Welgemeend August Art Month - 2019

4 Another year has passed and the 6th edition of the annual Welgemeend Art Month is upon us, another treasured opportunity to share our passion for South African art while contributing to the restoration of the beautiful Welgemeend Manor House. The past year in South Africa has been a very typical one, full of high hopes and despair, progress and disillusionment, anger and promise. With that in mind, it is no wonder that Satire & Irony sprung to mind as a possible theme for the 2019 exhibition. Not only does the political, economic and bureaucratic environment in our country drive one to distraction, it also serves to amuse … I have long believed that the ability to laugh at oneself and one’s surrounding circumstances, is vital in order to survive and thrive in challenging times. The imaginative use of humour connects the works of all the artists in this year’s exhibition, albeit manifested in a multitude of ways – satirical and ironic, but also acerbic, laconic, sarcastic, subversive, witty, dry, whimsical and outrageous. Collectively, an irresistible invitation to embark upon a reflective journey of (self)discovery while having a good laugh along the way. Life is full of ironies, some delightful, others not. It is ironic, perhaps, that Lizelle and I became aware of the work of Alexander and Marianne Podlashuc before we encountered the more known artists, Stanley Pinker and Robert Hodgins. We purchased Cattle in the Forest in 1998 from the Strydom Gallery in George and marveled at the cynical wit underlying the compelling composition of the work. Growing up in rural areas, we often encountered cattle grazing near or underneath Eskom power lines, without thinking too much about it. Once we noticed the red, radiated eyes of the cattle in Alexander Podlashuc’s work, however, we started worrying about the effect of electricity on animals and the meat we eat, while having a laugh at the clever title and cynical composition of the work. I came upon an exhibition of Robert Hodgins at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg in 1998, completely by chance, having gone to the gallery to enquire about a work of Cecil Skotnes. The exhibition was still being set up and I sneaked in to have a look. A Night at the Opera was the first work of his that I ever saw, and I was immediately smitten. The sensuous and abundant use of colour, red in this case, was so seductive and the figures, barely outlined but clearly demonstrating the tension between the haughty husband and wife at the opera, so subtle and subversive, that I immediately wanted to buy the work. Sadly, it was impossible, out of my price range and already reserved, I learned, but the desire to know more about the artist and to find ways to acquire his works, was born and still persists. We capitalized on Hodgins’ commitment to make his art available to a wider audience by working in smaller scale, doing monotypes, water colours and silkscreens and acquired the ironic watercolour Little Man in His Office in 1998, followed by the delightful Performance, Artist & Audience in 2002. The latter work strongly reminds me of Chris De Burgh’s song “Patricia the stripper” and I have not stopped marvelling at the riotous colours in the background and the comic tension created by the apparent disinterest in the performance of two members of the audience. Satire & Irony: an introduction As was often the case in our art education, Louis Schachat of Die Kunskamer, was the person that introduced me to the fascinating, subtle and multi- faceted work of Stanley Pinker. There were two works in the gallery, In Search of a New Muse and Now and Then , both were unlike anything I had ever seen before, really challenging my perception and understanding of painting, not to mention the way a “painting” should look or be framed. A whole new journey of discovery started and due to Oom Louis’ persistence and generous payment terms, Now and Then made its way to our home in Johannesburg, to our enduring delight. Our encounters with the works of these three artists, caused us to start viewing, appreciating and collecting art with a very different frame of mind. The works contained so much to discover and digest, to marvel at and laugh about, so many unanswered questions and unsolved mysteries that aesthetics alone became a less and less important criteria for inclusion in our collection. Daarom is dit so ’n groot lekkerte om vanjaar ’n uitstalling van die kunstenaars se werke by Welgemeend te kan hou en hul verbeelding, vaardigheid en vindingrykheid met bestaande en aspirant kunsliefhebbers in Kaapstad te deel. Dit is ook ‘n tuiskoms van ’n aard vir Pinker en die Podlashucs wat op ’n stadium in Tamboerskloof gewoon het, nie ver van ons huis nie. Daar is duidelike ooreenkomste en groot verskille waarneembaar in hul werke. Al vier, (Hodgins, Pinker, Alexander en Marianne Podlashuc), lewer kommentaar op die sosio-ekonomiese omstandighede van hul tyd en die gebruik van kleur en humor is baie belangrik vir almal van hulle.