Bettie Cilliers-Barnard

Bettie Cilliers-Barnard

(1914 – 2010)

Bettie Cilliers-Barnard

Post War

Overview

“I paint because I cannot neglect to paint. The urge to create stems from the search for contact with humankind, with nature and with the Supreme Being. Artistic expression reflects what is true and authentic in life. Art is universal.” Bettie Cilliers-Barnard.

Born in the small town of Rustenburg in the North West Province of South Africa, Bettie Cilliers-Barnard (born Barnard) began her artistic career seriously in her early thirties following a background of teaching and a preliminary interest and basic studies in art. Cilliers-Barnard furthered her studies from Pretoria in art by traveling to Antwerp in Belgium, attending the Opsomer School in 1948 and then studied under André Lhote in Paris.

From an early point in Cilliers-Barnard’s career as an artist she has been philosophical involved, to a point of preoccupation, with the principles of ‘light’ and ‘shade’ in contrast in her works. These are used as metaphors for life and eternity and in her early explorations in technique and form became, along with Douglas Portway, Joan Clare and Nel Erasmus, one of South Africa’s earliest abstract painters in the late 1950s, investigating a new manner of work that existed separately to all other art practices being developed in the country at the time. In this new experimental phase, it was easy to fall into a habit of ‘pattern-making’ in abstract works, but Cilliers-Barnard forced her way through this by her continual return to studying in order to progress her ideas both in method and in theory. She returned to Europe, studying again in Paris under Stanley Hayter followed by working in the Parisian graphic workshop of Jean-Paul Pons, which she returned to many times between 1956 and 1981.

Many of Cilliers-Barnard’s abstract compositions that she continued throughout the 1960s incorporate circles, a shape which is imbedded with symbolism and reflects the source that is fundamental to Cilliers-Barnard’s point of focus in regard to her exploration of ‘light’, that being the sun. Cilliers-Barnard is quoted by Muller Ballot in explaining, “the sun happened to have the perfect geometrical form of the circle. Satisfying in the world of ideas, satisfying in the struggle for arresting and ‘complete’ composition.”(Bettie Cilliers-Barnard. Towards Infinity. 2006:137)

By the early 1970s Cilliers-Barnard shifted her focus onto the theme of ‘man’ as an element of society and as an individual in order to further explore her interest in life and eternity. Returning from her fourth study in Paris in 1971 she began to include figures and tangible objects into her compositions again, depicting faces which are to an extent abstracted and used to portray the ‘inner-self’ in relation to Cilliers-Barnard’s developed philosophy on the use of symbols. Cilliers-Barnard’s integration of colour isused as thebody to transcribe light and shade within all of her paintings, both figurative and non-figurative. The use of symbols are not intentionally based on a historical or literary context, but are developed as a personal representation by the artist to divulge certain elements of her own ideals and set symbols that exist as a result of her own understandings of the world. These symbols are used to suggest or evoke certain emotions or understandings and is done so almost subconsciously by Cilliers-Barnard.

Cilliers-Barnard’s extensive life means that she has been witness to a great deal of the last century’s artistic developments in South Africa. The extraordinary journey of her life has exposed her to the various inspirations, both physical and philosophical, that have surrounded her in both her homeland and in the world. Her devoted involvement in the arts both nationally and internationally is reflected in the many awards that she has received throughout her life for her own artwork and for the contributions that she has made to the global art world, substantiating her as one of South Africa’s most attributed and admired artists.

Chronology

1914

Born in Rustenburg (North-West), 18 November

1933

Matriculated at Hoërskool Rustenberg

1934

Registered for BA degree at University of Pretoria

1935

Registered at Normaalkollege, Pretoria

Art Classes with Grace Anderson

1936

Awarded Transvaal Education Diploma by Normaalkollege, Pretoria

1937

Awarded BA degree by University of Pretoria

1938-39

Art teacher, Innesdal Intermediate School

1939-42

Lecturer in Art, Normaalkollege, Pretoria

1940

Completed second year BA (Art) degree, University of South Africa

Part-time classes in Art (Phyllis Gardener) and Art History (Maria Stein-Lessing), Pretoria Technical College

1940-43

Part-time lecturer, Pretoria Art Centre

1942

Married Carl Hancke (Bags) Cilliers, 19 December

1943-44

Painted in the company of Madame ML Stradiot-Bougnet, Pretoria

1946

Birth of son Wimcar, 9 August

First Solo exhibition, Extramural Building, University of Pretoria

1948

Studied in Belgium and France: Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten en de Hogere Instituten, Antwerp, under Professor Julien Creytens (April-June) and Atelier André Lhote, Paris (July=November)

1949

Elected to Management Committee, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

1950

Birth of daughter, Jana, 5 June

1956

Second period of study in Paris: Atelier 17 (Stanley William Hayter) and Atelier Jean-Paul Pons (August-December)

196162

Member of Executive Committee, South African Council of Artists

1964

Brief study trip to Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Austria and France

Third period of study in Paris: Atelier Jean-Paul Pons (August-December)

1967

National Honorary Vice-President of the South African Association of Arts (life nomination)

1971

Fourth period of study in Paris: Atelier Jean-Paul Pons (January-March)

1974

SA Kunskalendar/SA Arts Calendar,November 1974, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria, dedicated to the artist

1981

Fifth period of study in Paris: Atelier Jean-Paul Pons (March-May)

1981-83

Instrumental in obtaining work space for South African artists at the CitéInternationale des Arts, Paris, France

1983

Advisory Committee, Department of Public Works, Delville Wood War Memorial Museum, France

1985

Brief trip to Europe and the USA

1986

Brief trip to France

1996

Launch of book,Bettie Cilliers-Barnard. Bowêreldse Perspektieweby Muller Ballot, Schweickerdt Art Centre and Gallery, Pretoria

1998

Brief trip to Paris with daughter Jana

1999

Donation of three artworks, 18 albums with documentation (1946-1995) and a contribution to her bursary fund for fine arts students of the University of Pretoria

Donation of 6 artworks to the University of Stellenbosch

2001

Death of husband, Bags Cilliers, 29 April

2010

Dies in her home in Pretoria

Education

1935

Art Classes with Grace Anderson

1936

Awarded Transvaal Education Diploma by Normaalkollege, Pretoria

1937

Awarded BA degree by University of Pretoria

1940

Completed second year BA (Art) degree, University of South Africa

Part-time classes in Art (Phyllis Gardener) and Art History (Maria Stein-Lessing), Pretoria Technical College

1948

Studied in Belgium and France: Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten en de Hogere Instituten, Antwerp, under Professor Julien Creytens (April-June) and Atelier André Lhote, Paris (July=November)

1956

Second period of study in Paris: Atelier 17 (Stanley William Hayter) and Atelier Jean-Paul Pons (August-December)

1960

Brief trip to Israel, Belgium and France to research tapestry art. Visits included the studios of Jean Lurcat and Picart le Doux, Paris

1964

Brief study trip to Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Austria and France

Third period of study in Paris: Atelier Jean-Paul Pons (August-December)

1971

Fourth period of study in Paris: Atelier Jean-Paul Pons (January-March)

1981

Fifth period of study in Paris: Atelier Jean-Paul Pons (March-May)

Exhibitions

1946 – First Solo exhibition, Extramural Building, University of Pretoria

1948 – Solo exhibition, Christi Art Gallery, Pretoria

1949 – Solo exhibition, Extramural Building, University of Pretoria

Solo exhibition, Carnegie Library, University of Stellenbosch

Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Western Cape), Cape Town

1951 – Solo exhibition, Sonop Restaurant, Bloemfontein

Solo exhibition, Vincent Gallery, Pretoria

1952 – Group exhibition,Van Riebeeck Tercentenary Exhibition, Cape Town

1953 – Solo exhibition, Van Schaik Gallery, Pretoria

Group exhibition,Rhodes Centenary Exhibition, Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

1954 – Solo exhibition, Municipal Library, Springs

1955 –  Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Western Cape), Cape Town

Solo exhibition, Lidchi Art Gallery, Johannesburg

Group exhibition,Transvaal Art of Today,South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

1956 – Solo exhibition, Galerie Gérard Mourque, Paris

Venice Biennale

1957 – Solo exhibition, Carl Houbert Hall, Ermelo

Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

1958 – Solo exhibition, Lidchi Art Gallery, Johannesburg

First International Triennial,Graphic Arts in Colour,Grenchen, Switzerland

Group exhibition,Contemporary Transvaal Art,Rhodes National Gallery, Salisburg, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

1959 – Solo exhibition, Maitland Hotel, Bloemfontein

São Paulo Biennale

Group exhibition,Kuns 1959 Art,DS Vorster Art Gallery, Pretoria

1960 – Solo exhibition, Lidchi Art Gallery, Johannesburg

Solo exhibition, DS Vorster Art Gallery, Pretoria

Group exhibition, Second Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art, South African Association of Arts, Western Cape, Cape Town

Group exhibition, International Guggenheim Prize Exhibition,New York, USA

Group exhibition, South African Graphic Art,Yugoslavia

1961 – Solo exhibition, Lidchi Art Gallery, Durban

São Paulo Biennale

1962 – Solo exhibition, Egon Guenther Gallery, Johannesburg

Group exhibition,Transvaal Art of Today,South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

1963 – Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

São Paulo Biennale

1964 – Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

Venice Biennale (Graphic)

Group exhibition,International Art Exhibition,New York World’s Fair, USA

Group exhibition,Third Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art,South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

1965 – Solo exhibition, Wolpe Gallery, Cape Town

Solo exhibition, Grosvenor House Museum, Stellenbosch

Solo exhibition, Public Library, Worcester

Group exhibition,Art South Africa Today,Durban Art Museum

1966 – Retrospective exhibition 1959-66, Pretoria Art Museum (jointly with Joan Clare)

Group exhibition,Republic Festival Exhibition,Pretoria

Group exhibition,Inaugural exhibition,Hester Rupert Art Museum, Graaff-Reinet

1967 – Solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

Retrospective exhibition,A Decade in the Art of Bettie Cilliers-Barnard1957-67, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

1968 – Group exhibition, ‘Present-day South African Painters’,Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal

1969 – Solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

1970 – Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

Group exhibition,Transvaal Artists,National Museum, Bloemfontein

1971 – Solo exhibition, South African Tourist Bureau, London

Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

Group exhibition,Republic Festival Exhibition,Cape Town

1972 – Solo exhibition, Art History Department, Potchefstroom University for CHE

Solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

1973 – Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Western Cape), Cape Town

Group exhibition,South African Graphic Art,South African Association of Arts (Southern Transvaal), Johannesburg

1974 – Solo exhibition, Galery “S”, Nelspruit

Retrospective exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

Group exhibition,South African Graphic Art Exhibition,Vienna, Italy; Graz, Austria and Tel Aviv, Israel

1975 – Solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

Solo exhibition, US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch

Group exhibition,South African Woman Artists,South African Association of Arts (OFS), National Museum, Bloemfontein

1976 – Solo exhibition, Nedbank Gallery, Bloemfontein

Solo exhibition, Nedbank Gallery, Kimberley

Group exhibition,South African Graphic Art, Canberra, Australia

1977 – Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

Group exhibition,South African Graphic Art,Bonn, Germany

Group exhibition,South African Graphic Art, Canberra, Australia

Group exhibition, South African Art,National Gallery, Salisbury, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe)

1978 – Solo exhibition, Frans du Toit Building, Potchefstroom University for CHE

Retrospective exhibition 1943-77, Art History Department, Potchefstroom University for CHE

Retrospective exhibition of Graphics 1948-78, Van Wouw House, University of Pretoria

Retrospective exhibition 1943-77, C R Swart Building, University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein

Solo exhibition, Jack Heath Gallery, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg

1979 – Solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

Group exhibition, travelling show of South African Graphic Art, West Germany

Group exhibition, “Art in South Africa’, touring America

1980 – Group exhibition,Art in South Africa, Germany

1981 – Solo exhibition, SFW Wine Centre, Johannesburg

1982 – Group exhibition,South African Graphic Art, South African Embassy, Madrid

1983 – Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Western Cape), Cape Town

Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

1984 – Retrospective Exhibition 1943-84, University of Pretoria

1985 – Solo exhibition, Potchefstroom Museum

Solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

1987 – Solo exhibition, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Republic of China (Invited Artist)

Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

1988 – Retrospective Exhibition 1943-87, Intersaal, University of Pretoria (58 works donated)

Solo exhibition, Klein Galery, Rustenburg

Solo exhibition, Art History Department, Potchefstroom University for CHE

Group exhibition, Parisian and South African Artists, South African National Gallery, Cape Town and Johannesburg Art Gallery

1989 – Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Western Cape), Cape Town

1990 – Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

1991 – Group exhibition,Young Pioneers of the 50s,Belville Art Gallery

1992 – Solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

1993 – Solo exhibition, Klein Galery, Rustenburg

Group exhibition, ‘Important South African Art’, Schweickerdt Art Gallery, Pretoria

1994 – Retrospective exhibition 1939-94, Pretoria Art Museum

1995 – Retrospective exhibition, 1939-94, Sasol Art Museum, University of Stellenbosch

Prestige exhibition, Potchefstroom University for CHE

1996 – Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

‘Space to Breath’ Exhibition, Pretoria Art Museum

Group exhibition,South African Art,Egypt, Cairo

1997 – Group exhibition,South African and Flemish Artists’ Exhibition, University of Stellenbosch

Group exhibition,Executive Art, Association of Art Pretoria

Group exhibition,70+ Living Artists, Sasol Exhibition, KKNK, Oudtshoorn; Sanlam Art Gallery, Bellville

Group exhibition,50thBirthday Celebration Exhibition,Association of Arts Pretoria

1998 – Solo exhibition, Rand Afrikaans University

Group exhibition,The Spirit and Images of Africa,Association of Arts Pretoria

1999 – Group exhibition,Opening Exhibition,State Theatre Art Gallery, Pretoria

Group exhibition,Thoughts around Easter,Gencor Gallery, Rand Afrikaaans University, Johannesburg

Group exhibition,Contemporary South African Art,Old Arts Gallery, University of Pretoria

Group exhibition,African Renaissance,State Theatre Art Gallery, Pretoria

2000 – Solo exhibition, Association of Arts Pretoria

Group exhibition,Hanover 2000 Exhibition, Germany

2001 – Solo exhibition, Association of Arts Pretoria

Group exhibition,Femina 2001,Association of Arts Pretoria

Group exhibition,Women of Tshwane,Sasol Art Museum, University of Stellenbosch

2002 – Accolade exhibition, Potchefstroom Museum

Honorary exhibition (with Gunther van der Reis), Pretoria Art Museum

Group exhibition,Centenary Exhibition,Schweickerdt Art Gallery, University of Pretoria

Group exhibition,30thAnniversary Exhibition,Polokwane Art Collections

Exhibition Opening,SANAVA Art Collection,Absa Bank Gallery, Johannesburg

2003 – Group exhibition,Exhibition of Woman Artists, Voortrekker Monument Art Gallery, Pretoria

Group exhibition,Aardklop Art Festival,Potchefstroom

2004 – Solo exhibition, Association of Arts Pretoria

Group exhibition,Exposição Collectiva,Dialogo (Entre) Culturas, Maputo, Mozambique

2005 – Accolade Exhibition, Hoërskool Rustenburg, North West Province

Group exhibition,Members’ Exhibition,Association of Arts Pretoria

Collections

Public Collections – International

  • Taipei Fine Arts Museum, China
  • Kilty Collection, New York
  • Roger Hauert Collection, Paris
  • Sir Allen Lane Collections, London

Galleries & Museums – South Africa

  • Ann Bryant Art Museum, East London
  • Hester Rupert Art Museum, Graaff-Reinet
  • Johannesburg Art Gallery
  • Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth
  • Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein
  • Polokwane Art Museum
  • Potchefstroom Museum
  • Pretoria Art Museum
  • Sandton Art Museum
  • Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
  • Willem Annandale Art Museum, Lichtenburg
  • William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley

Former Provincial Administrations – South Africa

  • Cape Provincial Administration
  • Provincial Administration of the Orange Free State
  • Transvaal Provincial Administration

Former Town Councils – South Africa

  • Alberton Town Council
  • Kempton Park Town Council
  • Krugersdorp Town Council
  • Randfontein Town Council
  • Rustenburg Town Council
  • Sasolburg Town Council
  • Springs Town Council

Government Departments

  • Department of Foreign Affairs:
    • South African Embassy, Helsinki, Finland
    • South African Embassy, Athens, Greece
    • South African Embassy, Brussels, Belgium
    • South African Embassy, Lilongwe, Malawi
    • South African Embassy, London, England
    • South African Embassy, Tel Aviv, Israel
    • South African Embassy, Washington, USA
    • South African Embassy, Vienna, Austria
    • South African Consulate-General, Lima, Peru
    • South African Consulate-General, Tokyo, Japan
  • Former Department of Health
  • Former Department of National Education
  • Former Department of Defence: South African Navy

Universities – South Africa

  • North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus)
  • University of the Free State
  • University of Pretoria
  • University of Stellenbosch
  • University of South Africa
  • University of the Western Cape
  • University of Durban – Westville
  • University of the Witwatersrand
  • University of Johannesburg

Colleges of Education and Schools – South Africa

  • Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool, Pretoria
  • Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, Pretoria
  • Christelike Hoër Meisieskool Oranje, Bloemfontein
  • Glenmore Eco Centre, KwaZulu-Natal
  • Hoër Volkskool, Potchefstroom
  • Hoërskool Ermelo
  • Hoërskool Rustenburg
  • Pretoria High School for Girls
  • Pretoriase Onderwyskollege

Public Collections – South Africa

  • Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria
  • Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria
  • O. R. Tambo International Airport
  • South African Academy for Science and Arts, Pretoria
  • State Theatre Collection, Pretoria

Corporate Collections – South Africa

  • ABSA Bank Collection, Johannesburg
  • Cullinan Refractories Limited, Olifantsfontein
  • Development Bank of Southern Africa, Johannesburg
  • Fedfood Limited, Isando
  • Nedbank Art Collection, Johannesburg
  • Pretoria Eye Institute Art Collection
  • Rupert Art Foundation, Stellenbosch
  • Samro Collection, Johannesburg
  • Sanlam Collection, Bellville
  • Sasol Art Collection, Johannesburg
  • Schlepp Holdings Inc, Johannesburg
  • Schlesinger Collection, Johannesburg
  • South African Breweries, Johannesburg
  • South African Broadcasting Corporation, Johannesburg
  • South African Reserve Bank, Pretoria and Cape Town
  • Syferfontein Mine, Secunda
Featured Artwork

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Christo Coetzee

Christo Coetzee

(1929 – 2001 )

Christo Coetzee

Post War

Overview

“The unreasonable, the ridiculous and the absurd in everyday life became its most interesting ingredient, like the currants in a bun.”  Christo Coetzee.

Christo Coetzee’s success in the international art world was a far cry from his humble origins in South Africa. He was born in Johannesburg in 1929 during the Depression into a very traditional Afrikaans family. Despite his Afrikaner background and the fact that he was exposed to the conservative values of the Protestant Reformed church, he chose to study art at the liberal University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in 1947.

It was here that Coetzee became an integral part of the so-called Wits group, which included fellow students, amongst which were, Cecil Skotnes, Larry Scully and Gordon Vorster. From these early days of his professional career, Coetzee displayed a non-conformist approach to painting. While his progressive contemporaries were engrossed in intensive experiment with abstract idioms and were telescoping the time-lag between South African and international artistic orientation, the young graduate launched himself into public view in 1951 with a parade of retrospective nostalgia.

After being awarded a post-graduate scholarship from Wits in 1951, Coetzee left South Africa to enrol at the Slade School of Art in London.  In the following year, Coetzee married Marjorie Long and together they embarked on a tour of Spain. It was here that he came into contact with the baroque architecture of Gaudi, which became a lasting point of inspiration throughout his career. Coetzee returned to South Africa in 1953, but left for Europe again in the same year due to the monotony of the positions he filled whilst in South Africa. He settled in London for a few years and in 1956 received a four-month travelling-scholarship from the Italian Government.

Coetzee’s encounters with the Italians, Fontana and Burri, and the Gutai artists extended his exploration of spatial concepts. Coetzee then moved to Paris where he lived for the next decade and participated in several avant-garde international exhibitions. In this time, he also received a travelling-scholarship from the Japanese government, where he exhibited in Tokyo and Osaka.  In 1968, Coetzee and his new wife Ferrie Binge settled in Alicante, Spain for a more rural and meditative lifestyle.

Coetzee frequently travelled back to South Africa during his time spent in Europe and in the 1970’s, followed his individualistic path in South Africa, and continued to challenge the preconceived notions of art. His outlandish style swept through the South African art world like a whirlwind. The fascination of the Afrikaans community with Coetzee is reflected in the Afrikaans press from the early 1960’s when each move and development in his career was reported and celebrated.

Coetzee’s work was however criticized during the apartheid era for being too concerned with the formal aspects of painting rather than with the socio-political issues of the country. The artistic integrity of many artists, both black and white, was questioned due to this preoccupation with international trends. The isolation of South Africa during apartheid led to a decline in interest in his work in London, Paris and other international centres.

Coetzee’s extraordinarily varied and rich works, spanning over fifty years and three continents, stands out for its commitment to the painted object and inventiveness. Through his search for magical and transcendental moments, Coetzee has become one of South Africa’s leading figures in Modernism.

Chronology

1947 – 1950

University of the Witwatersrand BA (Fine Arts)

1951 – 1952

Slade School of Art, London, under William Coldstream

1956

In Italy on Travelling Scholarship from Italian Government

1950

In Japan on Travelling Scholarship to the University of Kyoto from Japanese Government

Exhibitions

1951

First Solo exhibition, ID Booksellers, Cape Town (January)

1955

First London Solo exhibition, Hanover Gallery, London (March-April)

1958

Group exhibition, Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA (December-February)

1959

Solo exhibition, Christo Coetzee, Galerie Stadler, Paris (March)

Solo exhibition, Minami Gallery, Tokyo (October)

1960

Solo exhibition, Coetzee, Exhibition presented by the Gutai Art Association, Takashimaya Gallery, Osaka (January)

1961

Solo exhibition, Coetzee, Gallery Stadler, Paris (January)
Group exhibition, The Art of Assemblage, Museum of Modern Art, New York

1962

Group exhibition, l’Objet, Louvre Museum, Paris

1963

Solo exhibition, Peintures de Coetzee, Galerie Stadler, Paris (October)

1965

Prestige Retrospective Exhibition, Christo Coetzee, Pretoria Art Museum (December)

1969

Solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg (February)

1971

Solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg (April)

1973

Solo exhibition, Galerie Connoisseur, Northcliff, Johannesburg (February)

Prestige exhibition, Potchefstroom University for CHE

1975

Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Western Cape), Cape Town (January)

Prestige exhibition, Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg

1978

Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts (Northern Transvaal), Pretoria

Prestige exhibition, University of Stellenbosch

1981

Republic Festival exhibition

1983

Commemorative Exhibition, Potchefstroom University for CHE

Retrospective Exhibition, Pretoria Art Museum

1985

Solo exhibition, Exhibition of Post-Modern paintings by Christo Coetzee, Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taiwan (October)

1987

Prestige Exhibition, Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg

1988

Group exhibition, Vita Art Now, Johannesburg Art Gallery

1999

Solo exhibition, Christo Coetzee, Sasol Kunsmuseum, Stellenbosch (April-June)

Collections

Public Collections – International

  • The Peter Stuyvesant Art Foundation, Amsterdam
  • Beaverbrook Art Gallery, New Brunswick, Canada
  • Musee d’Art Moderne, Toulouse, France
  • International Centre for Aesthetic Research, Turin, Italy
  • Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
  • Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, Japan
  • Turmac Collection, Zeevenaar, Netherlands
  • Schlesinger Art Collection, Italy

Notable Private Collections – International

  • Mme Schiaparelli, Paris
  • Phillip Johnson, New York
  • Michel Tapie, Paris
  • Collection of Anthony Denney

Public Collections – South Africa

  • Sandton Municipal Collection
  • State Theatre, Pretoria
  • OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg
  • CSIR, Pretoria
  • ABSAArt Collection, Pretoria
  • Sasol Corporate Art Collection, Johannesburg
  • Sanlam Art Collection, Cape Town
  • Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation
  • Polokwane Art Gallery, Polokwane
  • Schlesinger Art Collection, Johannesburg

Galleries & Museums – South Africa

  • Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
  • Pretoria Art Museum
  • William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley
  • Hester Rupert Art Museum, Graaff-Reniet
  • Johannesburg Art Gallery
  • Polokwane Art Gallery
  • Potchefstroom Museum
  • Roodepoort Museum
  • Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein

Universities – South Africa

  • University of the Witwatersrand Galleries, Johannesburg
  • University of Johannesburg
  • North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus)
  • Stellenbosch University
  • University of Pretoria
  • University of South Africa, Pretoria
  • University of Cape Town
Commissions

1971

Tapestry for OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg

1980

Fire curtain, Drama Theatre, The State Theatre Opera House, Pretoria

Awards

1961

Award Winner, Art of Assemblage Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

1983

Awarded Medal of Honour by the South African Academy for Science and Art

Featured Artwork

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Claude Marie Madeleine Bouscharain

Claude Marie Madeleine Bouscharain

(1922 – 2020)

Claude Marie Madeleine Bouscharain

Post War

Overview

Claude Bouscharain’s canvases are pervaded by a provocative and vaguely disturbing atmosphere – a sense that the viewer is being provided with a view into rather than of the personages who inhabit the distorted space.  Her colour combinations contribute to the unreality:  in her earlier works she composed mainly in minor key, with cool and neutralized tones performing visual functions usually reserved for the dominant, hotter colours.  Always her content was concerned with human beings, her style often hovering on the borders of abstraction; but while the figures were deprived of individualizing features they were never totally reduced to non-figurative forms.

Following her visit to the USA in 1966, Claude Bouscharain was drawn towards hard-edge design and purer colour.  She also switched to the acrylic medium and embarked on large-scale compositions.  However, the stylistic and technical adjustments did not connote an altered orientation; she summarised her artistic philosophy as follows:

“I am interested in human life.  My painting helps me to delimit what I know about it.  To me, an ordinary, down-to-earth life does not exist. By its very beginning and end, it is entirely mysterious.  Therefore I am not interested in dreams and fantasies; what one calls ‘reality’ is the strangest of all.”

In her reference to the “strangeness of reality”, Claude Bouscharain provides a key to the enigmatic nature of much of her work. However, to search too intently for rational meanings in all her canvases is to sacrifice their essential poetry and their subliminal emotional communication to the banalities of overt things and explicable occurrences.

Reality, for Bouscharain, is a compound of subjective insights and imprecise moods and feelings, a heightened awareness of the overtones and metaphysical implications of actions, events and situations, an externalisation of the angst of modern living and a persisting private concern about human isolation and alienation.  To make such a vision both tolerable and tangible, she has tended to ritualise reality:  she unmasks its strangeness by stripping away the psychological comfort of familiar context, light and viewpoint; and then dresses her perceptions in schematic colour and hieratic form.

In her later work, the hieratic quality is emphasized by the detached precision of her use of the acrylic medium:  the personalised imprint of brushwork, pre-sent in her earlier oils, has been eliminated and forms are fixed in time and space by the uncompromising hard-edge style.  Yet each ritualised tableau is endowed with hyper-realist drama by the intense and penetrating light in which the images are bathed.

Education

1941 – 1942

Entered the Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Institute of Educational Sciences), Geneva; studied child-psychology

1945

Attended drawing classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris

1946

Admitted to the Académie l’Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris

1947

Continued studies at the Art Students’ League, New York, under Robert Beverley Hale and Morris Kantor

1950

Académie Montmartre, Paris, under Fernand Lége

Exhibitions

1985

Group exhibition with Erik Launscher and Stanley Pinker, Drostdy Centre, Stellenbosch

1982

Solo exhibition, University of Stellenbosch

1981

Republic Festival Exhibition, Durban

1979

Invited artist, Cape Town Biennale

1975

Cape Town Festival Exhibition, South African National Gallery, Cape Town (March)

1974

Republic of South Africa Exhibition, South African National Gallery, Cape Town (in lieu of Venice Biennale)(August)

1973

South African Association of Arts, Cape Town group exhibition (May)

New Cape Art, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town (October)

1972

Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town (August)

Group exhibition, Gallery Connoisseur, Johannesburg (October)

1971

Exhibition of Cape Artists, Durban Museum

Republic Festival Exhibition, South African National Gallery, Cape Town (May)

1970

Group exhibition, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town (February)

Inaugural Exhibition of new premises, South African Association of Arts Gallery, Cape Town (June)

Inaugural Exhibition, Bulawayo Art Gallery, Rhodesia (December)

1969

Quinquennial Exhibition of South African Art, South African National Gallery, Cape Town (October)

1968

South African Breweries Biennale, travelling exhibition

1966

Republic Festival Exhibition, South African National Gallery, Cape Town (May)

Solo exhibition, Artists’ Gallery, Cape Town (June)

South African Breweries Biennale, travelling exhibition

Republic Festival Exhibition, Pretoria

1965

Group exhibition, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town (January)

South African Women Artists, South African National Gallery, Cape Town (May)

Fifth Cape Salon, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town (August)

1964

Fourth Cape Salon, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town (August)

1963

Third Cape Salon, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town (August)

South African Flora in Art, South African National Gallery, Cape Town (August)

Group exhibition with Erik Laubscher, Lidchi Gallery, Johannesburg (October)

1962

Cape Wild Flower Paintings, St Martini Gardens, Cape Town (July)

Second Cape Salon, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town (August)

1961

First Cape Salon, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town (August)

South African Art Today, Durban

1960

South African Artists, Ghent, Belgium (March)

1959

Group exhibition, Under 40s Exhibition, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town, (September)

Solo exhibition, South African Association of Arts, Cape Town (October)

First of five solo exhibitions at the Argus Gallery, Cape Town

1950

Art Students’ League Tercentenary, New York

Participated in over 40 group exhibitions from 1950 in the United States of America, South Africa, Belgium, Zimbabwe and Australia

Collections

Public Collections – South Africa

  • South African National Gallery, Cape Town
  • Hester Rupert Art Museum, Graaff-Reinet
  • National Museum, Bloemfontein
  • Pretoria Art Museum
  • Sandton Municipal Collection
  • University of the Orange Free State
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Dorothy Moss Kay

Dorothy Moss Kay

(1886 – 1964 )
Dorothy Moss Kay

Post War

Overview
Dorothy Elvery was born at Greystones, County Wicklow, Ireland, in 1886. At the age of 14 she began studying figure painting at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and the Royal Hibernian Academy School, and later in Paris. Her work was accepted for exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy and Young Irish Artists Exhibition in 1902.

In 1910 she came to South Africa to marry Dr. Hobart W. A. Kay (FRCS) who later became District Surgeon in Port Elizabeth. The couple settled in Port Elizabeth, became very active in artistic affairs and were founder members of the Eastern Province Society of Arts and Crafts (1918) later known as the E.P. Society of Fine Arts. Dorothy Kay regularly participated in this society’s group shows. She was represented in the British Empire Exhibition in London in 1924 and in the same year exhibited again in London and Jamaica, Canada and Australia. In this year, too, she was elected a member of the Royal British and Colonial Society of Artists.

Two years later, after exhibiting at the Dominion Artists’ Exhibition in London where Queen Mary purchased one of her etchings “Romance”, Dorothy Kay began illustrating stories for the “Outspan” magazine. Over the years she produced more than 2000 black and white illustrations. This discipline, she later wrote, was to teach her much about figure compositions.

In 1940 the Union Government commissioned her to paint war subjects, and several other commissions followed, such as the two large mural panels for General Motors South Africa, a mural for the SABC in Grahamstown and murals for the Reserve Bank, Port Elizabeth. Although the body of her work embraces a wide variety of subject matter and stylistic approaches it is as a portrait painter in the academic tradition that Dorothy Kay is best known. Throughout her career she was commissioned to paint numerous portraits of dignitaries and private citizens, but it is in the self-portraits that her fine sense of humour is most evident. What is extraordinary about Dorothy Kay is the change in her work from 1946 onwards at the age of 60. Art historians and critics have variously described the change as hyper realistic or bordering on surrealistic with metaphysical tendencies.  Dorothy Kay died in Port Elizabeth on 13 May 1964 at the age of 77.

Exhibitions
1902

Participated in group exhibitions in South Africa, the UK, Yugoslavia, West Germany, Italy, Brazil and Rhodesia

1922

First of several solo exhibitions at St. George’s Hall, Grahamstown

1924

South African section, Empire Exhibition, Wembley

1926

Dominion Artists’ Exhibition, London

1940

Royal Academy

1952

van Riebeek Tercentenary Exhibition, Cape Town

1955

Retrospective Exhibition, Eastern Province Society of Arts and Crafts

1956

First Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art

1960

Second Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art

South African Graphic Art Exhibition in Yugoslavia and Munich

1961

São Paulo Biennale (Graphic Arts)

1964

Third Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art

Venice Biennale (Graphic Arts)

1965

Retrospective Exhibition, Port Elizabeth

‘South African Women Artists’, South African National Gallery, Cape Town

1966

Prestige Retrospective Exhibition, Pretoria Art Museum and Durban Art Gallery

Republic Festival Exhibition, Pretoria

1979

‘SA Printmakers’, South African National Gallery, Cape Town

1982

Prestige Retrospective Exhibition, National Gallery, Cape Town

Collections
Museums & Galleries

  • South African National Gallery, Cape Town
  • Durban Art Gallery
  • Pretoria Art Museum
  • King George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth
  • William Humphreys Gallery, Kimberley
  • Albany Museum, Grahamstown
  • Queenstown Art Gallery
  • African Museum, Johannesburg
  • South African National War Museum, Johannesburg

Private Collections

  • Various international countries
  • South Africa
Commissions
Numerous portraits of public figures, including mayoral portraits for Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage, Graaff-Reinet and Grahamstown

1936

Mural for Climax Rock Drilling Company, Empire Exhibition

1943

Mural for Reserve Bank, Port Elizabeth

1946

Mural for General Motors, Port Elizabeth (now at Port Elizabeth Technikon)

1946

SABC, Grahamstown

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Edoardo Villa

Edoardo Villa

(1915 – 2011)

Edoardo Villa
Contemporary
Overview

Edoardo Villa (1915-2011) is often called Johannesburg’s ‘unofficial official’ sculptor. Anecdotally, he has contributed the most public sculptures of any single artist in the city where he spent the majority of his life, and certainly the most without a dedicated city museum to house them. His long career began in earnest after he opted to remain in South Africa after the Second World War, following his internment here as an Italian prisoner of war.

His sculptural output was marked by his ability to shift materials and registers in his work, ranging from sinuous and sensual bronzes to angular and confrontational works in steel. Much of his output was driven by his wish to develop a style that combined his training in the techniques and motifs of European modernist sculpture with his lifelong fascination with African spiritualism and iconography. From his involvement with the Amadlozi Group in the 1960s, Villa sought a syncretic and dynamic sculptural vocabulary, that took many different twists and iterations over the course of his long life. The two works on exhibition, separated by 20 years and very different in style, demonstrate this restless creative energy perfectly.

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Eleanor Frances Esmonde-White

Eleanor Frances Esmonde-White

(1914 – 2007)

Eleanor Frances Esmonde-White

Post War

Overview

Esmonde-White was born 1914 in Dundee, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. Not much is known about her upbringing, but she did experience formal training in the arts, starting from 1932, when she enrolled at the University of Natal. Here she was taught under O J Oxley until 1934. In 1935-36 Esmonde-White attended the Royal College of Art, in London, during her studies in London; she was awarded Herbert Baker Scholarship to study mural painting in London and Italy. Finally in 1937 she studied at the British School in Rome.

Between 1938 and 1954 Esmonde-White was a member of the New Group. In 1951 she established and taught in the department of design at Michaelis School of Fine Art, in Cape Town, till 1960. During her career as an artist, she was involved in illustration of various children’s books. In 1959 she designed stage sets and costumes for ballet and opera performed at the University of Cape Town. In 1963 she was involved in stage and costume designs for CAPAB dramas. This is an aspect which influenced her work, instilling a sense of the theatrical in her use of often dramatically stylised compositions and use of warm, strong colour.

Esmonde-White’s works are primarily figure compositions, often focusing on the subject of women and their actions.  Esmonde-White’s painting changed over the years, her earlier works more linear in concept with less sensuous forms. Gradually, through her practice, the strong outline faded, and more emphasis was put on the painterly quality in large coloured areas. Her works are primarily in oil, with large amounts of graphic works including African inspired woodcuts. The dramatic colour use and expressive brush work is characteristic of Esmonde-White’s painting.

Education

1932 – 1934

University of Natal, under Professor O J P Oxley

1935 – 1936

Royal College of Art, London under Sir William Rotherstein, Gilbert Spences and Eric Ravilious

1935 – 1937

Awarded the Herbert Baker Scholarship to study mural painting in London and Italy

1937

British School, Rome

Exhibitions

1952

First of numerous Group Exhibitions, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Bloemfontein

Van Riebeeck Tercentenary Exhibition, Cape Town

1954 – 1955

International Colour Woodcut Exhibition, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

1955

Exhibited regularly on the Biennial International Graphic Exposition, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia

1956

First Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art

Venice Biennale

1957

São Paulo Biennale

1958

First Solo exhibition, Cape Town

1960

Second Quadrennial Exhibition of South Africa

1961

São Paulo Biennale (Graphic)

1964

Venice Biennale (Graphic)

1966

Republic Festival Exhibition, Pretoria

1978

restige Exhibition, National Museum, Bloemfontein

Collections

Public – South Africa

  • Rembrandt Art Foundation
  • Polokwane Collection

Museums & Galleries – South Africa

  • Iziko South Africa National Gallery, Cape Town
  • Durban Art Gallery
  • William Humphreys Gallery, Kimberley
  • Hester Rupert Museum, Graaff-Reinet
  • Pretoria Art Museum
  • Johannesburg Art Gallery

Universities – South Africa

  • University of Witwatersrand Galleries
  • University of the Free State
Commissions

1935 – 1937

South Africa House, London with Le Roux Smith Le Roux (Mural)

1938

Queen Elizabeth Liner with Le Roux Smith Le Roux (Mural)

Science Museum, London (Mural)

1942

New Law Courts, Johannesburg (Mural)

1951

Overland Pavilion, Festival of Britain, South Bank, London (Mural)

1952

van Riebeek Tercentenary Festival (Mural)

Cape Province Library, Cape Town (Mosaic)

1966

Welkom Civic Theatre (Tapestry)

1969

Divisional Council Chamber, Cape Town (Tapestry)

1972

Nico Malan Opera House, Cape Town (Tapestry)

1977

Baxter Theatre, Cape Town (Tapestry)

Awards

1936

Prix de Rome

1952

Cape Tercentenary Foundation Award for Design

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