Page 52 - Studio International - April 1967
P. 52
The Jack Bush show at the WADDINGTON GAL-
LERIES had something of the same air of being a An expressionist
total event, but less convincingly or consistently.
Basically, Bush takes off from Morris Louis. He in Africa
uses patterns of stripes, but less boldly and freely.
The strength—and this is quite a strong show—lies Commentary by
in the forthrightness of the colour. The way in Neville Dubow
which the colours are put together and made to
work strikes me as a bit derivative, but the 'event'
itself, the pressure of one colour against another,
shows an original eye.
Norah Glover's work—at the JOHN WHIBLEY A memorial exhibition of Irma Stern's
GALLERY-1S figurative. Her subjects are Italian work is at the Grosvenor Gallery, London,
landscape and architecture, and she seems to owe until April 15.
a good deal to Turner. A picture like that of the
Ca d'Oro, Venice, shows Turner's influence fairly
obviously. The trouble is, of course, that such
subject-matter, combined with an influence of this Irma Stern died in Capetown last year. Perhaps
kind, sets the artist an extremely formidable chal- the most important thing about her long working
lenge. These are extremely accomplished paint- life is that she remained a passionate painter to the
ings, but they in no way go beyond what Turner very end; and this in an age when passion has
did with the same material. One can take pleasure become all but passe. A major part of her pro-
in work of this kind, but it seems to exist in some digious output is concerned with painting of
quiet backwater of its own. Africa—the Congo, Zanzibar, and even further
Richard Smith A whole year a half a day /X 1966
q
Acrylic paint on canvas 60 x 60 in. south, the 'Native' territories of Swaziland, Zulu-
land and Pondoland. The word is apostrophized
deliberately. For her, Africa is essentially Africa
before its political emergence; she belonged to a
generation of painters who could unselfconsciously
talk of 'native types'. She viewed her subjects with
much the same mixture of patronage and admira-
tion as did, say, Gauguin some decades earlier his
Tahitian Eves.
The comparison should not, of course, be pushed
too far. But as much as Gauguin brought to his
paradise the eyes of a European sophisticate, so
did she bring back to Africa a vision shaped in a
German expressionist mould, and it is in this
interaction of European source and African
stimulus that so much of the interest of her work
lies. As it is not widely known in Europe outside
of Germany itself, some biographical details may
be useful.
She was born in 1894 of German Jewishparents
in Schweitze-Reinecke, an obscure town in
Eastern Transvaal. Her family was wealthy. The
links with Germany were regularly maintained.
It was natural that she should go and study there.
In the years before and immediately after the
First World War she studied at the Weimar
academy, came into contact with the works of the
German expressionists, opted out of the academy
and came under the spiritual guidance of Max
Pechstein. With Pechstein's moral support she
began to crystallize her own vision and there
ensued in the early 'Twenties a long succession of
African painting trips following exhibitions in
Born in 1894, Irma Stern died in August 1966, and was
described at the time of her death as a pioneer in 'bringing a
modern outlook to bear on African life and landscape'. She
studied art at the Weimar Bauhaus, and in 1916 became a
protegee of the Expressionist Max Pechstein. In 1919 she
returned to South Africa.
After many setbacks she eventually received acclaim in her
own country, representing South Africa at five Venice Biennales
and at Sao Paolo in 1957, and winning the Guggenheim
National Prize for South African painting in 1960.
