Gerard

1
Gerard Sekoto (1913- 1993)
2
Write a paragraph of analysis on the Sekoto work,
using the following headings To help you
structure it. In your first sentence note the
possible influence of artists like Van Gogh and
German Expressionists such as Kirchner. In your
second sentence, note how Sekoto develops his own
language.
Poverty in the Midst of Plenty (1939)
Texture scumble technique rendering of basket
weave, walls and robe is effective Space forms
pressed against picture plane claustrophobia Unit
y head acts as a fulcrum radiating
lines Contrast large shapes vs. small shapes
yellow ochre vs. white Emphasis pose of the
figure we identify with his thoughts
3
Write a paragraph of analysis on the Sekoto work,
using the following headings To help you
structure it. In your first sentence note the
possible influence of artists like Mondrian and
Van Gogh. In your second sentence, note how
Sekoto develops his own language.
Street Scene (1939)
Line geometric organic Colour primaries
vibrancy and harmony Space shallow recessional
space evokes two-dimensional quality of
mass-housing Texture corrugated areas blurred
lines Emphasis figures at edges of format
central area of emptiness
4
Write a paragraph of analysis on the Sekoto work,
using the following headings to help you
structure it. In your first sentence note the
possible influence of artists like Kirchner,
Mondrian and Picasso. In your second sentence,
note how Sekoto develops his own language.
Prison Yard (1944)
Form geometric reduction of identity Contrast
dark and light warm colours / cold
colours Rhythm repetition evokes movement
prison warder has more vigorous movement Space
diagonals create unnatural distorted space
flattening against picture plane Emphasis
prison warder isolated through difference
controlling force in environment
5
Song of the Pick (1946 47)
Line repeated diagonal lines curved lines evoke
idea of unified movement Tone extreme darks and
lights simplified tones Rhythm a pattern is set
up across the work idea of one unified
movement Form bodies reduced to basic geometric
forms background created using three horizontal
bands Emphasis no focal point evokes
de-humanisation and / or possible resistance
Write a paragraph of analysis on the Sekoto work,
using the following headings to help you
structure it. In your first sentence note the
possible influence of any one of these artists.
In your second sentence, note how Sekoto develops
his own language.
6
Historically, there was little documentation on
the life of black Artists working in South
Africa. Apartheid permeated South African
society as a whole, influencing attitudes
outside of politics, and shaping scholastic
opinions. Sekoto was born on 9 December, 1913
at Bothshabelo, a German Lutheran Mission
Station. His father was a teacher, and later an
evangelist. Sekotos mother tongue was Pedi,
Northern Sotho. In 1947, Sekoto left for 46 years
in voluntary exile in Paris, where he died in
1993.
7
Sekotos rural childhood memories were treasured
for his whole life, and were a source of solace
and strength. At 17, he was sent to the Diocesan
Training College near Pietersburg to train as a
primary school teacher. Contemporaries included
Ernest Mancoba and Georges Pemba, artists who
were also trained as schoolteachers. Sekoto
taught for four years at Khaiso School, near
Pietersburg, in the Northern Transvaal. In
1937, he was awarded second prize in a national
Bantu art competition. Ernest Mancoba, who also
taught at the school, encouraged him to paint,
showing him paintings by Van Gogh, and using Van
Goghs life to show that life was indeed a
struggle. When Sekotos father died in 1938, he
no longer had an obligation to fulfil his dream
for him to be a teacher and was free to pursue
his own aims. His works may be examined into
three periods for study purposes the late 1930s
in Sophiatown the early 1940s in District Six
and, the latter 1940s in Eastwood, Pretoria.
Less characteristic works were made in Paris
from 1947 onwards.
8
First Period Works from the Late 1930s
Sophiatown In 1939, Sekoto went to live with
cousins in Sophiatown, Johannesburg.
Discovering cheap supplies in a general store, he
experimented with poster paint on brown
cardboard in works such as Poverty in the Midst
of Plenty (1939).
9
Poverty in the Midst of Plenty (1939)
Identify the FIVE most obvious art elements or
principles of design that have been used in this
work.
10
Poverty in the Midst of Plenty (1939)
Texture Contrast Space Unity Emphasis
11
Texture scumble technique rendering of basket
weave, walls and robe is effective Contrast
large shapes vs. small shapes yellow ochre vs.
white Space forms pressed against picture
plane claustrophobia Unity head acts as a
fulcrum radiating lines Emphasis pose of the
figure we identify with his thoughts
Poverty in the Midst of Plenty (1939)
12
The vigorous brushstrokes of artists like Vincent
Van Gogh evident in works such as Sunflowers
and Self Portrait (Dedicated To Gauguin) (both
1888) was possibly an influence on works such
as Poverty in the Midst of Plenty (1939).
13
In addition, the distortion of the human figure
using expressive
brushstrokes by
German Expressionists such as Kirchner was
surely also an influence. .
14
Write a paragraph of analysis on the Sekoto work,
using the following headings To help you
structure it. In your first sentence note the
possible influence of artists like Van Gogh and
German Expressionists such as Kirchner. In your
second sentence, note how Sekoto develops his own
language.
Poverty in the Midst of Plenty (1939)
Texture scumble technique rendering of basket
weave, walls and robe is effective Space forms
pressed against picture plane claustrophobia Unit
y head acts as a fulcrum radiating
lines Contrast large shapes vs. small shapes
yellow ochre vs. white Emphasis pose of the
figure we identify with his thoughts
15
A friend encouraged him to show his work to
Reverend Castle, a teacher at St. Peters School
in Rosettenville, Johannesburg. . Castle was so
impressed that he offered Sekoto free board
and lodging at the school, enabling him to attend
the schools art classes. Soon after, he was
offered a temporary six-week teaching post at
the school. Castle also organised Sekotos first
exhibition at the Gainsborough Galleries. A
newspaper critic noted The paintings by
Gerard Sekoto are the outstanding
feature of this exhibition . . .
His canvases are marked by extremely good
colour and drawing

16
Lutheran Church at Botshabelo (1939)
17
The motivating force behind works was his desire
to use art to communicate through the
inter-linking chains of humanity. My
efforts when I was in Sophiatown were to arouse
the consciousness in our own people of the
horrible conditions in which they lived. Such an
awakening would create power to demand the right
and knowledge to be able to live like everyone
else in the country. Although many of the
depictions of Sophiatown have a lyrical quality,
the actual reality of the sordid surroundings is
made apparent in different ways in each of the
Sophiatown paintings.
18
Interior Sophiatown (1939)
19
Identify the FIVE most obvious art elements or
principles of design that have been used in this
work.
Street Scene (1939)
20
Line Colour Space Texture Emphasis
Street Scene (1939)
Hints at the influence of the De Stijl artist
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944).
21
Line geometric organic Colour primaries
vibrancy and harmony Space shallow recessional
space evokes two-dimensional quality of
mass-housing Texture corrugated areas blurred
lines Emphasis figures at edges of format
central area of emptiness
Street Scene (1939)
22
Write a paragraph of analysis on the Sekoto work,
using the following headings To help you
structure it. In your first sentence note the
possible influence of artists like Mondrian and
Van Gogh. In your second sentence, note how
Sekoto develops his own language.
Street Scene (1939)
Line geometric organic Colour primaries
vibrancy and harmony Space shallow recessional
space evokes two-dimensional quality of
mass-housing Texture corrugated areas blurred
lines Emphasis figures at edges of format
central area of emptiness
23
Hotel Bantu (1939)
24
Yellow Houses, Sophiatown (1940)
25
In 1940, the Johannesburg Art Gallery purchased
Yellow Houses, Sophiatown, and until 1980
Sekotos work remained the only painting in the
gallery by a black South African artist. (This
same gallery had turned down his application to
be a floor cleaner because of his skin
colour.) Sekoto denied having been influenced by
training or exposure to other artists work. He
did not try to conform to stylistic traditions,
or comply with conventional taste. Although his
intuitive sense of colour links his work to
Post-Impressionists like Gauguin and Van Gogh,
he is separated from them by his subject matter.
He looked to the black people around him for
inspiration. His style of work was termed
figurative expressionistic and he was often
referred to as a social realist.
26
Sekoto painted with deep feeling and active
sympathy for the black South Africans whose soul
was daily being crushed and bruised in his own
Africa. He used strong and bright colours
such as red, orange and black. His brushstroke
was spontaneous and vital. Sekoto also employed
unconventional viewpoints, and handled form
through distortion and unusual perspective. He
placed emphasis on tonal modelling of form.
27
Three Women (1940 -42)
28
Second Period - Works from the Early 1940s
District Six Reverend Castle introduced Sekoto
to George Manuel, a Journalist living in
District Six, Cape Town, and arranged for
Sekoto, his mother and sisters to live in a
house opposite the Roeland Street jail. This
place was a great source of inspiration for
Sekoto. His social / political commentary is
implicit in these compositions he seldom
portrayed white people, and then only as warders
or foremen. In 1943, three of Sekotos paintings
were included in an Exhibition of the New Group.
This was an association of white South African
avante garde artists whose main objective was to
Upgrade the overall standard of South African
art and increase Public awareness of it.
29
Prison Yard (1944)
Identify the FIVE most obvious art elements or
principles of design that have been used in this
work.
30
Form Contrast Rhythm Space Emphasis
Prison Yard (1944)
31
Form geometric reduction of identity Contrast
dark and light warm colours / cold
colours Rhythm repetition evokes movement
prison warder has more vigorous movement Space
diagonals create unnatural distorted space
flattening against picture plane Emphasis
prison warder isolated through difference
controlling force in environment
Prison Yard (1944)
32
One can see the influence of Cubism in the
analysis o form as geometric facets in this work.

Prison Yard (1944)
33
Write a paragraph of analysis on the Sekoto work,
using the following headings to help you
structure it. In your first sentence note the
possible influence of artists like Kirchner,
Mondrian and Picasso. In your second sentence,
note how Sekoto develops his own language.
Prison Yard (1944)
Form geometric reduction of identity Contrast
dark and light warm colours / cold
colours Rhythm repetition evokes movement
prison warder has more vigorous movement Space
diagonals create unnatural distorted space
flattening against picture plane Emphasis
prison warder isolated through difference
controlling force in environment
34
Houses District Six (1943-45)
35
His social / political commentary is
implicit in these compositions he seldom
portrayed white people, and then only as warders
or foremen. In 1943, three of Sekotos paintings
were included in an Exhibition of the New Group.
This was an association of white South African
avante garde artists whose main objective was to
Upgrade the overall standard of South African
art and increase Public awareness of it.
36
The Wine Drinker (1943-45)
37
Third Period - Works from the Mid- to Latter
1940s Eastwood In 1945, Sekoto moved to
Eastwood, a black township near Pretoria. He
shared a house with his mother and stepfather,
and his brother Bernard and his wife, Mary.
These were the golden years of Sekotos art
and he painted prolifically, concentrating on
oil paint. He was able to capture the transient
moments of everyday township life with an
intuitive sense of colour and assured brush
marks. Like Sophiatown, District Six and many
other communities, Eastwood was bulldozed to the
ground in the early apartheid years. Sekotos
paintings serve as historical records of
these destroyed communities.
38
Self-Portrait (1946-7)
Identify the FIVE most obvious art elements or
principles of design that have been used in this
work.
39
Portrait of Anna, the Artists Mother (1946-47)
40
The Artists Mother and Stepfather at Home in
Eastwood
(1946 47)
41
The Proud Father - Manakedi on Bernard Sekotos
Knee (1947)
42
Outside the Shop (1946-47)
43
Sixpence a Door (1946 47)
44
Our home was close to the playing ground which
was the centre of the township. On Sundays, Zulu
dancers would come and put up a tent. People
would be eager to see inside, but many would hang
around with curiosity as they did not have
the sixpence to spend
Sekoto
Sekoto set up the easel and painted the scene
in front of him. This painting was included in an
exhibition which travelled between 1948 and 1950
to Belgium, France, Netherlands, Canada and the
United States. At the opening of the Tate, the
Queen Mother acclaimed that she liked the one by
the native artist the most, and Sekoto was
launched into the limelight. The painting was
sold in 1991 for R 186 000.
45
Identify the FIVE most obvious art elements or
principles of design that have been used in this
work.
Song of the Pick (1946 47)
46
Line Tone Rhythm Form Emphasis
Song of the Pick (1946 47)
47
Line repeated diagonal lines curved lines evoke
idea of unified movement Tone extreme darks and
lights simplified tones Rhythm a pattern is
set up across the work idea of one unified
movement Form bodies reduced to basic geometric
forms background created using three horizontal
bands Emphasis no focal point evokes both
dehumanisation and / or possible resistance
Song of the Pick (1946 47)
48
The distortion of German Expressionism is also
visible.
The influence of the geometric grid of
horizontals and verticals of De Stijl is evident
in this work.
One can also see the influence of Cubism in the
analysis of form as geometric facets.
49
Song of the Pick (1946 47)
Line repeated diagonal lines curved lines evoke
idea of unified movement Tone extreme darks and
lights simplified tones Rhythm a pattern is set
up across the work idea of one unified
movement Form bodies reduced to basic geometric
forms background created using three horizontal
bands Emphasis no focal point evokes
de-humanisation and / or possible resistance
Write a paragraph of analysis on the Sekoto work,
using the following headings to help you
structure it. In your first sentence note the
possible influence of any one of these artists.
In your second sentence, note how Sekoto develops
his own language.
50
Song of the Pick is one of the most politically
explicit compositions, inspired by a black and
white photograph which Sekoto kept with him all
his life. He reworked this theme again and again
in his life. In 1947, the financial support from
his patrons, mainly Jewish intellectuals, enabled
him to leave the country for Paris. The tragic
irony is that he was forced to pay a high
personal price for his political freedom, as his
art slowly lost its strength and character.
51
Homage to Steve Biko
52
Irma Stern (1894 1966)
53
Stern was born in Schweizer-Reneike. She was a
controversial artist during her lifetime,
challenging expectations about painting. Her
career spanned more than fifty years, with over
a hundred one- person shows.
She witnessed appalling conditions in darkest
Africa and wrote 2 travelogues Congo (1943)
and Zanzibar (1948). Stern was assertive in her
professional life, but unhappily married to her
childhood tutor, Johannes Prinz, for 7 years.
She had a nervous breakdown after a failed love
affair, and was sexually unfulfilled.
54
Several artists working at the turn of the
nineteenth into the twentieth century in the
Post-Impressionism, Cubism and German Expressionis
m move- ments may have been influences for
Stern.
She may have been drawn to the symbolic colour
of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), an artist who also
relied on his inner eye, as opposed to a
naturalistic represen- tation of the world
around him.
55
Paul Gauguin The Spirit of the Dead Watches
Gauguin also painted female nudes in exotic
settings.
56
The vigorous brushstrokes of artists like Vincent
Van Gogh evident in works such as Sunflowers
and Self Portrait (Dedicated To Gauguin) (both
1888) - may also have been an influence.
57
A revolutionary approach to the female nude was
evident in works such as Les Demoiselles
DAvignon (1907), by Pablo Picasso. Picasso
fragments form and space.
58
A revolutionary appr
The German Expressionists
were a
profound influence,
and also dealt
with the female
form using
expressive
brushstrokes.
)
59
Western artists working in the early twentieth
century were fascinated with exotic art. The
gunboats and steamers of colonialism had brought
back artefacts from other cultures, and these
were used as raw material by artists.
Colonialist Stereotypes based on cannibalism,
violence and notions of the Noble Savage became
an inherent part of the work that was
produced.
60
While there are fluctuations in Sterns style in
her most prolific period the 1920s to the 1950s
- her Subject Matter is relatively
consistent. Her portraits often involve
semi-nude female forms in ethnic finery, and
dressed for initiation ceremonies. There is also
a focus on exploring different cultures such as
Malay, Arab, Zulu, Xhosa, and so on. The Still
lives involve arrangements of flowers, fruit,
tribal masks and cultural artefacts. After
World War II, Stern painted mostly European
subjects. In the 1960s, Stern paints
field-workers, grape-harvesters and
fishermen.
61
Still Life with Statue (1922)
The statue of a gilded Christ figure is set
against a rich yellow background. Stern
focussed on the flat surface of the canvas
and the process of painting. She creates a
creamy physicality of paint. Strong tonal
contrasts are emphasised.
62
Composition (1923)
In works painted after her first major
exhibition, Stern continues to depict sensual
black women, presenting them in states of
semi-nudity, and as young and nubile. Stern
patronised her subjects and their life styles,
regarding the subject matter as visual
inspiration, not considering the social,
political and economic implications of their
situations. Details are exaggerated and stylised
to create an ideal image of a noble savage.
It is interesting to note that Stern never did
any self-portraits, and it has been suggested
that she projected her inner self-image as an
exploration of her own sexuality.
63
Sterns response to Africa was romantic and
exotic, reflecting the Modernist interest in
Primitivism originated by artists like Gauguin
as an alternative to the materialism and
rationalism of European values. She believed in
the concept of the Primitive and the Utopian,
an idyllic and exotic environment, showing scant
understanding of the power imbalances created by
colonialism in Africa and detached from the
social ramifications of her subjects. She felt
that the natives were people detached from a
historical context, devoid of sociological
meaning and enjoying a form of utopia.
Pre-industrial people seemed to be living in
harmony with nature.
64
Identify the FIVE most obvious art elements or
principles of design that have been used in this
work.
Repose
(1927) Working from her imagination, Stern places
the Swazi women in a colourful and decorative
setting replete with naturalistic details like
amaryllis flowers and pawpaws. The composition
comprises rhythmical line.
65
Identify the FIVE most obvious art elements or
principles of design that have been used in this
work.
Repose
(1927)
66
Swazi Youth (1929)
The controversial response to her first
exhibition caused Stern to travel across
Africa. Despite her exposure to the brutality
of colonialism and slavery, paintings such
Swazi Youth depict black Africans as dominant
in utopian landscapes.
67
Pondo Woman (1929) The naturalism
of the figure is contrasted by the stylised
treatment of the background. The figure is
represented in a state of contemplation.
68
In the most recent cycle test, only TWO Art
students in the whole group wrote anything
resembling full three-mark introductions to the
essay, and these still need work!
69
Leanne Adams writes As a result of a culture of
congestion many twentieth and twenty first
century artists have been forced to realign their
art in such a way that it fits in with this
radical change in society. Marcel Duchamp
reworked the relationship between men and women,
displaying it as a reflection of society today.
Jackson Pollock tried to return to a long
forgotten nature through his work. Jasper
Johns used mixed media to create a feeling of
insecurity during a time of uncertainty. Duane
Hanson uses life-like sculpture to portray
societies evolution from the infinite complexity
of Nature to todays society.
70
I would prefer to read the following As a
result of a culture of congestion, many
twentieth-century artists realigned the meaning
in their art with radical changes in society.
The relationship between men and women in work by
the Dada artist Marcel Duchamp reflects a society
in which communication is fraught with
complications while even the leading proponent
of Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock, tries
to return to a long forgotten nature using
industrial paint. With Pop Art, Jasper Johns
uses mixed media to create a feeling of
insecurity and paranoia while the absence of
life in the supposedly life-like sculptures by
Duane Hanson of Super-Realism evoke the idea of a
society far removed from the infinite complexity
of Nature.
71
Notice that the topic is stated in ONE
sentence. You also combine your introduction to
TWO artists into ONE sentence. State which
movement they are from, work chronologically, and
underline the movement.
72
Graham Strickland writes The ever-progressing
force of technology is one that has shaped our
lives and mind-sets in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries. Max Ernst was a
prominent German Dadaist and Surrealist who was
greatly influenced by the progression of a world
removing itself from nature and expressed his
anxieties over this idea in his artworks from
both movements. Jackson Pollock was an Abstract
Expressionist artist living in America who worked
with modern techniques, but instead chose to
involve his work with nature. Chuck Close is an
American photorealist painter whose work is
executed using every modern technique.
73
I would prefer to read the following The force
of technology has shaped the life and mindset of
twentieth and twenty-first century humanity. Max
Ernst, a prominent German artist who made the
transition from Dada into Surrealism, was
horrified by the idea of a world increasingly
removing itself from nature and expressed his
anxiety in works that belong to both movements.
While the work of the Abstract Expressionist
Jackson Pollock is closely tied to Nature, it is
often executed using industrial paint while,
with Photo-Realism, the works of the painter
Chuck Close can really only be interpreted
through the lens of photography.
74
Maria Magdalena (Maggie) Laubser was born in
Malmesbury District, Cape. Maggie Laubser was
elected a SASA member in 1907, long before she
became a noted modernist. Her first recorded
participation on a SASA related exhibition was in
a joint show with the SAFAA in 1910, when she
entered a work entitled Hibiscus, on offer at 3
guineas. There is no further record of her
exhibiting with SASA until 1922, when she
returned briefly to Cape Town from abroad. It was
then that she entered her Wild Poppies and Garda
Bay in Autumn. They had been painted over the
previous two years, when, after her studies at
the Slade School in London, she had visited
Germany, and then the shores of Lake Garda in
Italy. The two works showed her already schooled
in the principles of Modernism. Poppies (c.1920)
is almost certainly the same picture shown with
SASA in 1922. Poplars, Italy (c.1921) is from the
same period spent at Lake Garda, and must be a
close approximation of the actual work. Laubser
went to Germany soon after the 1922 exhibition,
where was encouraged by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. In
1924, she returned to SA to live near Klipheuvel
in the Cape. In her new phase in SA, her work
focussed on portraits of African and Indian men
and women. In 1931 her entry to the SASA -
organised First Annual Exhibition of Contemporary
National Art, held at the SANG, outraged the
conservative critic Bernard Lewis who fulminated
What shall I say of Maggie Loubser's (sic) crude
effort at portraiture? Is this dark wooden face
that of a coloured man or woman, whose pink shirt
and blue scarf yell at me from a background of
beetroot-coloured hills and starch-blue shapes
which may or may not be meant for clouds? It is
"modem" - it needs no further description. Its
crudity is a condemnation. (The Cape,
11.12.1931). She died in 1973, Strand.
Maggie Laubser (1886-1972) was born in Malmesbury
in the Cape. Her first recorded participation in
an exhibition was in 1910. There is no further
record of her exhibiting until 1922, when she
returned briefly to Cape Town from abroad. After
her studies at the Slade School in London, she
had visited Germany, and then the shores of Lake
Garda in Italy. The two works showed her already
schooled in the principles of Modernism. Laubser
went to Germany soon after the 1922 exhibition,
where was encouraged by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. In
1924, she returned to SA to live near Klipheuvel
in the Cape. In her new phase in SA, her work
focussed on portraits of African and Indian men
and women. In 1931, her entry to the First Annual
Exhibition of Contemporary National Art, held at
the SANG, outraged the conservative critic
Bernard Lewis who fulminated What shall I say of
Maggie Loubser's (sic) crude effort at
portraiture? Is this dark wooden face that of a
coloured man or woman, whose pink shirt and blue
scarf yell at me from a background of
beetroot-coloured hills and starch-blue shapes
which may or may not be meant for clouds? It is
"modem" - it needs no further description. Its
crudity is a condemnation. (The Cape,
11.12.1931). She died in 1973 in Strand.
75
Exposure to the heightened naturalism of Dutch
artists such as Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) in Europe
would be a profound influence on Laubsers early
work. However, also notice the differences.
Vermeer - The Astronomer (1668)
76
Maria Magdalena (Maggie) Laubser was born in
Malmesbury District, Cape. Maggie Laubser was
elected a SASA member in 1907, long before she
became a noted modernist. Her first recorded
participation on a SASA related exhibition was in
a joint show with the SAFAA in 1910, when she
entered a work entitled Hibiscus, on offer at 3
guineas. There is no further record of her
exhibiting with SASA until 1922, when she
returned briefly to Cape Town from abroad. It was
then that she entered her Wild Poppies and Garda
Bay in Autumn. They had been painted over the
previous two years, when, after her studies at
the Slade School in London, she had visited
Germany, and then the shores of Lake Garda in
Italy. The two works showed her already schooled
in the principles of Modernism. Poppies (c.1920)
is almost certainly the same picture shown with
SASA in 1922. Poplars, Italy (c.1921) is from the
same period spent at Lake Garda, and must be a
close approximation of the actual work. Laubser
went to Germany soon after the 1922 exhibition,
where was encouraged by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. In
1924, she returned to SA to live near Klipheuvel
in the Cape. In her new phase in SA, her work
focussed on portraits of African and Indian men
and women. In 1931 her entry to the SASA -
organised First Annual Exhibition of Contemporary
National Art, held at the SANG, outraged the
conservative critic Bernard Lewis who fulminated
What shall I say of Maggie Loubser's (sic) crude
effort at portraiture? Is this dark wooden face
that of a coloured man or woman, whose pink shirt
and blue scarf yell at me from a background of
beetroot-coloured hills and starch-blue shapes
which may or may not be meant for clouds? It is
"modem" - it needs no further description. Its
crudity is a condemnation. (The Cape,
11.12.1931). She died in 1973, Strand.
Blue Bells
77
Paul Gauguin The Spirit of the Dead Watches
As with Stern, Laubser paints African
figures in exotic settings.
Repose (1927)
78
Identify the FIVE most obvious art elements or
principles of design that have been used in this
work. Try to identify elements common to both
Laubser and Gauguin.
Indian Girl
79
Walter Battiss (1906-1983) was born in Somerset
East. He spent most of his boyhood in two
isolated Orange Free State villages, both
situated in an area that is richly studded
with indigenous rock-painting sites. These areas
were the major influence on his lifes work.
Battiss experimented with many kinds of media
in the course of his career, including oils on
canvas, woodcuts, and silkscreen prints. He
frequently applied lavish colour with a thickly
laden brush in his paintings in the manner of
the German Expressionists, overlaying this with
calligraphic line and inscribed details.
Battiss was a very influential artist in South
Africa. He was constantly in touch with European
art, and headed of the Fine Arts Department at
UNISA.
80
Battiss was profoundly influenced by the art of
the San, the original inhabitants of Africa,
writing two books on the subject. He spent hours
examining and copying rock paintings in painted
shelters. He went on many trips locally and
overseas, and was very interested in
archeology. By 1950, Battiss related an inherited
Western artistic viewpoint with an empathetic
view of indigenous artists who worked on the
walls of caves and shelters. Battiss developed
his own visual language using picture-writing,
or pictographs. His abstracted designs are
composed of calligraphic images which tell a
story symbolically.
81
Identify the FIVE most obvious art elements or
principles of design that have been used in this
work.
Yellow Afternoon (1950)
82
Yellow Afternoon (1950)
83
I conversed with the ancient men of Africa,
who spoke to me through their picture writings
on the walls of their crumbling rock shelters.
Battiss
84
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85
Indigenous paintings are usually characterised
by the implied movement of human figures
interacting with animals. The paintings are
often palimpsests made up of images drawn in
differing techniques that overlap. The space of
indigenous art often has a lyrical, dreamlike
quality. For these painters the material and
immaterial worlds could not be separated.
Battiss was strongly influenced by such
ideas, and tries to interpret them using his
own stylistic devices.
86
Fishermen Drawing Nets (1955)
87
As with Irma Stern, in images such as Bed
Carriers (1941), Battiss sometimes views labour
as connected to an idyllic landscape. In his
work rhythmic forms and lines take our
attention away from the labour involved in
drawing fishing-nets.
88
Palimpsest No 1 1965
89
In many indigenous paintings repetitive lines
set up energy fields, and we have seen that
Battiss was attracted to this idea. Works such
as Palimpsest No 1 (1965) demonstrate Battisss
flirtation with Pop
Art. The bold stenciled shapes and broad
contours result from experimentation with the
silkscreen medium.
90
Flight of Birds (1966)
91
Battiss, as with Irma Stern in works such as
The Water Carriers (1935), concentrates on the
expressive force of brushmarks and thick
impasto paint. Battiss creates a tactile surface
that is texturally expressive, frequently
scratching into wet paint with the back of the
brush. As with Stern, his vision of Black
Africans is exoticised.
92
Symbols of Life (1967)
93
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94
Warriors in a trance-like state often appear to
be dancing in indigenous paintings. Symbols of
Life is an abstracted work, symbolically telling
the story of a river and the varied life that it
sustains. Battiss is portraying the river as a
magical or godlike force connected to fertility.
He inherits the space of indigenous paintings,
where forms are often piled up on one
another. The linear calligraphic detail and
hieroglyphic forms are inspired by indigenous
paintings, but also by Middle Eastern decorative
art. On his travels Battiss had studied the
calligraphy of Arabic scripts.
95
Later, Battiss works with another South African
artist, Norman Catherine (b. 1949), on the
Fook Island? concept.
96
With Fook Island ? Battiss still explores
unity in relation to people, plants and
creatures, the land, the water, birth and
reincarnation. As with indigenous painters he
is concerned with the entire tapestry of life
and afterlife.
97
Alexis Preller (1911-1976)
98
Preller was born in Pretoria in 1911, and
schooled at Pretoria Boys High. He studied art
in London and Paris, and was influenced by
movements such as Cubism. The outbreak of World
War II brought him to Pretoria. Here he had his
first exhibition of African subjects, and became
part of the New Group. Preller joined the
Field Ambulance Corps, served in North Africa,
and was captured and held as a prisoner of war
in Italy until 1943. The memories of war
experiences became a lifelong obsession and
influenced his often disquieting style.

99
Preller travelled extensively to Zanzibar, the
Seychelles, Swaziland, the Congo and Egypt.
Africa was a stimulus to his imagination. He
was interested in tribal life and custom,
especially the Ndebele tribe. He was captivated
by the mystique of archaic cultures, legends,
and by the rituals and ruins of the past.
His travels allowed him to develop a
private iconography. He creates an evocative and
detailed rendering of human actions, dress and
architecture. Unexpected relationships are
developed and the process of metamorphosis in
his works has been generally viewed as
surrealistic.
100
Identify the FIVE most obvious art elements or
principles of design that have been used in this
work.
Basuto Allegory (1947)
101
Basuto Allegory (1947) Involves a play of scale,
with miniature figures dwarfed by giant
figures. The simple activity of drinking from
gourds becomes mysterious as the gourds hide
the figures faces. The face of the figure on
the left appears to disappear. If one
concentrates on the top left-hand side of
composition, one notices that Preller is
fascinated with how objects transform into
people, into architecture, and then into empty
space. The depiction of a noble savage taking
part in an exotic activity in a foreign
world may remind one of works by Irma Stern.
(Preller admired works by Stern and Gauguin).
Here the rich patterns, habits and rituals of a
foreign culture become mysterious and
slightly
threatening.
Basuto Allegory (1947)
102
Prellers work is surrealistic because
he infuses the ordinary with elements of a
dream world.
René Magritte - Time Transfixed (1932)
103
The Kraal (1948)
104
The Kraal (1948) inherits the infinite space and
dreamlike atmosphere of works by Surrealists such
as Salavador Dali. Prellers objects are in a
process of transformation, and the giant candle
and phallic tower take on an iconic
significance. The tribal architecture takes on
anthropomorphic qualities.
The surrealistic qualities of his style are
frequently rooted in the exoticism of Africa,
its past, and its traditions.
Salvador Dali - The Persistence of Memory (1931)
105
Collected Images (1952) shares the
fascination of metamorphosis in works by the
Surrealists. The painting illusionistically
sets up a three-dimensional container of
box-like recesses which house the collection of
images that have become part of Prellers
paintings, such as candles, eggs, tribal
figures, heroic torsos, and so on. He is
concerned with how the objects appear to have a
life of their own and
metamorphosise into something else, defying our
expectations. Some objects appear to be
miniature versions of real-life figures, while
others appear to break through the walls of the
room-like partitions in which they have been
placed. Preller works with a kind of
Magic Realism
Collected images (1952)
in which the illusionistic evocation of exotic
artefacts is illusionistically
made part of the spectators
world.
106
The stick-like limbs of the figures are derived
from Ndebele dolls. The figure on the left is a
surrealistic double image, or visual pun,
deriving from a sea- shell which Preller had
picked up on a Seychelles island. The
presentation of woman as breakable object may be
inherited from Surrealism.
Hieratic women (1955)
107
Woman with Lyre (1956) shows the influence of
Dogon sculpture on Preller. The Dogon live as a
reclusive tribe in Mali, south of the Sahara
Desert, developing a culture and mythology
related to astrological beliefs in Sirius the
brilliant Dog Star. (Studies in the late 1940s
proved that their beliefs were grounded in
astrological accuracy.) Preller uses objects as
the basis for transforamtion in these works. The
volumetric forms of Dogon sculpture influence his
representation of the human figure, while the
realtionship between tribal forms and
cosmological symbols takes on the quality of
science fiction.
Woman with Lyre (1956)
108
In Vase and Head (1956), Preller juxtaposes a
head that recalls African or archaic sculpture
with a chipped vase on which a scrolling floral
pattern appears. It is tempting to search for a
hidden meaning in works such as this, although
the painting appears to resist obvious
interpretation. His art is a generally a
private meditation, and objects appear to be
imbued with a personal significance rather than
with an overt symbolism. The composition is
strengthened by four rectangular blocks. The
alternating warm and cool colours produce subtle
spatial shifts, while the mind is teased by the
enigmatic imagery.
Vase and Head (1956)
109
As with Surrealism, processes of tranformation
become tied to esoteric rituals whose purpose
is known only to the artist.
Max Ernst - The Robing of the Bride
110
The Grand Mapogga (1957) continues the idea of
associating indigenous, exotic cultures with
surrealistic tranformation.
Rene Magritte- Philosophy in the Boudoir (1947)
The tribes traditions, womens regalia and
uniquely ornamented architecture was a source
of fascination for Preller.
Figure is a replica of two studies carried out in
1951. Conceptualised imagery represents an
intermediate state between realistic forms and
enigmatic figurations.
The subject of this canvas is the matriarch of
the Ndebele (or Mapogga tribe), whose kraals
surrounded Pretoria where Preller lived.
111
In The Grand Mapogga figures transform into
objects, into architecture, into space.
The play in scale is both playful and
slightly disorientating.
Salvador Dali - Gala and the Angelus of
Millet Immediately Preceding the Arrival of
the Conic Anamorphoses (1933)
Rene Magritte - Castle of the Pyrenees
112
Prellers service with the Field Ambulance Corps
in North Africa caused him to be haunted by
memories of front-line operating theatres and
mutilated bodies. Throughout his post-war oeuvre
the fragility of life is often explored in
miniature still-lives. In The Candle (1948), one
is reminded of the flickering transience of life.
The Candle (1948)
113
This theme is continued in Still Life with a
Painting, Candles, Eggs and a Knife (1948).
Here the eggs symbolise embryonic life, or
life that has not yet begun. The knife hints at
ever-present destruction, termination and
division. The pictorial imagery focused on the
cycle of birth, life and death refers to the
vanitas still-lifes by seventeenth-century Dutch
and Flemish artists. The picture within
the picture evokes the idea of limbo or a
place between life and death, with miniature
figures moving through time. The lute recalls
merriment in life, while the harp refers to the
journey of the afterlife.
Still Life with a Painting, Candles, Eggs and a
Knife (1948)
114
Discovery (1959), the central panel of a mural,
shows no awareness of the pain experienced by the
indigenous people of Africa or black Africans.
The notion of discovery, far from being
associated with colonialism and / or segregation,
is identified with a lush land of utopian promise
that is Western as much as it is African.
Unlike works by Sekoto which depict the harsh
conditions under which urban black South Africans
lived, Prellers figures are always rural and
involved in idealised activity.