ABSTRACTION – Looking back, looking forward, features a group the work of South African artists who, exposed by the media and visits abroad to Paris and New York in the post war climate of 1950’s and later London and Berlin have continued to innovate and participate in what has become an international movement of abstract art.
Xolile Mtakatya
The possibility of a universal visual language was mooted and took roots in the imagination of the creative community. Influenced by Marcel Duchamp and encouraged by the esteemed American Art Critic, Clement Greenberg in the 1950s, Jackson Pollock poured and dripped household paint onto a canvas laid out on the floor often using the force of his whole body in ritualistic dance to propel the paint across the surface of a large canvas. This manner of painting became known as Abstract Expressionism.
Many of the artists returned to Paris after WWII, in the mid-20th century, where, together with a new generation of creatives, they continued to explore the possibilities abstraction.
The term “Art Informel” was coined by the French critic Michel Tapié in 1951, derived from the French word “informe,” meaning formless or shapeless. It is characterised by a spontaneous and intuitive approach to creating art, often emphasizing the process of creation over the final product. The rise of informalism is more or less linked to surrealism in that it is a subjective approach to art making. Through the very act of painting, it became more about technique, colours and materials on canvas and less about theory and content. It is the authentic expression of the maker. Sitting alongside Art Informel, Tachism emerged between 1940 and ’50 as a French abstract painting style that’s often interpreted as a European equivalent of abstract expressionism. The two are closely related, but with subtle differences. Art Informel favoured more intuitive expression, while Tachism, which evolved as a branch of Art Informel, was a reaction to Cubism.
In its many guises, subjective and objective approaches, abstraction offered the possibility of an international and universally recognisable visual language. Today we see a diversity of abstract conventions reflected worldwide and practised over a broad cultural spectrum.
John Karmer
Pop was the name R.B. Kitaj gave to a picture in 1956 and Lawrence Alloway is said to have used the title of the picture to denote an art movement. In reaction to abstraction the urban artists looked to symbol, object, and reality, and succeeded in saying something new by means of research on two planes: language and content. In their search of a universal visual language POP artists found it impossible to ignore the media: films, billboards, advertising, comics, neon signs and the internet. As undemanding and relatable these paintings are they directly penetrate the void that abstraction and geometrical forms had left in the public. Now at last, dialogue was possible again. Important too are the formal aspects that interpret POP.
Artist in ABSTRACTION – Looking back, looking forward
Faiqah Abrahams, Tyrone Appollis, Rachelle Bomberg, Jean Campbell, Betty Cilliers Barnard, Johnathon Comerford, Leon de Bliquy, Joseph de Wet, Derek Drake, Charles Gassner, Margot Gawith, Soichi Hasegawe, Sipho Hlati, Juli Jana, Koozen, John Kramer, Lambert Kriedemann, Renee Leroux, Jan Ludik, Ken Macgillivray, Charles Maleka, Xolile Mtakatya, Lawrence Mukomberanwa, Ellen Norbu, Theo Ntuntwana, Earl Parker, Madi Phala, Winston Churchill Masakeng Saoli, Cecily Sash, Fred Schimmel, Pamela Silver, Vehile Soha, Louis Stroh van der Walt, Jill Trappler, Justin Valentine Macie, Mandla Vanyaza, Maganiso Vissensio, Walter Zand.
WHAT: ABSTRACTION – Looking back, looking forward
WHERE: The Cape Gallery, 60 Church Street, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: opening First Thursday 7 November – RSVP by emailing, web@capegallery.co.za | closes 30 November 2024
INFO: T +27 21 4235309 | E web@capegallery.co.za | VISIT
PHOTOS: RENÉE LE ROUX ,Bronze age 2008, 100 x 80 cm, Mixed media on canvas | XOLILE MTAKATYA Something and Nothing 3/12 70 x 50 c Silkscreen | JOHN KRAMER Mike’s Take-aways, Steynrus, 60 x 60 cm, Oil on linen canvas
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