Picturesque Confrontations: A Selection from the Sanlam Art Collection

Picturesque Confrontations, showcases paintings, sculpture and graphic works from the Sanlam Art Collection.

A selection of key works will broadly cover a century of art making from the picturesque paintings of panoramas and cosy interiors of the late 19th and early 20th century to the confrontations of the contemporary installation.

The concept of the picturesque was first formulated in Europe in the 17th century and found active currency in the 18th to describe a set of diverse features that should be identified in a landscape that in combination resulted in a “scene” of rugged and unusual arousing “beauty” as opposed to a “beautiful” scene with smooth meandering hills and vistas characterized by harmony and contented the eye.

Although an object of vociferous philosophical debate the term picturesque, occasionally used by critics disparage the practice of amateur painters wishing to enter the professional art market, is commonly used in every day speech to describe images in terms of their pictorial quality. The plethora of conventions that may be applied by any budding artist to compose a “picturesque” painting are widely published in “how to paint books” all over the world.

The early paintings in the Sanlam Art Collection selected for this exhibition exemplify these qualities.  Beginning with Thomas Baines an established artists and explorer in South Africa in the mid-19th century the landscape dominated as subject.

The first half of the 20th century witnessed a both political as well aesthetic revolutions in Europe which although delayed began to infiltrate that South African  arts scene.  Paintings by Hugo Naudé Maggie Laubser, J.H. Pierneef, Francois Krige and Alfred Krens are illustrative of this radical shift in approach which was initially received with much hostility by the general public.

South Africa’s development in the modern and post-modern world brought with it significant shifts in the arts.  The landscape alone was no longer considered significant as picturesque subject alone. Rather it became the backdrop for human interaction – conflict and development.  Art no longer fulfilled the role of aesthetic pacification but became medium for confrontation.

The exhibition was recently a central attraction at the Hermanus Fyn Arts Festival where it was well received and enjoyed excellent reviews

WHERE: Sanlam Art Collection, Sanlam Head Office, 2 Strand Road, Bellville 7530 Cape Town

WHAT: Picturesque Confrontations: A Selection from the Sanlam Art Collection
WHEN: 27 June – 18 July 2014; Monday – Friday 09:00 – 16:30
Entry Free