ART NEWS

Writer and director Darrell Roodt’s Little One (26 April) deals with the tragic story of a six-year-old girl (Vuyelwa Msimang) who was left for dead in a field near a township in Johannesburg and rescued by a middle-aged woman (Lindiwe Ndlovu), who takes her home where she looks after her as her own flesh and blood.

The action comedy Blitz Patrollie (10 May) was written by Kagiso Lediga, with Joey Rasdien and David Kau as police officers stationed in a little-known depot in the belly of the Johannesburg CBD, until they stumble upon what is believed to be South Africa’s biggest drug haul in recent history.

In Spud: The Madness Continues (21 June) Spud Milton (Troye Sivan) is aided by his English teacher “the Guv” (played again by the legendary John Cleese), to take up the fight against his housemaster who is determined to get the Crazy 8. read more

When a single mother is arrested for her part in an aborted IRA bomb plot in London in Shadow Dancer, an MI5 officer offers her a choice: lose everything and go to prison for 25 years or return to Belfast to spy on her own family.

Written and directed by Oscar-winner Martin McDonagh , the comedy Seven Psychopaths follows a struggling screenwriter (Colin Farrell) who inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved shih-tzu.

On a spectacular future Earth that has evolved beyond recognition in the futuristic epic Oblivion, Tom Cruise plays a man whose confrontation with the past leads him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind.

A mysterious young woman arrives in a small North Carolina town and reluctantly finds new love with a lonely widower in Safe Haven, a deeply moving romantic thriller from Nicholas Sparks, the best-selling author whose novels inspired the beloved films The Notebook and Dear John.

Lurking behind Alfred Hitchcock, cinema’s “master of suspense” – the extraordinary film icon known for orchestrating some of the most intense experiences of menace and intrigue audiences have ever seen – was a hidden side: his creatively explosive romance with his steadfast wife and filmmaking collaborator, Alma Reville. The brilliant Hitchcock stars Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren and takes you on a fascinating journey into the making of the spine-tingling 1960 thriller Psycho.

Conducted by Daniele Gatti, the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD screening of Richard Wagner's mystical Parsifal will see Jonas Kaufmann in his Met debut as the title character with Katarina Dalayman as Kundry, the mystical woman who tempts Parsifal. read more

Teaching art in Cape Town, Mary-Anne Border had no idea that she’d be consumed by a new creative urge when she moved to Napier. “I think it’s because you can be the person you really want to be here,” explains Mary-Anne. “I’ve met some wonderfully inspiring people and that gives me added impetus to express things in a new way.”

A year ago, Mary-Anne took up residence at the Napier Retirement Village – her house overlooks rolling countryside and gives her the vision she seeks. She loves the nature around her, even though she has done battle with some visiting swallows who took up residence on her stoep. She also loves the quiet. So her newfound activism contrasts somewhat with the serenity of her surroundings, but she’s lively in her freedom and happily saying what she wants to say through her painting. This societal commentary – all given from the comfort of her new home – has given Mary-Anne a new lease on life too. “I swim every afternoon with a friend in the solar-heated pool … and in all weathers … so I’m being active in every way and, as the saying goes: ‘I’m retired but I’m not tired.’”  read more

021 cornered curator Andrew Lamprecht for a quick Q&A about Art in 2012
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Flaying – the removal of skin from a corpse – is normally the preserve of psychopaths in gory crime novels. But for Dr Gunther von Hagens it’s the first step in plastination, a controversial process that enables him to preserve a corpse. Clearly, others find organs, tendons, bones and nervous systems just as marvellous as Dr Hagens. Since he started preserving bodies with liquid plastic, 32 million people in 70 countries have come to view his exhibition. Moreover, Dr Hagen has no shortage of people who are willing to put themselves on display: he has a waiting list of 13 000 donors, some of them South African. read more

The Carte de la partie Maridionale del ‘Africque servir d’intelligence aux deux voyages de Levaillant is a rare object – the most valuable map that exists of South Africa. It was constructed in France in 1790, from memory, under the direction of explorer and author François Le Vaillant, and commissioned by King Louis XVI. After the king’s execution in the wake of the French Revolution, the map found its way to a marine museum in Paris, until the French capital was at risk from German artillery during World War II. It was evacuated to Brest, and returned to Paris, where it remained in the vaults of the Bibliothèque Nationale ever since. It has never been to South Africa – until now. In October, for the first time, it will be on show at Cape Town’s Iziko South African National Gallery.  read more

An exhibition of the work of 20 young artists from five continents offers a rare opportunity to engage with contemporary art.

Outside the South African National Gallery the final changes are being added to a bright mural. Children dance to the French chanson that emits from the loud speakers. The lively scene sparkles with joie de vivre.

This exhibition is as much about creating relationships as displaying art. As the gallery’s director Riason Naidoo says, “Given our long isolation under the apartheid years, such exposure to global youthful influences is vital.”

The entrance of the exhibition is an olfactory delight, read more

The South African Institute of Architects in partnership with the Cape Town Institute for Architecture and Architecture ZA. NOW is proud to announce the AZA2012 Biennial Festival. This follows on the first and hugely successful AZA2010 Biennial Festival which was held in September 2010 in Newtown Johannesburg. The Architecture ZA 2010 was Africa's first and largest premier urban culture festival as it brought together leading-edge thinkers and multi- disciplinary practitioners in the built environment from around the globe. read more

“Gerard de Leeuw believed he could make rain. Or, to be more precise, he believed that the bronze smelting that he practised from his suburban foundry in Orange Grove, Johannesburg, had the unintended but inevitable effect of producing rain, regardless of the season.”

So writes Federico Freschi, formerly Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art at the University of the Witwatersrand, now director of the Goodman Gallery Cape, in a catalogue accompanying the exhibition “Gerard de Leeuw: a Centenary Exhibition”, to be on view at the Sanlam Art Gallery from 25 July–28 September 2012. This exhibition showcases more than 40 bronze sculptures by De Leeuw and a selection of paintings by his artistic friends, amongst them Father Franz Claerhout, JH Pierneef, Stefan and Iris Ampenberger, Fayetta Varney, Wolf Kibel, Lippy Lipschitz to name but a few. The exhibition was compiled by Dr Fred Scott and opened at the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery in collaboration with the Sanlam Art Collection and supported by Business and Arts South Africa and Stephan Welz & Co. A fully illustrated catalogue will be on sale from the gallery. read more

"I have taken the elements of earth, fire, air and water as the inspiration for this series of paintings working with images from my travels to China, and Zanzibar as references. These four elements represent the Western concept of matter. In the East, the elements are considered to be earth, wood, water, metal and fire. I have represented the elements of water and air in the circular paintings, reminiscent of the eastern elements. " (Judy Woodbourne)

Opening on Sunday 6th May 2012 at 4.30 p.m. at The Cape Gallery, 60 Church Street, Cape Town
The artist will be conducting a walkabout on Saturday 12th May 2012 at 11.00 a.m.

Duration: 6th May 2012 - 26th May 2012
 read more

As Media Supporters 021 provided 1200 delegates at the conference with a copy of the latest 021, to keep them in touch with what's happening in the Cape. We were also excited to mingle with the best of the world's designers, get new inspirations for 021 and share them with you. Below a bit of the editorial we published in the autumn 2012 edition of 021 on the Design Indaba.

Design Indaba Expo
Design Indaba Expo is a showcase of exceptional design across all disciplines, including advertising, architecture, craft, décor, film, fashion, graphic design, interior design, jewellery, new media, publishing, product design and visual media. Each exhibitor is pre-approved by a curatorial panel of industry experts. read more

At the gate of Klein Constantia, a beautiful kramat draws worshippers to the grave of Sheik Abdurachman Matebe Shah of the sultanate of Malacca. The general reception area of the farm houses a small exhibit to the Vin de Constance, the most famous and acclaimed wine ever produced in the country. In nearby Buitenverwachting some of the sweet hanepoot vines have survived for centuries. And Groot Constantia offers not only an orientation centre with archaeological artefacts, but also the Cloete cellar with an exhibition spanning more than two millennia of wine history, an old bath, tombs, grachten and listed buildings. Even though much of the manor house burnt down in a fire read more

The Louvre in Paris receives 8.9 million visitors per year, 5 million of which alone see the Mona Lisa. The Tretchikoff exhibition at the SA National Gallery this past winter drew 15 000 visitors. “And how many visitors does the Bertram get?” I ask the guardian. “Well,” he clears his throat, “I can say for certain that you are the first visitor in four days. Last month we had 42. And all of those were foreigners.”

Splendid isolation in a museum i read more

Pablo Picasso said, “Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life.” In Peter Clarke’s work, Dawn Kennedy finds that the dust of everyday life has been made into art that enlarges the soul.


At the opening of Peter Clarke’s exhibition in the South African National Gallery, a crowd
of people of many backgrounds congregated for a common cause – to pay tribute to the
artist who is a mentor and role model in his community at Ocean View. Taking the podium,
the spry and articulate 82-year-old cracked a joke as the applause subsided. While Clarke’s
work has featured in nearly every significant collection on exhibit, he has never had a solo
exhibition at Iziko. In 1993, he threatened that he would haunt Iziko unless they offered him a
solo exhibition. “Now,” he quipped, “that would seem ungrateful and so I’ve decided to haunt
the slave lodge instead.”
The works in the exhibition narrate, in Clarke’s words, “a long journey, a great distance
travelled”. Clarke was born in Simon’s Town in 1929 and worked in the dockyard before
becoming a full-time professional artist in 1956. During his career, spanning nearly six
decades, he recorded many aspects of South African life.

The Art of Peter Clarke runs until 19 February 2012 at Iziko South African National Gallery
in the Company Gardens read more

“Over the past two decades Clare Menck has begun to inscribe herself in the South African
world as one of this country’s most accomplished painters. Yet full and proper recognition
has eluded her. It is perhaps because of her use of smaller formats and the subjects that she
chooses that Clare Menck is known more by the critics and collectors than by museum and
exhibition curators. She has built up an impressive exhibition record and has demonstrated
that she is more than a superb painter. This exhibition is the first to provide a broad overview
of her work and will be a revelation to many.”
Stephan Hundt, curator of the Sanlam Art Collection. read more

Making Old Dutch Masters appealing to contemporary Africa: What might the stern sitters, gazing from their dark canvasses, make of the pounding of the djembe drums that stomps from the bustling Greenmarket Square into the Old Town House, home to Cape Town’s celebrated Michaelis collection of 17th century Dutch and Flemish masters? read more

Iziko’s curator of entomology Simon van Noort reveals the art hidden in science.
Finding new wasp species is Simon van Noort’s passion. He explains, “You have to be
an explorer. It’s one of the last frontiers of natural history. Wasps are so hyper-diverse
and there are so few taxonomists that I can go into your back garden and collect 10 new
species of wasps.” There are 145 000 documented species, but there is likely to be
one to three million wasps waiting for intrepid biologists like Simon to discover and name.
Once Simon discovers a new species, patience and pedantry is needed. Simon spends months digging through centuries of biological literature, often written in another language,
frequently Latin. As Simon says, “It’s a whole detective story.” He has discovered and named
nearly 80 species. The naming has to follow a strict protocol, but there are a few wasps he’s
given pet names to, like the Pycnostigmus mastersonae, which, because of its golden
colour, is named after Jill Masterson who died by asphyxiation after being smothered in gold
paint in the James Bond movie Goldfinger. read more

During the 1960s, Tretchikoff prints took pride of place on the dining room walls of innumerable homes. Mr Wentzel Hendricks recalls the three years he spent delivering them.

Mention Tretchikoff and countless Capetonians nod vigorously in recognition of the name, eager to discuss the emotional ties they had with his paintings. For many the Chinese Girl, with her bluish tinted skin, signature red lips and demure glance away from the viewer, is their La Gioconda. As Retreat-based Wentzel Hendricks recalls, “He was the only artist that we knew.” But while Vladimir Tretchikoff enjoyed unprecedented popularity, few were aware that he lived in Cape Town and enjoyed a lavish Bishopscourt lifestyle, complete with fast cars and sprawling mansions. Vladimir Tretchikoff famously said that the main difference between Vincent van Gogh and him was that Van Gogh starved, whereas he had become rich. read more

34 Long Fine Art owners Andries Loots and Fred de Jager face a unique challenge in publicising this month’s Takashi Murakami exhibition. They are not allowed to use any of the images that will be on display to promote this event. Instead, invites are word only affairs that, in the richly visual art world, stand as naked as an undressed tailor’s dummy at a fashion show. read more

As a young girl, Karin spent hours collecting, drawing, cutting, and pasting images to create new worlds. As an adult and busy mother of four children, she painted and worked as a graphic designer, but didn’t feel that she had the patience to create original art that was as beautiful as she wanted. It wasn’t until she took a Unisa course in Photoshop, seven years ago, that she discovered her medium. Since then, Karin, a self-confessed fanatic, works with Photoshop for hours every day. read more

William K Ivins has called the camera the most important invention since the printing press. It allows us to re-create our world anew, dramatically bringing together past and present. This is startlingly evident in Goldblatt’s exhibition, Kith Kin and Khaya, which compresses nearly 50 years of South African history into the SA Jewish Museum.

The genius that informs David Goldblatt’s work is a deep thoughtfulness. His is the art of understatement that has the same effect as the schoolteacher who lowers his voice to gain the attention of unruly students. Goldblatt’s use of black-and-white photography serves perfectly to emphasise the stark divisions in South African society. Dividing his work along ethnic lines -Afrikaners in their suburbs, Blacks in Soweto and Indians in their neighbourhood – effectively depicts a fragmented society. Goldblatt occupies a contradictory position. With his camera he is an observer, an anthropologist of his own country, and yet primarily, he has always addressed South Africans, trying to make them understand the narrative context of his photographs. read more

As you enter the Everard Read Gallery this month, Beezy Bailey’s striking sculpture of Jesus greets you with more than wide open arms. In contrast to the classic Christ pose – head tilted to the right and right foot crossed over left, Beezy’s Jesus appears to be admiring his own rather nifty footwork. As your eye travels down his body, you notice that he is, in fact, wearing stilettos.
Beezy denies that his work is blasphemous and was surprised when two foundries refused to cast his sculpture. Beezy, not a practicing Christian, says that far from being derogatory, the work expresses the notion of the resurrection of Christ, which he interprets to symbolise the discovery of Christ within ourselves. The sculpture is the outcome of a question he started exploring with David Bowie when they met and collaborated more than 10 years ago: what would happen if Christ came down from the cross? read more

The history of the Pataxó Indian tribe is closely related to the age of European discoveries and to the emergence of Brazil: In the year 1500 the Portuguese not only discovered the vast expanses of a southern continent, but also its inhabitants. Disembarking from their ships after a long journey, the Europeans were met by people who eyed them curiously. Challenged by their naked appearance, the Portuguese declared the natives to be the last survivors of the biblical paradise. Forgotten for centuries and only rediscovered 50 years ago, the Indian population of the Pataxó tribe today counts more than 10 000 people and proudly claims its own place in modern Brazilian society. read more