Amazing journey in art and design
I WAS fortunate to attend the exhibition of Saada – the South African Antique, Art and Design Association – to coincide with the Cape Town Art Fair opening at the CTICC. Saada is a member of the International Confederation of Dealers of Art.
It is held at the Look Out at the V&A Waterfront and the picturesque setting lends itself to a wonderful journey in contemporary art and design, as well as historic pieces, including furniture, coins and interesting memorabilia.
I enjoyed scanning the works on offer, every now and then dipping in a bit closer, checking the price tag as a kind of childish game, and then listening in on the hum of the other visitors, many clearly from beyond the borders of South Africa.
Some pieces that caught my eye were Caitlin Truman-Baker’s work represented by Manzart. Her work appears mystical and mythological, Chagall-like surreal mindscapes with beautiful effect, a narrative that appears to inspire a kind of moonlit, poetic landscape, a dematerialisation of matter, a spiritual journey.
Even more traditional or kitsch works capturing the so-called big five were enthralling. In particular, the work of David Filer reveals excellent drawing techniques and a real engagement with the big cats.
Then I was uplifted with a showcase of fine jewellery (for example Frankli Wild) and fantastic artefacts, calligraphy and furniture screens from Japan.
It was also interesting to see the Michaelis School of Fine Arts contribution. There is wall space left empty, photographs untitled, and works not priced and anonymous. My reading is that this functions as a counter – at least conceptually – to the race for the “big name” or the big sale. Perhaps such works high- light the superficiality of the art world, at least at the business end?
Yet that should not deter one from engagement with art or its application to other fields of inquiry. For the imaginative and creative function is perhaps indispensable to society and may even result in a paradigm shift, a new perspective. An expo of this kind therefore has the potential to ignite new ideas over and above a sales event.
At any rate, the experience of sipping wine and observing an artists’ community of sorts reminded one that many people do indeed value art and that is heart-warming.
Art is also a vocation, so who can escape – for want of a better word – the system?
I must observe though, that notwithstanding some beautiful pieces, the African presence – whatever that may mean is of course debatable – seemed somewhat lacking.
There was also a notable copied selection of old masters’ portraits by Frans Hals, Rembrandt and Van Gogh revisited and then reworked apparently “slapdash” by the artist Frans Smit. It appeared as a deconstruction of the past and of the icons of so-called Western European portraiture. In this playfulness, if you will, perhaps my desire to counter the old traditional subjects/objects on display is here made possible. Of course these works themselves were not “cheap”.
Zander Bloom, represented by Joao Ferreira, is equally scathing of traditional painting and its corresponding ideological construct as her blobs and impasto paint smeared on a pinkish surface is a self-conscious rawness of emotion, or perhaps just highlights the materiality of paint and therefore the shaky ground or edifice that is created through systems and traditions of paintings and the ideas or systems it upholds or magically helps to forge. That is, the entire hullabaloo surrounding whole systems or styles of art and ideas it purports to uphold or embody is but paint!
On the whole, it was intriguing to see fine art together with design and the like, especially the addition of works four to five centuries old, including paintings, maps and furniture. Even though I may have problematised the business of art, one cannot ignore the fact that ownership of these objects in a setting of one’s own choice perhaps does elevate the heart and mind, notwithstanding the philosophical question as to the complicated arguments around what we value – that is, the difficulty of subscribing to any notion of aesthetic beauty.