Monday, November 21, 2010

I am always surprised when traveling to discover how many international art world people are aware of ArtThrob, but I didn’t know we were exhibiting internationally as an entity as well. In a corner of London recently, writer Sean O’Toole came across the work below and emailed me a pic.

Spotted on a London exhibition

Never one to back off from tackling the politically incorrect, Brett Murray opened his most recent show, ‘Hail to the Thief’ at the Goodman Cape on Saturday. Apparently a leading parliamentarian expressed his extreme displeasure early in the day at Murray’s very direct punches to the jugular. Words like ‘right wing’ and ‘conservative’ were bandied about.

Brett Murray Cash is King, 2010 Silkscreen 100 x 70cm

The enormous crests and insignia which are part of the show are gorgeous by any reckoning, and are hand cut from steel, their intricate foliage covered with gold and silver leaf.

Goodman Gallery director Liza Essers.

Many of the works depend upon their titles to deliver the coup de grace, A perspex and silver leaf drawing of two men on a podium, one grasping a dollar sign, and gazing soulfully upwards is entitled Hold my hand, I’m a stranger in paradise. As one of Murray’s text works promises, there is NEVER A DULL MOMENT.

Clare van Zyl, Brett Murray and Warrick Sony at the opening.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Excluded during his lifetime from the walls of the South African National Gallery, Vladimir Tretchikoff’s work (he died in 2006 at the age of 92) will receive a full scale retrospective early next year. Cleverly billing the planned show, ‘Tretchikoff: The People’s Painter’ (to sidestep the nickname the artist hated, ‘the king of kitsch’), curator Andrew Lamprecht and SANG director Riason Naidoo launched a fundraising initiative for the show at an event at the Old Townhouse last Thursday. Would-be donors are asked to pledge R50 000 to bring home from the USA Tretchi’s The Chinese Girl, and so on, in a descending range of donations down to the, dare we call them, poinsettia potboilers.

Tretchikoff’s The Chinese Girl

On Saturday, US, the Simon Njami/Bettina Malcomess curated show finished its run at the SANG with an energetic programme of talks and performances. On a screen next to the panelists, messages sent by Bridget Baker from London instructed the audience to nod its head, three times, and repeat the action four times, and a bit later, to turn round and face the artworks. If the audience hardly reacted to these instructions, it could have been that the discussion from panelists Lamprecht, Njami, Malcomess and Jay Pather was so riveting we couldn’t take our eyes from their faces. Or perhaps audiences just don’t like sing along style instructions. But nice idea, Bridget. Donna Kukama had more success with her audience with her furious referee style performance in the quad.

Donna Kukama referees her art audience at the SANG

Marlene Dumas was in Stellenbosch this week for the opening of ‘Mother Nature’ at the Sasol Art Museum, exuding her usual wonderfully warm and earthy vibe. Dinner afterwards was at Lafayette.

Marlene Dumas and Penny Siopis after the opening of ‘Mother Nature’

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

I had an amazing week last week, finally going somewhere I have wanted to go for ages: up to Mpumulanga to spend a week in the White River studio of The Artist’s Press, under the direction of Mark Attwood. The setting is gorgeous, and totally different from Cape Town: a ridiculously lush subtropical garden filled with birds like lilac breasted rollers and paradise flycatchers.

Tamar Mason, Sheila Flynn, Mark Attwood, Colbert Mashile, Fred Clark and Josie Grindrod round the lunch table at The Artist’s Press

In the spacious studio. there are three Tamarind master printers on hand – Mark himself and Leshoko and Syneth - to facilitate the messy business of printing. Mark runs monoprint workshops from time to time, limited to five or six artists, and this was one of those.

The print studio

I trained as a printmaker, and after years of working in installation, video or photography, it is great to get back to the immediate satisfaction of painting an image on a surface, (in this case, a sheet of polycarbonate) placing it on the bed of the press, with a piece of paper face down, sending it through, then peeling back the paper to see what is there. Polycarbonate is an unsympathetic surface to work on, and the effects can be splashy, but as with all concentrated workshops, one seems to progress much faster than in one’s home studio, where email and the phone are constant interruptions.

An experimental monoprint portrait

I came back to Cape Town dying to make more prints.