A unique cross selection of works by the Heath Family dating from 1938 to the present day is to be exhibited at Ebony, Cape Town from Thursday 3rd July 2014.
Since the definitive combined Retrospective Exhibition at the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg in 2009, there has been considerable interest in their work.
Jack Heath and Jane Parminter were born, educated and married in England. Following the austerity of World War II they came to South Africa with their daughter Bronwen (Jinny) and son Jonathan after Jack (Captain J C W Heath RE) was demobilized.
Jane Heath
Curator Marc Stanes says, ‘With the assistance and guidance of Jinny Heath, whose works will also be exhibited, paintings, drawings and prints will be shown with other works that have never been available for sale. Despite exhibiting frequently from the late 1940’s onwards many of the most important works remain within the family.’
‘I have never attempted to sell, nor have I wished to sell, my more important works. I make them in order to solve the problems of painting, and to find and demonstrate in them the calm centre of repose for which I aim. Then I wish to live with them to test their validity (and to cover the many cracks in the walls). If their integrity is found wanting, they come down off the wall and back onto the easel. Jane did the same” comments Jinny Heath.
Jinny Heath
Jack Heath’s powerful, vibrant and sometimes visually eviscerating abstract works from the 50’s and 60’s are experimental in form and in his use of materials. However, they are completely mesmerising. Jane Heath was a more private and lyrical artist whose still lives and abstract compositions sparkle with freshness, yet on inspection reveal a highly complex, individual and sensitive painter. Unsurprisingly, Jinny Heath has drawn upon the influence of both of her parents but she retains a very singular style. Still a modernist, Jinny Heath’s works are unique to the South African artistic landscape.
Jack and Jane Heath taught and inspired some of South Africa’s most revered artists including Fred Page, Bill Ainslie, Marion Arnold, Derek Leigh, Juliet Armstrong and Peter Schutz amongst others. Jinny continued this tradition as a lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Natal teaching such contemporary masters as Vuli Nyoni, Katherine Glenday, David Walters, and Salim Hussein, to name a few. Between them, the Heaths have given more than a century to the teaching of art in South Africa, and there are many generations of students whose influence, in turn, has been acknowledged.
WHAT: HEATH EXHIBITION
Jack Heath (1915-1969)
Jane Heath (1913 – 1995)
Jinny Heath (b.1944)
WHERE: Ebony, 67 Loop Street, Cape Town 8001
WHEN: Opening 3rd July – 17:00 to 21:00
Thursday 3rd July – Tuesday 2nd September 2014. Mon to Fri 09:00 to 17:00 and Saturday 09:30 to 13:00.
INFO: Gernot Achleitner at Ebony on 021 424 9985 or email gernot@ebonydesign.co.za
