Renowned South African visual artist, writer and poet Peter Clarke’s legacy is still celebrated eight years after his passing.
The iconic painter passed away on 13 April 2014, at the age of 85.
Clarke remains one of the most celebrated printmakers in the history of art. He made over 400 prints in various mediums during his illustrious career as an artist.
Speaking to IOL Entertainment, Director of Vault Research Phillippa Duncan and art advisor said Clarke continues to tell powerful African stories through art.
“Peter Clarke produced so many of his masterful print editions in his home in Ocean View. He worked at his kitchen table as his tiny home did not afford him a dedicated studio space,” explained Duncan.
“Once unfairly criticised as not tackling political subjects in his work, I would argue that the manner in which he catalogued his community's everyday experiences creates a visual dialogue that goes far beyond the mundane.
“I am also hoping to undertake a comprehensive publication that will focus on Clarke's printmaking practice,” she added.
Duncan is at the helm of the exciting “Wall-to-Wall Wednesdays” project with the aim to bring artworks to collectors that have more than surface appeal.
“The first iteration of this initiative focuses on a 1999 colour-reduction woodblock print by Clarke.
“In Thistledown, a poignant rendering of a disarmingly innocent moment many of us remember from our own childhoods, the action hints at the dreams and wishes, possibly unfulfilled of the subject. This work is ready to move from one owner's wall to its new home.”
With his passion for community and youth empowerment throughout his career, Clarke honed the skills of many young artists in his role as a teacher and mentor.
“He remains fondly spoken of despite it being almost ten years since he passed away. He left his mark on people as well as his work."
Clarke was born in Simon’s Town, in the Western Cape, in 1929. After leaving school, he started working on the docks in 1944.
In 1956, after a three-month visit to Tesseslaarsdal, in the Overberg, Clarke decided to become a full-time artist.
He studied etching at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 1961 as a short-term student under a special permit, seeing that as a ‘coloured’ student, he was not permitted under apartheid regulations to study full time at a white institution.
He furthered his studies at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in 1962 and participated in a course on printmaking at the Atelier Nord in Oslo in 1978.
In 1967, during the apartheid era, Clarke and his family were forcibly moved under the Group Areas Act of 1950 and relocated to the bleak new, ironically-named township of Ocean View, where for more than 20 years, he ran an art workshop for underprivileged children.
With a career spanning more than six decades, Clarke produced paintings, drawings, and prints that depicted the social and political struggles of South Africa’s marginalized communities under Apartheid.
His work deals with repression, poverty and dispossession, but the incisive social commentary is tempered by the overriding sense of a celebration of life.
His work has been exhibited locally and abroad. In 2011, he was the subject of a career retrospective at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg and the Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
He received many accolades, including Honorary Life Membership of the Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles (1983); the Order of Ikhamanga (2005), awarded to South Africans who have excelled in the fields of art and culture, and the Arts and Culture Trust Lifetime Achievement Award (2010).
After his passing, the Frank Joubert Art Centre has renamed the Peter Clarke Art Centre in his honour.
To get your hands on “Thistledown” please contact Phillippa Duncan at [email protected].