A new exhibition Brushing Up on Stern focusing on the works of Irma Stern from the Iziko South African National Gallery Permanent Collection opened at the Gallery on Thursday 23 July.
Almost 50 years after Irma Stern’s death in 1966, the Iziko South African National Gallery (ISANG) presents a new exhibition that marks the first dedicated showing of the complete holdings of her work in the Iziko Permanent Collections. Propitiously, it also opened in the week that an iconic Stern was discovered in London – visit.
Irma Stern, Arab in Black
Brushing Up on Stern explores the extraordinary rise in popularity of this South African painter who was active during the first half of the 20th century. As Hayden Proud, Acting Director of Iziko Art Collections notes, “Stern’s fearless determination to express the individuality of her vision in the face of the timid, if not hostile, parochialism of the South African art scene of her day is seen in her assertive and creative exploitation of the sensuous richness and luscious materiality of her chosen media, applied with fresh, expressive immediacy and confident generosity. For all of her debatable faults and shortcomings as a “colonial artist” she was yet a pioneering modernist whose boldness, invention and colour
Stern’s evolving success is illustrated by a superb selection of well-known artworks from the Iziko Permanent Collection and a number of private collections. Twenty-two oil paintings, numerous gouaches and drawings on paper, as well as the proofs of her first German publication will set the context for the exhibition. Props that Stern employed in her works – African carvings, fabrics, fashion and ceramics – will also be on display.
Stern’s rise in popularity and growing international acclaim in the present century has fired a re-evaluation of her work. New research on the artist and her position in an African context will be presented; in addition, the Islamic/Arabic influences in the work will also be examined. An intention is to explore the current attraction to her work, as well as earlier antipathy to it through visual and archival records.
Reference will be made to Irma Stern’s original ledgers, correspondence and old press clippings surrounding the controversial acquisition of her work by the South African National Gallery in the mid 1960s.
You should also visit the UCT Irma Stern Museum in Cecil Road, Rosebank, to view the artist’s house and collections, some of which form part of this exhibition. UCT Irma Stern Museum opening hours: Tuesday to Friday from 10am-5pm and Sat from 10am-2pm. (Closed on Mondays and Sundays). Entrance R20.
WHERE: Iziko South African National Gallery, Government Avenue, Company’s Garden, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: until 1 November 2015
INFO: Curators at Iziko Art Collections – Carol Kaufmann ckaufmann@iziko.org.za and Andrea Lewis alweis@iziko.org.za
