Bumpy road ahead - South African Art Times
Bumpy road ahead - South African Art Times
Bumpy road ahead - South African Art Times
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THE SOUTH AFRICAN<br />
ART TIMES<br />
February 2009 • Issue 1 Vol 4 • Subscription RSA 180 p.a • February Print & Distrib. 7 000 copies • Full online version available at www.arttimes.co.za<br />
The art centres of New York and<br />
London are reeling in the wake of<br />
a financial recession. Galleries are<br />
closing, the survival and efficacy of<br />
public museums reliant on private<br />
funding are under threat and<br />
auction prices which dropped by<br />
4,5 percent for the first time in six<br />
years are expected to sink much<br />
lower. The <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> economy<br />
has been partly cushioned against<br />
the effects of the global credit<br />
crisis but the message hailing from<br />
all spheres of local industry is that<br />
2009 will test the survival of many<br />
businesses. The local art world<br />
certainly won’t be impervious to<br />
the economic downturn, but which<br />
echelons of the industry will be the<br />
most aversely affected?<br />
Reliant on government rather<br />
than private funding for its running<br />
costs and acquisitions (albeit<br />
limited), our local museums should<br />
be able to weather the storm.<br />
However, most are reliant on<br />
private sponsors to bank roll major<br />
shows, such as Standard Bank’s<br />
sponsorship of Marlene Dumas’<br />
Intimate Relations at Iziko <strong>South</strong><br />
<strong>African</strong> National Gallery last year.<br />
In fact artists, art projects and<br />
programmes and award exhibitions<br />
are all dependent on the<br />
benevolence of corporate companies.<br />
Corporate buyers are also a<br />
life-line for many a Joburg gallery.<br />
Standard Bank have cancelled<br />
their sponsorship of this year’s<br />
Cape Town Jazz Festival but will<br />
continue as planned with acquisitions<br />
for their collection, says<br />
Mandie van der Spuy, the banks’<br />
art sponsorship manager.<br />
While Van der Spuy doesn’t foresee<br />
any other major alterations to<br />
their sponsorship programme she<br />
says that the bank’s sponsorship<br />
budgets will all be tightened.<br />
“The programmes will all remain in<br />
place but the budgets will be managed<br />
carefully and we will reduce<br />
spending where we can.”<br />
Van der Spuy predicts that smaller<br />
sponsors might feel the pinch a<br />
<strong>Bumpy</strong> <strong>road</strong> <strong>ahead</strong><br />
2009 will be a trying year for the art world nevertheless local players remain optimistic, writes Mary Corrigall<br />
bit more and will be compelled to<br />
cancel actual projects.<br />
Ricardo Fornoni, is the co-owner<br />
and curator at Resolution Gallery,<br />
a relatively new gallery located on<br />
Joburg’s ‘art strip’ along Jan Smuts<br />
Avenue. He is optimistic that his<br />
gallery will ride out an economic<br />
recession.<br />
“We are more flexible and because<br />
we are still small so our overheads<br />
are not as high as the more<br />
established galleries. There is a<br />
good chance that we will make it<br />
through this bad path if we keep<br />
the quality of our exhibitions<br />
high and keep developing new<br />
concepts.”<br />
Fornoni is less hopeful about<br />
securing sponsorship for some of<br />
the bigger projects he had planned<br />
for the year.<br />
“We had two or three big projects<br />
that we are looking for sponsorship,<br />
which I think will be difficult<br />
to get.”<br />
The mood in art world is jittery,<br />
says Fornoni.<br />
“Everybody is quite concerned and<br />
panicked; it is going to be a tough<br />
year.”<br />
There is much talk ab<strong>road</strong> that<br />
the recession will be beneficial to<br />
the art world; that art will become<br />
less commodified. Some see the<br />
reverse happening, suggesting<br />
that with their backs up against the<br />
wall gallerists will prefer to invest<br />
in “money shows” rather than risky<br />
conceptual shows.<br />
For a new gallery like Resolution<br />
that is still trying to establish a<br />
reputation they can’t afford not to<br />
do concept shows, says Fornoni.<br />
Michael Stevenson, owner of the<br />
Michael Stevenson gallery in Cape<br />
Town and partner in the Joburgbased<br />
Brodie/Stevenson, says that<br />
his business felt the effects of the<br />
economic recession since the end<br />
of last year.<br />
Continued on page 3<br />
Not quite all doom and gloom, but always eternally cheerful, Still life with spring flowers by Alfred Neville Lewis<br />
(1895-1972) to be seen at the SWELCO’s Decorative & Fine <strong>Art</strong>s Auction, Cape Town. Auction takes place on<br />
Tuesday 24 February - Wednesday 25 February, 2009. See www.swelco.co.za for more details.
Page 2 <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong>. February 2009<br />
The <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong><br />
<strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong><br />
February 2009<br />
www.arttimes.co.za<br />
Published monthly by<br />
Global <strong>Art</strong> Information<br />
PO Box 15881 Vlaeberg, 8018<br />
Tel. 021 424 7733<br />
Fax. 021 424 7732<br />
Editor: Gabriel Clark-Brown<br />
editor@arttimes.co.za<br />
Advertising: Eugene Fisher<br />
sales@arttimes.co.za<br />
Subscriptions: Bastienne Klein<br />
subs@arttimes.co.za<br />
News: press@arttimes.co.za<br />
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<strong>Art</strong>work: art@arttimes.co.za<br />
Layout: freshjhbjuice<br />
Deadline for news, articles and<br />
advertising is the 20th of each<br />
month. The <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong> is published<br />
in the last week of each month.<br />
Newspaper rights: The newspaper<br />
reserves the right to reject any material<br />
that could be found offensive<br />
by its readers. Opinions and views<br />
expressed in the SA <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong> do<br />
not necessarily represent the official<br />
viewpoint of the editor, staff<br />
or publisher, while inclusion of advertising<br />
features does not imply<br />
the newspaper’s endorsement of<br />
any business, product or service.<br />
Copyright of the enclosed material<br />
in this publication is reserved.<br />
Cover: Lyndi Sales<br />
Photo: David Bloomer<br />
Steve Kretzmann<br />
Marieke Prinsloo, The Poet<br />
Cement fondue, 45cm x 74cm x 26cm<br />
A conceptual collaboration<br />
between 21 of <strong>South</strong> Africa’s top<br />
artists - such as William Kentridge,<br />
Diane Victor, Willie Bester and<br />
Brett Murray to mention a few -<br />
would have thousands of art lovers<br />
flocking to a gallery.<br />
But in the two years the conceptual<br />
Heritage Cache, conceived<br />
by Cobus van Bosch and Arlene<br />
Amaler-Raviv, has been running,<br />
only scores, rather than thousands,<br />
of people have seen it.<br />
Perhaps this has something to do<br />
with the fact that the work lies<br />
There’s a Kentridge somewhere up there........<br />
<strong>Art</strong>ist’s inspiration,Table Mountain Photo: Steve Kretzmann<br />
half-way up Table Mountain, buried<br />
under rocks and leaves.<br />
While this may limit the number of<br />
people who view it, the location,<br />
and finding it, is all part of the<br />
concept. You need to know where<br />
to look, be keen to don a pair of<br />
comfortable shoes and hike to the<br />
site, and then scratch around to<br />
discover exactly where the treasure<br />
lies buried. The co-ordinates<br />
and a global positioning system<br />
(GPS) help with what is, in fact, an<br />
adult treasure hunt.<br />
And what you can look forward to<br />
unearthing are 21 objects chosen<br />
by artists William Kentridge,<br />
Diane Victor, Willem Boshoff, Lien<br />
Nora Newton<br />
Marieke Prinsloo<br />
Opening<br />
Tuesday 10 February 6:30pm<br />
10 February to 15 March 2009<br />
Curator: Mike Donkin<br />
Monday - Friday: 9:00 - 17:00<br />
Saturday: 9:00 - 15:00<br />
Botha, Willie Bester, Brett Murray,<br />
Churchill Madikida, Gordon Froud,<br />
Raymond Smith, Cobus van<br />
Bosch, Arlene Amaler-Raviv,<br />
Sanell Aggenbagh, Dale Yudelman,<br />
Norman O’Flynn, Liza Grobler,<br />
Conrad Botes, Andrew Porter,<br />
Kevin Brand, Adrienne<br />
van Eeden, Inge du Plessis<br />
and Leonard Wichtmann.<br />
Each object represents an aspect<br />
of <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> heritage a nd<br />
comes attached with notes to<br />
be read while taking in a grand<br />
view of the Atlantic ocean below<br />
and the Twelve Apostles above,<br />
whereafter you put it back as you<br />
found it so that the next person<br />
may enjoy it.<br />
But while the entire concept may<br />
seem rather strange and exotic<br />
to gallery pundits, the Heritage<br />
Cache is part of a global<br />
phenonmen called Geocaching, in<br />
which (mostly outdoor) enthusiasts<br />
hunt for objects using co-ordinates<br />
posted at www.geocaching.com.<br />
This activity, which started in 2000<br />
with a bunch of Americans experimenting<br />
with the accuracy of their<br />
GPSs, has grown to include tens<br />
of thousands of participants who<br />
hunt for over 720 000 geocaches<br />
in over 200 countries.<br />
Most of the cache’s are small<br />
objects such as toys or artifacts<br />
of little worth. Some cache’s are<br />
simply a notebook to record that<br />
you found it.<br />
The Heritage Cache, of course,<br />
is an exception. While art lovers<br />
would appreciate its contents, geocache<br />
enthusiasts who have found<br />
it as part of their normal treasure<br />
hunting quest have also expressed<br />
appreciation for what it contains.<br />
Some of the feedback posted by<br />
geocachers on the geocache<br />
website were: “Such a pleasure to<br />
enjoy some thing arty,” and, “That<br />
is quite a box full of goodies!”<br />
And it seems van Bosch and<br />
Amaler-Raviv may also be contributing<br />
to art education, as some<br />
people indicated they would need<br />
to find out more about the artists<br />
involved: “A very interesting cache<br />
- now I will have to find out what it<br />
all means!” said one geocacher.<br />
Originally planned to be part of<br />
t he X-CAPE programme<br />
within the abortive CAPE07<br />
event, Amaler- Raviv said the<br />
idea evolved after Van Bosch met<br />
her to talk about her successful<br />
‘Autobiography in Paint’ exhibition<br />
which she was putting on at World<br />
<strong>Art</strong> in Johannesburg.<br />
She said it became apparent that<br />
she and Van Bosch were reading<br />
“similar stuff” at the time and<br />
she was “going mal”<br />
over “the way<br />
images<br />
in<br />
the<br />
universe<br />
connect”.<br />
Hidden art a treasure to find<br />
She said Van Bosch started talking<br />
about geographical points and<br />
GPS, “this amazing new technology”<br />
and the concept was finalised<br />
“within a day”.<br />
She said the response from the<br />
artists who were invited to contrib<br />
ute found objects worth less than<br />
R20 each, was “fantastic”.<br />
“There’s even some dagga in<br />
there.” She said they last visited<br />
the cache about two months ago to<br />
check its contents, and everything<br />
was still there. No-one had even lit<br />
up the dagga zol.<br />
And if you’re in Johannesburg<br />
and feeling left out, don’t fret,<br />
she said they were planning<br />
to plant a cache in Jo’burg,<br />
“soon”.<br />
The Heritage Cache coordinates<br />
are 18° 23’40.10 east<br />
and 33° 56’54.88<br />
south. And if<br />
you<br />
don’t<br />
Nora Newton, Nguni Cattle at Coffee Bay,oil on canvas, 90 x 152cm<br />
have<br />
a GPS,<br />
don’t worry, a<br />
good map will do.
<strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong>. February 2009 Page 3<br />
Absolutely Gordon Froud<br />
Michael Coulson meets up with the Gordon Froud of Gordart<br />
It’s been a busy few months even<br />
for a workaholic like Gordon<br />
Froud. Not only has he put together<br />
not just one, but two, dazzling<br />
exhibitions in part-fulfilment of his<br />
master’s degree at the University<br />
of Johannesburg (where he also<br />
teaches); for the second time in<br />
two years his gordart gallery has<br />
had to move after finding that a<br />
landlord’s view of a reasonable<br />
rental was incompatible with the<br />
earning power of an art gallery.<br />
Mind you, Froud is used to a work<br />
schedule that would make most<br />
blench. “I come from a poor white<br />
background. At one time while<br />
I was studying I had five jobs.<br />
Nobody told me that sort of thing<br />
couldn’t be done. It’s all a question<br />
of time management.” And, he<br />
admits, a metabolism that requires<br />
less sleep than most people.<br />
What he sees as chapter three<br />
(“And, I hope, the last”) of gordart’s<br />
history entails a move to Johannesburg’s<br />
Parkwood art strip. It’s<br />
smaller than either of his former<br />
premises in Melville, and when I<br />
last visited him in Melville he was<br />
agonising over which artists he’d<br />
scheduled for this year could no<br />
longer be accommodated.<br />
Partly as corollaries to this, he<br />
sees two other possible consequences<br />
of the move. First, he<br />
hopes a smaller gallery with, in<br />
Gordon Froud<br />
effect, fewer shows will be less<br />
time-consuming and allow more<br />
opportunity for creating art; secondly,<br />
a shift in approach.<br />
“I’ve always seen gordart as a<br />
developmental gallery,” he says,<br />
a philosophy that goes all the way<br />
back to the early 1990s when he<br />
ran the ICA gallery in Newtown.<br />
“Several artists who had their first<br />
showings with us have gone on to<br />
mainstream galleries. We made<br />
the initial investment but others<br />
benefited from the resultant higher<br />
prices.<br />
“That model is no longer viable.<br />
While we’ll always remain a<br />
developmental gallery, for financial<br />
reasons we need a change in focus.<br />
So we’re starting to develop<br />
a stable of four or five artists who’ll<br />
stay with us after they become<br />
established.”<br />
Froud didn’t set out to become a<br />
gallerist, or even an artist, though<br />
he admits that as a child he was<br />
always making things out of<br />
everyday objects. The only way he<br />
could finance post-matric studies<br />
(he matriculated in Germiston in<br />
1981) was by a bursary. The old<br />
Transvaal Education Department<br />
offered bursaries in maths and art,<br />
but insisted he study art – a<br />
subject he took up only in his<br />
matric year - where the lack of<br />
teachers was greater.<br />
“My parents would have preferred<br />
me to become a lawyer or an<br />
accountant, but eventually they<br />
realised my heart wasn’t in it, and<br />
relented.”<br />
Froud trained as a realist sculptor<br />
under Peter Schutz at Wits, learning<br />
all the traditional techniques.<br />
But for five years after he graduated<br />
in 1986 he created nothing. “I<br />
couldn’t afford traditional materials,<br />
but my interest in unusual materials<br />
developed, encouraged by the<br />
likes of Karel Nel.”<br />
Cups, cutlery, wine glasses, toothpicks<br />
and coat hangers, mostly in<br />
plastic, all became grist to his mill.<br />
He’s proud that his first plastic<br />
cup show, in Paris in 2000 during<br />
his residency at the Cite des <strong>Art</strong>s<br />
International (later replicated at the<br />
<strong>African</strong> Window, in Pretoria), was<br />
one of the first of its kind.<br />
By the time of his master’s shows<br />
last year, though, he’d progressed<br />
from using literally found objects<br />
to being a major buyer of these<br />
items.<br />
He sees no conflict in his roles of<br />
artist and gallerist. “Up to now I’ve<br />
sold my work through other galleries,<br />
but that may also change.”<br />
And while he agrees that the art<br />
market is in for a difficult year, he<br />
doesn’t believe Johannesburg is<br />
over-galleried. “We’re continually<br />
having to turn away artists who<br />
want to exhibit. And on the other<br />
side of the picture, we have our<br />
own market. We don’t appeal to<br />
the millionaires or the corporate<br />
market. Our market is the up-andcoming<br />
30- and 40-year-olds, with<br />
pockets to match.”<br />
Let’s hope he’s right; if he isn’t,<br />
the repercussions will be felt far<br />
beyond the art market.<br />
<strong>Bumpy</strong> <strong>road</strong><br />
<strong>ahead</strong><br />
continued from Page 1<br />
“Our international collectors have<br />
been much more cautious.”<br />
Nevertheless he says that he will<br />
continue to pursue the same business<br />
model.<br />
“If you believe in what you do you<br />
cannot change strategy.”<br />
Galleries will undoubtedly be less<br />
keen to take risks on unknown<br />
artists but Stevenson believes<br />
that this won’t impede the rise of<br />
remarkable young talent.<br />
“The recession has brought back<br />
the focus to the art itself. If you<br />
have talent it will manifest and you<br />
will find the support. Those without<br />
a distinctive intent will battle more<br />
than they did before (to get a foot<br />
in the door).”<br />
The “flush years” as Stevenson<br />
terms it may be over but it is business<br />
as usual for the Stevenson<br />
enterprise which will participate in<br />
seven art fairs this year, including<br />
the Joburg <strong>Art</strong> Fair, which runs in<br />
April. Stevenson isn’t the only gallerist<br />
that is sticking to his guns. So<br />
far all 24 of the galleries committed<br />
to exhibiting at the Joburg <strong>Art</strong> Fair<br />
haven’t cancelled, according to<br />
Ross Douglas, the fair’s director<br />
and head of <strong>Art</strong>logic. The fair’s<br />
primary sponsor – FNB - as<br />
well as a host of other secondary<br />
sponsors have also remained<br />
committed to supporting the event,<br />
he says.<br />
Douglas is optimistic about the <strong>Art</strong><br />
Fair and suggests that its success<br />
isn’t measured by its financial accomplishments.<br />
“Those short on money may not<br />
spend at the art fair now but will return<br />
to the galleries when they do<br />
have money. The art fair is about<br />
more than commercial success it is<br />
about introducing contemporary art<br />
to <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong>s.”<br />
KUNSGALERY<br />
JOHANS BORMAN<br />
FINE ART GALLERY<br />
CAPE TOWN<br />
Walter Battiss ‘Tahiti’ 35 x 40 cm<br />
A showcase for the best of<br />
<strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> Masters,<br />
as well as some leading<br />
contemporary artists.<br />
Telephone: 021 423 6075<br />
www.johansborman.co.za<br />
Mon-Fri: 10h00 - 18h00<br />
Sat: 09h00 - 14h00<br />
or by appointment<br />
In Fin <strong>Art</strong> Building<br />
Upper Buitengracht Street, Cape Town 8001<br />
Cell: 082 566 4631<br />
E-mail: art@johansborman.co.za
Page 4 <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong>. February 2009<br />
Free delivery within Cape area<br />
Polokwane: secret art powerhouse comes to light<br />
By Andrew Lamprecht<br />
The city of Polokwane, one of the<br />
2010 Soccer World Cup venues,<br />
is one of the fastest developing<br />
areas in <strong>South</strong> Africa. Only designated<br />
a city in 1992, it adopted<br />
its current name in 2003, being<br />
known as Pietersburg before that.<br />
It may not be the first city to come<br />
to mind when one thinks of art in<br />
<strong>South</strong> Africa, but in fact it has a<br />
vibrant community of artists and<br />
art-lovers and boasts its own substantial<br />
art museum, housed in the<br />
Danie Hough Cultural Centre.<br />
As the capital and located in the<br />
centre of Limpopo Province, it<br />
is ideally placed as a locus for<br />
the important traditional art that<br />
Limpopo offers. In addition several<br />
well known contemporary artists<br />
live and work in this area, including<br />
Samson Mudzunga, Jackson<br />
Hlungwani, Noria Mabasa, Phillip<br />
Rikhotso, Amos Letsoalo, amongst<br />
many others.<br />
In this town, as it grew into a city,<br />
a little known but tireless couple<br />
has consistently championed the<br />
cause of contemporary art and<br />
built up (with modest means) a<br />
major collection as well as bringing<br />
a love and appreciation of art to<br />
the b<strong>road</strong>er Polokwane community.<br />
Their names are unlikely to<br />
grace the “power lists” so beloved<br />
of other publications but in the<br />
context of how one can translate<br />
the love of art in to the practical,<br />
both through acquisition and also<br />
support and dissemination, they<br />
must be one of the most important,<br />
if under-recognised teams at work<br />
in the country today.<br />
Johan van Rooyen, a medical doctor,<br />
and his wife Maria, an artist,<br />
have campaigned ceaselessly and<br />
in some unusual ways to get art<br />
Custom Stretched Canvasses<br />
Hand made Easels<br />
Painting & print stretching<br />
Tel: 021 448 2799 Fax: 021 448 2797<br />
artstuff@webmail.co.za www.artstuff.co.za<br />
Maria van Rooyen :Tafelberg (work in progress). Medium: Charcoal, pastel and pencil<br />
appreciated in the city. For almost<br />
two decades, and with a small<br />
amount of disposable income to<br />
spend on art, they have amassed<br />
a collection of institutional-quality<br />
contemporary SA art. Ignoring<br />
the fashion for Irma Sterns and<br />
Pierneefs, they chose to focus only<br />
on younger, living artists and often<br />
recognised their quality long before<br />
the market and critics caught<br />
up. With a keen eye for talent they<br />
bought William Kentridge, Kendell<br />
Geers, Wayne Barker and Bonnie<br />
Ntshalintshali at a time when few<br />
other collectors were paying much<br />
attention to them.<br />
In some ways this type of collecting,<br />
informed by a good eye and a<br />
clear head and motivated above all<br />
by a love of art, and especially art<br />
of quality, serves as a good model<br />
for those who insist that the art<br />
market has crashed. The question<br />
will remain as to what type of art<br />
has crashed. It seems that the Van<br />
Rooyens, who have no intention<br />
of ever selling their collection,<br />
have still made a wise investment<br />
in the things that they choose to<br />
surround themselves with.<br />
The walls of Dr Van Rooyen’s<br />
practice are a veritable art gallery<br />
in miniature, being crowded with<br />
some of the most significant<br />
artworks produced by the middle<br />
and younger generation of our<br />
artists. At times these do not sit<br />
well with some of his patients who<br />
have been heard to mutter that<br />
‘there is something not quite right’<br />
about all this art. Nevertheless in<br />
this subtle way, he has caused<br />
countless visitors to spend their<br />
time contemplating art as they wait<br />
their turn to be attended to.<br />
The Van Rooyens acknowledge<br />
the important influence that Wayne<br />
Barker has played in their art<br />
activities, noting how he introduced<br />
them to many of the artists<br />
they subsequently collected and<br />
got to know. Indeed it is likely that<br />
they have the finest collection of<br />
Barker’s art as his mid-career star<br />
begins to shine ever more brightly.<br />
Perhaps there could have been<br />
no clearer sign that Polokwane<br />
had emerged from the shadows<br />
of its bigger coastal cousins and<br />
its neighbours in Gauteng than<br />
with the launch of Modern and<br />
Contemporary <strong>Art</strong>: Then, Now<br />
and Beyond, an exhibition of ‘41<br />
old masters and 26 contemporary<br />
artists’ held as part of the Limpopo<br />
<strong>Art</strong>s Festival last year and spon<br />
sored by Standard Bank. Curated<br />
by Dr. Fred Scott and Wayne<br />
Barker under the co-ordination<br />
of Maria van Rooyen. This was<br />
a major undertaking with superb<br />
examples from many major names<br />
in the history of <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> art<br />
since modernity, including Jane<br />
Alexander, Walter Battiss, Gerard<br />
Bhengu, Dumile Feni, Alexis Preller,<br />
Marlene Dumas, Irma Stern,<br />
Sandile Zulu and many more of<br />
the same ilk.<br />
This major and impressive assemblage<br />
was as a result of a smaller<br />
but extremely well received show<br />
the previous year, Double 07, and<br />
on the basis of its success it was<br />
decided to host the event annually.<br />
Not to rest on her laurels Van<br />
Rooyen has now put together a<br />
residency programme for February<br />
2009 in Polokwane, sponsored by<br />
Modern Autohaus BMW, and featuring<br />
seven contemporary artists<br />
addressing the issue of ‘mobility’.<br />
In their modest but influential way<br />
Maria and Johan van Rooyen have<br />
demonstrated that a love for art<br />
and a passion for sharing it with<br />
their community will always pay<br />
off dividends that transcend those<br />
of the power-brokers and financial<br />
speculators.<br />
<strong>Art</strong>ist: Ann Gadd<br />
<strong>Art</strong>Stuff now available on the Garden Route<br />
Call Paul Tunmer 083 2610084
<strong>Art</strong> Guide<br />
Richard Hart, Swan. Work from his upcoming exhibition entitled: Kind Pockets, on from 25 February - 21 March 2009 at the Whatiftheworld Gallery
SOUTH AFRICAN ART GALLERY SHOW LISTINGS FOR FEBRUARY<br />
Eastern Cape<br />
East London<br />
Ann Bryant <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
12 – 28 Feb, Identity, Paintings by Thembeka<br />
Qangule & Janna Prinsloo. Until<br />
08 Feb, Queenstown Fine <strong>Art</strong> Society<br />
Bequest.Until 01 Mar, Empty Vessels,<br />
Ceramic containers from the Museum’s<br />
Collection.<br />
9 St Marks Road, <strong>South</strong>ernwood, East<br />
London T. 043 722 4044<br />
Port Elizabeth<br />
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan <strong>Art</strong><br />
Museum<br />
05 Feb – 05 Apr, Beyond the Documentary<br />
Photograph, Contemporary <strong>South</strong><br />
<strong>African</strong> Photography. Until 01 Mar, Empty<br />
Vessels,Ceramic containers from the<br />
Museum’s Collection.<br />
1 Park Drive, Port Elizabeth,<br />
Tel. (041) 586 1030,<br />
www.artmuseum.co.za<br />
Free State<br />
Bloemfontein<br />
Oliewenhuis <strong>Art</strong> Museum<br />
05 Feb – 08 April,Transitions, Exhibition<br />
and film, by Paul Emmanuel.<br />
16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein T.<br />
051 447 9609<br />
Gauteng<br />
Johannesburg<br />
ABSA Gallery<br />
04 – 25 Feb, About Face: works in mixed<br />
media by Marike Kruger<br />
ABSA Towers North, 161 Main<br />
Street,Johannesburg<br />
Afronova Modern and Contemporary <strong>Art</strong><br />
Until 14 Feb, The Summer Show - Local<br />
and <strong>African</strong> <strong>Art</strong>ists. 14 Feb – 21 Mar, Solo<br />
Exhibition by Dominique Zinkpe.<br />
Cnr. Miriam Makeba and Gwi Gwi<br />
Mrwebi Street, Newtown, Johannesburg,<br />
Tel. 083 7265906 www.afronova.com<br />
Brodie/Stevenson<br />
Until 14 Feb, A Brutal Year, Solo exhibition<br />
by Robyn Penn. Until 14 Feb,Project<br />
003, Alexandra Makhlouf<br />
373 Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg T.<br />
011 326 0034, www.artextra.co.za<br />
AOP Gallery (<strong>Art</strong> on Paper)<br />
07 – 28 Feb,(I promise) I love you, Prints<br />
and drawings by Terry Kurgan<br />
44 Stanley Ave, Braamfontein Werf<br />
(Milpark), T. 011 726 2234<br />
www.artonpaper.co.za<br />
<strong>Art</strong>space - JHB<br />
04-28 Feb, The measure of success,<br />
Sculputres by Collen and Johannes<br />
Maswanganyi<br />
142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood,T. 011<br />
482 1258, www.artspace-jhb.co.za<br />
David Brown Fine <strong>Art</strong><br />
11 Feb – 11 Mar North by<br />
North East (re)visited: an important<br />
collection of <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> Polychrome<br />
Sculpture 1990 – 1994 Noria Mabasa,<br />
Freddy Ramabulana, Owen Ndou,<br />
Goldwin Ndou, Philip Rikhotso, Johannes<br />
Maswanganye, and Samson Mudzunga<br />
39 Keyes Ave,off Jellicoe, Rosebank,<br />
Johannesburg. T. 011 788 4435<br />
www.davidbrownfineart.co.za<br />
David Krut <strong>Art</strong> Resources<br />
05 Feb – 16 Mar Swamp Eyes,<br />
Curated Exhibition of works of paper<br />
by: Ryan Arenson, Willem Boshoff, Wim<br />
Botha, Gail Behrmann, Willie Cole (US),<br />
Claire Gavronsky, William Kentridge,<br />
Alive Maher (UK), Suzanne McClelland<br />
(US), Colin Richards, Michelle Segre<br />
(US), Rose Shakinovsky, Sean Slemon,<br />
Kiki Smith (US), Nathaniel Stern, Sandile<br />
Zulu.<br />
142 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood,<br />
Johannesburg T. 011 447 0627<br />
www.davidkrutpublishing.com<br />
Everard Read Gallery Jhb<br />
12 Feb – 07 Mar, Anton van Wouw (1865<br />
– 1945), Bronze Sculptures<br />
6 Jellicoe Avenue, Rosebank,<br />
Johannesburg T. 011 788 4805<br />
www.everard.co.za<br />
Gallery MOMO<br />
Until 16 Feb, Group Exhibition.19 Feb<br />
- 16 Mar, Ransome Stanley, In touch.<br />
52 7th Avenue, Parktown North,<br />
Johannesburg T. 011 327 3247<br />
www.gallerymomo.com<br />
Gallery on the Square<br />
Until Mar 09 An eclectic mix of <strong>South</strong><br />
<strong>African</strong> contemporary fine art, sculpture<br />
and ceramics.<br />
32 Maude Street, Nelson Mandela<br />
Square at Sandton City, Sandton,<br />
Johanesburg. T.(011) 784 2847<br />
www.galleryonthesquare.co.za<br />
Gerard Sekoto Gallery, Alliance<br />
Francaise<br />
02-20 Feb, Wakaba Mutheki, 24 Feb<br />
– 09 Mar, Ilana Slomowitz<br />
17 Lower Park Drive (corner of Kerry<br />
Road),Parkview,Johannesburg.<br />
T. 011 646 1169 www.alliance.org.za<br />
Goodman Gallery<br />
05 Feb – 07 Mar, Crocodile Tears, Brett<br />
Murray.<br />
163 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood,<br />
Johannesburg,<br />
www.goodman-gallery.com<br />
Gord<strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
Gord<strong>Art</strong> Gallery (main Space), 14 Feb<br />
– 07 Mar, Drawings by Taryn Racine<br />
Gord<strong>Art</strong> Project Room (2nd space), 14<br />
Feb – 07 Mar, Sculpture and Ceramics<br />
by Julie Lovelace<br />
Shop 1 Parkwood Mansions, 144 Jan<br />
Smuts Ave, Parkwood, t/f 011 880 5928<br />
www.gordartgallery.com<br />
Graham Fine <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
<strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> Investment <strong>Art</strong> from the<br />
permanent collection<br />
Shop 31, B<strong>road</strong>acres Lifestyle Centre,<br />
Cnr. Valley & Cedar Roads Fourways,<br />
Johannesburg.T. 011 465 9192,<br />
www.grahamsgallery.co.za<br />
Johannesburg <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
Until 01 Mar 09 Disturbance - An exhibition<br />
featuring Scandinavian and <strong>South</strong><br />
<strong>African</strong> Contemporary <strong>Art</strong>.Until 30 Mar<br />
Retrospective Exhibition -Thami Mnyele<br />
and Medu.<br />
King George Street, Joubert Park,<br />
Johannesburg T. 011 725 3180<br />
www.johannesburgart.org<br />
Market Photo Workshop<br />
Until 13 Feb 09 Portfolio 08, Exhibition of<br />
student Photo journalism, Until 20 March<br />
at the Goethe Institute, 119 Jan Smuts<br />
Avenue Parkwood In Transit (at the<br />
Goethe Institute) 13 young photographers<br />
T. 011 834 1444<br />
www.marketphotoworkshop.co.za<br />
Obert Contemporary at Melrosearch<br />
05 – 16 Feb, De Profundis Clamavi,<br />
Paintings by Paul Boulitreau.<br />
14 High Street, Melrose Arch, Johannesburg,<br />
T, 011 684 1214<br />
www.obertcontemporary.com<br />
Standard Bank Gallery<br />
03 Feb – 21 Mar I like my<br />
neighbours, Oil Paintings, sketches and<br />
sculptures by Johannes Phokela, 03 Feb<br />
– 21 Mar, Misc. (recovery room), Drawings,<br />
notebooks, objects, photos and<br />
installation by David Andrew<br />
Cnr. Simmonds & Frederick Streets,<br />
Johannesburg. T. 011 631-1889<br />
www.standardbankgallery.co.za<br />
University of Johannesburg <strong>Art</strong>s<br />
Centre Gallery<br />
Until 14 Feb, Modular Repetition,Gordon<br />
Froud.<br />
University of Johannesburg, Auckland<br />
Park Kingsway campus cor Kingsway<br />
and Universiteits Rd, Auckland Park<br />
T. 011 559 2099/2556<br />
Warren Siebrits Modern &<br />
Contemporary <strong>Art</strong><br />
Until 06 Mar, Prints,<br />
Multiples and<br />
Photography VI<br />
140 Jan Smuts Avenue,<br />
Parkwood, Johannesburg,<br />
T.011 327 0000<br />
www.warrensiebrits.co.za<br />
Pretoria<br />
Alette Wessels Kunskamer<br />
Exhibition of Old Masters and<br />
selected leading contemporary artists.<br />
Maroelana Centre, Maroelana.<br />
GPS : S25º 46.748 EO28º 15.615<br />
T. 012 346 0728 C. 084 589 0711<br />
www.artwessels.co.za<br />
Centurion <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
02 – 27 Feb, Eben <strong>Art</strong>s Studio,<strong>Art</strong><br />
Student Show<br />
T. 012 358 3477,<br />
www.pretoriaartmuseum.co.za<br />
Fried Contemporary <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
07 Feb – 07 Mar Suburb: digital works,<br />
paintings, sculptures and functional<br />
objects. Frieda Sonnekus, Eric Suplan,<br />
Gordon Froud<br />
430 Charles Str, Brooklyn, Pretoria<br />
T. 012 346 0158<br />
www.friedcontemporary.com<br />
Pretoria <strong>Art</strong> Museum<br />
PAM - North Gallery<br />
Until 22 Feb, Textile Exhibition, <strong>South</strong><br />
<strong>African</strong> works from the <strong>Art</strong> Museum’s<br />
collection<br />
PAM - Henry Preiss Hall,05 Feb – 19 Apr<br />
Kilimanjaro in relation to global warming:<br />
origins of the Rift – ordered chaos to a<br />
disordered present<br />
PAM - Albert Werth Hall,05 Feb – 19 Apr<br />
Africa Rifting/ Bloodlines<br />
PAM - East Gallery, 05 Feb – 22<br />
Jun, From the Museum’s Permanent<br />
Collection,<strong>Art</strong>ists from Polly Street and<br />
Rorke’s Drift T.012 344 1807/8<br />
art.museum@tshwane.gov.za<br />
Pretoria Association of <strong>Art</strong>s<br />
Until 05 Feb Exhibition of all SANAVA<br />
branches<br />
173 Mackie Street, New Muckleneuk,<br />
Pretoria, Gauteng, 0181, Tel. (012) 346<br />
3100 www.artsassociationpta.co.za<br />
UNISA <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
Until 13 Feb 09 UNISA Advanced<br />
Diploma Students Exhibition<br />
Theo van Wijk Building, Goldfields entrance,<br />
5th floor. Unisa Campus, Pretoria.<br />
T.012 429 6823 www.unisa.ac.za/gallery<br />
Alice <strong>Art</strong> Gallery Roodepoort<br />
25 Feb – 09 Mar Solo exhibition<br />
Susan Greyling<br />
217 Drive Street, Helderkruin, Pretoria,<br />
T.011 958 1392 www.aliceart.co.za<br />
KwaZulu-Natal<br />
Durban<br />
<strong>Art</strong> Space - DBN<br />
Until 14 Feb Under My Skin Works by Liz<br />
Speight, Hermine Spies Coleman & Ann<br />
Wakerly. 16 Feb - 07 Mar Sicelo Ziqubu<br />
- paper-mache and more.<br />
3 Millar Road, Durban. T.031 312 0793<br />
www.artspacedurban.co.za<br />
Durban <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
Until 15 Feb 09, Indian Ink, Indian <strong>South</strong><br />
<strong>African</strong>s in the media: A photographic<br />
history of propaganda and resistance.<br />
Second Floor, City Hall, Smith Street,<br />
Durban T. 031 300 6238<br />
Kizo<br />
19 Feb – 20 Mar National Group Exhibition<br />
Watercolour Society of <strong>South</strong> Africa.<br />
Shop G350 Palm Boulevard<br />
Gateway Theatre of<br />
Shopping Umhlanga<br />
T. 031 566 4322<br />
www.kizo.co.za<br />
KZNSA Gallery<br />
Until 15 Feb The Elephant<br />
Sculpture by Andries Botha.Until 15 Feb,<br />
Green KZNSA Gallery Members<br />
exhibition 2009.<br />
166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, T. 031<br />
2023686, www.kznsagallery.co.za<br />
Tatham <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
Until 01 Mar, Schreiner Gallery, Into the<br />
Light: work by KZN Women artists<br />
Cnr. Of Chief Albert Luthuli (Commercial)<br />
Rd. and Church Street (Opposite City<br />
Hall) Pietermaritzburg. T. 033 342 1804<br />
Northern Cape<br />
Kimberley<br />
William Humphreys <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
Permanent Collection Exhibition - Includes<br />
works of a variety of contemporary<br />
SA artists<br />
Civic Centre, Cullinan Crescent, Kimberley,<br />
Tel. (053) 831 1724,<br />
www.museumsnc.co.za<br />
Western Cape<br />
Cape Town<br />
34 Long<br />
Until 07 Mar In Storage Paintings &<br />
Sculpture from the Gallery Collection<br />
34 Long Street, Cape Town<br />
T. 021 426 4594, www.34long.com<br />
<strong>Art</strong> B Gallery<br />
Until 25 Feb,’Stripped’ ceramics by<br />
Hennie Meyer. Photographic exhibiton<br />
by Stanford artists Annalize Mouton and<br />
lampshades by woodturner Attie van<br />
der Colff.<br />
Library Centre, Carel van Aswegen<br />
Street, Bellville T. 021 918 2301, www.<br />
artb.co.za<br />
Association for Visual <strong>Art</strong>s (AVA)<br />
09 - 27 Feb, In partnership with Spier:The<br />
Dance Paintings by Polly Alakija, Recent<br />
Paintings by Jenny Parsons,Recent<br />
Paintings by Christopher Zinner<br />
A family Body - Hanneke Benade, Keepsakes<br />
by Tamlin Blake abd Marlise Keith<br />
35 Church Street, Cape Town, T.021 424<br />
7436 www.ava.co.za<br />
Bell-Roberts Contemporary <strong>Art</strong><br />
Gallery<br />
Until 21 Feb Works in Clay and Wood<br />
by Noria Mabasa, 25 Feb – 28 Mar.TBC,<br />
Paintings by Fahamu Pecou<br />
176 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock,<br />
www.bell-roberts.com<br />
Blank Projects<br />
Until 21 Feb, Section: video, photography<br />
& sound installation, Marie Snauwaert<br />
198 Buitengracht Street, Bo-Kaap, Cape<br />
Town, www.blankprojects.blogspot.com<br />
Cape Gallery<br />
Until 21 Feb, Exhibition of Paintings by<br />
Nola Muller. 22 Feb – 14 Mar, Oil Paintings<br />
by Robert Koch & Martin Koch<br />
60 Church Street, Cape Town<br />
T. 021 423 5309, www.capegallery.co.za<br />
Curious, Whetstone & Frankley<br />
Until 14 Feb, Warren Editions,<br />
Contemporary Printmaking<br />
87 Station Road, Observatory<br />
www.curiouswhetstonean<br />
dfrankley.com<br />
Erdmann Contemporary /<br />
Photographers Gallery<br />
Until 31 Jan, Home is my castle: Lien<br />
Botha, Angela Buckland, Jean Brundrit,<br />
Abrie Fourie, Diek Grobler, Luan<br />
Nel, Collen Maswanganyi, Maré van<br />
Noordwyk, Nontobeko Ntombela, Jurgen<br />
Schadeberg, Themba Shibase, Leonora<br />
van Staden, Bronwen Vaughan-Evans<br />
and Dale Yudelman 63 Shortmarket<br />
Street, Cape Town T. 021 422 2762<br />
www.erdmanncontemporary.co.za<br />
Everard Read Gallery - Cape Town<br />
5 – 19 Feb, Exhibition of Oil Paintings<br />
by Sasha Hartslief<br />
Portswood Rd, V&A Waterfront<br />
T.021 418 4527<br />
www.everard-read-capetown.co.za<br />
Goodman Gallery, Cape<br />
24 Jan – 21 Feb, Flux by Deborah Bell.<br />
26 Feb – 21 Mar, Review Revue, a selection<br />
of diverse works from over fifty years<br />
of <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> art.<br />
3rd Floor, Fairweather House<br />
176 Sir Lowry Road Woodstock, Cape<br />
Town T.021 462 7573/4,<br />
www.goodmangallerycape.com<br />
i <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
27 Feb - 12 Mar, Decade:a selection of<br />
83 works covering the last ten years of<br />
acquisitions for the Sanlam <strong>Art</strong> Collection-<br />
on tour at the I<strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
I<strong>Art</strong> Gallery,71 Loop Street Cape Town<br />
T. 021 424 5150<br />
Irma Stern Museum<br />
Until 07 Feb, Distant lands for today’s<br />
times - Jewelry by Marion Gottlieb<br />
Cecil Road, Rosebank, Cape Town T.<br />
021 685 5686, www.irmastern.co.za<br />
Iziko <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> National<br />
Gallery<br />
Until Jul 09, Scratches on the Face. Until<br />
15 Mar 09, Voices of the Ancestors<br />
Until 08 Mar, I am not me, the horse is<br />
not mine, an installation of 8 film fragments<br />
by William Kentridge. Until 15 Mar,<br />
Wildlife photographer of the Year Exhibition,<br />
Until 22 Mar, Past/Present, Andrew<br />
Verster, Breathing Spaces, Environmental<br />
Portraits of Durban’s Industrial <strong>South</strong><br />
Photographic exhibition. Until 01 Mar,at<br />
the Good Hope Gallery at the Castle of<br />
Good Hope – Iziko Granary<br />
Government Avenue, Company’s Garden<br />
T. 021 467 4660, www.iziko.org.za<br />
João Ferreira Gallery<br />
04 – 28 Feb, Paintings, by<br />
Wendy Anziska<br />
70 Loop Street, Cape Town<br />
T.021 423 5403<br />
www.joaoferreiragallery.com<br />
Kalk Bay Modern<br />
George Hallett’s ‘A Photographic Journey’<br />
Opening words by Peter Clarke<br />
21 February- 15 March 09<br />
Kalk Bay Modern, 1st Floor Olympia<br />
Buildings, 136 Main Road, Kalk Bay<br />
(Above the Olympia Cafe)<br />
kbmodern@iafrica.com<br />
Michael Stevenson Contemporary<br />
26 Feb – 04 Apr,In Boksburg photography<br />
by David Goldblatt. 26 Feb – 04 Apr,<br />
new Prints by Claudette Schreuders.<br />
Until 21 Feb, Cain and Abel,Solo exhbition<br />
of new works by Conrad Botes. 15<br />
Jan – 21 Feb, Nollywood,Solo exhibition<br />
of photographs by Pieter Hugo<br />
Ground Floor, Buchanan Building,<br />
160 Sir Lowry Road, Cape Town<br />
T. 021 462 1500<br />
www.michaelstevenson.com<br />
Sanlam <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
Until 28 Feb, 86 selected works<br />
by the Tafelberg Photography<br />
Club Exhibition.<br />
2 Strand Road, Bellville<br />
Tel. (021) 947 3359<br />
www.sanlam.co.za<br />
<strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> Print Gallery<br />
26 February - 28 March<br />
Printing Money<br />
Selected young contemporary<br />
artist printmakers.<br />
107 Sir Lowry Rod, Woodstock.<br />
T.021 4626851 www.printgallery.co.za<br />
Urban Contemporary <strong>Art</strong><br />
Until 28 Feb, Pigment on Paper, Michael<br />
Taylor, Nicola Grobler, Ilene Jacobs,<br />
Adrienne van Eeden and Jacqui Stecher<br />
46 Lower Main Road, Observatory, Cape<br />
Town T. 021 447 4132,<br />
www.urbancontemporaryart.co.za<br />
What if the World…<br />
Until 21 Feb The Status of Greatness<br />
Debut Solo exhibition by Xander Ferreira<br />
First floor, 208 Albert Road, Woodstock<br />
T. 021 448 1438<br />
www.whatiftheworld.com<br />
Franschhoek<br />
Gallery Grande Provence<br />
Until 28 Feb, New sculptures, Angus<br />
Taylor. Until 04 Mar, Feast - Paintings by<br />
Louis Jansen van Vuuren in celebration<br />
of his 60th birthday<br />
Main Road Franschoek. T. 021 876 8600<br />
www.grandeprovence.co.za<br />
Paarl<br />
Hout Street Gallery<br />
Until 28 Feb, Summer Salon<br />
270 Main Street, Paarl,T. 021 872 5030<br />
www.houtstreetgallery.co.za<br />
George<br />
Strydom Gallery<br />
40th Annual Summer Exhibition, selected<br />
artwork from established SA <strong>Art</strong>ists<br />
Marklaan Centre, 79 Market Street,<br />
George Tel. (044) 874 4027,<br />
www.artaffair.co.za,<br />
Stellenbosch<br />
Dorp Straat Gallery<br />
10 Feb – 16 Mar Painting and sculpture<br />
by Norah Newton & Marietjie Prinsloo<br />
144 Dorp Street, Stellenbosch<br />
T. 021 887 2256<br />
www.dorpstraatgalerie.co.za<br />
Sasol <strong>Art</strong> Museum<br />
14 Jan – 28 Mar,Retrospective Exhibition,<br />
Judith Mason<br />
52 Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch.<br />
Tel: 808 3029/3695<br />
www.sun.ac.za/usmuseum<br />
University of Stellenbosch<br />
Until 07 Feb, Masters Degree students<br />
(exams), Visual <strong>Art</strong>s Dept. Stellenbosch<br />
University<br />
cnr of Bird and Dorp Streets,<br />
Stellenbosch<br />
T. 808 3524/3489<br />
SMAC <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
12 Feb – 15 Mar Paintings from 1948 to<br />
2005 by Claude Bouscharain.<br />
De Wet Centre, Church Street,<br />
Stellenbosch T. 021 887 3607<br />
www.smacgallery.com<br />
Stellenbosch <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
Permanent exhibition of Conrad Theys,<br />
John Kramer, Gregoire Boonzaier,<br />
Adriaan Boshoff and other artists.<br />
34 Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch<br />
T. 021-8878343<br />
www.stellenboschartgallery.co.za<br />
Red Black and White<br />
07 Feb – 07 Mar,Exploring lines,Strijdom<br />
van der Merwe<br />
5a Distillery Road, Bosman’s Crossing,<br />
Stellenbosch, T. 021 886 6281<br />
www.redblackandwhite.co.za<br />
Stanford<br />
Stanford Galleries<br />
11-13 Queen Victoria Street<br />
Stanford<br />
Tel: 028 341 0591<br />
www.stanfordgallery.co.za<br />
Anton van Wouw (1865 - 1945) The Dagga Smoker. Part of the van Wouw Exhibition at Everard Read Gallery , Johannesburg. Exhibition ends 7 March 09
<strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong>. February 2009 Page 7<br />
Work by Deborah Poynton. Poynton will be exhibiting at Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town in June 2009<br />
Wendy Anziska<br />
Paul Emmanuel<br />
TRANSITIONS<br />
5 February – 8 April 2009<br />
south africa<br />
"SHOW TIME!"<br />
4 - 28 February<br />
Opening reception: 4 February 2009<br />
70 Loop Street Cape Town 8001 <strong>South</strong> Africa<br />
t: +27 21 4235403 f:+27 088 021 4232136<br />
info@joaoferreiragallery.com<br />
www.joaoferreiragallery.com Network, 2008, oil on board<br />
Mon – Fri 8 am – 5 pm<br />
Sat 10 am – 5 pm • Sun & Public Holidays 1 – 5 pm<br />
16 Harry Smith Street Bloemfontein ☎ 051 447 9609<br />
oliewen@nasmus.co.za<br />
Blood Sweat and Hairspray.<br />
By Alison Tu: Photographic print<br />
To be seen at UCA Gallery,<br />
Observatory, Cape Town<br />
Xander Ferreira, The Hunt of the<br />
Gazelle, to be seen at his show<br />
entitled: ‘The Status of Greatness’<br />
at Whatiftheworld Gallery. Show<br />
ends February 21.<br />
Mark Midgley new work is now<br />
found at The Atlanic Gallery, CT
Steve Kretzmann<br />
Many artists scorn the use of the<br />
word ‘cathartic’. It is so clichéd.<br />
But Lyndi Sales does not hesitate<br />
to utter the word for me as I stutter<br />
through one of those tip-of-thetongue<br />
moments.<br />
“Cathartic? Yes it was,” she says,<br />
with a disarming smile.<br />
The question had to be asked,<br />
considering her impressive body<br />
of work examines the crash of<br />
the Helderberg, the ill-fated <strong>South</strong><br />
<strong>African</strong> Airways plane that crashed<br />
into the Indian Ocean on November<br />
28, 1987, killing all 159 people on<br />
board.<br />
Lyndi was 14-years-old at the time,<br />
and her father was on that plane,<br />
returning via Mauritius from a business<br />
trip to Taiwan.<br />
It is the type of tragedy that can<br />
take a lifetime to get over, and<br />
rather than flinching from it, Lyndi<br />
has delved deep into that fateful<br />
accident and the secrets and<br />
conspiracies that surround it, with<br />
the result that she has produced<br />
art which is innovative, imaginative,<br />
contemplative, confrontational,<br />
surreal and even, controversial.<br />
But her approach has not, on the<br />
surface, been introspective. While<br />
loss may have been an original<br />
driving force, it is not something she<br />
mentions overtly. It is an unseen<br />
undercurrent, dimly sensed. The<br />
work is not literal. Its sublime<br />
technicality gives it great power and<br />
Sales’s transcendence of loss sets Paris astir<br />
reach, allowing it to achieve many<br />
translations. She has unravelled<br />
many a thread emerging from a<br />
complex knot.<br />
There are works produced by this<br />
talented printmaker that, if observed<br />
with a virgin eye unencumbered<br />
with any background knowledge,<br />
could be construed as a comment<br />
on the current global climate crisis.<br />
One medium sized work (approximately<br />
150cm x 100cm) for<br />
instance, is a print of the outlines<br />
of the world’s continents with<br />
gradations of colour reminiscent<br />
of a vegetative map. Upon it the<br />
intricate patterns of the lungs<br />
bronchial tubes have been incised<br />
using a laser, and raised to create<br />
a three-dimensional image. Other<br />
works, using a similar technique<br />
of incision into ‘found’ objects, or<br />
“ephemera”, as Lyndi calls it, such<br />
as the safety cards or emergency<br />
flotation devices found in aircraft,<br />
might indicate our collective<br />
obsession with personal safety<br />
highlighted by the juxtaposition with<br />
the delicate patterns of the inner<br />
human body…or the vulnerability of<br />
the body in transit.<br />
The multitude of ‘ephemera’ that<br />
Lyndi works with, such as the aforementioned,<br />
as well as boarding<br />
passes; lottery tickets (the gamble<br />
we take when we put our lives in<br />
the hands of others); lifejackets; life<br />
raft material; ocean bed maps, are<br />
indicative of a forensic mind.<br />
Indeed, Lyndi’s study of the<br />
Left: Shatter (detail), work for Holland Bienalle<br />
Below left: Flight path, Shatter, flight path II (detail).<br />
Above: Lyndi Sales<br />
Below: Fortunes and fortunes<br />
Helderberg crash and the opaque<br />
narrative surrounding it is a mix between<br />
that of a forensic pathologist<br />
and an investigative journalist. This<br />
has served to strengthen, rather<br />
than detract from, her artwork.<br />
The sound applications of technique,<br />
methodology, research and<br />
the final expression of that which<br />
has been soundly internalised, all<br />
contribute to the quality of her work.<br />
And proof of this quality is the<br />
astounding reception her current<br />
solo exhibition in Paris has already<br />
received, just five days into the fiveweek<br />
show at the time of writing.<br />
Despite having just returned the<br />
previous afternoon, after setting<br />
up her 37 works and opening her<br />
show In Transit at the Gallerie<br />
Maria Lund in Paris’s fashionable<br />
old gay quarter, Lyndi, looking fresh<br />
and unperturbed, quite casually<br />
notes that about 80 percent of her<br />
work there has already sold. This<br />
has been achieved in spite of their<br />
unabashed price tags and in the<br />
midst of an economic recession the<br />
like of which Europe has not seen<br />
(according to pundits at the World<br />
Economic Forum in Davos) since<br />
the end of World War 2.<br />
Yet anyone who has had the good<br />
fortune of seeing one or both of<br />
her TRANSIent (2008) and 1 in<br />
11 000 000 Chances (2006/2007)<br />
exhibitions which have shown at<br />
the Bell-Roberts gallery in Cape<br />
Town and Gallery Momo in Johannesburg,<br />
might not be surprised at<br />
Lyndi Sales Photo: David Bloomer<br />
the success this Michaelis 2000<br />
Masters graduate has achieved.<br />
She has no time to rest on her laurels<br />
though, her next solo exhibition<br />
in San Francisco is coming up, and<br />
she says she has only five weeks<br />
to recreate a new version of what is<br />
her largest and most arresting work:<br />
a 3m x 3m installation consisting<br />
of 159 hand made, hand cut paper<br />
kites supported by bamboo sticks<br />
and string.<br />
She also exudes a sense that she<br />
is looking forward to having these<br />
international showings behind her.<br />
Not because she may be able to<br />
relax thereafter but because, after<br />
years of producing an outstanding<br />
body of work from investigating the<br />
Helderberg tragedy, she is ready<br />
to move on. Already there are a<br />
few works ready for San Francisco<br />
that are moving away, conceptually<br />
if not technically, from this theme.<br />
‘Carbon Cloud’ is one. Made of<br />
cutout carbon paper, its conception<br />
derives from the pattern formed by<br />
a global map of computer servers.<br />
But Lyndi is reticent when it comes<br />
to talking about a line of enquiry<br />
that she herself has not quite<br />
formulated yet.<br />
Suffice to say, like the symbolic<br />
Chinese act of letting a kite go to fly<br />
free following the death of a loved<br />
one, Lyndi seems about ready to let<br />
go of the cord that has bound her<br />
to the Helderberg thus far. She’ll fly<br />
far, I’m sure.
ART PIG<br />
Alex Dodd<br />
With all the gloom and doom<br />
surrounding the global economic<br />
crisis, edgy speculations<br />
pre the April election and constant<br />
deluges raining down over grizzly,<br />
sodden Jozi you’d be forgiven for<br />
feeling like the four horsemen of<br />
the apocalypse might just be galloping<br />
down Commissioner Street<br />
one of these dark days.<br />
As ever, the elixir and the raison<br />
d’etre in the face of all the morbidity<br />
mongering is to be discovered<br />
in elegant white suburban cubes,<br />
urban warehouses, loft-style<br />
studios and industrial parking lots<br />
where this city’s undying aesthetes<br />
are busy conjuring a parallel<br />
universe based on the limitless<br />
fertility of thought and the practice<br />
of making, crafting, creating and<br />
dreaming untold fantasies into<br />
existence. It seems to me, there<br />
are two things to be excited about<br />
now: Obama and art. And, seeing<br />
as this is not the Huffington Post,<br />
I’ll focus on the latter.<br />
Joburg’s art circuit kicked back into<br />
action this year with the packed<br />
launch of the Robyn Penn and Alexandra<br />
Makhlouf show at Brodie/<br />
Stevenson. And I don’t think I’m<br />
alone in wishing I was the proud<br />
owner of one of Penn’s haunting<br />
sky-filled Joburg cityscapes. Now<br />
there’s a girl who knows how to<br />
paint. ‘The poignant and iconic<br />
architectural structures which<br />
mark the Johannesburg cityscape,<br />
loom in my memory and fill my<br />
canvasses as vague remembered<br />
forms from the sublime vantage<br />
point of my childhood home. They<br />
are distant in time, yet present,’<br />
writes Penn. ‘They are in time but<br />
also exist outside of time because<br />
they are built and preserved to be<br />
physically insusceptible to time’s<br />
ravages.’<br />
Next was the launch of the Joburg<br />
<strong>Art</strong> Fair at <strong>Art</strong>logic’s loft-style<br />
offices between the Atlas Studios<br />
and the sci-fi gas tower in Milpark.<br />
Again the spirit seemed to one of<br />
upbeat solidarity in rugged times,<br />
as <strong>Art</strong>logic’s gung-ho impresario<br />
Ross Douglas announced plans<br />
for the second fair, due to unfold<br />
at the Sandton Convention Centre<br />
from 3-5 April. This year’s event<br />
promises to be a more hybrid creature,<br />
combining art, design and<br />
lifestyle, and showcasing the best<br />
of contemporary visual culture the<br />
continent has to offer.<br />
In addition to the 25 leading local<br />
and international galleries that<br />
have signed up to participate,<br />
Tumelo Mosaka (of the Brooklyn<br />
Museum in New York) will be<br />
curating a selection of moving<br />
image work from countries in the<br />
Global <strong>South</strong>, and the gordonschachatcollection<br />
will be presenting<br />
Security, a unique installation by<br />
internationally acclaimed <strong>South</strong><br />
<strong>African</strong> artist Jane Alexander,<br />
originally commissioned for the<br />
27th São Paulo Biennale.<br />
The crowd of night revellers broke<br />
into a round of applause when<br />
Douglas announced that last<br />
year’s specially featured artist,<br />
Robin Rhode, has been chosen by<br />
BMW Berlin to launch the new Z5<br />
‘art car’. ‘It’s all very James Bond<br />
and we’re excited about Robin<br />
Rhode going to great heights,’ said<br />
Douglas.<br />
And speaking of things turbocharged,<br />
Marcus Neustetter and<br />
Stephen Hobbs of the Trinity<br />
Session seem to have entered this<br />
new year firing on all cylinders.<br />
They have closed down their<br />
Premises gallery at the Civic<br />
Theatre to focus their energies<br />
on the public art terrain and<br />
recently relocated their offices to<br />
join spaces like the Rooke Gallery,<br />
the Bag Factory <strong>Art</strong>ists’ Studios<br />
and the Lilian Street Studios in the<br />
Newtown/Fordsburg art hub.<br />
In a frenzied build up to the World<br />
Cup 2010 soccer action, there is a<br />
huge amount of public art activity<br />
on the go. ‘The Joburg Development<br />
Agency appointed us a public<br />
artwork commissioning agents<br />
and, by the end of May, we will<br />
have completed approximately R4million’s<br />
worth of public art spend<br />
in the Hillbrow, Berea and Yeoville,<br />
including a big tract of land in<br />
front of the taxi rank near Queen<br />
Elizabeth Bridge,’ says Hobbs.<br />
The Trinity Session’s collaborative<br />
approach to the relationship<br />
between art and the community,<br />
involves building a platform of interaction<br />
between artists and society<br />
that can give rise to democratic<br />
expression in public space. ‘Some<br />
of the most iconic pieces are by<br />
the <strong>Art</strong>ist Proof Studio [Hillbrow<br />
orientation sculpture], Winston<br />
Luthuli & Spaza <strong>Art</strong> [Constitution<br />
Hill gateway], Maja Marx & 2610<br />
<strong>South</strong> Architects [Houghton Drive<br />
gateway], Marco Cianfanelli [Pieter<br />
Roos Park] and Nkosana Ngobese<br />
[Yeoville Library], with each artist<br />
or collective creating a feature<br />
artwork in a specific location,’<br />
says Neustetter. It’s fast-talking,<br />
fresh-thinking creative livewires<br />
like Hobbs and Neustetter who<br />
have the power to refocus our<br />
thinking from the dispiriting issues<br />
of crime and grime to look anew<br />
and see Johannesburg as a city of<br />
the future.<br />
A public artwork by Marco Cianfanelli<br />
commissioned for Pieter<br />
Roos Park by the Trinity Session<br />
THE ART<br />
COWBOY<br />
Peter Machen<br />
Fanning the Flames<br />
What and who is fanning the bonfire in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town<br />
<strong>Art</strong>ists often feel that they are<br />
a hard-done-by bunch. But they<br />
should all thank their lucky stars<br />
they’re not a musician in Durban.<br />
It’s a sentiment I’ve often quietly<br />
expressed to myself as some<br />
gifted musical talent gets ignored<br />
or derided (usually the former) by<br />
an audience more intent on other<br />
things. And it was a sentiment that<br />
rose to the surface once more<br />
at the opening of the KZNSA<br />
Member’s Exhibition a few weeks<br />
ago where Musa Queen Njoko and<br />
her band were performing their<br />
radiant brand of afropop as part<br />
of the evening’s entertainment.<br />
Gallery audiences generally have<br />
no problem staying silent for long<br />
and dreary speeches (which is not<br />
to say that all opening speeches<br />
are long and dreary) and I thought<br />
they might find it in themselves to<br />
at least lower their voices. But no<br />
such luck. In Durban, where there<br />
is often so much cross-discipinary<br />
creativity, audiences often tend<br />
to be fairly segmented according<br />
to their favoured media. And so<br />
no-one bothered listening, instead<br />
raising their voices to talk over the<br />
gorgeous tunes.<br />
Despite the rudeness to Njoko, the<br />
opening was a hugely successful<br />
event, emphasising what a<br />
wonderful contemporary space the<br />
KZNSA is, and moving it slightly<br />
closer to my dream cultural centre,<br />
London’s ICA, where film mixes<br />
with music, art, dance and architecture,<br />
all in a beautiful social<br />
blend, and with a damn fine bar<br />
thrown in. And where people listen<br />
to the music.<br />
Local group shows always bring in<br />
generous crowds – the presence<br />
of all the artists and their mates<br />
pretty much guarantees this<br />
– but a substantial portion of the<br />
crowd at the gallery were there<br />
to view one of Andries Botha’s<br />
famed wooden elephants, which<br />
was spending a few weeks in the<br />
KZNSA’s Nivea Gallery before<br />
making its way to the lucky person<br />
who commissioned it.<br />
Botha’s elephants have achieved<br />
something of a legendary status,<br />
which is appropriate since their<br />
scale, their construction – in fact<br />
everything about them – has the<br />
ethos and residue of legend. But<br />
it’s also because so few people<br />
have actually seen them. For<br />
many this was a chance to witness<br />
something which had hitherto<br />
occupied small jpegs and mpegs<br />
on the internet. This particular elephant,<br />
measuring 2.2metres high,<br />
the size of a female adolescent,<br />
seemed to me more organic and<br />
less structured than the versions<br />
I’d seen in cyberspace but perhaps<br />
that’s the nature of the real. The<br />
public loved them, and I don’t think<br />
I’ve ever seen an artist in Durban<br />
so beleaguered by people eager to<br />
discuss his or her work.<br />
In the moments between, Botha<br />
and I discussed briefly the power<br />
of this work, how the experience<br />
of being in its vicinity was primary<br />
in comparison to any kind of intellectual<br />
discourse about it. Which<br />
led me to thinking about how so<br />
much sculpture operates in a<br />
different realm to two dimensional<br />
art. Because we experience it in<br />
fluid space and time – as opposed<br />
to the contraction of space and<br />
time that defines non-moving<br />
flat imagery – the representational<br />
aspects of sculpture tends<br />
to disappear into the visceral and<br />
we stop asking “what does this<br />
mean?” Of course, we know that<br />
the wooden elephant is a copy<br />
of a real elephant, but we ignore<br />
that knowledge as we experience<br />
this elephant in front of us, as we<br />
move around it and our perspective<br />
changes. And I think we tend<br />
to do the same thing even when<br />
sculpture and installation drips with<br />
cryptic meaning.<br />
In the months that I have been<br />
writing this column, I have devoted<br />
a a perhaps disproportionate<br />
number of column inches to<br />
the work of public artist Doung<br />
Jahangeer. And I’ll try to refrain<br />
from mentioning him for at least<br />
a few months after this. But first<br />
I’ve got to pass on the news<br />
that Jahangeer’s submission for<br />
the large-scale public sculpture<br />
outside the refurbished Ellis<br />
Park Stadium was successfullly<br />
selected from five of <strong>South</strong>ern Africa’s<br />
finest artists. The work, which<br />
like Botha’s elephants, maintain<br />
the primacy of experience over<br />
discourse, will stretch twelve<br />
metres into the air and occupy a<br />
new pedestrian space between<br />
Ellis Park and Jo’burg Stadium.<br />
Its simple but structurally complex<br />
design includes a giant globe at<br />
its centre, through which people<br />
will be able to walk , and on top<br />
of which a young boy is flying two<br />
kites and a young girl is kneeling<br />
at a river which flies into the sky.<br />
The finished work will no doubt be<br />
breathtaking if Jahangeers’ models<br />
and sketches are anything to go<br />
by, the work’s charm and naked<br />
sentiment offering up an antidote<br />
to our cynical times.<br />
Botha’s elephant<br />
Finally, I’ve also mentioned<br />
Richard Hart recently, referring to<br />
his beautiful painting at the Big<br />
Woods group show at <strong>Art</strong>Space<br />
Durban several months ago. It<br />
was Hart’s first showing of one of<br />
his paintings in a formal gallery<br />
space and the work earned a<br />
full page in SAAT. In the months<br />
since then, he has been painting<br />
prolifically, and later this month he<br />
will present his first solo show at<br />
whatiftheworld in Cape Town. I’m<br />
lucky enough to have seen most<br />
of the paintings and just thinking<br />
about them puts a b<strong>road</strong> and<br />
serene smile on my face. Almost<br />
movingly surreal, the painting all<br />
feature women carrying a variety<br />
of animals in the pouches of their<br />
dresses, some of which were<br />
Richard Hart: Squirrel<br />
designed by much-loved Durban<br />
designer Amanda Laird Cherry. If<br />
you’re anywhere near Cape Town<br />
on the 25th of Feb, don’t miss the<br />
unveiling of this fresh new talent.<br />
THE ARTFUL<br />
VIEWER<br />
Melvyn Minnaar<br />
Money is Eating <strong>Art</strong><br />
Alex Emsley<br />
Money is dangerous. Make that<br />
‘money’ as metaphor for greed,<br />
singular symbol of status - and, increasingly<br />
in the world of creativity,<br />
the only thing that matters. From<br />
international auction houses to<br />
so-called art fairs, from art school<br />
class rooms to gallerists’ offices,<br />
the famous song from Cabaret is<br />
reinvented and blaring: “money,<br />
money, money makes the (art)<br />
world go round”. And it is steadily<br />
getting louder in local art circles.<br />
But what goes around, comes<br />
around (as Justin Timberlake<br />
sang), and it is dangerous. For art.<br />
The international shift to re-position<br />
art value in terms of monetary<br />
appeal (the only thing that those<br />
with far too much, easily earned,<br />
understand about culture), more or<br />
less invented by cunning advertising<br />
mogul Saatchi, has clearly<br />
turned the <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> art scene<br />
on as well.<br />
Nowadays, virtually the only<br />
issue discussed about an artist<br />
is the highest price achieved for<br />
her/his work. An artist’s status is<br />
confirmed not by admission to<br />
an important, authoritative public<br />
(and this is important) collection or<br />
museum, but what has been paid<br />
at auction, fair or fancy gallery.<br />
Kentridge at so many dollars; Dumas<br />
at so many euro’s - look how<br />
famous; they must be good!<br />
Many commentators have been<br />
warning how this scenario is<br />
eroding expertise and advancing<br />
formulistic art production. An art<br />
world, ruled by big bucks, where<br />
there are no more challenges<br />
for invention and creativity, no<br />
more chances to experiment, be<br />
adventurous and outrageous, will<br />
soon become stiflingly stuffy. A lot<br />
of us would rather read books and<br />
poems, I suspect.<br />
Hopefully the present global<br />
economic downturn may have corrective<br />
affect, but don’t hold your<br />
breath. The mega rich still have<br />
plenty and, as a very interesting<br />
article by Ben Lewis and Jonathan<br />
Ford recently in Prospect magazine<br />
pointed out, the international<br />
art market (where stuffed sharks<br />
and other one-liners trade) is the<br />
most unregulated, speculative<br />
money market of all. They suggest<br />
that art dealing at that level is a<br />
pretty murky business. (But then<br />
as the Kebble saga showed, artists<br />
don’t mind a little moneyed dirt.)<br />
Meanwhile <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> gallerists<br />
and dealers are nervously wringing<br />
their hands. And, while packing<br />
for the next Joburg <strong>Art</strong> Fair, just<br />
wondering whether they’ve pitched<br />
the price of so-and-so right. (Note:<br />
not whether so-and-so should be<br />
shown at all because of the work.)<br />
To demonstrate the danger of<br />
money and art in cahoots, a local<br />
vignette:<br />
A friend, a dog-lover and also a<br />
sensibility for new art, was taken<br />
in by a series of dog photographs<br />
at a local gallery. The bright young<br />
thing that produced the pictures,<br />
had only recently finished at a<br />
local art school. Quite extraordinary<br />
and eye-catching the budding<br />
photographer was onto a good, if<br />
one-liner theme, but it was clearly<br />
only the start of things.<br />
Dog and art-loving friend was quite<br />
taken aback when a single print<br />
of the debuting artist, out of an<br />
edition of seven, was to be had for<br />
R22 000 plus Vat. This was clearly<br />
no deal. (The poetic, but all too<br />
reasonable question is whether<br />
the young artist will ever win back<br />
the enthusiasm for his work lost by<br />
greed?)<br />
But let’s hope the collapse of rampant<br />
capitalism brings some sanity.<br />
<strong>Art</strong> and money simply don’t make<br />
a happy couple. Not for invention<br />
and originality, nor for outrage and<br />
challenge.<br />
Robert Sloon gave the connection<br />
on his <strong>Art</strong>heat website, but<br />
it is worth repeating. The sneaky<br />
American artist Sean Landers was<br />
asked to respond to the current<br />
international art market crash. <strong>Art</strong><br />
is not money, he wrote, and when<br />
the two get too close together,<br />
money takes over and makes art<br />
into itself.<br />
Let’s hope his enthusiasm swings<br />
this way as well: “I’m looking<br />
forward to seeing some art. <strong>Art</strong><br />
unfettered by the market frankly.<br />
I’m looking forward to visiting a few<br />
art colleges and not seeing blatant<br />
careerism in each studio and art<br />
dealers stalking every hallway. I’m<br />
looking forward to seeing young<br />
and established galleries showing<br />
weird young artists with nothing to<br />
lose, making art that they know no<br />
one will ever buy, and in the process<br />
fearlessly stumbling onto the<br />
next big thing, whatever the hell<br />
that turns out to be.”<br />
May our money-eyed gallerists,<br />
artist and fair-goers also see the<br />
light. Otherwise art is gonna be<br />
chewed up.
OPENING EXHIBITION<br />
red black and white<br />
ART WORKS BY<br />
STRIJDOM VAN DER MERWE<br />
7 FEB – 7 MAR 2009<br />
EXPLORING LINES<br />
Bosman’s Crossing, Stellenbosch<br />
5A Distillery Road Tel 021 886 6281<br />
www.redblackandwhite.co.za
Page 12 <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong>. February 2009<br />
The <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong><br />
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In a beautiful bound copy<br />
of all 11 beautiful editions<br />
R 299,-<br />
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021 424 7733<br />
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Old master & contemporary prints sought<br />
we are looking for your old master as well as new contemporary<br />
prints to sell through our new exclusively art print gallery<br />
The <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> Print Gallery<br />
107 Sir Lowry Road, Woodstock, Cape Town (part of the new gallery strip)<br />
Tel: 021 4626851 or E-mail jessica@printgallery.co.za<br />
www.printgallery.co.za<br />
Carmel <strong>Art</strong><br />
66 Vineyard Road, Claremont<br />
Ph: 021 671 6601<br />
Email: carmel@global.co.za<br />
Website: www.carmelart.co.za<br />
Cape Town’s largest contemporary art gallery<br />
exhibiting works by leading <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> artists<br />
Exclusive<br />
distributors of<br />
Pieter<br />
van der Westhuizen<br />
etchings<br />
full selection on website
Veteran art auctioneer and farmer<br />
Stefan Welz is as happy as a boy<br />
with a new train set. The first sale<br />
catalogue for his new firm, Strauss<br />
& Co, is going to bed with 165<br />
lots and a gross estimated between<br />
R30m-R40m. The average<br />
low estimate of about R190 000 is<br />
the highest he’s ever known for an<br />
auction of SA art.<br />
Values range the full spectrum,<br />
from R4 000-R6 000 to R4m-R6m,<br />
the latter for an Irma Stern landscape,<br />
White House in Madeira.<br />
There’s also what Welz claims is<br />
internationally still the best-known,<br />
and most reproduced, SA painting.<br />
Frans Oerder’s still life<br />
Magnolias was bought by the<br />
New York Graphic Society (which<br />
bought the artist’s Blossomtime<br />
at the same time) and published<br />
in 1939 as a print which for many<br />
years was the biggest selling reproduction<br />
of any still life painting<br />
in the world.<br />
The great comeback<br />
Michael Coulson chats with Stefan Welz about Strauss & Co, <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> art auctions, as well as setting up shop in Cape Town and Johannesburg<br />
It came back home, bought by an<br />
SA collector, in 1956 and is now<br />
on offer with an estimate of R600<br />
000-R900 000.<br />
The gross may not be a record,<br />
but Welz no longer sees size as a<br />
virtue. “The old company just got<br />
too big, and we had to drive sales<br />
regardless of quality just to pay the<br />
bills – the appetite was insatiable!<br />
Also, I got bogged down in finances<br />
and day-to-day management.<br />
Now I’m back to doing what I enjoy<br />
most: looking at pictures, finding<br />
them, and persuading people to<br />
buy them. It’s important for me to<br />
believe in what I’m selling.”<br />
While he denies that he wasn’t<br />
proud of everything he sold at<br />
Stephan Welz/Sotheby’s (now<br />
increasingly known for brevity<br />
and clarity, if not elegance, as<br />
Swelco), the subtext is that some<br />
work came dangerously close to<br />
the margin. He stresses that price<br />
and quality are not synonymous<br />
– though Tretchikoff does feature<br />
in Strauss’s first sale!<br />
Busy as they have been assembling<br />
their first Jo’burg fine art sale,<br />
Welz and his new colleagues have<br />
not been letting the grass grow under<br />
their feet in other areas. Welz<br />
confirms, with properly if barely<br />
disguised glee, market rumours<br />
that Strauss has poached three<br />
top people from the Cape branch<br />
of his old firm.<br />
As we spoke, Strauss chairman<br />
Conrad Strauss was actually<br />
in Cape Town looking for new<br />
premises, probably in the Claremont/Newlands<br />
area. “I know<br />
the trendy galleries are moving<br />
to Woodstock,” says Welz, “but<br />
it’s not ideal for us. We have a<br />
different, somewhat older, clientele<br />
– on both the buying and selling<br />
side. They come from the southern<br />
suburbs and, rightly or wrongly,<br />
they’re not so keen to go into what<br />
they see as less salubrious areas.”<br />
Strauss plans to differentiate the<br />
venues. “We’ll keep major art sales<br />
in Johannesburg. We will include<br />
art in Cape Town in the two sales<br />
we plan each year, but it may be<br />
lesser, more decorative items. On<br />
the other hand, we’ll concentrate<br />
on things like furniture, silverware<br />
and ceramics in Cape Town, where<br />
they have a more developed<br />
market.<br />
“After all, the Cape is where most<br />
old Cape furniture comes from; it’s<br />
the natural place to sell it.”<br />
Strauss will also preview highlights<br />
of its first sale in Cape Town,<br />
on February 17/18, in the Dolphin<br />
Room at the Castle.<br />
Is Welz worried about re-entering<br />
the art market at a time when it’s<br />
coming under huge strain internationally?<br />
Major auction houses<br />
like Sotheby’s itself, Christie’s and<br />
Bonham’s are frantically laying off<br />
staff and slashing costs.<br />
“Lesser work, of what one may<br />
call decorative value, is what I<br />
believe will suffer most. Its buyers<br />
tended to be indiscriminate and<br />
occasional.<br />
“Also, people who bought in the<br />
mid to late 1980s, when the market<br />
was depressed, are becoming<br />
sellers as they reach an age where<br />
they’re scaling down and moving<br />
into smaller properties.<br />
“But the backbone of the market is<br />
the true collector, who’s not after a<br />
quick buck, knows what he wants,<br />
and is prepared to wait for it. That<br />
market may be affected, but I think<br />
it will remain, and it’s what we<br />
must focus on.<br />
“The market may hold up better in<br />
SA, but it can’t escape the trend.<br />
In particular, second-rate works<br />
from major artists may be hit.”<br />
What concerns Welz more is that<br />
the market is not b<strong>road</strong>ening. “The<br />
favoured names all appear in the<br />
first edition of Esme Berman’s<br />
book [<strong>Art</strong> & <strong>Art</strong>ists of SA, published<br />
in 1970]. That’s a limited supply:<br />
where are the new names we<br />
need desperately?<br />
“And remember that the market for<br />
SA art is still an SA market. The<br />
Russian oligarchs aren’t buying it!<br />
And it’s unattractive for an SA resident<br />
to buy ab<strong>road</strong> and repatriate<br />
art: the extra costs can add 40% to<br />
the hammer price.”<br />
Sage words potential buyers will<br />
do well to bear in mind.<br />
Oh, by the way: Welz has decided<br />
to resist a land claim on his farm<br />
(“It’s completely frivolous”) and<br />
Farmers Weekly chose one of his<br />
animals as Cow of the Year. So<br />
there’s no let-up in that side of his<br />
life, either.
Page 14 <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong>. February 2009<br />
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<br />
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<br />
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<br />
w w w. s c a n s h o p . c o . z a<br />
The <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong><br />
Directory 2009<br />
The most complete listing of <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> art resources, infrastructure, financial and promotional opportunities for visual artists.<br />
According to the new<br />
a n g e l a @ s c a n s h o p . c o . z a<br />
<strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Information Directory 2009<br />
The SA <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong> covers 60% of the active art market - that’s just the art<br />
infrastructure, the estimated 14 000* readers per month are another story<br />
The <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong> has a 7000 monthly print and national distribution run.<br />
Advertise in the afforable, quality SA <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong> and get your message across<br />
Full Page R 6 500 . Half Page R 4 400 . Quarter Page R 2 600 . Eighth of Page R 900<br />
NEW - Gallery Listing per image or text block R 400<br />
Pricing excludes design and vat. Prices are set to go up by 10% with March’s annual printer increase.<br />
Call Eugene now on 021 424 7732<br />
E-mail sales@arttimes.co.za or see www.arttimes.co.za for more details<br />
* 14 000 is a conservative estimate of the number of multi readers of The SA <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong>, many people tell us<br />
that they read The <strong>Art</strong> <strong>Times</strong> a few times per month, including their art loving friends
Steve Kretzmann<br />
Probably every adult in the<br />
country has seen Pieter van<br />
der Westhuizen’s work. At the<br />
very least, a greeting card,<br />
print or calendar displaying<br />
his work can be found in<br />
almost every <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong><br />
home.<br />
But there will be no new artworks<br />
to be produced by this<br />
prolific artist, for his life ended<br />
on the night of 30th December<br />
2008, after some months<br />
of ill-health.<br />
After 77 years, most of it<br />
spent producing paintings<br />
and drawings in a wide<br />
variety of mediums, he has<br />
left <strong>South</strong> Africa with a wealth<br />
of artwork which have vast<br />
popular appeal. So popular,<br />
in fact, that his agent of 12<br />
years, Leonard Schneider, is<br />
adamant that he is the most<br />
sold <strong>South</strong> <strong>African</strong> artist to<br />
date.<br />
Van der Westhuizen’s 65th<br />
birthday exhibition, which<br />
Schneider said was the largest<br />
solo exhibition to be held<br />
in the country, was sold out.<br />
And while many of the “hoi<br />
polloi” did not consider him a<br />
“great artist” or a “collectable<br />
item”, said Schneider, van der<br />
Westhuizen, like Tretchikoff,<br />
has proving his critics wrong.<br />
Works which sold for about<br />
R15 000 12 years ago are<br />
now being sold for over R100<br />
000, said Schneider.<br />
Even Irma Stern’s work, he<br />
said, did not escalate as<br />
rapidly in value.<br />
He said van der Westhuizen’s<br />
works, which “had no angst in<br />
them”, held universal appeal<br />
and had sold to people from<br />
all corners of the globe. In<br />
fact, van der Westhuizen’s<br />
work is held in private and<br />
corporate collections in 17<br />
different countries.<br />
His slightly naïve, lyrical portraits<br />
and landscapes, were<br />
described by former president<br />
FW de Klerk, as conveying<br />
“love and compassion and a<br />
common humanity”.<br />
Those who knew him well say<br />
he enjoyed what he did, and<br />
he was not surprised that others<br />
enjoyed it too. But neither<br />
was he apparently much<br />
bothered by his critics. After<br />
all, galleries were hungry<br />
for every piece of work he<br />
produced.<br />
Obituary: Pieter van der Westhuizen 1931 - 2008<br />
SA’s most popular artist painted a better world for himself<br />
His work was “comforting<br />
rather than confrontational”<br />
said de Klerk, whose wife<br />
Marike was an ardent admirer<br />
of van der Westhuizen’s work.<br />
Van der Westhuizen himself<br />
admitted that he used art to<br />
escape, rather than confront,<br />
this world.<br />
In one of the few references<br />
to his childhood, he said:<br />
“…[T]he world I found myself<br />
in was not a comfortable<br />
one... At around the age of<br />
four I decided that this life<br />
was not for me. I began creating<br />
another world for myself<br />
- in pictures.”<br />
Born in Pretoria on March 22,<br />
1931, his mother died when<br />
he was three and his father<br />
put him in the care if his maternal<br />
grandparents.<br />
While van der Westhuizen<br />
said his grandmother<br />
bestowed on him all the love<br />
she could muster, they were<br />
archetypal poor Afrikaaners<br />
and she was a “battle-axe”<br />
shaped by trying circumstances.<br />
Leaving school after standard<br />
eight to begin an apprenticeship<br />
at Iscor – a common feature<br />
of working class Afrikaanerdom<br />
– van der Westhuizen<br />
said he continued to feel out<br />
of place. But he managed<br />
to eventually get his matric,<br />
moved up to a white-collar job<br />
at Iscor and settled in Cape<br />
Town’s southern suburbs with<br />
his attractive wife Lettie.<br />
His day job limited his painting,<br />
but once his son Jan<br />
finished his education, van<br />
der Westhuizen resigned<br />
and moved to Rawsonville,<br />
where he worked full-time as<br />
an artist.<br />
They were happy years,<br />
writes his friend Prof Jan van<br />
Arkel in the book Pieter van<br />
der Westhuizen, and in 1979<br />
he got the opportunity to<br />
study at the Nationale Hoger<br />
Instituut voor Schone Kunster<br />
in Belgium.<br />
But not long after they returned,<br />
Lettie died, suddenly<br />
and unexpectedly.<br />
Van Arkel said van der Westhuizen<br />
“was devastated”, and<br />
spent days sitting under the<br />
tree in the front yard, doing<br />
nothing.<br />
Escaping his memories, he<br />
left Rawsonville for Hout Bay<br />
and spent long periods of<br />
time overseas.<br />
in•fin•arT Custom Picture Framers & <strong>Art</strong> Gallery<br />
He would often make<br />
unplanned trips to Europe,<br />
seemingly coming and going<br />
on a whim. Van Arkel said<br />
there was an occasion when<br />
his son Jan wanted to know<br />
how he could get hold of his<br />
father. Van Arkel had to say<br />
that he did not know where<br />
he was nor when he would<br />
be back.<br />
He studied again in ’82 and<br />
’85 at the Stedelijke Akademie<br />
in Ghent and the Ryks<br />
Centrum voor Grafiek in<br />
Kasterlee, Belgium. In ’83<br />
and ’85 he travelled to Japan<br />
and studied wood-block<br />
printing.<br />
In 1984 he married a young<br />
Israeli girl named Ofra, whom<br />
he had initially employed to<br />
produce prints for him.<br />
The Israeli connection led to<br />
trips there and an exhibition<br />
with Marc Chagall, Yaacov<br />
Agam and Ben Avram in<br />
Madrid in ’88. A Chagallian influence<br />
can be seen in some<br />
of his work thereafter.<br />
But his marriage to Ofra<br />
ended in divorce after seven<br />
years. While it was a major<br />
blow to him, his second<br />
marriage gave him the gift of<br />
his daughter Ma’ayan. He enjoyed<br />
a close relationship with<br />
her, attending her wedding<br />
just ten days before his death.<br />
But cupid had not exhausted<br />
his quiver. In 1993 he married<br />
Zebeth van Heerden, a<br />
teacher in the small town of<br />
Philadelphia, where he had<br />
settled on the edge of the<br />
Swartland.<br />
Although Pieter suffered a<br />
heart attack and subsequent<br />
bouts of ill-health in what was<br />
to be the final phase of his<br />
life, the overall impression<br />
gathered is that despite what<br />
Rev Jan Mostert described as<br />
his “sophistication”, he also<br />
possessed an “utter simplicity”<br />
which did not fetter him<br />
with the melancholy which<br />
often troubles creative minds.<br />
He loved what he did, he was<br />
successful at it, at the end of<br />
his days he shared love with<br />
a woman who provided stability<br />
and companionship, and<br />
he could look over far horizons<br />
every day. It seems that<br />
after an inauspicious start, he<br />
finally found a comfortable<br />
place in this world.<br />
Wolfe Street • Chelsea • Wynberg • Tel: 021 761 2816 + Buitengracht Street • Cape Town • Tel: 021 423 2090<br />
E-mail: gallery@infinart.co.za • web www.infinart.co.za<br />
Pieter van der Westhuizen Photo:Thabo Stegman<br />
Celebration Girl with red chicken<br />
BERNARDI AUCTIONEERS<br />
SOUTH AFRICAN ART, AFRICANA & ART REFERENCE BOOKS, NUMISMATICS COLLECTION<br />
MONDAY 9 FEBRUARY 2009<br />
1271 Church Street East, Hatfield, Pretoria<br />
Preview all the art & download a catalogue at: www.bernardi.co.za<br />
Viewing: Thurs 5, Fri 6, Sat 7 & Sun 8 February 10:00am - 5:00pm<br />
NAUDE, PIETER HUGO (SA 1868 - 1941)<br />
“Washerwomen, Ceres”<br />
Oil on panel (23.5 x 28.5cm)
DECADE I<strong>Art</strong><br />
Gallery<br />
71 Loop Street<br />
Cape Town<br />
Tel: 021 424 5150<br />
For more information call the<br />
Sanlam <strong>Art</strong> Collection<br />
Tel: 021 947 3359 / 083 457 2699<br />
www.sanlam.co.za<br />
HIGHLIGHTS<br />
from 10 Years of Collecting<br />
for the Sanlam <strong>Art</strong> Collection<br />
27 February – 12 March 2009<br />
Monday – Friday 09:00 – 18:00<br />
Saturday 10:00 – 14:00<br />
BROUGHT TO YOU BY