich a nation ..and represent the official viewpoint of the editor, staff actions . This rather than a singular relationship of 2 we are a truly rich and very diverse nation our or publisher, while inclusion of advertising features people -the artist that mimics other popular artists and Gallery should reflect this fact. does not imply the newspaper’s endorsement of their PR company’s rep who produces PR reflecting any business, product or service. Copyright of the their clients imagination of who they want to be. Don’t enclosed material in this publication is reserved. I think of the great pity we are losing something think that I am knocking PR, it plays a vital function in so valuable. today’s artworld, but PR unchecked is dangerous and irresponsible. Next month we are off to thrilling Johan- Yours Sincerely, nesburg. The big WAM (Wits Art Museum) is about to open, as well as the Artist Proof Studio (APS) is going Patricia Fraser to take over JAG (Johannesburg Art Gallery). We are thrilled at this! Best, Gabriel Clark-Brown Global Art Information Group Newlands
06 SA ART TIMES. April 2012 NEWS | ART TIMES Public arts policy being developed - but artists dissatisfied First Published in West Cape News database for regular updates on what progress is being made on the policy.” Kate Gerber. The City of Cape Town is working But chairperson of the Visual Arts Network of South on formulating a new directorate that will develop Africa (VANSA), Jonathan Garnham, said there a public arts policy, but artists say the move is was no transparency regarding the development of belated, and opaque. the City’s public arts policy. The City announced its intention to develop the “There is no transparency,” he said, “people do not Tourism, Event, Arts and Culture, Marketing know what’s going on. No-one knows who wrote Strategy (Teams) that will include a policy on public the policy and no-one I know, knows about the arts – which up until now has been completely lack- database. We haven’t been consulted about any ing – at the end of the week-long Infecting the City of this. It makes me angry that we’ve been told we arts programme hosted by the Gordon elected the members of the Portfolio committee Institute for Performing and Creative Arts on Friday. who have brought the policy this far. If we elected When asked about the development of a public arts them, why aren’t they doing their jobs?” policy yesterday, a consultant assigned to the City’s Garnham said there was no “political bill” that Tourism, Events and Marketing office, Heidi van engages with the visual arts, with the result being der Watt, said three senior members still needed to that the City received unsolicited proposals and did be added to the committee before any progress on not know what to do with them. policy could be made. He said at present, it seemed an artist could Asked about whether there would be a budget display his or her art in a public space so long as for the commissioning of works from emerging or it was privately funded, but not all artists had the established artists, van der Watt said there was luxury of funding their work. nothing which compelled the city to budget for Yet Johannesburg, he said, spent over R20m on public works of art. public art through the Johannesburg Development “We are waiting for the dedication of that respon- Agency, making it a “bright and vibrant city” as a sibility to us. Once we are mandated, we can start result. “It is terrible that a city of our stature doesn’t budgeting,” said van de Watt. “As the policy is in have qualities like that.” stasis right now, it would be inappropriate for me to He said art helped to make a city a cultural hub. say what types of art the policy will and won’t fund, “What I want to ask Ms van de Watt is, ‘when will however.” She said the policy in its current form the policy be finished? What is the next step within was available to the public, but the City recognized your department?’” said Garnham. the importance of input by artists. Asked when the public arts policy would be com- “Artists have been encouraged to register on our pleted, van der Watt said she had “no idea”. Court papers served on the Department of Arts and Culture
Biennale. It also requested documents reflecting whether any public money was used to fund, what the department has referred to as, Mr. Mokoena’s ‘private initiative’. The request also sought docu- ments on the department’s rumoured long-lease of a building in Venice.
Having received no response from the DAC within the allotted 30 days, lawyers, on the behalf of the author, submitted an internal appeal to which again First Published in Artthrob: no response was received despite the department’s assurances to the contrary. A court application has By M Blackman. now been launched in the hope of receiving reply Photo: SOWETAN. Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko from the Minister Arts and Culture, Paul Mashatile.
Papers were served on the Department of Arts This is not the first time that Mr. Mashatile has and Culture (DAC) after their failure to respond to failed to respond to questions concerning the Ven- a request for information under the Promotion of ice Biennale. Last year the minister failed to answer Access to Information Act (PAIA). questions put to him in parliament by the DA’s The request, sent to the DAC on the 30 September Shadow Minister of Arts and Culture Dr. Lotriet. The 2011, asked for any minutes or records relating DAC now has 15 court days to let the author know to the selection of Monna Mokoena as commis- whether they intend to oppose the application. sioner of South Africa’s participation at the Venice
SA ART TIMES. April 2012 07 ART TIMES | OBITUARY / JOHN HODGKISS John Hodgkiss 1966 - 2012
Written by Tim Hopwood Angel. And yet there are many nights I recall listening in often quirky and incongruous pairings. They made to him argue and debate with other students, one of one realize that this man saw the world very differently “Does life seem nasty, brutish and short? whom would go on to become a respected art theorist, to anyone else. Hell, just knowing him made many Come on up to the house. and John was always, always, a step or more ahead of us see the world differently, and for this reason The seas are stormy and you can’t find no port. of them. I began to form the opinion that Hodgkiss he had been hugely influential with a section of the Come on up to the house. was possessed of some kind of weird, innate, almost photographic students who did not really gel with Come on up to the house. alien intelligence. If there was ever a case to be made Oberholzer’s modus operandi. The world is not my home I’m just a passin’ through for the notion of past lives, to me, John was that case. I don’t know what ever happened to that project. I You got to come on up to the house.” His own work was whimsical, profound and often in- guess life just got in the way. I guess other people’s credibly witty. And way different to anything the rest of art was more important. I guess at the end of the day Tom Waits: Come on up to the house. us did. It took no small degree of strength of character he had to pay the bills. (John hated that phrase: At the to resist the aesthetic dictates of a man as larger-than- end of the day, and would just about throttle anyone The art world has been deeply shocked and sad- life as Obie Oberholzer, but Hodgkiss did, right from who said it.) dened by the sudden death at the age of 45 of photog- the start of his career at Rhodes. The boundaries of Hodgkiss was as far-removed from the cookie-cut rapher John Hodgkiss in his Johannesburg home last art were blurred with Hodgkiss. He would make little characters that come trundling out of university art week. Hodgkiss was found dead on his couch in his pieces of jewelry from broken toy soldiers and bits of faculties than you could wish to get. I would trade Melville home by a friend. old clocks. These he would then photograph and the a year of parroted postmodern platitudes from the photo would become the artwork. Or else he would elegant operators on the lower slopes of the avant- Hodgkiss was an intense, complex character, by turns take photographic prints, stick them on the wall and garde for just five more minutes in the company of both cynical and deeply romantic, fragile and tough, photograph them with models casting a shadow on Johnny Hodgkiss. and always witty and sharp. His love for his friends them. The human presence was more often than not Instead of writing any more about John I would like to was deep, heartfelt and genuine. But more of the enigmatic and ethereal in Hodgkiss’s work. Figures quote some of the beautiful things some of his friends personal tributes later. are seldom glimpsed in their entirety, and are more have said of him on his Facebook page, for I find I often than not visual synecdoches. Hodgkiss was simply cannot write this obituary alone: Hodgkiss was known for the work he did in the art fascinated with the archetypes of the human story. “Dear John. What are we going to do without you? industry in Johannesburg. For the last ten years or At Rhodes, John was something of a trailblazer. He Who is going to remind us that there is beauty, grace so he documented the work of artists of the calibre of engineered things, he made things happen. The first and humour in the sore and difficult parts of being William Kentridge and Steven Cohen, and while he performance art piece any of us ever saw at Rhodes human? You are loved and missed.” privately sneered in disdain at some of the work he was at one of John’s garage exhibitions, with Andrew Llewelyn Roderick was paid to photograph, he was also very proud of the Buckland all wrapped in bandages, groping in person- “My beloved John, I miss you so already. You have work he did for others, particularly Cohen. Cohen was al darkness to locate the sound of Ben Coutouvidis’ left a massive empty space in my heart. Who knew it the first artist with whom Hodgkiss began collaborat- saxophone, in a room full of John’s images. would hurt so much. I love you. Sleep tight.” ing, and they formed a deep, lasting friendship. Despite the fact that he was without doubt the most Sue Mills. But it is not for this work, important as it was, that I like avant-garde cat at Rhodes (my trendy-points went “What an individual you are John Hodgkiss. You will to remember Hodgkiss, and this is not the work that through the roof when I became close friends with be missed by many. Thanks for the great work you did John should be remembered for. I really hate expres- him) John always struck me as someone who had, for me, all cool attitude and scarves.” sions like “He was a great artist in his own right.” Or much like his favourite musician, Tom Waits, the air Mandy Deacon. even worse: “He was an artist in his own right.” It’s of- of someone who was born slightly after his time, “You burned so bright, illuminating all those dark ten disingenuous and patronizing. I have no doubt that slightly out of step with his generation, but with a kind corners. Can’t believe you’re gone. We will miss you it will be trotted out in reference to John Hodgkiss, but of knowingness that everything that we thought was so.” Jenny Carlin what does it actually mean? The truth in my opinion important, progressive and vital (hipness never really “I always admired you John. You always helped me is that John’s own work was far superior to the work came into it in the mad eighties in South Africa) was see the beauty in the shadows. I will miss you.” he documented for some of the artists in the upper part of a story that was simply cyclical, and would Brett Tyson echelons of the art industry. And the truth is, Hodgkiss merely end in disappointment. John was the last “A long night of mourning. RIP John Hodgkiss. Such knew this, and it created in him a deep sense of futility person the student left would have been able to enlist sadness I don’t even want to sleep.” Alex Dodd and frustration. He found it hard to remain silent about in The Struggle, not because he didn’t sympathise. From his best friend, Peter Davidson: “Forever some of the junk he had to photograph, and us as He was just… otherwise. His favourite movie was a young. My best friend, I’m going to miss you.” his friends often bore the brunt of that rage. Perhaps, little known but genius 40’s comedy with Danny Kaye, From his sister, Diana Hartley: “My little brother, such recently, it was a rage also at a perceived sense of his called The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and his favourite a kind and gentle person and far too young to go. own wasted talent. artist was always Marcel Duchamp, long before he He is immortal in the memories of all the people who became the darling of so many in the art world in knew and loved him.” Far too many artists occupy positions of status and South Africa. And from his partner for close on 20 years, Vanessa power merely because they know the buzz words, Hodgkiss had an enormous amount of images he was Hilton-Barber: “So empty without John, the canvas of or have simply become investment capital: “relevant working with the last time I saw him in Johannesburg, the world just duller.” both here and abroad” but essentially harmless to the some taken from his travels with the writer Adam “But the greatest Hodgkiss original was John himself. machinations of power that finance their industry. They Levin, and others from his shit-stirring escapades He was a piece of art. Art moves you. Art inspires you. can rattle off some cobbled-together bits of Baudrillard with Steven Cohen (I don’t say that flippantly: I think It makes the world a better place. John did all of that and Derrida, but few have ever actually sat down and art should stir shit, and Cohen and Hodgkiss made a and more. He touched all of our lives. He poured out read a volume of Derrida. Hodgkiss claimed that he fantastic shit-stirring team). He was at that time in the love. He was the greatest living artwork. A true origi- had never in his life read a book cover to cover, with process of creating a large body of work where he nal.” Toby Shapshack speaking at John’s funeral. the exception of Nick Cave’s When The Ass Met the would juxtapose one image with another in diptychs, “Adieu, John. Sweet heart.” Tracy Rose.
08 SA ART TIMES. April 2012 JOHN HODGKISS / OBITUARY | ART TIMES
(Above) John Hodgkiss as the Dead Murat, - experimental work done as a student with Tim Hopwood in the 80’s. (Below) Shadows, Student work at Rhodes Photography department, (B-R) Linda Givon, photographed for The Art Times
SA ART TIMES. April 2012 09 ART TIMES | THE BIG READ / THE SA ART MATERIAL MARKET
This months big read How the global vs. local art material brands market affect artists
Carl Collison goes walkabout around the manufacturers, distributors and retailers of South African art materials
“Save our little art shops, please,” Emma Stols stem the tide of what is becoming an ever-greater approximately 1 500 retailers across South Africa, implores with a laugh that belies the seriousness of reality for the few local manufacturers: the influx Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana under its wing her plea. Stols, the owner of well-known art and increased popularity of bigger international point towards this clearly not just being salesman- supply store Herbert Evans, which has been brand names. For Sandi Cooper, a former retailer, speak. running for 123 years, is one of many retailers and now working with a local wholesale distributor, specialising in art materials that are starting the the motivation is to offer retailers- and by extention Annare Prinsloo, co-owner of another local pinch as a result of the glut of bigger name brands artists - access to a broad range of quality manufacturer, Zellen Art Products, admits that the pushing their way into this market. international brands. Windsor and Newton brand’s range of oils paints “are good”. She is, however, not as complimentary Though the store’s standing is arguably not as This would surely do little to allay the anxieties of of other competitors. Says Prinsloo: “There is one precarious as those who are either facing - or have local manufacturers. Gus Kennedy, of The Italian major brand who recently introduced a range of oil faced closure - Stols, like many independent stores Art Shop, another distributor of big-name brands paints locally which we tested and it really is not of this nature, are finding it increasingly difficult admits that “yes, there is a dominance of mostly good. What people don’t realise is that it really is to provide their customers with quality products British paint manufacturers. I suppose,” he quips, not easy to produce a really good oil paint. Each at competitive prices. And though South Africa is “it’s a result of being a colony in the past! Artists one has its own ingredients. It really takes a lot of certainly not unique to the market forces which are, however, realising a whole new and exciting skill. Besides, it really is not easy introducing new often lay many smaller, independent businesses to world of top brands that offer an amazing choice brands because artists are fussy. ” waste in its wake, what exacerbates the situation and different possibilities. These brands are well- locally is the notably small size of the market. Kevin known around Europe and the rest of the world Quality and artistic fastidiousness aside, there O’Sullivan owner of Dala Art, for example laments and it is just a question of time before they are as is, as Basil Lentner, Managing Director of local the fact that the yield from their market in the well-known as the traditional British brands.” manufacturer, Heritage Craft Products, points town of George outstrips that of those of Namibia, out, the more practical difficulties inherent in trying Botswana, Zimabwe and Mozambique collectively. Multi award-winning artist Johannes Phokela, to penetrate a new market, particularly one as Still, in the 15 years it has been running, the whose large-scale oil paintings have garnered him small as South Africa’s. “It’s difficult to import [new company has, under O’Sullivan’s business hand much acclaim both locally and internationally, cer- brands] because minimum order quantities have to has gone on to become the industry’s biggest - and tainly is one of these artists. “To be honest,” admits be so huge.” unknown SA- success story. Employing over 100 the, “I am not aware of any local paint staff, it has also built up a strong export network manufactures, though I have only been living back Though the jury might be out on whether this - more often than not exporting to supermarkets here for about five years. I only really use two really is a complete non-issue for these local where it competes directly with the world’s biggest brands and both are British.” manufacturers, what cannot be denied is that the brands. For O’Sullivan, eschewing the more ever-growing presence of big-name brands has, traditional three-tiered model of importer-distributor- Tarique Taleip, a sales representative for unwittingly, forced them to up the ante. Says retailer (by manufacturing and packaging what the Ashley and Radmore, the company which imports Prinsloo: “The quality of locally manufactured market needs and supplying it directly to retailers) brands such as Windsor and Newton and Reeves paints has improved so much over the years. has clearly proven to be highly successful. paints, cuts to the chase: “There’s a big demand for We are currently working on expanding both our Though effective, the success of this model does Windsor and Newton because it is the world’s best product range and our reach and have sent out not (and could not realistically be expected to) artist materials so many artists prefer using it.” The samples to some countries abroad.”
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10 SA ART TIMES. April 2012 THE SA ART MATERIAL MARKET / THE BIG READ | ART TIMES
Both Lentner and Stols echo this sentiment, with recently caught on in South Africa, whereas in the Stols saying: “Local brand loyalty is definitely United States it has been around for years. It’s growing. We try and buy local as much as huge there.” Ours might be a fledgling industry but possible because those guys work hard and their even relative new kid on the block, Art Attack, quality is improving. They’re also very dedicated has since its establishment in October 2010, seen which makes the product you buy not merely significant growth in sales. Its owner, something that comes off the giant conveyer belt Kristina Willman, laughs when she says: that is China.”Noble as this may be, there is the “It’s actually ridiculous the way it is growing.” reality that, without buy-in from consumers, very little growth is likely to be achieved. How then is The ArtShopper, yet another online retailer, has the message of this apparent improved quality however yet to reach these heady sales heights communicated? In other words, what are these though is largely attributable to it only being run- brands doing to advertise their products? Herit- ning for around two months. There is nonetheless, age, according to Lentner, advertises, “in-store” according to the portal’s owner Ilse Nieman, “a at the 800 stores they supply “in every little town” lot of indirect interest from customers” who visit across the country. Prinsloo admits that, despite a either the Belville-based store or its website. few advertisements placed in art magazines, most For all these online retailers the benefits of online of the advertising done is through good shopping for consumers are especially felt by old-fashioned word-of-mouth. those who have little or no proper art stores. Says Willman: “In South Africa so many small towns The old adage of the best advertising being do not have efficient art shops where artists have Clement Serneels word-of-mouth certainly is given added valida- access to quality products. For these people, it’s Girl with hat tion when one considers the often steep costs of much easier to simply order their materials with advertising campaigns – which are doubly so for just a click.” smaller companies. Considering this, as well as Leaders in Masters the considerable overheads incurred as a result Willman concedes that the often hefty prices of running a traditional brick-and-mortar business, charged by courier companies do occasionally as well as does the option of focussing on online sales not cut into the business’ bottom line. “Because,” she Contemporary Art seem an altogether more attractive and lucrative offers, “we offer free delivery for orders in excess option? Though Taliep and Kennedy both feel that of R500, the costs here do sometimes affect our the move towards online purchasing is inevitable, profit margin.” Kulemann, on the other hand, man- with Kennedy stating that as “the trend in retail is ages to avert incurring these costs by utilising the www.absolutart.co.za towards online shopping, in time this will happen services of the South African Post office, some- in the art market as well”, it would seem as though thing which, she says, “works out quite well” for both retailers and manufacturers alike have as yet the business. Although Nieman admits that these to explore this option. costs are carried by the consumer, “the mark-up is a very low one”. Dot Dickson, owner of The Deckle Edge, the popular Woodstock-based retailer, says that In response to my question around whether although they receive email enquiries around this, online shopping does not result in consumers an online store has yet to be set up. The reason being afraid to try out new brands and therefore for this is simple: “You have to have high stock ultimately entrenches the dominance of certain holding and need to juggle that with the market. brands, Willman says: “Look, many people In the United Kingdom, for example, the market choose to stick to products they’ve used for years, is much bigger but in South Africa it would take yes. But, because I interact with so many of my Erich Mayer longer for online sales to really take off.” customers via email and often recommend they Landscape with Baobab trees Stols, however, takes a more romantic approach try out certain products which are tailor-made for to why her business has not as yet followed this their needs, many do end up trying new products route. “Artists,” she says, “are sensory beings. or brands. Also remember that, because of the Shop 43, Willowbridge They want to see, feel, touch and smell what nature of online shopping, you really have to put Lifestyle Centre they’re buying. And you certainly can’t get that off up a lot of product information which in turn allows (Below the Barnyard) your laptop screen.” people a closer look at what is on offer.” 39 Carl Cronje Drive Whether online stores will become de rigueur Rather unsurprisingly, Yolanda Kulemann, owner when it comes to the purchasing of art sup- Tygervalley, Bellville of the online art supplies store Art Express, plies has yet to be seen. What is also unclear is disagrees with these views. When I ask her whether current market forces will eventually force Gallery whether the South African market has sufficient smaller, independent retailers and manufacturers 021 914 2846 volume of trade to sustain this industry, Kulemann out of business. What is clear, however, is that effuses: “Oh, absolutely - without a doubt.” When if this situation continues Stols’ half-joking plea Gerrit Dyman Jr I mention the success of the United States-based might soon become a wholly earnest one. 072 699 5918 online store Dick Blick, Kulemaan states: “Yes, Email: [email protected] there massive but online shopping has only
SA ART TIMES. April 2012 11 ART TIMES | YOUNG ARTIST PROFILE / MARIËTTE BERGH
Young Artist of the Month: Mariëtte Bergh
Born in 1982 Mariëtte Bergh lives and works in day by day is alarmingly similar to our own daily Johannesburg, South Africa. She specialized in patterns. (Birds seem to crop up most of the painting and sculpture at the National School of time at this stage) Some of the other bird types Arts, and thereafter studied at Vega, the Brand have different connotations – some lean toward Communication School. After six years as a being mythical or mysterious, whereas others are graphic designer and art director in downright mischievous just to get their way, which magazines she decided to pursue art full-time. is hardly a foreign concept to humans.” What inspires her work is the her fascination In this new body of work Mariëtte takes on a of people’s behavior, human emotions, the more intimate look at existential subject matters interdependence of opposites and the mundan- that concern her yet this time reflecting on them ity of existence. Mariëtte is known for her use of through a semi autobiographical approach. The fictitious characters, birds and animals to illustrate transition between youth and responsible adult- humanity and the satire of urban existence. hood, the melancholy, confusion and optimism “ Animals beautifully reflect the mundane routines associated with the above, mark her use of color that we are so caught up in. Seeing the same line and medium. robin every morning in the same place, exactly She is also featured on the art blog the same time, or a group of pigeons that go handsomethings.com. about their business in the same city square and on www.mariettebergh.co.za
Mariëtte Bergh in her studio (Below) Letting studio critics lie, (B-R) more of Mariëtte’s studio.
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12 SA ART TIMES. April 2012 MARIËTTE BERGH / YOUNG ARTIST PROFILE | ART TIMES
(Above) Delicacy - Reverse-glass painting, Reading Ginsberg, Reverse-glass and ink on wood (Below) The vacant and the bored, Reverse-glass and ink on wood, She’s all I really need, Reverse-glass painting and See the world go wild, Reverse-glass and Wood
‘This is coming of age? Facing that we’re not like the dreams we have of ourselves? Unsure of our choices in life? Unable to ever be perfect? Even our heroes are lost and our ideas of adulthood are a fraudulent myth we’ve unconsciously inherited. Why not just stay in a world of infantile fantasy? Maybe forever even?’ – Mike MillsThoughts pertaining to the theme:‘Are you ready to bare your bones? To accept that you’re mortal and that life is to be lived in a way that a sensible mortal would? To construct life as a series of practical building blocks that ultimately guarantee a cosy coffin and offspring to carry your name? Magic has not much to do with this arrangement, there simply isn’t time to spare for it.’- Mariëtte Bergh
M a n u f a c t u r e d i n S o u t h A f r i c a s i n c e 1 9 9 4 O i l s , A c r y l i c s , G o u a c h e , I n k s a n d M e d i u m s
w w w . d a l a . c o . z a K V A r t P t y L t d 0 2 1 5 5 7 8 0 0 3
SA ART TIMES. April 2012 13 ART TIMES | GALLERY BUZZ
In Living Colour at The Barnard Gallery, CT
Exhibiting Artists Lonwabo Kilani & Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi / Artists Elise Vossgatter and Gabriel Clark-Brown / Asola Goqwana,Wanesila Albert, Ziyana Lategan Claudia Gurwitz exhibition entitled: Rooted at The Irma Stern Museum, Rosebank, CT
UCT Irma Stern Gallery Director Christopher Peter / Christopher Peter, Estelle Jacobs, Lorraine Gurwitz, John Lofty-Eaton, Claudia Gurwitz, Harry Gurwitz / Lourens Jacobsz & Nico de Kock Guy Thesen at Cape Pallette, George Arno Carstens opens at The Lovell Gallery, CT Andries Gouws opens at the KZNSA Gallery, Durban
Guy Thesen and Doris and Leander Brand Beezy Bailey & Arno Carstens, Lovell Gallery, Woodstock, CT. Andries Gouws’s Walkabout at KZNSA Below Top : Chad Rossouw: A History of Failure Brundyn + Gonsalves, CT . Below centre and Bottom: Arno Carstens Solo Show at The Lovell Gallery, CT
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design | books and catalogues | large format graphics | archiving | specialised retouching | installations | exhibition display s | digital scanning SOUTH AFRICAN GALLERY GUIDE
Exhibiting Artists Lonwabo Kilani & Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi / Artists Elise Vossgatter and Gabriel Clark-Brown / Asola Goqwana,Wanesila Albert, Ziyana Lategan Keith Calder’s Vindicta Sculpture unwrapping, Alphen Hotel, Constantia
John Maytham (Guest Speaker), Keith Calder (Artist) / Debra Calder; Chris Barnard; Kim Highfield /Tania & Nick Atkinson; Sally Leslie Stephan Welz & Co. Johannesburg Office Vernissage IV 2012 - “Ons skrik vir niks”! Show
Upbeat: Stephan Welz & Co Johannesburg Office Critics: from Vernissage IV 2012 - “Ons skrik vir niks”! Show
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design | books and catalogues | large format graphics | archiving | specialised retouching | installations | exhibition display s | digital scanning ART TIMES | AROUND THE GALLERIES Elise Vossgatter: Sternteler AVA Gallery, CT The Imperfect Librarian: Michaelis Galleries, UCT, CT
Elise Vossgatter: Let them eat cake Brenton Maart: Engin from The The Imperfect Librarian, Michaels Galleries Pieter van Straten shows at Knysna Fine Art The Room Gallery, Johannesburg
Rhett Martyn, Mine, Room Gallery, Jhb Infecting the City, CT
Peter van Straten fans are in for a treat with Peter’s latest show see: www.petervanstraten.co.za see more at: www.infectingthecity.com Marlies Keith Grounded‘The Hanging Gardens’ at the Absa KKNK. / Grace Knotze on her show Thaw currentlyshowing at The KZNSA Gallery, Durban Everard Read Gallery Johannesburg Slee Gallery, Stellenbosch Salon 91, CT
Herman Neibuhr at The Everard Read Jhb, Torso Front, by Talitha Deetlefs, Slee Gallery www.slee.co.za / Linsey Levendall The march to nowhere Salon 91 CT AROUND THE GALERIES | ART TIMES ABSA L’Atelier 2012 - The selection of works attached is no way an indication of preference for a certain work but is rather a selection of pictures of work included in the top 100
East London: Mark Ross Farmer, Taryn King ABSA L’Atelier 2012
Johannesburg: John Brophy, Lehlogonolo Mashaba 2 Port Elizabeth: Bamanye Ngxale, Bantu Mtshiselwe and Siyabonga Ngaxi Absa KKNK 2012 Hanging Gardens KZNSA Gallery, Durban
Marlies Keith Grounded‘The Hanging Gardens’ at the Absa KKNK. / Grace Knotze on her show Thaw currentlyshowing at The KZNSA Gallery, Durban South African Belgian International Art Expo SABEX, Tulbagh
Herman Neibuhr at The Everard Read Jhb, Torso Front, by Talitha Deetlefs, Slee Gallery www.slee.co.za / Linsey Levendall The march to nowhere Salon 91 CT Work by Jan Vermeiren & Leon de Bliquy to be seen at:South African Belgian International Art Expo (SABEX) The Whitehouse Gallery
GILLIAN AYRES
MARC CHAGALL
DAVID HOCKNEY ANDY WARHOL
11 THRUPPS ILLOVO CENTRE, Oxford Road ILLOVO MON-FRI 09.30am - 17.00pm P.O. Box 496, Melrose Arch 2076 THURSDAY EVENING 17.00pm - 21.00pm Tel : 27 11 268-2115 ¹ Fax : 27 11 268-2129 SATURDAY FROM 9.30am - 12.30pm WEBSITE : www.thewhitehousegallery.co.za SUNDAY FROM 12.00pm - 3.00pm EMAIL : [email protected] : [email protected]
Anton Kannemeyer UNISA new lithographs Recent Acquisition Art Exhibition
Colleen Alborough,Animation (still) 21 April to 31 May 2012 Enquiries: (012) 441 5683 / [email protected] Gallery viewing hours: (Tuesday to Friday)
Moulinsart Lawyers I. Hand printed lithograph, 76 x 57 cm. Edition 20. 10H00 - 16H00 Unisa Art Gallery,Kgorong Building Ground Floor, Main Campus Preller and Ridge Street, Pretoria, 0003 Email: [email protected] The Artists’ Press Tel: (012) 441 5683 Box 1236, White River, 1240 7HO013 751 3225 PDUN#DUWLVWVSUHVVFR]DZZZDUWSULQWVDFRP
Art Times Anton march 2012 advert.indd 1 19/03/2012 8:36 AM FREE STATE, GAUTENG | GALLERY GUIDE
Free State Christie’s Isis Gallery International Auctioneers. Leading Art Gallery in Rosebank showcasing today’s most Bloemfontein Gillian Scott Berning, Independent Consultant. Modern Contemporary Artists. T 031 207 8247 [email protected] Shop 163, The Mall of Rosebank. Oliewenhuis Art Museum www.christies.com Contact Daniel Erasmus T. 011 447 2317 Until 30 April, “Face Value: old heads in modern masks” an [email protected] www.isisgallery.co.za etching series by Malcolm Payne. CIRCA on Jellicoe 17 Feb - 9 April in the Main Building, “Faena” by Nandipha 3 April – 5 May, “Drawing clouds in the Karoo” Johannesburg Art Gallery Mntambo (Standard bank Young Artist) a body of new work by Strijdom van der Merwe. 2 Jellicoe Ave. T. 011 788 4805 29 Jan – 8 April, “A Fragile Archive” an exhibition of works encompassing sculpture, works on paper and video. [email protected] www.circaonjellicoe.co.za Gladys Mgudlandlu (1917-1979) as well as works by other 27 March – 13 May, “Christ and the other Person” a series women artists. of paintings by Father Frans Claerhout. Everard Read Jhb 26 Feb – 22 April, “Transference” with participating artists: 20 April – 3 June: “Rendezvous Art Project: Focus 8 March - 7 April, “City Chromatic” by Hermann Niebuhr Vumelani Sibeko and Senzo Shabangu. Painting”(Main Building) a travelling exhibition of works by featuring recent landscape paintings of Johannesburg. King George Str, Joubert Park, Jhb. T. 011 725 3130 60 artists which uses painting as a medium. 6 Jellicoe Ave, Rosebank, Jhb. T. 011 788-4805 [email protected] www.joburg.org.za 16 Harry Smith Str, Bloemfontein. T.051 447 9609 [email protected] www.everard-read.co.za [email protected] www.nasmus.co.za Manor Gallery Gallery 2 17 March – 14 April, The first combined exhibition of 24 March – 14 April, Gallery 2 will be exhibiting work by the WSA (Watercolour Society Africa), which is the 87th Clarens various artists including Regi Bardavid, Karin Daymond, watercolour exhibition of the society, and the first all media Sam Nhlengethwa, Lauren Palte and Jenny Stadler. exhibition of the ASA (Art Society Africa). Top South African Art & Wine Gallery on Main 140 Jan Smuts Ave, Parkwood. T. 011 447 0155 artists will participate. Come and see paintings of the 6 – 23 April, exhibition by Aviva Maree. [email protected] www.gallery2.co.za highest standard. Manor Gallery, Home of the Watercolour 279 Main Str, Clarens T. 058 256 1298 or Society of South Africa. Norscot Manor Centre, Penguin Anton Grobbelaar. C. 082 341 8161 Gallery AOP Drive, Fourways, Gauteng. T. 011 465 7934 [email protected] www.artandwine.co.za 24 March - 11 April, “Fun and Games ...” [email protected] www.wssa.org.za drawings by Jaco van Schalkwyk. Blou Donki Art Gallery 14 April - 13 May, “Self-Organized Systems” drawings Market Photo Workshop A vibrant contemporary art gallery, housing a wide variety by Neil le Roux. 29 Feb – 25 April, “Tracing Territories” a group show. of contemporary artworks, functional art, steel sculptures, 44 Stanley Ave, Braamfontein Werf (Milpark) T. 011 834 1444 bronzes, handmade glass and specializing in photography. Johannesburg. T. 011 726 2234. [email protected] Windmill Centre, Main Str, Clarens T. 058 256 1757 [email protected] www.galleryaop.com www.marketphotoworkshop.co.za [email protected] www.bloudonki.co.za Gallery MOMO Russell Kaplan Auctioneers Johan Smith Art Gallery 15 March – 16 April, Joël Mpah Dooh’s “Let’s Take a Walk!” Auctioneers of Fine Art, Antiques and Collectables. The gallery permanently exhibits a wide variety of classical 52 7th Avenue, Parktown North, Jhb. T. 011 327 3247 Ground floor, Bordeaux Court, Corner of Garden & and selected contemporary art works featuring Johan [email protected] www.gallerymomo.com Allan Roads, Bordeaux. Smith, Elbè van Rooyen, Elga Rabe, Graham Carter, T. 011 789 7422 or 083 675 8468 Nicole Pletts, Gregoire Boonzaier, Otto Klar, and various Goodman Gallery [email protected] www.rkauctioneers.co.za others. Specializing in ceramics, the gallery supports artists 29 March - 21 April, Carla Busuttil. such as Hennie Meyer, Karen Sinovich, and Heather Mills, 163 Jan Smuts Ave, Parkwood, Johannesburg Sandton Auctioneers among others. Collectable bronzes and handmade glass T. 011 788 1113 [email protected] Fine Art, Furniture, Carpets & Collectables. by David Reade also available. www.goodman-gallery.com Showroom: No 8 Burnside Ave, Craighall Park, Jhb. Windmill Centre, Main Str, Clarens T. 058 256 1620 T. 011 501 3360 [email protected] [email protected] www.johansmith.co.za Gordon Institute of Business Science www.sandtonauctioneers.com 15 March - 15 April, a majestic exhibition of art by Richard John Forbes Standard Bank Gallery GIBS, 26 Melville Road, Illovo, Johannesburg. 7 Feb - 5 April, the Goethe-Institut South Africa, Standard Gauteng [email protected] www.gibs.co.za Bank Art Gallery and Goodman Gallery present the new exhibition “Extra!” featuring video installation & visual art by Johannesburg Grahams Fine Art Gallery acclaimed South African artist Candice Breitz. 29 March – 29 April, “Essential Marks” by Cnr of Simmonds & Frederick Str.’s, Jhb. Absa Art Gallery André Van Vuuren. T. 011 631 1889 [email protected] 23 March – 12 April, Absa L’Atelier Regional exhibition. Unit 46, Broadacres Lifestyle Centre, Cnr Cedar & Valley www.standardbankarts.co.za Absa Towers North, 161 Main Street, Jhb. T. 011 350 5139 Rds, Broadacres, Fourways, Jhb. T. 011 465 9192 [email protected] www.absa.co.za [email protected] www.grahamsgallery.co.za Stephan Welz & Company 24 – 26 April, Auction of Decorative & Fine Arts, Alice Art 16 Halifax Ceramics, Silver, Furniture, Jewellery & Books. 1 – 15 April, the Ernst de Jong Academy of Fine Art Works by Michael Heyns, Leon Muller, Braam van Wijk, 13 Biermann Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg. Exhibition. The weekend of 21&22 April, Glendine Marina Louw, Mimi van der Merwe and other artists can be T. 011 880-3125 [email protected] and 28&29 April, Giorgio Trobec. viewed by appointment in Johannesburg at 16 Halifax Str, www.stephanwelzandco.co.za 217 Drive Str, Ruimsig. T. 083 331 8466/ 083 377 1470 Bryanston. Dana MacFarlane 082 784 6695 [email protected] www.aliceart.co.za [email protected] www.16halifaxart.co.za Stevenson Johannesburg 1 March - 6 April, “Black Lines” sculpture, painting and Bag Factory In Toto installation by Serge Alain Nitegeka. 30 March – 5 April, “S A S” an exhibition by visiting artists 1 March – 10 April, “Creation” by James Delaney will fea- 4 April - 18 May, “Land Of Cockaigne” 10 large new and Fiona Flynn, Kate Tarratt Cross, Mark Thomann, Victoria ture his oil and acrylic aerial views of landscapes, as well as recent paintings by Deborah Poynton. Udondian and the winner of the his lithographs produced at the Artist’s Press. 62 Juta Street, Braamfontein, Jhb. T. 011 326 0034 2012 David Koloane Award Jarrett Erasmus. Opening 12 April, “Translations: Art into Jewellery” Top [email protected] www.stevenson.info 10 Mahlatini Street, Fordsburg. T. 011 834 9181 South African artists: Karel Nel, Senzeni Marasela, Walter [email protected] www.bagfactoryart.org.za Oltmann, Diana Hyslop, Loren Kaplan, Norman Catherine, Strauss & Co. Michael Frampton, Faiza Galdhari, Dylan Lewis, Marco Fine Art Auctioneers & Consultants. Bailey Seippel Gallery Cianfanelli, Wayne Barker and Don Searle have col- Country Club Johannesburg, Corner Lincoln Rd & 18 Feb – 22 April, “Call and Response” by Cedric Nunn laborated with the Schwartz Jewellers to create art-inspired Woodlands Drive, Woodmead. T. 079 407 5140 show-cases iconic images from 30 years of his career. jewellery that is to be displayed alongside artworks by [email protected] www.straussart.co.za Arts on Main, 260 cnr Fox & Berea, CBD Johannesburg these highly acclaimed artists. C. 071 227 0910 www.baileyseippel.co.za 6 Birdhaven Centre, 66 St Andrew Str, Birdhaven. T. 011 447 6543 www.intotogallery.co.za SA ART TIMES. April 2012 19 GALLERY GUIDE | GAUTENG, MPUMALANGA
UJ Art Gallery www.artsassociationpta.co.za tiss, Wenning, Barker and Boonzaaier. 11 – 25 April, “Drawings” a solo exhibition by Louise Hall. Until December in the South Gallery, “A Story of South Cnr Kingsway & University Rd, Auckland Park, Jhb. Fried Contemporary African Art” a selection of artworks from the permanent T. 011 559 2099 [email protected] 17 March - 14 April, “Terra nullius: no-man’s land” Tribute collection of the Museum. www.uj.ac.za/artscentre artist: Willem Boshoff. Pieter Swanepoel, Sarel Petrus, Until December in the East Gallery, “Abstract Art” a selec- Pauline Gutter, Christiaan Harris & Lisa Allen. tion of abstract artworks from the permanent collection of The White House Gallery 28 April - 26 May, “Terra incognita: unknown territories” the Museum. The gallery has a wide ranging portfolio featuring renowned Tribute artist: Minnette Vári. Frikkie Eksteen, Eric Duplan, Until December in the Glass Gallery, “Corobrik Collection” masters such as Chagall, Marini, Miro, Moore, Portway, Celia de Villiers, Christiaan Harris & Berna Thom. a selection of ceramics, representing the development of Pasmore, Stella, Picasso, Dine & Hockney - to name a few. 9 June - 7 July, “Terra pericolosa: dangerous grounds” studio ceramics and the work of traditional rural potters of Also the more affordable works of up and coming artists Tribute artist: Diane Victor. Diek Grobler , Gwenneth Miller , South Africa over the past 30 years is on display. in Britain and France, along with globally acclaimed South Carolyn Parton , Sybrand Wiechers, Keith Dietrich, Until December, “Study Collection” art media and tech- African artists. Shop G11 Thrupps Centre,Oxford Road, Karin Preller & Paul Cooper. niques are illustrated in the Information Centre. Illovo,Johannesburg. T. 011 268 2115 430 Charles St, Brooklyn, Pretoria. T. 012 346 0158 Cnr Schoeman and Wessels Str, Arcadia Park, Arcadia, [email protected] www.thewhitehousegallery.co.za [email protected] www.friedcontemporary.com Pretoria.T.012 344 1807/8 [email protected] www.pretoriaartmuseum.co.za Front Room Art Pretoria Viewing by appointment in April. Works by a wide variety Sandton Auctioneers of artists, including new work by Lucas Bambo, Laurel Fine Art, Furniture, Carpets & Collectables. Alette Wessels Kunskamer Holmes and Braam van Wijk. 116 Kate Ave Rietondale. Showroom: 367 Lynnwood Rd, Menlo Park, Pretoria. The Alette Wessels Kunskamer operates as an Art Gallery Jennifer Snyman 082 451 5584 T. 012 460 6000 [email protected] and Art Consultancy, specialising in South African art [email protected] www.frontroomart.co.za www.sandtonauctioneers.com as an investment, dealing in Old Masters, and selected contemporary art. Maroelana Centre, 27 Maroelana Str, Gallery Michael Heyns St Lorient Fashion and Art Gallery Maroelana, Pretoria. T. 012 346 0728 The Gallery has moved to 194 Haley Str, Weavind Park, 25 Feb – 10 April, a group exhibition entitled “Kaleidoscope: [email protected] www.artwessels.co.za Pretoria. T. 012 804 0869 The Energy of Colour” [email protected] www.michaelheyns.co.za 492 Fehrsen Street, Brooklyn Circle, Brooklyn, Pretoria. Association of Arts Pretoria T. 012 4600284 [email protected] www.stlorient.co.za 21 March - 11 April, “In Transit” an exhibition of fine art Pretoria Art Museum photography by Alet Pretorius, Liza van Deventer, Theana 27 March - 29 July in the Henry Preiss Hall, “Lady Michaelis UNISA Art Gallery Breugem and Lisa Hnatowicz. Walkabout: Bequest” a selection of 17th-century Dutch paintings from 13 March – 5 April, “Messages and Meaning” a touring Saturday 31 March at 11h00. the Michaelis Bequest will be on view. exhibition of selected artworks from the MTN Art Collection. 31 March - 18 April, “Governing bodies” an exhibition of Until July in the North Gallery “Resistance Art & Landscape Kgorong Building, Ground Floor, Main Campus, Preller Str, three dimensional works in mixed media by Art” A selection of artworks by Resistance artists such as Pretoria.T. 012 441 5683 [email protected] Erica Schoeman. Walkabout: Saturday 14 April at 11h00. Magadlela, Martins, Dumile, Hodgkins and Kentridge are www.unisa.ac.za/gallery 173 Mackie Str, Nieuw Muckleneuk, Pretoria. on display in the North Gallery. Also on display is a broad T. 012 346 3100 [email protected] selection of landscape art by artists such as Pierneef, Bat-
20 SA ART TIMES. April 2012 NORTH WEST, MPUMALANGA | GALLERY GUIDE North West Mpumalanga White River The Artists’ Press Potchefstroom Dullstroom Professional collaboration, printing and publishing of original hand-printed artists lithographs, by the Artists’ NWU Gallery Art @ sixty seven Press. Also artists books, monotypes & letterpress prints, 22 March - 11 May “Playpen by Roger Ballen” A selection of fine art, ceramics and blown glass art pieces, particularly for artists working in SA.Waterfield Farm near Photography and installation by Roger Ballen. by well-known local artists. White River, T. 013 751 3225 www.artists-press.net North-West University Gallery, Building E7, NWU Shop no9, 67 Naledi St, Dullstroom, Mpumulanga. Potchefstroom Campus, Hoffman Str, Potchefstroom. T. 013 254 0335 [email protected] The Loop Art Foundry & Sculpture Gallery T. 018 299 4341 email: [email protected] www.shopat67.com A collaboration and network for the avid art patron and collector as well as a full service facility for the artist. This NWU Botanical Gardens Gallery Dimitrov Art Gallery is the place where you will find a unique and superior item 22 March - 11 May, “Miniatures Exhibition” Group show. Lifestyle Complex, shop no.4 on Cnr. Teding Van Berkhout or have something commissioned that you have always North-West University Botanical Gardens Gallery & Hugenote/ Naledi Street, Dullstroom, Mpumalanga envisioned. Casterbridge Complex Corner R40 & T. 018 299 2753 email: [email protected] T. 013 254 0524 C. 082 679 5698 Numbi Roads White River T. 013 758 2409
[email protected] www.dimitrovartgallery.co.za [email protected] www.tlafoundry.co.za
The New Dimitrov Art Gallery The White River Gallery Send your listings to: Situated in the Trams Alley shop no.1, along the R 540 24 March – 12 April, “Going Home” paintings and ( Naledi Drive ). Opening exhibition “Expression of photographic landscapes by Vanessa Berlein. Casterbridge [email protected] Freedom” by renowned artist Dimitrov. Centre, R 40 Cnr. of Hazyview & Numbi Gate Rd, White [email protected] www.dimitrovartgallery.co.za River. C. 083 675 8833 [email protected]
Coming of Age: 21 years of Artist Proof Studio 6th May 2012 : A public lecture by William Kentridge 2:00 - 3:00pm / Opening reception at 3:30pm by Sibongile Khumalo
Coming of Age is a retrospective exhibition of offered the space and opportunity to reach their 6th May for a public lecture by William Kentridge Artist Proof Studio (APS) which celebrates 21 full potential. Editions of historic and current at 2pm, followed by the opening of the exhibition years of printmaking in Newtown. The exhibition Artist Proof Studio artists will be showcased in by Sibongile Khumalo. APS looks forward to host- will open on 6th May 2012 at the Johannesburg 18 uniquely curated spaces within the Johan- ing members of the public at various events dur- Art Gallery (JAG). This event will be a unique nesburg Art gallery. The exhibition will include the ing the exhibition and will hold a series of lectures, opportunity to experience the talent and energy works of Philemon Hlungwane, Nelson Makamo, printmaking demonstrations, and walkabouts of the artists at Artist Proof Studio as well as Lehlogonolo Mashaba, Lucas Nkgweng, during the month of May at the Johannesburg Art other established artists who have supported the Kim Berman and many emerging talents. New gallery and at Artist Proof Studio. studio’s growth over the last 21 years. releases of editions from collaborating artists in- There will be regular updates on the website: Artist Proof Studio, a community based printmak- clude William Kentridge, Diane Victor, Wim Botha, www.artistproofstudio.co.za or for more info ing studio, partners with corporates, patrons, Norman Catherine, Paul Edmunds, Gerhard Marx, contact Tiny at [email protected] or Noli at foundations, artists and individuals to create an Colbert Mashile, Chris Diedericks, Kudzanai [email protected]. environment in which talented young artists are Chiurai and others. Please join us on Sunday the Closing 6th July 2012 the loop art foundry t 27(0)13 7582409 f 27(0)11 5075747 [email protected] www.theloopartfoundry.co.za & www.thelooponline.co.za striving in our passion towards excellence
SA ART TIMES. April 2012 21
BARBARA TYRRELL / ARTIST PROFILE | ART TIMES Barbara Tyrrell and The Quest For The ‘Unfathomable’
Make sure that you log onto: www.ezakwantu.com to view more of Barbara’s most amazing life. All artwork from the Campbell Collection
By Lloyd Pollak her watercolors. She infused dry ethnology with a ing the garb of over twenty-five different tribes. A verve and glamour that immediately captured the public photograph reveals her standing beside her beloved There could be no more eloquent testimony to the imagination. caravan, a dashing, trousered blonde presenting her tragedy of colonialism’s devastating assault upon the What made Barbara so aware of the physical beauty of long legged self with the fastidious elegance of a Vogue indigenous tribal cultures of our country than the work black people and the splendor of their material culture model on safari. of Barbara Tyrrell who recorded a world that has now when most South African whites viewed ‘natives’ with been almost completely obliterated. disdain? The adventurous Barbara was indeed a mould-breaker and tear-away. Although she married and bore a Drive the length and breadth of our land, and never will Participation in the ceremonies of the Zulu people, a su- son, nothing deflected her from her task. Her deep you chance upon anyone clad in the tribal attire she perb command of their language, and a close familiarity respect for African culture and profound familiarity with rescued from oblivion. Today her watercolor records with their culture, were an established Tyrrell family Zulu language and customs enabled her to win the con- of the vanished glories of African costume seem like tradition. During the Zulu king, Cetshwayo’s state visit fidence of her sitters who readily divulged how costume the scenographic fantasies of some brilliant, Surrealist to Queen Victoria in 1882, her grandfather acted as silently relayed copious information about the rank of stage designer. Take ‘Ndebele Bride, Middelburg, his interpreter, and he also wrote a serious study of the her sitters, their marital status, age, gender, occupa- Transvaal’ for example. Here the body and head indigenous tribes, their lore, customs and beliefs. Her tion and economic condition. This sartorial language disappear behind a blanket and a heavily beaded hood, father too excelled at the language, and, for a time, he relayed copious classificatory information. In the case and the one anatomical detail that we can still discern, worked as an interpreter in the Department of Native of women, it identified the tribe they belonged to, a diminutive hand, supports a purely ornamental black Affairs. Barbara was raised amidst the Zulu, and she whether they were pubescent or pre-pubescent, ready umbrella. The mundanity of this prosaic object, insists that “Zulu was our family language, the first I for courtship, of marriageable age, or betrothed, brides, and the weird extravagance of the costume, create learned, and something I spoke every day with my married, mothers, mature matrons or widows. an unforgettable juxtaposition in which cultures and siblings, parents, the servants and the people living continents collide. Is this not the kind of wildly exotic nearby.” I visited the artist in her Fish Hoek home, and and bizarre caprice that Leon Bakst might have dreamt Her parents moved in circles well disposed to the discovered that – far from being a daunting grande up for les Ballet Russes? indigenous tribes, interested in their history, and keen dame – Barbara is an entrancingly droll and whimsical to honor their customs and etiquette, and it was to centenarian with a sense of fun so infectious that we Tyrell’s brush reveals the same passion for unexpected this end that her father insisted his children expressed constantly dissolved into unseemly fits of giggling. combinations of dazzling colors and the riotous visual themselves in an impeccably pure and formal Zulu, When the worthy burghers of Eshowe learned that intricacy of pattern piled on pattern as the great Rus- employing all the appropriate verbal courtesies and she accepted Zulu hospitality, spent time in kraals, sian’s, and, although she intended her work to be no honorifics. Barbara confided that, now that she is living participated in rituals, and even - horror of horrors more than a painstakingly accurate record of traditional in the Cape, what she misses most about Natal is “the - danced with them, her mother was admonished for tribal clothing, her artistry is everywhere apparent. music of the language, its dignity, warmth, softness and “condoning such bad form”, and roundly told that such The way she floats her figures upon the ground, the flow.” familiarity with blacks was “letting down the side” and perfect balance between solids and voids and the “just not cricket”. spatial play whereby heads, arms and feet constantly The artist vividly remembers the war dance her father Back in the patriarchal mid 20th century, there was erupt their confining borders, give her sitters vitality and arranged in honor of the visiting Prince of Wales when strong prejudice against women, particularly in the a decisive silhouettesque impact. Nothing is allowed she was but a toddler. The colonial audience was unenlightened backwaters of the Empire, and Barbara to interfere with her masterful delineation of attire. covered up from ankle to chin in elaborate Edwardian was patronized by professional anthropologists and Although her titles always cite the name of the sitter, as formal attire more appropriate to a Mayfair drawing ethnographers. “To these learned men, I was neither in “Bushveldt Blonde, Singceni, Swaziland”, the blonde room, than the sweltering Zululand sun. Fierce a doctor, nor an MA, just another ‘little woman’. They is not allowed to upstage her dress, for these are like- ululations, booming drums and the pounding feet of the did not take me, or my work, seriously, and felt I should nesses, rather than portraits, and her sitters are given Zulus warriors made the dust fly, and the climax came have rather stayed at home tending to my household the dreamy vacancy of a window-dresser’s dummy when the entire impi charged forward brandishing kier- duties.” With rare exceptions, the artist depicts only single ies, spears and shields, and causing many a terrified Those unfortunate enough to move amidst academics figures, and these are isolated within a void, with no spectator to take flight. This vision of the mystery of will be familiar with their purse-lipped elitism and dis- cast shadows, and no suggestions of a setting beyond darkest Africa imbued Barbara with an intense yearning missiveness. Until about six years ago scholars and the occasional tuft of grass. to fathom the ‘unfathomable’, and plumb the mysteries curators sniffily dismissed Barbara Tyrrell as a mere of the Zulu psyche. draftswomen devoid of any artistic skill. No Amazonian The result is that Singceni’s costume positively After studying Fine Art and a stint of journalism, Barbara feminist art historian gallantly leapt to her defense, no resplends. The colors assume a blazing intensity, realized that she had a vocation, and the purpose of her Boadicea at UCT, no Valkyrie from Wits. Barbara only and the yellow red and black checker board patterns life became the recording of traditional tribal apparel at ceased to be a trespasser in the groves of Academe of her robes, fall around her body in folds, setting up a the eleventh hour - before the pressures of westerniza- when Haydon Proud, saluted her aesthetic strengths in hypnotic Op-art shimmer and vibration. tion and Nationalist political interference caused them to a few brief, but pithy, words in his seminal “Revisions: entirely disappear. She soon found a mentor in Alfred Expanding the Narrative of South African Art” in 2006. Carol Kauffmann, curator of African art at the SANG Duggan-Cronin, an authority on African anthropology, claims that “the thoroughness and precision of Tyrell’s and befriended Dr Killie Campbell, the notable collector This set off a trend. The Constitutional Court acquired representations of tribal dress” make her “unprec- of tribal Africana, who became her stalwart patron. The some of her work in 2006: the order of Ikhamanga was edented and without parallel in South Africa.” What travel writer, T.V. Bulpin also came within Barbara’s bestowed upon her in 2008, and now her new found elevates her oeuvre far above the conventional ethno- orbit, and this was the set amongst whom she chose status as an artist, rather than a mere illustrator, has graphic record is her complete avoidance of scientific to move rather than the torpid suburban Durbanites been commemorated by the current SANG exhibition aridity. Her love for her sitters and their culture shine basking in the sunshine of the Raj. which opened on her hundredth birthday. As she forth from every image. As a young woman, Tyrrell left the gathering in her wheelchair surrounded by an studied fashion in London, and this educated her eye, The artist converted a Chevrolet van into a mobile adoring retinue of near and dear, I saw her smiling with sensitizing her to nuance and detail, and enabling her home, and for decades she defied convention by travel- delight that, at last, she had been granted the secure to inject the panache of a gifted fashion illustrator into ling alone all over South Africa and beyond, document- niche in history that she had so long deserved.
SA ART TIMES. April 2012 23 ART TIMES | ARTIST PROFILE / BARBARA TYRRELL
Barbara with School friends, B began drawing from a young age, she explains her passion was so strong, that it invariably annoyed boyfriends in high school. B working as an illustrator, London.
Jan 1944. Barbara’s first unaccompanied trip to the amaNgwane, a Zulu speaking clan living along the Drakensberg. As fuel was rationed, she would set up camp for a month. B with mask.
(Above B on a field trip, (Right) Banukile with B, Barbara explains that she owes more to Banukile then any other person, as it was Banukile who exposed her to Africa and its ‘Tribal People’.
(Above) Barbara would make hundreds of drawings while on field trips, she would also pay her sitters which was unusual at the time. ‘First Born’ Xhosa type. Peddie Area 1948 Male witchdoctor. Xhosa type. Peddie area 1948. Barbara, Pete (Barbara’s son) and Ottie (the dog) 1954 BARBARA TYRRELL / ARTIST PROFILE | ART TIMES
Barbara with School friends, B began drawing from a young age, she explains her passion was so strong, that it invariably annoyed boyfriends in high school. B working as an illustrator, London.
Drakensberg - Natal - driving For the most part Barbara travelled alone, seldom slept under a roof, but always camped nearby one. Trading stores were ideal camp- grounds because they offered security and were great meeting places for the natives. There she would hear of special events such as weddings, funerals, and initia- tions, which afforded her many opportunities to draw and paint ceremonial costume. (Bottom left and right) Barbara married Pete Jurgins, and engineer who assisted Barbara with her career. Their Caravan was the obvious choice for a wedding car! (Top right) Bushveld blond,Singceni – Swaziland, 1949 Watercolour. Campbell Collections, UKZN. Jan 1944. Barbara’s first unaccompanied trip to the amaNgwane, a Zulu speaking clan living along the Drakensberg. As fuel was rationed, she would set up camp for a month. B with mask.
(Above B on a field trip, (Right) Banukile with B, Barbara explains that she owes more to Banukile then any other person, as it was Banukile who exposed her to Africa and its ‘Tribal People’. Kweta Boy. Xhosa Type. Peddie.1948. Barbara on a field trip.
Male witchdoctor. Xhosa type. Peddie area 1948. Barbara, Pete (Barbara’s son) and Ottie (the dog) 1954 ART TIMES | ARTIST PROFILE / BARBARA TYRRELL
Top: Barbara with Banukile (right) “who became my friend who taught me much about her people. I thank her - for always. She introduced me to many interesting parties and other occasions. We had fun together. She could have writ- ten many books - was a fountain of knowledge - but could not write. Banukile - I thank you for your happy friendship Top: Left X‘MavikindukuNyawuza’ Pondo Matron, gala dress.W. Pondoland, 1946. and for all the information passed onto me - and for the Top Right: Barbara with Hugh Tracey 1954, Below Left: Barbara in her house in Muizenburg shared fun. Banu - bless you wherever you are. Below Right Fooling around with Pete - Livingstone, Zambia 1950
Below top:Ndebele Bride.Middleburg Tvl.1950. Left below: Kweta Boy, Xhosa Type. Peddie.1948. Middle: Hlonipha Attitude, Amangwane Bride.Winterton. 1949 Below Right: John Mafani’ Xhosa manhood.Peddie area, 1948 BARBARA TYRRELL / ARTIST PROFILE | ART TIMES
(Top and right) Barbara’ big day Thursday 15 March: her 100th Birthday and her opening of her retrospective show at the SA National Gallery. (Below): Barbara’s 100th Birthday cake and well wishers who heartfully sang her Happy birthday in Zulu and English. Hanlie Kotze
Ek kan voel dat jou siel soos sade vir altyd al Hanlie has been painting professionally for fi fteen poetry with painting, the result becomes even years. The daughter of an artist and gallery owner more so.” bestaan grew up in Aliwal North and started writing poetry at school. She has always been fascinated by the Hanlie composes the occasional phrase or a word interpolation of her word art and her visual art. coupling, just to help her capture the mood she wants to convey by the painting. “Painting and Her work is a mixture between surrealistically poetry say the same thing”, she says. “I feel both naive and expressionistic art. She favours are a refl ection of your creative abilities and the symbolism in her paintings to blend with the marriage of the two is very natural. poetry she creates. She is now rated among the pantheon of well Her work requires an extraordinary concentration known South African artists who can hold and dedication. “My work is primarily the their own anywhere in the world. Hanlie Kotze product of my imagination. Art is essentially is also co-owner of the Alice Art gallery in an expression of mood and when you combine Hartbeespoort. Hanlie Kotze
Ek kan voel dat jou siel soos sade vir altyd al Hanlie has been painting professionally for fi fteen poetry with painting, the result becomes even years. The daughter of an artist and gallery owner more so.” bestaan grew up in Aliwal North and started writing poetry at school. She has always been fascinated by the Hanlie composes the occasional phrase or a word interpolation of her word art and her visual art. coupling, just to help her capture the mood she wants to convey by the painting. “Painting and Her work is a mixture between surrealistically poetry say the same thing”, she says. “I feel both naive and expressionistic art. She favours are a refl ection of your creative abilities and the symbolism in her paintings to blend with the marriage of the two is very natural. poetry she creates. She is now rated among the pantheon of well Her work requires an extraordinary concentration known South African artists who can hold and dedication. “My work is primarily the their own anywhere in the world. Hanlie Kotze product of my imagination. Art is essentially is also co-owner of the Alice Art gallery in an expression of mood and when you combine Hartbeespoort. SA ART TIMES. April 2012 29 Kunsgalery STELLENBOSCH Art Gallery Experience the abundance of South African artistic talent by prominent South African Artists.
John Kramer, General store, Pearston oil on canvas, 37cm x 61cm
www.stellenboschartgallery.co.za e-mail: [email protected] [email protected] Tel/Fax: 021 887 8343 Cell: 082 566 4630 / 076 279 2175 34 Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch 2-15-12 SA Art Time Judy Woodbourne.pdf 1 2012/03/07 2:32 PM art times MARCH 2012 3/9/12 3:34 PM Page 1
C M Y CM MY CY CMY K
RUST-EN-VREDE GALLERY 10 Wellington Road, Durbanville Tel +27 (0)21 976 4691 www.rust-en-vrede.com
C
M
Y Hermien van der Merwe CM The Cape Gallery, 60 Church Street seeks MY to expose fine art that is rooted in the South African tradition, work which carries the unique
CY cultural stamp of our continent and yet can touch the imagination of others who view it.
CMY Rotating exhibitions add to the diverse and often eclectic mix of work on show. The Church Street
K walking mall is the oldest in Cape Town.
featured artist: Teresa Decinti OPENING 3 APRIL 2012 TO 3 MAY 2012 THE CAPE Open Mon - fri: 9h30 - 17h00 GALLERY Sat: 10h00 - 14h00 Salon A & B: Izak Vollgraaff & friends 27 21 423 5309 [email protected] Salon C: Hermien van der Merwe www.capegallery .co.za
Composite ONS LAND / OUR LAND An exhibition by Carl Becker and Monique Pelser
Louis Trichard and Makhado 2009 by Carl Becker, Louis Trichard by Pierneef, and Louis Trichard and Makhado 2010 by Monique Pelser
9 April - 12 May 2012
[email protected] 021 8083489/3524
Anthony’s Silberberg Fine Art Cape East Asia Group Jan Vermeiren & Leon de Bliquy
M I C H A E L H A L L P H O T O G R A P H Y SABEX SOUTH AFRICAN BELGIAN INTERNATIONAL ART EXPO 021 461 6344 31 March - 09 April www.mikehallphoto.com Monbijou 36 Church Street Tulbagh Maquette for ‘Swell’ email: [email protected] - Justin Fiske Tel/Fax: 023 230 0100 Mobile: 083 291 6600 Altered Pieces 1 - 29 April 2012
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PAUL SENYOL email: [email protected] ‘The Man of Dust’ website: www.carmelart.co.za 26 APRIL - 26 MAY wide selection of works by leading South African contemporary artists
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91 KLOOF STREET van der Westhuizen GARDENS, CAPE TOWN etchings 082-679-3906 [email protected] full selection on website www.salon91art.co.za BRETT DEACON 082 661 5732 ELLIOTT 021 790 2604 ART STUDIOS AND GALLERY [email protected] VILLIERSDORP We are the original and first picture hanging company in STUDIO AND GALLERY OF DALE AND MEL ELLIOTT South Africa, established in 1989. Picture Hanging Services VENUE FOR SA’S MOST POPULAR ART COURSES provides a professional service
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Framing Place 46 Lower Main Road, Observatory, 7925 Tel: 021 447 3988 Read 3-5 new stories Daily [email protected] www.framingplace.co.za With unwavering commitment to quality and timeous delivery, SA ART TIMES ONLINE our Key Services include: • Custom colour wood frames • Conservation Framing • Framing of art, objects, mirrors & prints www.arttimes.co.za • Stretcher frames GALLERY GUIDE | WESTERN CAPE / CAPE TOWN 60 Church Str, CT. T. 021 423 5309 Woodstock. T. 021 462 7573/4 Western Cape [email protected] www.capegallery.co.za [email protected] www.goodman-gallery.com Carmel Art Hout Bay Gallery Dealers in Fine art, exclusive distributers of New artworks by Sarah Danes Jarrett, David Kuijers, Cape Town Pieter van der Westhuizen etchings. Koos De Wet and many more. Open 7 days a week. Cape Quarter Square, 27 Somerset Rd, Green Point. 71 Victoria Ave, Hout Bay. Absolut Art Gallery T. 021 4213333 [email protected] www.carmelart.co.za T. 021 790 3618 F. 021 790 3898 Permanent exhibition with the best Masters and [email protected] www.houtbaygallery.co.za Contemporary artists. Namely : JH Pierneef, Gerard Cedar Tree Gallery Sekoto, Hugo Naude, Adriaan Boshoff, Frans Oerder, Contemporary Fine Art Gallery at Rodwell House. Infin Art Gallery Maurice Van Essche, Tinus De Jongh, Gerard Bhengu, Rodwell Rd, St. James, CT. T. 021 797 9880 A gallery of work by local artists. Ephraim Ngatane, Cecil Skotnes, JEA Volschenk, [email protected] www.cedartreegallery.co.za Wolfe Str, Chelsea Village, Wynberg. Conrad Theys, William Kentridge, to name a few. T. 021 761 2816 & Buitengracht Str. CT. T. 021 423 2090 Shop 43 Willowbridge Lifestyle Centre, Carl Cronje Drive, The Cellar Private Gallery [email protected] www.infinart.co.za Tyger Valley, Bellville. T. 021 914 2846 The Cellar Private Gallery of Art deals exclusively in original [email protected] www.absolutart.co.za. & investment art, offering works by a variety of renowned & Irma Stern Museum upcoming SA artists. 17 March - 11 April, “Rooted” featuring paintings by Art b 12 Imhoff Str, Welgemoed, Bellville T. 021 913 4189 Claudia Gurwitz. Cecil Rd, Rosebank, CT. T. 021 685 5686 14 March – 11 April, Absa L’Atelier Regional Exhibition. [email protected] www.thecellargallery.co.za [email protected] www.irmastern.co.za 02 May – 18 June, Selected prints from the CAP Collection. The Arts Association of Bellville, The Library Centre, Christie’s International Auctioneers. Iziko SA National Gallery Carel van Aswegan Str, Bellville. T. 021 918 2301 Juliet Lomberg, Independent Consultant. T. 021 761 2676 Until 10 April 2012, Renowned British conceptual and land [email protected] www.artb.co.za/gallery.htm [email protected] www.christies.com artist, Richard Long, presents a solo exhibition of works made in southern Africa over the last 50 years. Artvark Gallery Christopher Møller Art Until 13 May, “Listening to Distant Thunder: On show in April, Watercolours by Fawa Conradie of 29 March – 12 April, a solo exhibition for artist M.J Lourens The Art of Peter Clarke” Karoo landscapes. Open 7 days a week 9-6. entitled “Peninsula” will feature scenes in and around Cape 16 March – 8 July, 48 Main Rd, Kalk Bay Tel 021 788 5584 Town. 7 Kloofnek Road, Gardens, C T. T. 021 422 1599 A Centenary Celebration of the Life and Work of [email protected] www.artvark.org [email protected] Barbara Tyrrell. www.christophermollerart.co.za 25 Queen Victoria Str, CT. T. 021 467 4660 AVA [email protected] www.iziko.org.za Opening 10 April @ 6pm, “Dripping Away Unattended into Erdmann Contemporary & Photographers Gallery za Shadows” a series of bold and compelling paintings by 21 March – 28 April, “Chinese Paper-Cuts” paper cutting Iziko Michaelis Collection Odette Marais and “Wired World” a photographic explora- from Shaanxi a group exhibition of 51 works. Ongoing, Dutch treat: Dutch works from the 17th–20th tion by Catherine Sassoon as well as “Inja Elele” is a 63 Shortmarket Street, CT. T. 021 422 2762 centuries in Iziko collections photography exhibition produced through the Iliso Labantu [email protected] Iziko Michaelis Collection, Old Town House, Greenmarket project. Iliso Labantu is a not-for-profit organisation started www.erdmanncontemporary.co.za Square, CT. T. 021 481 3800 [email protected] by Photographers who live and work in townships around www.iziko.org.za Cape Town. On show until 4 May. Association for Visual Everard Read CT Arts, 35 Church Str, CT. T.021 424 7436 [email protected] 22 March – 5 April, “Morning, Noon & Night” Scenes of Iziko Castle of Good Hope www.ava.co.za Cape Town and the beautiful Western Cape painted From 26 Feb 2012 to 26 Feb, 2013, en plein air by UK painter Nick Botting. “Fired” an exhibition of South African ceramics. The Avital Lang Gallery Opening Thursday 19 April @ 18:30, new works by Buitenkant Str, opposite the Grand Parade, CT. New at the gallery Shannon Phillips, Rhona Kestan, Adele David Bromley until 3 May. T. 21 464 1262 [email protected] www.iziko.org.za Golding and many more. The gallery is also available for 3 Portswood Rd, Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, CT. new up and coming artist to come in and display their work, T. 021 418 4527 [email protected] Johans Borman Fine Art we also continue to do our ceramic painting classes. www.everard-read-capetown.co.za Currently showing a selection of works by SA Masters Two Oceans House, Surrey Place, Mouille Point, CT. Walter Battiss, Erik Laubscher, Peter Clarke, Cecil Skotnes, (Next to Newport Deli) T. 021 439 2124 34 Fine Art Pranas Domsaitis and Sydney Kumalo, as well as new [email protected] www.avitallang.com 27 March – 28 April, “Between Ourselves” a Solo Exhibition works by contemporary artists Hussein Salim, Walter by Jade Doreen Waller. Meyer, Hennie Niemann Jnr, Jacobus Kloppers and Barnard Gallery 2nd Floor, The Hills Building, Buchanan Square, 160 Sir Jaco Sieberhagen. 14 March – 11 April, “In Living Colour” by Ndikhumbule Lowry Rd, Woodstock. T.021 461 1863 16 Kildare Road, Newlands, CT. T. 021 683 6863. Ngqinambi & Lonwabo Kilani. [email protected] www.34fineart.com [email protected] www.johansborman.co.za Opening 18 April, “Just a Matter of Time” a solo exhibition by Jaco van Schalkwyk. 55 Main St, Newlands. The Framery Art Gallery Kalk Bay Modern T. 021 671 1666 [email protected] 25 March - 15 April, “Sea the Point Darling” an exhibition Opening Thursday 6:30 pm 12 April, a solo exhibition of www.barnardgallery.com and auction of paintings by performing artists! This exhibi- recent works by Nicolaas Maritz, titled “Lucky Packet No.2” tion is co-curated with performer Godfrey Johnson and will on show until 12 May. 1st Floor, Olympia Buildings, Blank Projects. benefit The Darling Trust and Art department of Sea Point 136 Main Rd, Kalk Bay. T.021 788 6571 Opening 12 April @ 18:00, Paintings by Jan-Henri Booyens High School. Participating artists include [email protected] www.kalkbaymodern.com on show until 12 May. Evita Bezuidenhout, Karen Jayne, Roland Perold, 113-115 Sir Lowry Rd, Woodstock, CT. C.072 507 5951 Godfrey Johnson, Fiona du Plooy, Godfrey Johnson, Lindy van Niekerk Art Gallery [email protected] www.blankprojects.com Megan Furniss, Didi Moses, Emile Minnie among others. A large selection of artworks by new and prominent South Thank you to our first sponsor The Artist’s Friend. African artists and SA old Masters. Brundyn & Gonsalves (formely iArt) 67g Regent Rd, Seapoint. T. 021 434 5022 C. 0781227793 31 Kommandeur Rd, Welgemoed, Bellville. 20 March - 2 May, “A History of Failure” a variety of media, [email protected] T. 021 913 7204/5 [email protected] www.artpro.co.za including lithographs, sculpture and found objects by Chad Rossouw. 71 Loop Str, CT. T. 021 424 5150 Gill Allderman Gallery The Lovell Gallery [email protected] www.brundyngonsalves.com The Gill Allderman Gallery is dedicated to promoting some 1 March – 14 April, “Arno Plus+” Arno Carstens brings his of South Africa’s valuable talent. Having moved into cyber long lost love for painting to the fore and to the public for the Cape Gallery space, but based in Kenilworth, Cape Town, the gallery will first time in his first solo exhibition held at The Lovell Gallery 25th March - 14th April, a group exhibition of works by be specialising in home and corporate visits. in Woodstock. Visitors to the gallery can enjoy Carstens’ Ariadne Petousis, Rosie Sturgis and Teresa Decinti show- C.083 556 2540 [email protected] visual as well as vocal talent in a unique “art plus music; ing their sense of ‘African-ness’ Each artist has close ties to www.alldermangallery.co.za Arno plus friends” experience. this land, the flora and fauna contained with it. 24 April – 19 May: Tanisha Bhana, ‘Transience’. Her work Opening on Sunday 15th April at 4.30 p.m. “Bright Horizons Goodman Gallery Cape employs a fascination in deliberately destroying digital im- - Inspiration: Cape Town” a solo exhibition of recent work by 10 March – 14 April, “Throwing the Floor” paintings by Lisa ages in order to create aged, dreamlike visions of futuristic Sybille Lampe, on show until 5 May. Brice. 3rd Floor, Fairweather House, 176 Sir Lowry Rd, landscapes, to place the viewer in the position of looking 34 SA ART TIMES. April 2012 CAPE TOWN / WESTERN CAPE | GALLERY GUIDE back at our future. The reception evening will be on Rose Korber Art South African Print Gallery 26 April and all are welcome. 1 – 30 April, extension of ‘Recent Works’ by leading, A wide selection of fine art prints by South African masters 139 Albert Rd, Woodstock. T. 021 820 5505 contemporary South African artists. A comprehensive and and contemporary printmakers. [email protected] www.lovellgallery.co.za varied overview, covering the spectrum 31 March- 26 April, John Moore exhibition. of what is currently being produced. Includes works by 28 April-24 May, Theo Paul Vorster exhibition. Martin Osner Fine Art Gallery William Kentridge, Richard Smith, Robert Slingsby, JP 109 Sir Lowry Rd, Woodstock, CT. T. 021 462 6851 16 March – 10 April, “Collaborative Exhibition” Meyer, John Kramer, Deborah Bell, Penelope Stutterheime, [email protected] www.printgallery.co.za featuring three artists: Klaus Tiedge, wildlife photographer Pamela Stretton and Georgia Lane. extraordinaire, will be unveiling his latest 2012 Pride Of Hours: Monday-Friday: 9 am – 5 pm. Weekends and public SMAC Art Gallery, Cape Town Africa collection; Sandy Mclea has broken new boundaries holidays by appointment. 48 Sedgemoor Rd, Camps Bay, 1 April - 30 May, “Collection 16” a group show. with his work of dramatic seascape imagery shot along the CT. T. 021 438 9152 C.082 781 6144 In-Fin-Art Building,Buitengracht Str, CT. T. 021 422 5100 shores of Whales and Cape Town; and Martin Osner will be [email protected] www.rosekorberart.com [email protected] www.smacgallery.com showcasing a new body of work which he photographed in Namibia last year where he presents simplistic high impact Rudd’s Auctioneers StateoftheArt.co.za Online Art Gallery imagery portraying derelict windswept structures. Antique, Fine and Decorative Art. A curated online art gallery bringing you original and afford- Shop A14, Cape Quarter Piazza, 72 Waterkant Str, 87 Bree Street, CT. T.021 426 0384 able artwork created by selected Fine Arts students and Green Point, CT. T. 021 790 6494 [email protected] www.rudds.co.za graduates emerging from South Africa’s most prestigious [email protected] www.martinosner.com art schools. With an extensive selection of styles and Rust-en-Vrede Gallery genres to reflect your taste, budget and requirements, and Red! The Gallery 3 April – 3 May, In Salon A & B: Izak Vollgraaff and friends: a range of services to support your choices, buying art Derric van Rensburg is rated as one of South Africa’s top Odds & Ends, in Salon C: Hermien van der Merwe: Still Life couldn’t be any simpler. T. 0724709272 practising artists. His son Ryan Van Rensburg is a exhibition and In The Cube: Ceramics by Ralph Johnson [email protected] www.StateoftheArt.co.za successful artist in his own right. The gallery will host both & students. father & son at a Paint Jam style exhibition on Tuesday 3 10 Wellington Rd, Durbanville. T.021 976 4691 Stephan Welz & Company April @ 7pm. Three course seated dinner in the gallery. [email protected] www.rust-en-vrede.com Auctioneers of Decorative and Fine Arts. R200 per head.Also Thursday 10 May @ 7pm, Joint exhibi- The Great Cellar, The Alphen Hotel, Alphen Drive, Constan- tion featuring Michael Waters & David Kuijers. The gallery Salon 91 tia. T. 021 794 6461 will exhibit a great new body of work by these two great art- 4 – 21 April, “The River” by Louis Minnaar & Maaike [email protected] ists. It will be a live Paint Jam style exhibition with a seated Bakker. These two Pretoria visual artists present a twisting www.stephanwelzandco.co.za dinner in the gallery.R200 per head for a three course meal. narrative exhibition of collaborative visual works. Steenberg Village shopping centre ,Reddam Avenue, Tokai. 26 April – 26 May, “The Man of Dust” a solo exhibition of T. 021 7010886 [email protected] paintings by Paul Senyol.91 Kloof Str, Gardens, CT. T 021 www.redthegallery.co.za 424 6930 [email protected] www.salon91.co.za
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Oh yes we have a Heaven Pizza Delivery business, ready with a hardgrounded plate and the tools to go, if you want to eat and draw in. We will deliver & collect your drawing and etch it, as well as proof it, and deliver it. To artists sitting making art is like Heaven, hence: Heaven Press
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SA ART TIMES. April 2012 35 GALLERY GUIDE | WESTERN CAPE/ OVERBERG
Stevenson Cape Town Art Amble Hermanus Village Kunstefees. Various galleries participating in and around 4 April - 12 May, a group exhibition “Trade Routes over Ten diverse and unique Galleries all within walking distance Oudtshoorn as well as Calitzdorp, Kruisrivier, De Rust and Time” Ground Floor, Buchanan Building, 160 Sir Lowry Rd, in the heart of Hermanus Village. Four resident artists’ Prince Albert. Tickets available at www.computicket.com Woodstock, CT. T. 021 462 1500 [email protected] studios to visit. Collect your Art Amble Guide at any one For more information contact the Festival Office www.stevenson.info of the Galleries in Main Road or at the Hermanus Tourism T. 044 203 8600 [email protected] Office. Contact Terry Kobus on 083 259 8869 www.absakknk.co.za Strauss & Co. [email protected] Fine Art Auctioneers & Consultants. ArtKaroo Gallery The Oval, 1st Floor Colinton House, 1 Oakdale Rd, Originals Gallery KKNK 2012: The theme for this year is Water, drawing Newlands. T. 021 683 6560 [email protected] The art studio and gallery of Terry Kobus. See the artist inspiration from this strange element’s mystical properties. www.straussart.co.za at work in his studio and view his latest paintings in an There will be some bizarre installations and beautiful intimate gallery space. artworks by artists from the Karoo all exploring this theme. What if the World Gallery Shop 22 Royal Centre, 141 Main Rd, Hermanus. 107 Baron van Reede, Oudtshoorn. T.044 279 1093 8 March – 14 April, “The Truth Lies Here” T. 083 259 8869 [email protected] [email protected] www.artkaroo.co.za solo exhibition by Dan Halter. www.OriginalsHermanus.blogspot.com 208 Albert Rd, Woodstock, CT. T. 021 448 1438 Paarl [email protected] www.whatiftheworld.com Shelley Adams Studio & Gallery A permanent exhibition of artworks by Shelley Adams in her Hout Street Gallery personal studio space. She also offers ongoing art courses, The Hout Street Gallery specialises in South African paint- crit classes and workshops. Franschhoek ings and fine art and offers an extensive range of ceramics, 19A Royal Centre, Main Rd, Hermanus. C. 072 677 6277 sculpture, creative jewellery, glass, crafts and functional art. www.shelley-adams.com Ebony 270 Main Str, Paarl. T. 021 872 5030 Exhibition of South African Masters. Gerard Sekoto, Alexis [email protected] www.houtstreetgallery.co.za Walker Bay Art Gallery Preller, Maud Sumner, George Diederick During, Piketberg View the wide selection of paintings, sculpture & ceramics Gordon Vorster and Ephraim Ngatane. by established as well as up and coming South African art- 11 Huguenot Street, Franschhoek. T. 021 876 4477 AntheA Delmotte Gallery ists. 171 Main Rd, Hermanus. contact: Francois Grobbelaar [email protected] www.ebonydesign.co.za Opening 15 April @ 11am, “Images from the Platteland” 028 312 2928 [email protected] a group show with John Kramer, Clare Menck, Merle de www.walkerbayartgallery.co.za The Gallery at Grande Provence Jager, AntheA Delmotte, Annelie Venter 11 March – 25 April, “Of Honey Thieves and Egg Eaters”, The Old Bioscope, 47 Voortrekkerstr. C. 0732817273 by well known Cape Town based artist, Jop Kunneke. Also Klein Karoo [email protected] in the Project Room & Cathedral a selection of artworks by eminent South African artists will be on show. Sheena Ridley Open Studio and Sculpture Plettenberg Bay Main Rd, Franschhoek. T. 021 876 8630. Garden Sculptures and Paintings [email protected] N9 Langkloof near Uniondale, Klein Karoo T. 083 5892881 The White House www.grandeprovence.co.za [email protected] www.ridley.co.za Opening 2 April at 6pm (Drinks will be served), “Objects of Beauty & Desire” an exhibition of contemporary paintings, Holden Manz Collection Knysna sculptures & ceramics on show until Friday 13 April. Open- New Karin Miller collages, Marie Stander charcoals and a ing Times: 10 am to 4:30 pm Monday to Friday, set of 43 amazing Cecil Skotnes woodcuts are on show at Saturday 9 am to 2 pm. No. 6 Crescent St, Plettenberg Dale Elliott Art Galleries the moment – well worth a visit! Bay. Contact: Jean-Marié 083 412 5211 30 Huguenot Str, Franschhoek T. 021 876 44 02 Leaders of the painting course concept in South Africa! [email protected] www.holdenmanz.com 2 Galleries: Woodmill Lane Shopping Centre & The Knysna Mall T. 044 382 5646 [email protected] Stellenbosch Is Art www.daleelliott.co.za 19 Feb – 16 April, Group Exhibition with paintings by IS Sculpture Deanne Donaldson and Lyn Gilbert, ceramics by A Different Drummer 8 March – July 2012, an exhibition of sculpture by Ian Nicolene Swanepoel and sculpture by Sarel Petrus. An on-going exhibition of traditional African artefacts, photo- Redelinghuys and curated by Ilse Schermers Griesel of IS 16 Huguenot Str, Franschhoek. T. 021 876 8443 graphs, ceramics, sculpture, paintings and objets de vertu. Art will be on show at the Tokara Delicatessen, Helshoogte [email protected] www.is-art.co.za Thesen House, 6 Long Street, Knysna. Road, Banhoek, Stellenbosch. T. 021 876 8443 T. 044 382 5107 [email protected] [email protected] www.is-art.co.za
George Knysna Fine Art Rupert Museum Two Openings on Thursday 5 April: “Long Distance” 28 Sept 2011 – 1 Sept 2012, an extensive selection of Hyatt Regency Oubaai photography by Obie Oberholzer and “Encounters on the works by Willem Strydom consisting of sculptures and From 1 March, “Transitions” a collection of new sculptures Edge” oil paintings by Peter van Straten. unique drawings. by Anton Smit. 406 Herolds Bay Rd,George. Thesen House, 6 Long St. T. 044 382 5107 Stellentia Avenue, Stellenbosch T. 021 888 3344 T. 044 851 1234 [email protected] [email protected] www.finearts.co.za [email protected] www.rupertmuseum.org www.oubaai.regency.hyatt.com Sally Bekker Art Studio Sasol Art Museum Strydom Gallery Ongoing exhibition “Recent Watercolour and Oil Paintings” 2 March - 21 April, Paul Emsley exhibition. Opening Sunday, 1 April @ 11h00, two exhibitions: Upstairs in the Knysna Mall. C.082 342 3943 sally_ 2 March - 21 April, “Klei-Klank” with works by “Circles, Cycles and Seasons” on show until 30 April [email protected] Laura du Toit & Hannelore Olivier. and “Altered Pieces” on show until 29 April. Until end October 2012, “20Stellenbosch”: two decades of 79 Market Str, George. T. 044 874 4027 Langebaan South African Sculpture (inside sculptures) David Brown, [email protected] www.artaffair.co.za Jackson Hlungwani, Noria Mbasa, Collen Maswanganyi, Samson Mudzunga, Meshack Raphalalani & Philip Bay Gallery Rikhotso. 52 Ryneveld Str, Stellenbosch T. 021 808 3691 Hermanus Bay Gallery supports excellent, local artists, many of whom [email protected] are members of S.A.S.A. All mediums exhibited. Abalone Gallery Marra Square, Bree St., Langebaan. Slee Gallery During April in the Main Gallery: Painting, drawing and Contact: Daphne 073 304 8744 15 March – 10 April, “Skin” an exhibition of unique sculpture group show with Christo Coetzee, John Clarke, [email protected] www.baygallery.co.za Jackson Hlungwani, Tadeus Jaroszynski, Judith Mason, metal sculptures by Talitha Deetlefs. Lynette ten Krooden, Carl Roberts and Susanna Swart. Opening 12 April @ 18:30, “Wilko Roon and his portrayal of In the Annex: 14 April - 20 May: Recent works on canvas Oudtshoorn Paternoster People” until 26 April. and on paper by Louis van Heerden. 101 Dorp Street, Stellenbosch. T. 021 887 3385 2 Harbour Rd, The Courtyard, Hermanus. T. 028 313 2935 ABSA KKNK [email protected] www.slee.co.za [email protected] www.abalonegallery.co.za 31 March -7 April, the ABSA Klein Karoo Nasionale 36 SA ART TIMES. April 2012
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WESTERN CAPE | EASTERN CAPE | KZ- NATAL | GALLERY GUIDE
Spier 8 March – 31 May, Tamlin Blake’s exhibition “Altered Yarns” Kwazulu- Natal Eastern Cape presents a series of tapestries woven from re-cycled, handspun newspaper. Durban Alexandria Spier Wine Tasting Venue, R310, Stellenbosch. www.spier.co.za The African Art Centre Quin Gallery & Sculpture Garden Opening 15 April, Artist and Crafter of the Year – Enjoy refreshments under the jacaranda tree while enjoying Stellenbosch Art Gallery Welcome Danca and Xolile Ndlovu. the sculptures of international sculptor Maureen Quin. An extensive selection of paintings, sculpture, handmade 94 Florida Rd, Durban. T. 031 312 3804/5 5 Suid Str, Alexandria, Eastern Cape, following the signs glass & ceramics by selected Western Cape artists are on [email protected] www.afriart.org.za from the main street. offer to the discerning buyer. T. 046 6530121 C. 082 7708000 34 Ryneveld Str, Stellenbosch. T. 021 887 8343 ArtSPACE Durban [email protected] www.quin-art.co.za [email protected] www.stellenboschartgallery.co.za 26 March – 14 April, “Inspiration 2” group exhibition inspired by Durban and surrounds. East London US Art Gallery (University of Stellenbosch) 16 April – 5 May, Paintings by Mbhekeni Derek Mbili and Until 21 April, Paul Emsley, Wordfest 2012 Artist, Retro- “Our Space” - an exhibition of painted drawings Ann Bryant Gallery spective Exhibition. by Caroline Birch. 3 Millar Rd, Stamford Hill, Durban. Weds 11 April @ 13:00 walkabout of the Paul Emsley 29 March -14 April, Eric Eatwell exhibition in the T.031 312 0793 [email protected] Coach House. exhibition, R30 per person. www.artspace-durban.com Cnr of Dorp and Bird Str, Stellenbosch. Opening 19 April at 18h30 in the Coach House charcoal T. 021 808 3524/3489 [email protected] drawings by Valerie Liebenberg and textile art pieces by Au- Christie’s International Auctioneers. dette Jooste. Exhibition concludes Saturday 5th May. 9 St. Gillian Scott Berning, Independent Consultant. Marks Rd, Southernwood, East London. T. 043 722 4044 Somerset West T 031 207 8247 [email protected] [email protected] www.annbryant.co.za www.christies.com Liebrecht Art Gallery Malcolm Dewey Fine Art 10 - 27 April, “Pilgrimage/Pelgrimstog: Journeys of great The Collective Ongoing exhibition of oil paintings by Malcolm Dewey plus spiritual significance” 19 March - 7 April, “Come Out and Play” a Hand-made Toy works by a selection of local artists. Works in mixed media by Samarie Smith, Johann Burger, Exhibition. Artists include Reghardt Grobbelaar, Lanel Van 60 Darlington Rd, Berea, East London. T. 043 7260421 Annaliese Brink and Winet Vermaak. 34 Oudehuis Str, Vuuren and others. [email protected] www.originalart.co.za Somerset West. T. 021 852 8030 C. 082 304 3859 9 April - 21 April, Tattoo exhibition. [email protected] www.liebrechtgallery.com 48b Florida Rd, (entrance in 4th Avenue) Greyville, Durban. Vincent Art Gallery T. 031 303 4891 The gallery houses an exceptional collection of fine arts, Villiersdorp thecollectivedurban.blogspot.com sculptures, blown glass, ceramics, exclusive jewellery and decor items. Durban Art Gallery Dale Elliott Art Gallery 2 Donald Rd, Vincent, East London. T. 043 726 4356 2 March – 24 April, “All Fired Up” conversations between [email protected] www.vincentartgallery.co.za Leaders of the painting course concept in South Africa! kiln and collection. 80 Main Rd, Villiersdorp. T. 028 840 2927 Smith Street, Durban CBD. T. 031 311 2264 [email protected] www.daleelliott.co.za www.elliot- [email protected] www.durban.gov.za Port Elizabeth tartonline.wordpress.com Tamasa Gallery ArtEC Wilderness A small commercial gallery, Tamasa exhibits a broad variety 25 March – 14 April, “Easter Cathedral” a group exhibition of contemporary KZN artists. by Marius Lourens and Frans Boekkooi, Alida Bothma, Beatrix Bosch Studio 36 Overport Drive, Berea, Durban. T. 031 207 1223 Thys Cilliers, Bev de Lange, Trevor Melville, David Jones, Unique works in leather as well as paintings & photography Anthony Keogh, Wehrner Lemmer, Lizo Pemba, Bretton- can be viewed at her studio. Pietermaritzburg Anne Moolman, Amanda Snyman, Nico Swart, Andrieta 57 Die Duin, Wilderness. T. 044 877 0585 Wentzel. Opening 16 April @ 5.30pm for 6.00pm to 4 May, “New www.beatrixbosch.co.za Tatham Art Gallery Signatures Exhibition” works by art students and emerging 9 Feb – 8 April, “People, Prints and Process – Twenty-Five artists in the Eastern Cape. years at Caversham” 36 Bird Str, P.E. T. 041 585 3641 8 April @ 17h00 at the Schreiner Gallery, “Possibilities” Ter- [email protected] rence Patrick solo exhibition closes. Main Exhibition Room www.artecpe.co.za and Main Passage: People, Prints and Process - Twenty SUBSCRIBE TO THE Five Years at Caversham closes. KwaZulu Natal Room and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum adjacent passage: Hats Off! lino prints from Caversham 4 Feb – 13 May, “Process revealed: How artworks are closes. made” See how artworks came to life as we reveal the 19 April @18h00 Main Exhibition Room: KZN Midlands rough drawings and sketches of Fred Page, Hilary Graham, SA ART TIMES Matric Art Exhibition opens and in the Schreiner Gallery Joan Write, Norman Blamey, Phil Kolbe and others, along- “Celebrating Creativity” Spotlight on Russell High School side their completed work. opens.27 April, Freedom Day, the Gallery is open. 3 March – 6 May, “George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba (1912- R 260 PA Cnr of Chief Albert Luthuli (Commercial) Rd & Church Str. 2001)”It is the 100th anniversary of George Pemba’s birth (Opposite City Hall) Pietermaritzburg. T. 033 392 2801 this year and to celebrate this milestone, the South African [email protected] www.tatham.org.za Have the SA Art Times delivered to Post Office has released a set of commemorative stamps. Be a part of the celebration by coming to the Art Museum your door for just R 260. and seeing the stamps next to the original artworks. 15 March – 6 May, “Ceramics Southern Africa (Eastern see more at www.arttimes.co.za Cape) Annual Regional Exhibition 2012” or call Tracey at 021 424 7733 1 Park Drive, Port Elizabeth. T. 041 5062000 [email protected] www.artmuseum.co.za
Ron Belling Art Gallery Xolile Mazibuko, Prayer, acrylic on canvas from: Opening on 24th of April, an exhibition by Marc Shoul, African Art Centre, Durban.Artist and Crafter of the Stephen Rosin and Graham Jones. Year – Welcome Danca and Xolile Ndlovu. 30 Park Drive, P.E. T. 041 586 3973 [email protected] www.ronbelling.co.za
SA ART TIMES. April 2012 39 BUSINESS ART / SA ART COLLECTING
Andrew Lamprecht – Collecting Art in South Africa From the collector course series hosted by Vansa - Western Cape
A carefully built up art collection will probably show financial She was interested in the way her friends dressed and ex- research environment and then what is actually produced returns if you choose to sell it after a number of years but I pressed themselves. Particularly African or black youth – she and marketed from it is something very different. I think there think that is the worst reason to collect art. wanted to see how their identity could perhaps be made is a space for both of those things. I think sometimes in the Art has the ability to change people’s lives and to be able to through the photographer and her photographer’s lens. Here very cutting edge territory, the frightfully avant-garde setting, enrich people’s lives. This is something that’s very difficult to are another few examples of what Lolo did when she first art that is intended to be sold commercially (and placed, understand until you’ve lived with an artwork, but it requires started out – as you can see the quality’s not quite there. quite literally, on people’s walls) is disparaged by the cutting careful consideration. Buying art is not something that should As she developed as a photographer she took on more of edge contemporary emerging bad boy bad girl art world. be done easily – you need to think about it. It’s something fashion style photography but also did some other things ie There are some people who are very content with highly you need to do both with your heart and with your head. developing the way she printed the photographs using more experimental, strange, weird works but I think there’s space What is art? This is by no means a broad survey – I’m just advanced techniques. Better quality, better archival value for a balance of these things as one thing emerges from the picking out a few examples of specific artists or artworks etc. And the photography became more art like. other and ultimately works together. to illustrate my points. I work in an institution where I see all sorts of weird and wonderful things and teach weird and wonderful things that might be considered art.
One looks here at South African photographer David Gold- blatt’s work who, as you know, was a press photographer originally.
Today his photographs are 4 times the size they were ever Here’s an artwork that I was quite intimately involved with This is a photograph of a well-known artist signed lovingly printed when he was a commercial /journalistic photographer. for various reasons – I was also the auctioneer who sold it. by Rose C’est la Vie. This is in fact Marcel du Champ, a They are printed in different materials – archival materials It was a work called Bruce Gordon produced in 2002 by Ed famous artist - the creator of Fountain, the Bicycle Wheel, the – so, perhaps in some way what makes something an Young who is now a well known artist. At that time he was in “ready made” and various other very famous works. He’s artwork is related to the materials that are used. Lolo Veleko his first year of Masters and he was asked to contribute to the dressed in drag, supposedly a parody or tribute to a librarian also looked at subjectivity in her work – here is a self-portrait Michaelis Auction – at that stage an occasional fund raising who lived in New York and from time to time Marcel would showing lips that she’s painted black and perhaps a different event. He thought about putting a pot plant on auction and dress up as Rose C’est la Vie. This is an artwork. Today if layer of meaning coming into her work. then his car on auction and eventually nominated his friend somebody had the original of this photograph they would be who was owner of Joburg Bar and coincidentally at that time in possession of a very valuable object. The object itself is This work was her signature work for the Trans Cape exhibi- was also Sue Williamson’s husband. Sue Williamson is a not necessarily the artwork. The artwork resided in the per- tion that was on here (in Cape Town) in 2007. If you’d gone well-known writer about artists and an artist in her own right formance of this. There are many different types of artworks. and bought a Lolo Veleko then you would have made a very and I’ll discuss her a little bit later. Ed decided to put Bruce Performances, installations, video art, smell art etc. All sorts good investment. The question is why would you have done Gordon on auction but not the person Bruce Gordon, the of things like that – totally conceptual pieces (we’ll look at that – what would have attracted you to the work? If you’d idea of Bruce Gordon – the concept of Bruce Gordon. The an example of that later) which have no material existence bought a Lolo Veleko back then it probably wouldn’t be as technical description was “Bruce Gordon – found object whatsoever. You might say “why on earth would somebody valuable as a Lolo Veleko produced today in terms of the – concept”. In other words Ed Young elected to put the idea collect that?” Well, it is very hard to collect, and it takes a quality and production values. (pertinently, Bruce Gordon was a great raconteur, he also brave collector to acquire this kind of stuff but the traces of owned the artist’s bar, Joburg, in Long Street at that stage) up the material can sometimes become the most interesting part for auction and it sold for R52,000 which was a lot of money of an artwork in the future. in those days for a student work. It was sold to Suzy Bell (of Then there’s more traditional artwork. I’m just going to show Art South Africa and Bell-Roberts Gallery fame) who donated you some examples of Nontsikelelo Veleko’s work, she’s a it to the National Gallery. The National Gallery acquired the local photographer. work and when it was sold it made newspaper headlines. It was quite interesting how it got passed through the National I’m going to focus predominantly on younger, emerging Gallery’s collection. After they acquired the work they had and contemporary artists in this lecture and that’s not to say an exhibition where nothing was on display. A catalogue was those are the only artists one should endeavour to acquire. produced, a lavish opening happened (a very lavish opening In fact there’s an increasing movement particularly within actually) with Penny Siopis flying down from JHB to give the South Africa and also internationally in looking at mid-career This is an installation at a recent exhibition of hers at opening speech, a string quartet played, there were snacks, artists who have been neglected in history. I’m thinking here the Goodman in Johannesburg and the artwork itself is and there was wine. In some ways this particular event asks of some of the work done in recent years by the Goodman contextualised in different ways by the artist. So what she’s “how would an ordinary collector acquire something like Gallery, SMAC (Stellenbosch Modern and Contemporary) done here is she’s placed her work in an installation where this?” Well, they couldn’t really – although I suppose they and various other galleries who have tended to look at works the wall has been painted with blackboard paint which she’s could have bought it. Suzy Bell quite wisely donated the by artists that had somehow been missed by the canon. written on and her photographs are then stuck onto the walls. work to the National Gallery because I can’t think of anyone Lolo Veleko started out, quite literally, taking photographs of This is something that emerging collectors are confused by. else who could have taken it at the time. It has led to a whole her friends. That might not look particularly spectacular and I’ve so often heard people say “how am I supposed to buy lot of different repercussions, many international collectors – I this photograph is the very first one she took. an installation?” I’ve even heard this from very sophisticated know of 3 at least – have approached Ed Young to remake collectors. I remember at the 2003 Venice Biennale when the work. He has, in fact, done another version of the work, Chris Ofili did a major and beautiful installation at the British where he had Bruce flown over to Turin for a retrospective. Pavillion. I remember the then director of the Rubell collec- There was a formal loan agreement from the National Gallery tion said to me “it’s all very nice but what am I supposed to the Turin Exhibition and produced another work. What Ed to buy?” There are always things that emerge from these has done is sold an edition of 3 prints on aluminium of the kinds of installations, these experimental works, these moment of sale of the work. It’s not the same work but again non-commercial works. I like to think of it in the following way: it’s a trace of the work. This has become, as some of you imagine one wasn’t an artist but a scientist, one produces may know, legendary within the local art world, or notorious experiments, one tries different things out, one works in a depending on which way you look at it.
40 SA ART TIMES. April 2012 SA ART COLLECTING / BUSINESS ART
The idea of art which pushes boundaries and changes work collaboratively. A collective called “Doing it for Daddy” over time (and I use that word loosely). There are many things has been taken up very much by a collective called – an all women collective – decided to pay tribute to Virginia artworks that are known as ‘one-liners’ in the art world. “Avant Car Guard”. It consists of 3 artists in their own right, McKinney by producing an artwork which comprised 2 They’re sometimes very clever, very funny, they’ve got Jan-Henri Booyens, Zander Blom and Michael McGarry bands and one performance artist doing different versions some visual element that’s wonderful with high production and for a couple of JHB art fairs they dominated the scene of the song “Sweet Virginia” and that’s a photograph of Vir- values but after 10 minutes you’ve seen it and worked it with their bad boy antics by demanding that the art world ginia at the event blushing very nicely. So one can acquire out and it’s not really going to speak to you much more. pays them R100 million dollars for their production. works in all sorts of ways. I would imagine that a work like Diane Victor’s would. Here’s another example of one of her works which has been done with a very interesting technique where she has used smoke to make the work, quite literally. She’s taken a candle and held it close to the paper and worked in this way to make an image.
But at the same time as their strange antics of driving What purpose does art serve? For a collector art might be round the Johannesburg Art Fair in a golf cart and such something which decorates your home or fills up empty like, they produce works which are quite marketable and space which makes a lot of sense. I know that many easy to place on your wall. This particular print which I’ve people, because of their profession, often need to acquire reproduced here I’ve seen in endless interior decorating art. A friend of mine is an advocate and when he qualified magazines. It’s visually pleasing, it goes well with people’s he literally came straight to me and said he’d just been told So what do you do with art? I would suggest that you look decor and I’ll speak a little bit more about that later. It also by the senior partner that he had to get a large artwork at it – that’s the first thing. I was reading a few minutes comes out of a process by which Avant Car Guard push for behind his desk. He asked how much would it cost before this presentation something quite interesting. Some- boundaries. For example this work here is a photographic and would R800 cover it. I said he wouldn’t get a large body asked a gallerist “what kind of collectors do you hate print that they’ve sold called “Dancing on Pierneef’s Grave” canvas for that price but we could maybe make a plan and the most?” and she said “those who listen and don’t look”. – a reference to the famous South African artist JH suggest some things. So art can serve that purpose but So I think one of the things one should do is with art is to Pierneef. I’m thinking for this introduction I’d like to focus more on the look at it, think about it and engage with it and we’ll come philosophical purpose, or metaphysical purpose, of art and back to that when we talk about the artwork and you. One I’m going to look particularly here at the prints of an artist thing you can also do is to use it to make a statement. called Diane Victor.
Many people consider him the founding artist of South Afri- can apartheid art and another work of theirs entitled “Wait- ing for Mandela to Die”. Controversial needless to say. In more recent years Avant Car Guard have started producing easel paintings. Some people may say this is selling out Many people find Diane Victor’s work quite unpalatable. This is an example of a work by Wayne Barker and what to a notion of what is collectable but I think it’s also pushing Her prints are in many cases visceral, highly politically he’s done here is make a very strong statement about boundaries about what is available and what is not. charged and sometimes difficult to stomach in terms of people that in his opinion don’t do the right thing with their subject matter. I didn’t bring the slide but one of her art. He was very angry as a mid-career artist who in his So to conclude this section of my presentation there are works from her series ‘Disasters of Peace’ (which basically opinion had been under recognised and the enormous many different ways of acquiring art and I think it’s impor- talks about things that have happened in South Africa since prices paid for in the secondary market for the old masters tant as a collector that while I have no doubt the people in democracy or since independence but not looking at this in of South African art. I’m sure all of you know that recently this room will focus perhaps on more traditional quantifiable a necessarily positive way in terms of where the country’s an Irma Stern sold for just over £3million which is an awful artworks, here’s a rather lovely example of an artwork that gone) has caused a lot of controversy in various places lot of South African Rands and this particular work you’re was acquired. The photograph on the bottom left hand side where it’s been acquired. seeing is based on the former record holder. What he did who by the way is Ed Young which is irrelevant here. He was he got an image of the last highest selling Irma Stern. manages to get himself into every social picture he possibly Another one is of a 6 month old baby being raped very He used Photoshop to convert the picture into the way can. The person on the right who is blushing – it’s Virginia graphically. Interestingly enough this relates to the idea of somebody would see it who was colour blind, repainted it McKinney who is an art critic, a curator and a colleague “why acquire art?” and this series of art was acquired by and then basically graffitied over that with various things. of mine at the Michaelis School of Fine Art and this came the University of South Africa’s Art Collection and they’ve He’s got a splash of paint in the top right hand corner, some from an exhibition that the Association of Visual Arts had a put them into the law faculty. The person whose office this green, a pun on the word ‘country’ and in neon flashing few years ago where they asked – it was called “Critic and particular print ended up in, which I can kind of understand, on the work are the words: ‘super-boring’. Perhaps it Curator’s Choice” CCC – critics, curators and collectors asked for the work to be removed, and in the end just comments on the way some people’s art tastes are super to nominate an artist to participate in a group show and unscrewed it and stuck it back on the wall with its back boring. In my opinion this is a work that will continue to Virginia McKinney nominated a collective similar to Avant facing people. illicit conversation, discussion and thought for some time. Car Guard. Perhaps this is another thing about art and here comes It’s a rich work despite its visual appearance which is quite my first recommendation. When you acquire an artwork pleasing. Another thing about art works, traditional oil on make sure it’s an artwork you can live with in every sense canvas, prints, photography, those kinds of things, again of the word. Maybe an artwork like the Diane Victor is very a word of advice, is don’t be too concerned about whether much like the artwork I was talking about as it acts as a the artwork goes with your drapes or the colour of your reminder or a counter balance to other things. I think art walls because I think for most people an artwork should does not have to be pretty or decorative. I have quite a lot be a lifetime investment or certainly something to keep for of art myself for various purposes and I actively buy art for a while. my brother who is a collector of South African art, based overseas. I think it’s very interesting to have art that jars a little bit. Think about when you’re acquiring art whether A “collective” is when a group of artists get together and the artwork is something that will continue to talk to you
SA ART TIMES. April 2012 41 BUSINESS ART / SA ART COLLECTING
to a gallery and you’re planning to purchase an artwork you are under no obligation to make a decision there and then. All reputable galleries (or sellers of art) will allow you a certain amount of time to think about it and consider the artwork. You put a reserve on an artwork which is normally indicated by a green sticker next to the artwork. The only time a gallery can legitimately press you during your time of reserve (which can be 3 days, a week or until the end of the exhibition), is if somebody else comes and makes a firm offer to purchase the work, in which case you should be telephoned or contacted and you might then have to make an immediate decision. Be very suspicious if the artwork I myself, although I don’t have a lot of art on my walls as I doesn’t get a red sticker next to it because that means that While he was still a student he was being written about in see art all the time, I like to occasionally stick something up, the gallerist or person selling you the artwork has actually Flashart, one of the top international magazines. He was take it down after maybe a few months or a few years and tried to push you into a sale. Buying art is not the same as move things around. That’s one of the things that becomes buying a band-aid at the chemist. It’s a luxury purchase very enjoyable. I think art should be seen as a window and it’s not something you have to do. You have the right into something else rather than something which shouldn’t to think about it. You also have the right to information clash with the drapes. Hopefully in one’s lifetime one’s about the artwork in terms of its longevity, how stable it is, drapes will change more often than one’s art collection. everything about the medium it was made from, whether it’s Fashions change but art, if it’s good, remains. editioned or whether it’s a unique artwork – which is very important. It is something that a lot of starting collectors Right next door to us is this artwork and this is another thing have been hoodwinked with. I know of someone who you can do with art. You can make a grand statement. bought the first in an edition under the assumption it was a unique artwork and then the artist realised a lot of people This is an artwork acquired by IDASA (African Democracy liked it so ended up producing an edition of 100. This is an Institute) which is the building next door [to VANSA i.e. unethical practice. You can also, in certain circumstances, 6 Spin Street] and another work by Ed Young which is a ask for a certificate of authenticity. Most artists, particularly highly realistic sculpture of Archbishop Tutu swinging from a if it’s a non-standard artwork, i.e. not an easel painting or recognised by all his peers as a superior artist and the work chandelier. IDASA had a competition facilitated by VANSA bronze sculpture, but if it’s a video piece, a photograph or that you’re seeing here was given to me by him. At the and although Young didn’t win the competition they decided something similar (and uncommon in the artist’s ouevre) moment I think there are only about 3 people who possess to acquire it anyway. The kind of spectacular statement one could get a certificate or document confirming its these Nyamende artworks, I know the National Gallery has it would make in their conference room – imagine having authenticity. If it’s a print or a photograph there will be an done everything in its power to try and acquire one and I a conference with this swinging Archbishop above you. edition statement on the artwork itself (usually written in believe there are 3 collectors who have one and I am one According to them at the opening pencil in the bottom, left corner). You can find more infor- of them. For various reasons which I won’t go into here mation about this very easily. You’re welcome to email me Nyamende stopped making art. I loaned this artwork to an ceremony it spoke about the spirit of IDASA. In other if you would like to know whether your artwork is unique or exhibition and the style of the show was to stick it onto the words one of the things an artwork can do, and this is whether it’s an edition. This has affected a lot of collectors wall with Prestik and I agreed to allow this to happen. At institutional collecting, but the same thing can be true of so it’s something to bear in mind. the end of the exhibition somebody didn’t realise that this a person, it can reflect your personality to other people. You don’t have copyright on an artwork you purchase. was, in fact, an exceptionally rare artwork and they ripped It can become shorthand for many things. If you have a This is a very common misconception. The artist retains it off the wall and destroyed it. Perhaps my responsibility room full of Roy Lichtenstein’s or Andy Warhol’s or Picas- copyright – it’s an inalienable right of creativity. In terms in that particular case was not to exhibit it the way the artist so’s you’re making a statement like “I’m filthy rich”. You of the law you are allowed to make reasonable copies of had but to make sure that the work itself couldn’t be dam- might be making another statement as well. You might be an artwork (like if you’re producing a catalogue of your aged. I’m not so interested in any financial value that might acquiring artwork that says “I am young, hip and trendy” if collection) but this is (probably) not something you need to have been lost, I’m much more concerned that a very rare you filled your home with Lolo Veleko’s. Art can become worry about at this stage. What are your responsibilities? I artwork (which, I have no doubt, will one day be very much shorthand for describing your own personality. think collectors do have some responsibilities, one of which recognised) was destroyed. I want to talk now a little bit about you and your art – that is if you intend to purchase an artwork, follow through on Q. Andrew, I don’t understand how you’d go about that difficult relationship between you and the artwork. Hope- it. Younger and particularly emerging artists live virtually – would you present the work in a different format or just fully it won’t be a difficult relationship but it often starts out hand to mouth existences and I know of many cases where alert the curator of the value of the work. Surely dealing that way. As a collector if you are beginning to collect I collectors renege on purchases, and try and haggle people with the work in any different way would shift the meaning think you need to brace yourself for making mistakes in the down after the event. I even know of an example, recently of the work. beginning and to try and minimise those mistakes. One in Cape Town, where an artwork was purchased and the A. Sometimes I think we need to shift the meaning of a way to do that is to acquire knowledge. purchaser lived in a rock-cliff house in Bantry Bay. She work. For example the Mona Lisa is not seen in the way arranged, at huge expense, for an abseiler to go onto the it was intended to be seen by the artist. In fact very few roof of the house (because it was a large work) and have it things in museums are intended to be seen in their original brought in through a side window as it couldn’t get through way. Most of them are intended to be in a domestic envi- the normal doors. When the work arrived in the house and ronment so it’s forgivable to shift the context of an artwork it was about to be installed the purchaser started haggling if it’s going to protect it. That’s what I’m saying in terms of about the price with the artist. This is really not cool and responsibilities and rights – frame it and glaze it in a way she did the right thing and had the abseiler take it straight that’s appropriate. back out. The thing is – if you choose to make this elective purchase, follow through on it. To conclude let’s talk about strategies of collecting. I’ve Your responsibility may be, according to some people, to spoken about knowledge which is very important. There are look after the artwork but, perhaps most importantly, you many ways to acquire knowledge – one is to read books, have responsibilities to yourself (in terms of looking after one is to look at websites, to read magazines like Art South your own interests) and to the world (in the broader sense Africa, the SA Art Times, websites like Artthrob and Artheat This is Sue Williamson who has a lot of knowledge about of the word). If you own an artwork that is important or and other journals. The other way to acquire knowledge South African art and she’s very proudly holding up her significant (and according to every artist their work is) then is to ask questions, either of the gallerist or, if possible, the latest book South African Art Now. A lavish coffee table you need to look after it and provide it with care and a safe artist. I currently have a show on at a small gallery in Kloof publication produced in America by Harper Collins Design home – a little bit like a pet. Street (Salon 91) where (interestingly) one of the artist’s – an edition of 50,000 copies, the largest print run ever for conditions of sale is that he actually meets the purchaser so a South African art book and if you go to any major gallery I’ll give you an example from the work of Vuyisa Nyamende that he can explain what the artwork is about. in the world you’ll probably see it for sale. I saw it recently who was an exceptionally talented artist and was part of at MOMA. the younger generation about 10 years ago at Michaelis Q. How does the dealer feel about that? Part of your knowledge is knowing what your rights are as a (contemporaneous with Ed Young, Dan Halter, Cameron A. Not great, I’d imagine! collector. Collectors do have rights. When you go Platter, Zen Mari et al.).
42 SA ART TIMES. April 2012 SA ART COLLECTING / BUSINESS ART
If you are interested in buying art, beyond a few pieces to Great places are galleries who stock affordable art and underground vault where only they have fingerprint access decorate your wall, do try and build up a network of advis- there are affordable art fairs in December. Don’t be shy to and only they are allowed to see it. Most people however, ers and people who can give you information. A great way tell galleries what your budget is. You can acquire some want to share their artwork and the best way to do it is to of doing this is to go to exhibition openings. This is often wonderful works that way. put it up in your domestic space or in your work space. the bête noir of many people but it’s a way of (often) meet- Other ways (if you are interested in investing in art) is to ing the artist and meeting other people. An adviser can make your collection known. Don’t be afraid to loan work, be anyone from a high end art consultant (who will charge particularly if you own a unique work. This is a photograph you) to your partner or your children. It is important to talk of Sue Williamson’s famous work Thirty Years Next to His through and about art with people. I know of many suc- Heart on exhibition at MOMA. cessful collectors who talk to people and never take their advice. My good friend Bruce Gordon who was not only an artwork but has a very fine collection of South African art by younger artists always asks my advice but never ever takes it. In spite of this he has built up a very fine collection. Some top end collectors will sometimes have a perma- nently employed adviser or work with somebody. It is useful to have a wide selection of people to get advice from – somebody to bounce your ideas off. At the end of the day Here is an artwork which I acquired. This is an open edition, make sure you listen to yourself as you’re the one who will which means there is no limit, but the artist has only made pay for it, you’re the one who has to live with it and explain about 40, as far as I know. to other people why you acquired the artwork. I offer one little word of warning, with great hesitation, that is: be wary It’s by Dan Halter, a Zimbabwean/Swiss artist and it’s of people with special interests when they’re advising you. entitled ‘Zingzong Mother and Child’ – a stone sculpture It was very interesting for the recent MOMA print show Certain interior decorators have become notorious for this made from plastic. The name Zingzong is a term for cheap as they wanted an example of Sue Williamson’s freedom and actually have a relationship with a particular gallery Chinese imports in Zimbabwe and this work was for sale charter T-shirt as much as they wanted this work which is in where they get kick backs and only offer work from a very for R300 at Jaõa Ferreira. Other works by him now sell their collection. It was very nice when a little local collector limited pool. Make sure your adviser is independent or, if for R40k-100k. Even for me it was very affordable and I who was a very small collector was able to lend them the not, that you’re aware of their limitations [and agenda]. really enjoy it. It sits on the top of my bookshelf in my office only known copy of it in mint condition which she actually Q. Is one ever allowed to take a painting on apro from a and it’s not a purchase I regret in any way. Dan Halter has very kindly donated to MOMA and her name is now on the gallery to see what it looks like at hoA. Most galleries will. gone on to do very well. list of benefactors along with other well-known benefactors. It is not an unusual practice. It depends on how successful When I spend my money on art I always acquire younger, Finally one needs to think about strategies of selling work the artist is. For example I know of major galleries in Cape emerging artists. There are some things to be said for that and this is perhaps a very difficult area. It’s not a sin to Town who will bring an artwork over to a trusted client’s in that you are developing somebody’s career, you can look at your artwork and say the time has come for you to house so they can see how it is. They won’t necessarily let often acquire work that is relatively cheap before the artist move on. It’s important to think about that. The time will it stay there for very long but it depends on how much the becomes well known. As a lecturer I’ve been very lucky in come when you need to get rid of your artwork. Maybe gallery trusts the person. I think if you’re buying a R500 being given art by students. Mikhael Subotzky gave me you want to sell artwork in order to acquire other artwork. work it would be asking a bit much. If people are going to a photograph to say thank you. I say thanks to Mikhael Perhaps your tastes have changed, your interests have spend a lot of money it’s not unreasonable. now for that because it’s my retirement fund. I find that if changed or you want to pass your artwork onto somebody There are a number of opportunities you can take you do collect art by emerging artists, provided you like it, else. People move into different areas and the artwork no advantage of in developing your collection. If you are just you really can’t go wrong. To be honest, of the artwork I’ve longer serves the purpose or you’ve outgrown the space. starting out I would really recommend that you restrict your bought from students at the graduate shows at Michaelis Ultimately it is a personal relationship and as long as the purchases for the first couple of months or years until you (which is a great place to buy art very cheaply) probably artwork has given you pleasure and it’s been taken care really get a feel for it. It can become very addictive and I 80% of those artists have not carried on producing art. of and not damaged or destroyed not only will you recoup know of a lot of people who started out collecting – bought Nevertheless, some of my favourite artworks fall into that your money but you’ll probably make some profit and more a few R20-30k works and then discovered the artist wasn’t category. There are, of course, other markets so if you importantly your life will have benefited from the presence worth anything like that – and stopped collecting. It’s much want to you can jump in and start collecting Irma Sterns. of that artwork. better to buy something which you like if the artist is not You can have a strategy to disseminate your work as I’ll end on that note and hope it was a good introduction. established. Perhaps multiples, prints or photographs well. There are ways to disseminate your work and what Any questions please feel free to email me. – and there are many opportunities to acquire such work. some collectors have been known to do is to have an
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SA ART TIMES. April 2012 43 BUSINESS ART / INTERNATIONAL How Damien Hirst tried to transform the art market THE TELEGRAPH: By Colin Gleadell. In his television portrait by Francis Bacon which he had bought in 2007 artist or his dealer for, say, £1,000, wait for the value to go documentary The Mona Lisa Curse, the pugnacious and for £16 million. up, and then resell for £10,000 – excluding the artist from persuasive art critic Robert Hughes argued that traditional There wasn’t a run-down of gallery sales but, occasion- any profit. values which judge art by its quality have been overridden ally, some figures would be revealed: Charles Saatchi Hirst objected to that process, saying he believed artists by marketing and hype, and that, in the present consumer buying the Humbrol toy sculpture, Hymn, for £1 million, a should make their work more expensive at the first point culture, the only meaning left for art is a financial one. White Cube sell-out for £11 million, a multi-million sell-out of sale. “The first time you sell something is when it should Perhaps today, the millions who visit museums do so in in his first show in Mexico – added to which was the $20 cost the most,” he said. It means treating a work of art like order to contemplate art’s financial rather than aesthetic million (£12 million) sale of the contents of the Pharmacy a new car or a piece of furniture, but it is the way an artist, values. restaurant, and the £111 million pound Beautiful sale who does not profit from auction resales, can make the The artists Hughes singled out as being worth so much at Sotheby’s, which took place just before the West’s most money. more than they merited were Andy Warhol and Damien financial crash. If this is what happened at the Sotheby’s sale, with Hirst Hirst. So will people go to Hirst’s retrospective at Tate Adding to the earnings figures has been Other Criteria, pocketing the lion’s share, it has been the buyers who Modern to mull over the millions of pounds his art repre- Hirst’s retail outlet, which was netting $12 million (£7.5 have suffered a loss at the point of resale, not Hirst. Nor sents? The critics are likely to see the selection, which million) a year on brand products like prints and T-shirts. has Hirst been perturbed by the downturn in his auction emphasises his early work, as supporting the view that Recently Hirst has announced his plans to build 500 eco prices. “What goes up must come down,” he says. “It’s Hirst had made his best, most original work by the latter homes in Devon – a money-spinner if it takes off – and like when John Lennon went to get his long hair cut and half of the 1990s, and everything after that was repetition. the opening of a gallery in London to house his own was asked why. ‘What else can you do after you’ve grown But then, even if it has been a bit of a production line, it collection. it long?’ he answered.” has been a very successful one, and so in itself a com- The popular obsession with wealth and fame has The Sotheby’s sale itself did little damage to his gallery re- ment on consumer culture. ensured that Hirst’s name is ineradicably associated with lationships. He is now one of many successful artists (Jeff Warhol also addressed consumer culture, was repetitive, something other than his art. The £50 million diamond- Koons, Takashi Murakami, and Anish Kapoor) who have and employed factory workers to make his art, just as encrusted skull he made in 2007 tells us how wealth become less dependent on their galleries and more reliant Hirst has done. But the difference is that Hirst has enjoyed cannot buy immortality. The Sotheby’s sale in 2008 was a on business managers and have transformed themselves far more commercial success than Warhol ever did. statement of the artist’s superiority over his dealers and, into self-contained corporations. Hirst is often cited as the richest artist in the UK, even in being more of the same but with added bling for the new He has also demonstrated how little attention the market the world. In 2009, the Sunday Times Rich List assessed rich collectors, a work of art in itself. pays to the art critics. The exhibition of his own figurative his wealth at £235 million. That may have been an under- Both of these are featured in the Tate show – the skull in paintings at the Wallace Collection and White Cube was statement. In 2008, his business manager, Frank Dunphy, the Turbine Hall, and an installation from the Sotheby’s slaughtered by the critics, yet collectors paid millions for said Hirst was “a dollar billionaire”. Dunphy, an accountant sale upstairs to support the “whole work of art” idea. But if them. who had worked with the artist since the mid-Nineties, they are about money, neither is quite complete. Hirst once admitted his ambitions, saying: “It’s been hard was clearly proud of his achievement, turning Hirst from The skull has never been sold properly, so doesn’t have to see the art for the dollar signs.” A similar difficulty has a potential drunken layabout into a number-one bankable a real value – only the price attached to it. And the effects faced the viewer, if not the investor. Whether he has been asset, and a lot of interesting facts came out. of the Sotheby’s sale are still being played out, as works making art for money or about money, there is always the Hirst employed 160 staff making artworks for him at five that were bought there (perhaps with the extended credit suspicion that he is fulfilling that early wish when he said: studios in England. He owned dozens of properties from terms that were offered) resurface on the market, selling “I can’t wait to get into a position of making really bad art Mayfair to Mexico, including the £3 million Toddington for half or two-thirds of the price they sold for initially. and get away with it.” Manor, where he planned to put his art collection – then This fits well with Hirst’s intentions to reverse the normal ‘Damien Hirst’ opens at Tate Modern on April 4 worth about $400 million (£252 million) – including a self- pattern of accruing value – to buy the new work from the
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Bonhams sale leaves market in suspense
Bonhams director of SA Art Giles Peppiatt By Michael Coulson
After the two contradictory sales in Cape Town, observers were hoping that Bonhams’ sale in London on March 21 would give a better indication of the state of the market for SA art. Unfortunately it sent out mixed signals, doing little to dispel the state of uncertainty. A gross of £ 3.5m, equivalent to R42m at the R12.08= £ 1 exchange rate ruling on the morning after the sale, sounds healthy enough, but it’s only 73% of the low end of the estimate range, of £ 4.9m- £ 7.1m – and remember that reported sales prices include buyer’s premium, estimates do not. Bonhams’ buyer’s premium is as much as 25% on hammer prices up to £ 25 000, which is the majority of lots. Also, 57 of the 121 lots sold, or 47% of the total: again, neither a great suc- cess nor a train smash. Similarly, of the 12 items with a low estimate starting at £ 100 000 and above, eight sold, including the highest estimate, Irma Stern’s Woman in a Pink Sari, at £ 960 000 (est £ 800 000- £ 1.2m, the For all back cover) and third highest (Stern’s Zulu Girl, at £ 457 000 --- est £ 400 000- £ 600 000 – facing the inside front cover) but not the second highest, SA Art Auction Previews and Results another Stern portrait (Banana Girl, the inside front cover, est £ 250 000- £ 300 000). Local and international Art Money The other six comprised three Pierneef landscapes ( £ 361 000, the front cover, est £ 300 000- £ 500 000, £ 109 000 for another, est £ 100 000- £ 150 000, and £ 127 000 for the third, est £ 120 000- £ 180 000), two Stern still lifes ( £ 217 000, est £ 150 000- £ 200 000, and £ 151 000, est £ 150 Business Art 000- £ 200 000), and – ending the sale on a high note, £ 253 000 for the final lot, a William Kentridge drawing (est R150 000-R200 000). www.businessart.co.za Another notable price was £ 79 000 for Gerald Sekoto’s portrait of his mother (before the end paper. £ 60 000- £ 80 000). As is to be expected, the house is stressing the positive aspects of the sale. Bonhams director of SA art Giles Peppiatt, who must have felt mingled relief and disappointment, says that a couple of years ago prices like this would not have seemed credible; he adds that the sale confirms Stern’s pre-emi- nence in the market and the continuing interest of the international market in SA art. In fact, eight of the 11 Sterns sold, for a gross of £ 1.86m, or more than half the total. Relatively, Pierneef did even better, selling eight of 11, for another £ 759 000, so these two alone contributed a whisker under three-quarters of the total. Of other well represented artists, not one of the 10 Cecil Skotneses sold, suggesting that here is one SA artist far better regarded at home than abroad; six of nine Sekotos; half the six Keith Alexanders and Francois Kriges; three of the four Tretchikoffs; half the four John Meyers; and only one of the four Maurice van Essches.
With the ambiguous results of this sale, attention will move back home, to Joburg, where both the major local auction houses plan sales within the next View a rebranded Stephan Welz & Co. (Jhb office). couple of months See them like you have never seen them before on their Facebook profile SA ART TIMES. April 2012 45 Nushin Elahi’s London Letter
Picasso and British Art at Tate Britain until 15 July is an extensive and schol- creativity, at times their work follows a similar visual vocabulary, such as the arly study of Picasso and his influence on modern British artists. It explores the blocks of lines and colour which Nicholson used centrally and Mondrian on the rather chilly reception Picasso received in Britain, while looking at seven key Brit- edge of a canvas. By the time the war drove Mondrian to New York and his friend ish artists for whom he was an important stimulus, among them David Hockney, to St Ives those intersecting lines had parted, but their work forms a tranquil oasis Henry Moore and Francis Bacon. in the chaos of war.
Picasso defied labels. The only consistent theme through his work was power A major retrospective of Italian artist Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan is on at the and vitality, but seeing the sweeping range of his art is almost like seeing a group Tate Modern until 27 May. Like his compatriot Burri, he is associated with the exhibition. It was “life from a constantly changing viewpoint” as one of the 1930s Arte Povera movement and the show opens with work he made from everyday magazines put it. His work may be rooted in tradition and history, but above all, objects in the late Sixties. He was soon exploring other ideas in his art, one of he was a radical artist searching out new experiences. them being the image of the artist as divine shaman and public showman, but that duality inspired him to reach beyond his immediate world. The element of There is some irony in the fact that Hockney remembers queuing for the Tate’s playfulness, of order and disorder, of patterns, time and language are themes great 1960 Picasso exhibition, which half a million people attended. Today, that constantly run through his work. There are huge beautiful blue biro drawings the long lines in London have been at the Royal Academy for Hockney’s own which may display a consummate waste of time, but are also incredibly textural; exhibition, rather than this Spanish artist whose infinitely varied responses to life tapestries made up of the names of the longest rivers which demonstrate the inspired Hockney to constantly open himself to fresh ideas. absurdities of classification and a series of postal works which play on colours of The fact that the exhibition isn’t drawing the hordes simply means a much more stamps and return-to-senders. Throughout his life Boetti collaborated with other pleasant opportunity to assess this giant of the twentieth century. At the same artists, many of them Afghan weavers who added their own voice to the maps time it is the history of British collectors and collections, charting how Picasso’s he made of the changing world. From the randomness of a light that switches on work came to these shores, from early advocates such as Roger Fry to the Tate’s for 11 seconds a year, and no-one knows when, to the marks on a tapestry that own purchase of The Three Dancers in 1965 from the artist himself, a work he represent the chimes of a church clock, or a counting game, this is an artist who considered one of his two greatest (the other being MOMA’s Les Demoiselles challenges the viewer to participate and the more you understand the rules of the d’Avignon). games he is playing the more you will enjoy them.
It is not an exhibition that blows you away at the outset. Instead, it takes you Jeremy Deller’s art doesn’t fit easily into an art gallery. In 2004 he won the through the myriad stages of Picasso’s development, with some pairings that are Turner Prize for his quite extraordinary project of re-enacting one of the bloodiest perhaps tenuous, but others that jolt you into a new appreciation of both artists. battles during the miners’ strike of the 80s, something he had seen as a teenager There is a wonderful symmetry in Hockney’s reprise of Picasso’s costume de- on telly. The Battle of Orgreave, or A Blow to One is a Blow to All is one of the signs, Henry Moore’s large reclining nudes and Picasso’s monumental classical chief exhibits on this retrospective at the Hayward Gallery, Joy to the People women, Francis Bacon’s distorted and anguished figures and Picasso’s darker (until 13 May). Deller sees himself as a storyteller, celebrating the element of images of the human body. The range of Picasso’s work is impressive: early surprise in experience, rather than a creator of objects. This fascination with the waif-like figures, signature Cubist constructions and paintings, loving portraits of quirky side of humanity has led to the intriguing projects on show, from an early Marie-Therese, drawings of Guernica, the Weeping Woman series and two Cu- exhibition in his bedroom as a schoolboy, to a film on the infinite variety of fans bist interpretations of old masters. Alongside that are seldom seen British works, of the band Depeche Mode, a garden project in Germany, a discussion tour of such as early Bacons, Moore maquettes and stunning Ben Nicholson oils. America with a car wrecked in an Iraqi suicide bomb attack and a film on bats. It This is an exhibition which demands intense viewing, but rewards you with a new seems he has an insatiable appetite for capturing the pulse of a culture. It may insight into the unfolding history of British art and collecting. be hard to experience the full impact of one of his projects in a gallery, but Deller puts performance art on a remarkable plane. Ben Nicholson may have connected Picasso’s Cubist period with their coded images of their lovers, but he was even more taken with the abstraction of Dutch Cartoonist David Shrigley’s Brain Activity upstairs at the Hayward (until 13 artist Piet Mondrian, as a small show at the Courtauld (until 20 May) reveals. May) is altogether a different matter: quirky it may be, but so slight as to be Mondrian║Nicholson: In Parallel looks at their friendship during the unsettled entirely missable. decade before the war. They met in Paris when Nicholson was a rising star of modern British art, and twenty years his senior, Mondrian was well-established. Far more interesting is Johan Zoffany – Society Observed at the Royal The serenity of their work contrasts with the turbulence of the era, which they Academy until 10 June. An outsider whose penetrating view of Georgian society tried to counter with their art. Although always two artists exploring their own included not only royalty and the court, but actors and artists, his detailed can- vasses are full of wry humour and meticulous observation.
46 SA ART TIMES. April 2012 Images: Left to Right T-B
Jeremy Deller, Battle of Orgreave II Jeremy Deller, Joy in People banner Alighiero Boetti: Aerei 1989 Pablo Picasso: Weeping Woman (Femme en pleurs) 1937 Alighiero Boetti: Mappa Pablo Picasso: Nude Woman in a Red Armchair 1932 Jeremy Deller, It Is What It Is (2009) Jeremy Deller, Battle of Orgreave Pablo Picasso: Study for Guernica 2 May 1937