Duncan - South African Artists at Home

Published in 2015 by Struik Lifestyle
(an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd)
Company Reg. No 1966/003153/07
Estuaries No. 4, Century Avenue (Oxbow Crescent), Century City, Cape Town
PO Box 1144, Cape Town 8000, South Africa

www.randomstruik.co.za

Copyright in published edition: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 2015
Copyright in text: Paul Duncan 2015
Copyright in photographs: As credited on

ISBN 978 1 43230 567 3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, digital, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and the copyright owner(s).

Publisher: Linda de Villiers
Managing editor: Cecilia Barfield
Design manager: Beverley Dodd
Designer: Helen Henn
Editor: Gill Gordon
Proofreader: Bronwen Leak

Reproduction by Hirt & Carter Cape (Pty) Ltd
Printing and binding: 1010 Printing International Ltd, China

AUTHORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to all the artists who welcomed me into their homes, and to the galleries who handled my enquiries:

Brundyn+ www.brundyn.com (Elana Brundyn and her team)

Erdmann Contemporary www.erdmanncontemporary.co.za (Heidi Erdmann)

SMAC Art Gallery www.smacgallery.com (Baylon Sandri and his team)

Whatiftheworld www.whatiftheworld.com (Ashleigh McLean).

Many thanks, also, to the following for their assistance: Mary Armour, Nikki Heath, Liza Dyason (www.lizadyason.com), and Joo Ferreira (www.joaoferreira.co.za).

Endpapers: Johann Louw; page 1: Conrad Botes; : Beezy Bailey.

S outh African Artists at Home offers a glimpse behind the public exhibitions and gallery showings into the private worlds of some very private people who, while icons of the countrys art world, are also internationally acclaimed. What makes this book about a random collection of artists, and the homes they live in, so interesting and relevant is that each person in it is an artist working right now in South Africa.

There are painters, conceptual artists, a photographer, a ceramicist. Theyre represented by some of South Africas most important galleries, among them Brundyn+, Erdmann Contemporary, Stellenbosch Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery (SMAC), Stevenson and Whatiftheworld. Most of them are established; all of them are respected and collected, right now. Each makes an individual statement, and belongs within the current debates around art and the context it comes from. For the most part, readers of this book who are art lovers will recognise the names and be aware of their work.

This was not an easy book to put together. People whod agreed to be in at first, were subsequently unavailable, causing my cast list to vary wildly from one week to the next. Then, just when I thought Id struck a balance between so-called struggle artists and those not making art for the revolution, it all came unstuck. As a reader, you may have your own view on the checks and balances underpinning this book. If you do, tell me about them, but be gentle. This book is not art discourse; its not a mirror of the countrys art scene. What it does offer up, though, is an insight into the relationship between making art and the daily life of an artist in their domestic space.

Id love to see how these people live, Joo Ferreira told me, suggesting a whole raft of other artists for inclusion. A gallerist and dealer whos had relationships over many years with a variety of artists, Ferreira believes that artists generally, although not always, value their privacy and prefer to stay out of the limelight when theyre not exhibiting or doing media interviews. There are exceptions, of course, Willem Boshoff and Beezy Bailey among them. Beezys home is always open and he enjoys the conversation around his art and his home life, integrating sociability, family life and the making of art into the same inclusive process. In its day-today arrangements, his lifestyle brings to mind Picasso who, when living in the south of France, was very accessible. Willem Boshoff offers a highly visible entre into his life as mentor, guru and accessible Big Druid in a manner that seamlessly brings together art personae and the artist as ironic seer and social prophet. Not only does he let others into his workshop, he leads walks around urban streets in search of the overlooked genius loci.

Some artists on my list questioned whether being in the book would be a good idea. As a few put it, this is not the sort of thing that artists do. That may be true, and yet theres an innocent voyeur in all of us, a simple curiosity about others lives, what they hang on their walls, or have for supper. Think of how we crane our necks to scan the bookshelves behind a writer being interviewed on TV. As Baylon Sandri of SMAC says, its just a glimpse, and I wish more people had that opportunity occasionally.

For some artists, the boundaries are less strict, for others the desire for privacy is absolute. Assembling my cast list wasnt a walk in the park. Artists who responded with generosity and even enthusiasm to welcome the presence of the photographer into their homes often felt that the connection between the personal and the making of art would in some way be made visible. The glimpse may be a subtle or oblique pointer to sources of inspiration or work habits in the making of art. In the case of Sam Nhlengethwa, a vast and informed jazz collection housed at home gives us the entre into his art. Hence were able to look into the homes not only of Nhlengethwa, Boshoff and Bailey, but also Roger Ballen, Hylton Nel, Beezy, Johann Louw, Michael Taylor, Willie Bester, Barend de Wet, Kate Gottgens, Jody Paulsen, Tom Cullberg, Conrad Botes, and husband and wife team Brett Murray and Sanell Aggenbach. All of them opened their doors generously, put the kettle on and invited me to sit at the kitchen table and chat, sometimes venturing into territory where one rarely goes, given that this book is, in the end, about some of the best-known people with some very bankable names in the business.

Hylton Nel revealed the provenance of objects between mouthfuls of chocolate cake and rosy strawberries as plump as a puttos buttocks served off one of his plates. Beezy and I sipped Fernet Branca before heading off in Elton Johns Bentley for fresh prawns at a Portuguese workmens caff in Maitland. Kate and I discovered similar backgrounds over divine coffee at her kitchen table, while Johann Louw and I trailed off and up the mountainside to his studio with a bottle of warm white wine and no glasses.

I wish Id had space for more people. This book taps into a rich stream of hitherto unexplored life and Ive enjoyed every moment of its, albeit at times nerve-wracking, trajectory.

Perhaps South African Artists at Home is a bit voyeuristic, but I think its illuminating to look at what goes on behind the artwork. In Tom Cullbergs home, as in Jody Paulsens, you see clues, coded or otherwise, to the content of what hes doing. Not only does this book bring the art to life but it reveals something of the humanity of the artist behind the completed and hung art on the wall. It demystifies an often inscrutable world and, while a little mystery can be a precious thing, even the smallest insight helps an audience often intrigued as to why a gallery supports the artists they do. This book lifts the curtain cautiously without giving the game away. But lifts the curtain on what, exactly?