Strauss & co - Wits Art Museum

14 WITS ARTS MUSEUM ENDOWMENT AUCTION 5 Clive van den Berg (b.1956) Man Flails with Maps II Oil on canvas 101 x 75,5 cm 2011 Donated by the artist R30 000 – 50 000 This complex oil painting features a naked figure tightly grasping the large and crumbling mass of a giant map and is a reflection of van den Berg’s interest in how maps and map-making attempt to define and confine our knowledge of landscapes. The work represents a simultaneous deconstruction and subversion of the function of the map: by symbolically destroying it, van den Berg reveals a desire for a real or more intimate experience of the landscape. A pertinent political reading might also be present in Man Flails with Maps II in its reference to the complex issues of South African land naming, and land ownership. In illustrating a tense connection between the body and the land, Man Flails articulates the ongoing ruptures in territorial markers, systems of ordering, access and inaccessibility that is at play in issues of South African landscapes. In addition to his art- making practice, van den Berg devotes much of his time to the curation and design of heritage projects.  PPS