Risky Parking: Avant Car Guard's new show at Whatiftheworld / Gallery

THE SOUTH AFRICAN
ART TIMES
March 2009 • 7 000 copies printed and distributed. Full version also available at www.arttimes.co.za • RSA value R 40.00
Risky Parking: Avant Car Guard’s new show at Whatiftheworld / Gallery
ACG: AVANT CAR GUARD waiting for Mandela to die and the nu-rave party experience to hit Johannesburg.
Image courtesy the Artists and Whatiftheworld / Gallery. Avant Car Guard with be exhibiting: Volume III at Whatiftheworld / Gallery 26 March - 25 April 09

IRMA STERN (1894-1966)
SOUTH AFRICA’S GRANDE DAME
Stephan Welz and Company, in association with Sotheby’s, has a proven reputation as South Africa’s
Premier Auction House. Established in 1968, we have consistently improved upon our own history and
sales records.
SOLD IN 1999 SOLD IN 2007
Record results for South African Masters like Irma Stern have been the milestones by which we judge
our success, just as Stern used her paintings from which to gain strength.
Johannesburg
Upcoming Sale
20 & 21 April 2009
Viewing: 17-19 April 2009
Call for further details: 011 880 3125
Venue:
13 Biermann Avenue
Rosebank
Irma Stern STILL LIFE WITH FRUIT AND DAHLIAS SOLD 1999 R 1 100 000
Irma Stern THE INDIAN WOMAN SOLD 2007 R 7 260 000
Visit our website www.swelco.co.za
Cape Town
Upcoming Sale
26 & 27 May 2009
Closing date for entries: Friday 13 March 2009
Call now for an appointment: 021 794 6461
Venue:
The Great Cellar, Alphen Hotel,
Alphen Hotel, Constantia

South African Art Times. March 2009 Page 3
Hyme Rabinowitz’s passion for pottery
Steve Kretzmann
To give up a potentially lucrative
career as an accountant in order
to follow a more precarious path
of pottery is evidence not only of
a passion for potting, but also of a
willingness to defy convention in
search of a fuller life.
It was a choice acclaimed ceramicist
Hyme Rabinowitz made in his
thirties, subsequently leaving us
with innumerable beautiful and
functional clay vessels.
And he certainly lived a life full of
adventure and accomplishment.
Born in 1920, twin to brother Sol
– who later settled in Kenya - he
was nineteen years-old at the
outbreak of World War II. His age,
and being Jewish, meant there was
little moral choice but to interrupt
his articles and join the fight against
Hitler.
Judging from the character that
emerges from his memoirs, Hyme
would have undoubtably been
drawn to travel and an outdoor life
of some sort, but three years in
an anti-aircraft battalion trekking
through East and North Africa
(whereafter he fell ill, serving the
rest of the war in the Saldahna
region nearer home) likely whetted
his appetite to experience more of
the world.
He completed his articles after
the war, but office life was not his
preference, and, in a post-war decade
marked by conservatism, he
hitchhiked across the UK, Europe
and the Middle East – starting his
self-education in the arts along the
way – and returned home overland
across Africa 17 months later.
It was while making a living working
at the Plate Glass Company that he
“quite by chance” discovered his vocation.
As often happens, there was
an attractive girl involved, who was
taking pottery lessons at the Frank
Joubert art centre. Hyme joined in,
and was given his first lessons by
Audrey Frank.
“The penny had dropped,” wrote
Hyme. He had a continental style
kick-wheel built and took over a
corner of Paul Boonzaier’s sign writing
workshop on Long Street.
“Every Saturday afternoon after
the office I went and practiced my
throwing in Paul’s workshop till
it was time to catch the last bus
(around midnight) from the terminus
to Camps Bay. Then I’d hike (with
backpack) to Llandudno, land up
at (a rough hut in the bay), and
hike the next day with “Ginger”
(Townley) Johnson to Sandy Bay
and Oudeschip.”
His friendship with Ginger and a
love of the outdoors led to the pair
N
U
Q
E
L
L
A
LI Y
T
CT E
Z
PR
O
D
U
1920 - 2009
,
PROFESSIONAL
of them, with Percy Sieff, amongst
others, documenting over 500 rock
art sites in the South-West Cape in
the ’50s and ‘60s, a book of which
was later published.
Around this period he returned to
the UK and spent time working at
St. Ives with Kenneth Quick, who
used to work at the famed Leach
Pottery. He also worked with the
“explosive” master potter Michael
Cardew. He spent more time with
Cardew in Abudja, Nigeria, who
was running a training centre there,
and also spent six months working
with Esias Bosch in White River.
He set up what was to become his
permanent pottery studio at Eagles
Nest in Constantia in 1962 (thanks
to the patronage of the Maggs
family) originally working with a
Cardew-Wenford Bridge wood-fired
kiln for many years before changing
to an oil-fired kiln.
He did a lot more travelling though,
much of it through Africa, studying
the continent’s ancient pottery
traditions, before marrying Jennifer
Rom when he was 56. Although a
late starter in pottery, according to
Leach, Hyme’s dedication to the
craft resulted in his being awarded
a National Silver Medal by Pretoria
University in 1990, a Master of
Fine Arts Honorary degree from
the University of Cape Town and
the ‘Master Potter’ title by the Association
of Potters of South Africa
(APSA) on his 80th birthday.
Yet his success never went to his
head.
“He’s always been a great supporter
of other potters. People at the top
of their field are often snooty, but
he always had time, and a word of
encouragement, for everyone, says
young potter John Bauer.
Although Hyme suffered from ill
health again in his later years,
having, according to Ceramics SA
Cape region co-chair and “dear
friend” Betsy Nield, “a few heart
attacks in his time”, it appears he
was more concerned with the wellbeing
of his friends than his own
discomfort.
Nield said he had his last heart
attack a year ago, at around the
same time she had to undergo an
operation. She said whenever they
spoke he used to enquire after her
health, never mentioning his own
problems.
She said Hyme was also very
active in the pottery community. “He
used to come to all our (Ceramics
SA) workshops and was always at
our AGMs and exhibitions.
He would be there, and at all the
potters markets. At the last one, in
June, Jenni had to push him around
in his wheelchair.”
Tributes at his funeral repeatedly
mentioned his warmth, humour,
creativity, purpose, and interest in
other people. And he seemed to
be able to mix modesty and pride
quite effectively. His son, Nikolas,
said his dad’s response to being
famous was:
Artists’ Acrylic Paint
“Well, I was the best, and most
famous potter… on Eagles Nest!”

Page 4 South African Art Times. March 2009
The South African
Art Times
March 2009
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Cover: ACG: AVANT CAR GUARD waiting for Mandela
to die and the nu-rave party experience to hit
Johannesburg. Avant Car Guard with be exhibiting:
Volume III at Whatiftheworld / Gallery 26 March 09
Art Times regular
contributor
Mary Corrigall
receives top
English award
The English Academy of Southern
Africa announced this month that
Mary Corrigall, the senior feature
writer and art critic at The Sunday
Independent and regular contributor
to the South African Art Times,
has won the Thomas Pringle
Award for Reviews.
Corrigall was awarded for the
high quality of her art review
writng. Commenting on her win
the adjudicators noted that: “In her
writing she is never dismissive,
but strives to understand the ‘why’
of an event, art form or cultural
display, often penetrating to a layer
of intelligibility that would escape
a more superficial or judgmental
tack. She is reliably perceptive,
sensitively responsive, an ‘embedded’
journalist of a particular kind,
willing to immerse herself in the
experience at hand.”
Corrigall will be presented with her
award on 21 March 2009 on the
occasion of the English Academy
Percy Baneshik Memorial Lecture.
Laubscher sets record auction price for SA living artist
Steve Kretzmann
The price paid for an artwork by
Erik Laubscher which went up on
auction at the summer decorative
and fine arts auction in Kirstenbosch
on February 24, has set a
new South African record for a living
artist.
Laubscher’s painting from the
1950’s, ‘Still Life with Mandolin, Music
Score and Fruit’, sold for R1.14
million, five times the pre-sale
estimate posted in the catalogue by
Stephan Welz & Co. in association
with Sotheby’s. Up until recently,
work by Laubscher, who is a master
of virtually all genres of the abstract,
has sold in the region of R50 000
Michael Coulson
Halfway through the initial fiveyear
period in which it was hoping
to break even, the Jo’burg Metro’s
struggling pioneer art bank is to
adopt a new business plan and
move to a new location.
The Canadian art bank on which
Art Bank Joburg is modeled took
nine years to break even, and
CEO Antoinette Murdoch admitted
recently that this sort of time
horizon is probably more realistic.
The Joburg Metro Council invested
R5m in Art Bank Joburg, of which
R3.1m has been spent on art
works. According to Joburg cultural
supremo Steven Sack, a council
report, which has not yet been
publicly released, estimates that
another R4.5m is needed to make
the body self-sufficient.
So far, the art bank has acquired
30 clients, of which 60% are public-sector
(mostly municipal) and
the balance private-sector. It owns
1 090 art works by 290 individual
artists with a total value
– R70 000. 82-year-old Laubscher,
who lives in Cape Town and continues
to paint, said he was eating his
“humble breakfast, barefoot, wearing
old shorts”, when he was given
the news. “I am dazed,” he said.
He said he could not imagine the
“incredible honour or the impact”
the sale would have on works he
has kept for almost 60 years. But he
said he was being “quite cool” about
it and “not shouting yippee! You’ve
got to wait for the next one (sale).”
It just makes drawing up my will a
lot more complicated.”
Erik Laubscher’s “Still Life with
Mandolin, Music Score and Fruit”
selling for R1 120 000
Art Bank Joburg faces challenges
of R3.1m. The average value of
R2 830 reflects the bank’s remit to
encourage developing artists, and
Sack points out that the maximum
price the bank may pay for a work
is R15 000.
They are hired out at 20% of market
value, and revalued every year,
so this income should rise gradually,
but clearly not at a rate which
will make the venture economic in
the foreseeable future.
Sack in fact would like to spend
another R7m on art, taking the
stock to R10m, which should make
the art bank profitable but, he
admits, will take several years.
He concedes that current tight
economic conditions are unpropitious
for raising funds from the
corporate sector, but has several
creative ideas for getting around
this. For example, a client may
be prepared to buy art, donate
it to the bank and display it in its
own premises, but only start to
pay “rent” some years later. He
reminded me that the arts White
Paper recommended that the
Department of Arts & Culture set
THETROPICS
up a national art bank. It hasn’t
done so (which will come as no
surprise to cultural workers), which
could make it possible for Art Bank
Joburg to take over this role.
It’s also possible that the Metro
Council could be persuaded to
supplement its original investment.
And, finally, when it can produce
three years’ audited accounts
– which shouldn’t be that far away
-- the art bank could apply for
national lottery money.
But the art bank is not sitting idly
waiting for manna from heaven.
As well as developing its existing
activities, it’s co-ordinating the
commissioning of a large tribute
to Walter and Albertina Sisulu that
the Metro Council plans to erect
in Loveday St in Braamfontein.
This will be a major piece of public
sculpture, for which there’s a
budget for labour and materials of
up to R600 000 – though not all
of this has yet been raised. The
target date for completion is June
this year, though this could be
optimistic as it will require a tight
time scale and such projects trend
to lag behind schedule.
The bank, which announced last
year that it was to move from Newtown
to the old premises of the
Sandton Civic Gallery, is now to
relocate to Spark, the old electricity
sub-station in Norwood which
has seen sporadic success as an
art gallery and craft centre but has
never really fulfilled the potential
held out by its attractive space.
So it’s clear that the institution
faces major challenges. If the
new business plan doesn’t bring it
closer to break-even fairly soon,
one must wonder for how long
the Metro Council – which doesn’t
attach a high priority to the visual
arts, judging by how the Joburg
Art Gallery is starved of resources
– will be prepared to carry it.
And there’s one last wild card in
the pack. Murdoch is widely tipped
as a front-runner to succeed Clive
Kellner as curator of JAG. Should
this happen, for all Sack’s commitment
to the art bank, another
unwelcome element of uncertainty
would enter the equation.
KULTURSTIFTUNG
DES
BUNDES
advert tropics-260x80.indd 1 2/23/09 4:22:23 PM

South African Art Times. March 2009 Page 5
Robin Rhode turns
BMW into a paintbrush
Steve Kretzmann
Renowned for interacting with twodimensional
drawings to create
his own unique brand of ‘performance
art’, South Africa’s answer
to Banksy, Robin Rhode, is now
painting with cars. Expensive cars.
Like the new BMW Z series.
While BMW has been producing
an art car collection for over three
decades, Rhode has not painted
on the car. Rather, he installed
hose pipes filled with paint which,
via remote control, spray paint
onto the tyres. By driving the car
along a carefully choreographed
route on a 100m by 200m canvas,
he has transformed the vehicle into
a paintbrush to create a massive
abstract work, titled ‘Expression
of Joy’.
Created in a once-off 12 hour
marathon of ‘painting’, the process
was filmed by Jake Scott in Los
Angeles’ Downey Studios. The
work, along with the film, is to be
displayed in New York’s Vanderbilt
Hall from March 25 to April 8.
33-year-old Rhode, who is now
based in Berlin, is quoted on the
BMW website as saying: “This
work is an expression of painting
in action - my hope is to communicate
the power and thrill inherent
in the creation of art…the use of
an untraditional paintbrush like a
high performance car is a great
way to investigate the relationship
between emotion, technology and
industrial creativity.”
In collaborating with BMW, Rhode
joins a long list of famous artists,
including Andy Warhol, David
Hockney and Roy Lichtenstein.
The film clip can be viewed on the
web at http://www.bmw.com/com/_
shortcuts/joy/index_en.html
for more images see:
http://www.terato.com/cars/content/view/1375/47/
KUNSGALERY
JOHANS BORMAN
FINE ART GALLERY
CAPE TOWN
Irma Stern, ‘Still life with flowers and basket’ - 1944
A showcase for the best of
South African Masters,
as well as some leading
contemporary artists.
Telephone: 021 423 6075
www.johansborman.co.za
Mon-Fri: 10h00 - 18h00
Sat: 09h00 - 14h00
or by appointment
In Fin Art Building
Upper Buitengracht Street, Cape Town 8001
Cell: 082 566 4631
E-mail: art@johansborman.co.za

Page 6 South African Art Times. March 2009
Shop 46, Broadacres Lifestyle Centre,
Cnr. Cedar & Valley Roads,Broadacres,
Fourways. +27 11 465 9192
Graham Britz +27 83 605 5000
Megan Kidd +27 84 726 2727
Laurelle Baard +27 79 266 1686
Sarah Sinisi +27 84 568 5639
es SA MARCH09.indd 1 2009/03/02 04:44:58 PM
Free delivery within Cape area
Anthea Buys
First published in The Mail and
Guardian, February 2009
Late mining magnate Brett Kebble
was considered South Africa’s
foremost patron of the arts -- and
now, with the sale of his private art
collection on May 7, aficionados
have a chance to find out just what
kind of collector he was.
Although Kebble sponsored his
own annual art award from 2003
to 2005-- the most lucrative in its
time -- he was not considered particularly
erudite on the subject of
contemporary art. But the nature of
his art collection, soon to be under
the hammer, may contradict that.
d e s i g n b o o k s a n d c a t a l o g u e s l a r g e f o r m a t
g r a p h i c s a r c h i v i n g i n s t a l l a t i o n s s p e c i a l i s e d
r e t o u c h i n g e x h i b i t i o n d i s p l a y s d i g i t a l s c a n n i n g
w w w. s c a n s h o p . c o . z a
Custom Stretched Canvasses
Hand made Easels
In early 2003 Kebble engaged
gallerist and investment art dealer
Graham Brits as his primary art
dealer after a series of fall-outs
with his previous dealers. Brits
took responsibility for valuing and
cataloguing Kebble’s collection,
as well as trading lesser works out
of the collection to make way for
more valuable acquisitions.
According to Brits Kebble’s personal
taste steered the character
of the collection. Although some
were critical, Brits says: “Brett was
a visionary. He had a love for art, a
love for the good things in life. You
find a lot of wealthy people in the
world but not all of them are collectors
of art. Brett was more refined.
He had already positioned himself
on a number of valuable Sterns
and Laubsers when I started to
work with him.” Brits estimates that
Kebble’s effects will fetch up to
R100-million.
The 142 works on the auction
inventory are predominantly important
South African paintings from
the first half of the 20th century, all
acquired after 2001 when Kebble
was declared technically insolvent.
The impressive collection boasts
13 works by Irma Stern, 10 Alexis
Prellers, 12 Maggie Laubsers and
Painting & print stretching
Tel: 021 448 2799 Fax: 021 448 2797
artstuff@webmail.co.za www.artstuff.co.za
a n g e l a @ s c a n s h o p . c o . z a
Cashing in on Kebble’s treasure trove
valuable works by other prominent
artists including JH Pierneef,
Walter Battiss, Thomas Bowler
and Vladimir Tretchikoff.
Three contemporary works, two of
William Kentridge’s early charcoal
drawings and a steel sculpture
by Marco Cianfanelli, have also
made it on to the roll. One solitary
George Pemba painting, The
Gathering of the Elders, stands out
on the list as the meagre representation
of black artists in Kebble’s
collection. Indeed, his personal
collection was widely criticised
at the time of the inception of the
Brett Kebble Art Award -- supposedly
a catalyst for racial transformation
in the visual arts industry
-- as racially exclusive.
Despite its controversial provenance
the Kebble auction, Brits
says, will be one of the largest
sales from an individual collection
in South African art history.
The gains from the sale of the
142 works will go towards paying
off Kebble’s numerous creditors.
The remainder of his personal
collection -- all works purchased
before the year 2000 -- Kebble
safeguarded before his death as
gifts to his wife and children.
Brits expects more than 2 000
visitors at the pre-sale viewing at
Photograph: Untitled. 2008, pigment print on photo cotton rag paper.
Paper size: 855 x 1120 mm, image size: 960 x 640 mm
Grahams Fine Art Gallery from
April 16 to 30 and is optimistic
about the prices works are likely
to fetch despite hard economic
times. “We are dealing in an
economic downturn and what
spare cash people have will affect
the success of the sale. Had the
sale been done last year we could
have raised well over R100-million.
There’s a lot of uncertainty, but it
should raise close to R100-million,
even in this climate. There’s a lot
of intrigue and curiosity about the
sale -- and there’s a lot of good
work,” he says. “What makes this
auction unusual is here we have
major works coming up for sale
with no strategic timing. Brett had
a lot of creditors, so the sale has to
happen now. It’s an opportunity for
people to position themselves on
top quality works at fair value.”
Ian Hunter, a specialist in painting
at Sotheby’s, could not comment
specifically on whether or not
Brits’s R100-million estimate is
plausible given the quality of the
works in the collection and the
present economic climate. But
Hunter says: “The bill of fare reads
beautifully as a who’s who of the
South African masters ... [Kebble]
obviously had the money and the
eye for an investment needed to
build a very strong collection.”
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UCT IRMA STERN
MUSEUM
Cecil Road, Rosebank,
Cape Town
Tel: 021-685 5686
A solo exhibition by
MICHAEL WYETH
New Photographs
31 March - 18 April
www.michaelwyeth.com

South African Art Times. March 2009 Page 7
New work by Judy Woodbourne to be shown at the Cape Gallery together with ceramics by Wiebke von
Bismarck Sunday 15th March 2009 – 4th April 2009. For more information see www.capegallery.co.za
Staking a worthy claim for performance art: Spier’s ‘Infecting the City’ takes off
Melvyn Minnaar
Mumblings about using the image
of a burning man as emblem for the
second, seven-day Spier Performance
Festival last month called it
‘gross’ and ‘arrogant’. Of course,
Ernesto Nhamuave’s xenophobiacharged
death - from whence the
image derive (it also refers to the
alternative American festival) - is
deeply tragic, but such complaints
suggest that a performance festival
is all play-play, that life and death is
only Shakespeare.
But these things can hit hard. Many
of us who stood next to the fountain
in Adderley street on that first Satur
day when Exile was performed, were
deeply moved. When the burning
man was lit, the waters crossed,
washing replaced by sjamboks, danger
and sadness engulfed us. Tears
mixed with water, prayers floated up.
This was fearless street theatre in
Africa, in Cape Town.
The point about performance or
street art is exactly that it intervenes
where it’s not expected, that it
challenges thought at awkward
moments. Naturally, it can be as
beautiful as ballet, as dark as
tragedy, as absurdly theatre, and as
South African as politics.
Not all of the Cape Town events,
neatly or oddly packaged, took flight
in this week. One supposes that that
too is in the nature of the unanticipation
of the genre - one which, more
Photo: Sean Wilson
or less invented in the 1970s when
the field between all the arts became
so happily blurred. Right now, in our
post-post modern era, it is surging
internationally. (Not that any of pushy
art events like Documenta ever went
without.)
Spier’s Africa Centre (which, thankfully,
seems to have abandoned that
dreadful amphitheatre which is part
of the disneyficated Stellenbosch
wine estate) can be quite pleased
the way it turned out. Importantly, the
collaborative efforts - of which three
involved various and diverse artistic
talent from different countries and
produced excellent pieces, in fact,
the highlights - will give momentum
to future development and similar
ventures. Could Cape Town became
Gideon Mendel: from Lusikisiki series
Still III From performance series Norman O’Flynn changes the World: showing at the Erdmann Contemporary Photo: David Bloomer
an international centre for performance
art?
On the logistical side, the team gets
good marks and the co-operation
with city and other officials seems
to have been fine tuned. That too is
good for more of the same.
How and what Capetonians - those
mostly unsuspecting of what they
would encounter on the pavement,
city square or next to the iconic fountain
- think about it or have reacted
may be worth some research.
What matters is that many ad hoc
opinions by casual passers-by at,
say, the Adderley street fountain and
the trapeze outfit on Riebeek square
were prompted. These two places,
hosted two diverse performances
which demonstrated the scope of
the art, but it also suggested that
South African artists have some real,
original excitement to offer.
The French company Retouramont’s
Tuning into the Void had three blackdressed
performers hanging around
in the air, moving to some invisible
choreography and dreary music.
One passer-by suggested a shot
on the bum might liven up matters,
while a more laid-back academic
suggested this was typical of bleek
European art indulgence.
Down at the fountain, on that
first Saturday, Exile - brilliantly
conceived by Alfred Hinkel from
Jazzart, Michael Lister of the Avanti
Display theatre in the UK, Zambian
performer Mary Manzole, Penelope
Youngleson and a host of agile performers
and singers who whipped
and rode the waters - had everyone
talking. A very vocal bergie shopping
trolley couple was ready to join in,
while an ecumenical crowd got
themselves deliciously wet as part
of the ritual and went home thinking
about their neighbours.
A ritual of a more absurd and camp
kind formed the basis of Amakwerekwere,
another international
collaboration. The attics of rising
star Athi-Patra Ruga and a fabulous
team of human penguins guaranteed
broad attention. Take that, you old
Thibault square!
Limbo on Church square, a potent
piece that cut to the heart of the
us/them theme of the festival and
the dread of xenophobia, activated
the stately atmospheric environment
superbly. But the usual clever
iconoclastic Peter van Heerden’s An
Histrionic didn’t quite come off at the
Castle. The parody promised simply
felt silly.
Most of the other offerings were
pretty regular, if interesting pieces
(such as Incwaba lendoda lise
cankwe ndlela) in ‘fixed’, traditional
venues. Personal indulgence, a
space and place for some wanking,
is also part and parcel of this kind
of stuff. The most ‘conceptual’ piece
in a way, was Call Cutta in a Box,
which comprised an ‘intercontinental
phone play’. And there were quite
some takers.
Which means that Capetonians are
quite up for and to the challenges of
performance art. How much infecting
it did, well, that’s tricky. But that it did,
that’s for sure.
The South African Art Times 2008
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Page 8 South African Art Times. March 2009
AVANT CAR GUARD and the Gay Black Jewish Artist’ AVANT CAR GUARD infiltrate The House of Art
AVANT CAR GUARD dive into the South African Contemporary Art Market’
The return of the art world jesters
The Avant Car Guard (ACG) collective
are not ideal candidates for
an interview. For starters Zander
Blom, Michael McGarry and
Jan-Henri Booyens, the trio that
constitute this irreverent group,
are on a quest to undermine and
interrogate the mechanics that
drive the art world and interviewing
is, after all, part of the machinery
that elevates the artist, promulgating
the status of the artist-genius.
But it’s not just that ACG eschew
the artist-genius tag and culture
but they have already satirised
the ubiquitous press interview
in their work – long before they
found themselves at the centre
Avant Car Guard are putting up a new exhibition. Mary Corrigall meets with
of attention. Titled Avant Car
Guard at Home 1996 the trio are
photographed seated at a table in
front of microphones. Of course,
a number of elements disrupt this
mise-en-scène; the suburban
garden in the background and the
date in the title; in 1996 the trio
were presumably still students. It’s
not that they foretold their future
but rather were representing the
typical artist-genius narrative in
which the artist is cast as a genius
in retrospect. Our interview will
no doubt cement their status too
but it plays out under different
conditions. Held up in Pretoria
Booyens is absent and taking
place at an outdoor café in Joburg
it doesn’t resemble the constructed
or artificial process their art work
references.
Blom and McGarry are here to
promote ACG’s up and coming
solo at Whatiftheworld gallery in
Cape Town but they also seem to
relish the opportunity to expand
on ACG’s ethos, which they say is
so often adumbrated by the unruly
nature of their art.
“We have kind of wanted to resist
becoming the art world’s entertainment.
We are always referred to
as quirky, rabble-rousers; very few
people engage with what we are
saying,” notes McGarry.
The art of ACG has been compelled
by a number of different
ideas since they launched Volume
I at Bell Roberts in December
2006. Though they found notoriety
quickly with their derisive attacks
on the South African art world, a
period Blom terms their “bitchy
phase”, their initial impetus was
driven by a desire to destabilise
notions of authorship. It wasn’t just
a clichéd postmodern/Foucaultian
compulsion; they genuinely
couldn’t see themselves following
the archetypal artist career path
that would involve producing
serious solo exhibitions every two
years.
“You kind of feel like you are being
cheated when you get caught in
that cycle. There is no space to
have fun. You make a whole bunch
of shit and then you have product,
it gets shown and then you make
more shit. There is little fun in
that,” observes Blom.
Experimenting in the context of a
residency didn’t appeal to the trio
either.
“That form of art making is also
really lame because it doesn’t
really deliver anything. Even in a
residency where you put a whole
lot of people together, you will find
that everyone still want to put their
own stamp on what you produce.
It is cool to develop one thing,”
asserts Blom.
ACG is like the product of an
advertising or brand campaign, in
which a team of people develop
a powerful identity that is distinct
from their own, they suggest.
“There is a branding and a concept
that we work towards it’s an
independent thing,” says Blom.
Nevertheless Blom and Mc-
Garry are quick to assert that while
ACG’s identity is independent of
them, its essence is tied to them;
in other words if one of them had
to leave the collective, ACG would
cease to exist.

South African Art Times. March 2009 Page 9
the irreverent group and discovers that they prize freedom over convention
Being part of ACG has freed them
from the conventions that their
individual expression is unable to
afford them.
“We can say stuff with Avant Car
Guard that we can’t and don’t
necessarily want to say with our
own stuff and because there
are three of us the blame or the
authorship is diluted. It’s also a bit
lame to do that stuff by yourself,”
says McGarry.
Working as a collective has had an
impact not only on ACG’s aesthetic
but their process too.
“It is a fast way of working; an
idea happens quickly or goes
away quickly, whereas if you are
working by yourself you get stuck.
You learn not to be precious. And
you learn to take the piss out of
yourself,” observes Blom.
The immediacy of their conceptual
process obviously made photography
an automatic choice as their
primary mode of expression. Using
a timer they take all their own
pictures.
“It makes it more difficult but it
makes our art more peformative in
a way,” suggests McGarry.
“We prefer it to do it ourselves
because we have grown used to
being comfortable with just the
three of us, the space between sit-
ting and running has also created
an effect,” proposes Blom.
Volume III, the title of their up-andcoming
Whatiftheworld exhibition,
will see the trio expand their
distinctive idiom into the realm of
painting.
“With the photographs we were always
acting out some scenario, we
would mimic an idea. In the painting
we are not mimicking some
situation we are working directly
(with the subject),” says Blom.
“The process is totally different;
we are perhaps acting out what
a normal artist does,” comments
McGarry
He also suggests that painting has
developed the ACG aesthetic into
a less figurative and one dimensional
form of expression.
“Volume II was very much like
looking at the art world and doing
one liner cell based cartoon things
that are activated by the title. We
only directly attacked anyone with
the “Berni Seal” (in reference to
Berni Searle) photograph, but this
show is very much about attacking
the icons, its bigger and more fun.
Not as one dimensional, the paintings
are more lyrical and abstract,”
says McGarry.
Despite their overt attempts at
challenging the art world they have
no desire to transform it; Blom and
McGarry say they derive pleasure
simply from creating satirical work.
“In a micro way in terms of how
we are read as individuals or what
young contemporary practice is,
I think that we have changed the
way we see it. If we did our solo
work without Avant Car Guard
it would be death,” observes
McGarry.
Nevertheless, they don’t deny they
have had an impact.
“It is difficult to imagine the art
world without us,” says McGarry.
But it’s not a comment born from
arrogance; he suggests that
“anybody could have been us we
ended up being us, it’s healthy and
it’s a sign that the hegemony that
was around has relaxed. There are
a lot more younger galleries and
that power dynamic that was in
place is no longer there anymore
and you can shit on big names and
nothing really happens anymore.”
• Volume III opens at
Whatiftheworld Gallery in
Cape Town on March 26

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THE GALLERY BUZZ PAGE
Opening of Claude Bouscharain’s exhibition entitled: Strange Enchartments until 15 March 09 at SMAC Gallery. See more at: www.smacgallery.com
Stanely Pinker, Claude Bouscharain and Erik Laubscher
infront of Bouscharain’s work “Light and Man”
Full house on Claude Bouscharain’s Exhibition “Strange Enchantments” opening night.
Key works from the Sanlam Art Collection collected over the past decade by curator Stefan Hundt launched the first leg of a travelling art exhibition at iArt in Cape Town
Ann Palmer, Stephan Welz, Bina Genovese Jaco van Schalkwyk, Elana Brundyn, Pieter Brundyn Ann Palmer, Ann Piet Viljoen, Stefan Hundt
Trent Read, fifth generation art dealer, gallery owner and director has reopened his Knysna Fine Art Gallery see more at www.finearts.co.za
New Red Black and White Gallery owned by Piér and Jo-Marie Rabe opens in Stellenbosch with a show by Strijdom van der Merwe. See more at: www.redblackandwhite.co.za
Moya and Marike van Zyl at the opening of “Exploring Lines” an exhibition
of works of art by Strijdom van der Merwe on opening night
Jo-Marie Rabe with friends Marita Wragge and Pieter Toerien
An exterior shot of the warehouse on opening night
New gallery in Stellenbosch, one that offers a unique and exciting exhibition space to artists, the art community and the public. A huge red sculpture “Falling Sticks” by Land Astist Strijdom van der Merwe in front of the building
alludes to what happens inside. The building dates from the 1920’s and was originally used as brandy maturation cellar. Stjidom’s fusion of art within a spesific environment brought out the magic of the building and has set the
standard for what the Rabes expect from artists who will be exhibiting in this gallery in future. “Artists are enormously inspired by the space. We encourage them to utilize the gallery in whatever way they feel would do justice to
their work and to the space” Jo-Marie commented.Piér and Jo-Marie Rabe have been antique dealers and passionate art collectors for the last 25 years. “We never inteded to become gallerists, but then we bought this amazing
building. As the renovations started taking shape, the building started to dictate! We decided to call it red, black and white” Piér said. The Rabes are also planning a series of lectures to coinside with the different exhibitions. Shany
van den Berg and her daughter Roche will be the showing a group of works next. The title of the exhibition is “HalfMens / HeelMens” 14th of March at 11 o’clock. - 09 April 2009.
For more information www.redblackandwhite.co.za or www.antiquewarehouse.co.za E-mail thewarehouse@mweb.co.za or janri@redblackandwhite.co.za Tel 021 886 6281. Photos by oakpics.com

William Kentridge (1955-) Nude on a Landscape 1990 Charcoal and Chalk Pastel on Paper 510 X 420 mm
The Philip Harper Galleries
Hermanus, Western Cape
www.thephilipharpergalleries.co.za
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We specialise in South African Art, both Old Masters and select Contemporary Artists, catering for both corporate and private clients
Oudehof Mall, 167 Main Road, Hermanus, Tel: 028 3124836