A collection of paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures are on display at the home of Charlette Schachat, a bastion of contemporary South African and master works, better known as Die Kunskamer. The legacy of the gallery shifts its weight once more in this offering and will most likely appeal to a wide audience.
Perhaps the most eye-catching other than the obvious works of Irma Stern, Larry Scully, Malcolm Payne, Cecil Skotnes, a Siopis designed tapestry and Slingsby drawings, are the numerous works by Jan Vermerien.
They reveal a sort of archaism, lyricism and cartoon-like imagery that stir emotively, bringing to the fore both a poetic sentiment while not losing sight of his awareness of the medium through which he works, some of which are produced on or with handmade paper.
His sense of colour is terrific: one a brilliantly nuanced variation of tones of blue; others a sensitive exploration of beige and white, and yet others an excursion into interactions between blue, purple and green.
In terms of content - the extra-aesthetic - one might appeal to a certain metaphysical attempt to ascend and reach beyond the mundane as his figures feel both the weight of life, of gravity, yet occupy the format to traverse the very weight of materiality and any potential obstacles.
One might also note the peculiarly African stylisation - if indeed there is such a “neat” category - reminding one of an early Braque or Picasso, so that such imagery may yet be an African aesthetics through the eyes of, or as appropriated via, the West.
Perhaps it is more apt to say that his works go beyond any such convention and rather appeal to a basic universalism.
Another painter whose works are on show is Chris Denovan. Although in my estimation not as “deep” as the aforementioned, one cannot help been drawn to the quality of mark-making, the singing colours and squiggles, and the vibrant, one might say musical quality of his work.
Culled from the web, the artist appropriates portraits to give a new take on the digital image in the first place - though I find this rather cold.
Irrespective of such concerns, the work is appealing and does talk to the “fictional identities” that the complexity of the information age brings to light.
Perhaps more introspective are Wendy Anziska’s paintings, where she appears to joust and jab with odd squiggles and a certain “unfinished quality” that belie an interest in spatial fecundity of the surface and colour as symbolic of emotive and intuitive being.
A work I am always drawn to at the gallery and one of the treasures retained for this show is Beezy Bailey’s The Magi, where the colour shimmers and the expressiveness of the figures exude an other-worldly charm.
This is explored further in works such as Paul Rabinowitz’s sculpture in bronze entitled “embrace” wherein unity and oneness is depicted in a harmonious coming together of two figures.
The Irma Stern work is a painted image of the plaque outside the Irma Stern Museum at UCT lower campus.
For viewing, contact Die Kunskamer by appointment on
021 439 6572 or 082 898 9717.