Van Nazareth’s work on view in Stellenbosch
BELGIAN/SA sculptor and fine artist Herman van Nazareth is currently exhibiting at the Stellenbosch University Art Museum in Van Reyneveld Street until next Tuesday. Van Nazareth is thought by some to have introduced a modernist style that impacted on local artistic styles. He knew Ingrid Jonker well and made a painting to accompany her poem, The Child.
The sculptor came to SA in 1965. His work is in the collections of all major local museums. He was selected as the artist for the Beijing Olympic games in 2008 and in Belgium his paintings are used as postal stamps.
When Van Nazareth came to SA there were youth rebellions all over the world. His own bitter experiences of WW2 and his feelings about the growing unrest in SA were clearly visible in the way that he made art. He was strongly opposed to any form of power abuse.
Art critic Neville Dubow once wrote of Van Nazareth's work that, “the artist depicts the facelessness of a neurotic century as well as the people who became victims of underlying anxiety. He is concerned with power, with how it corrupts, with the facelessness of those who wield it and the mindlessness of those who put up with it”.
It has been said that he is one of the first artists called a satirical or resistance artist. His metaphor is universal and the message of his faceless, sombre, lumpy creations is as strong and relevant today in our democratic society as it was in the late 1960's and 1970's. The artist's subjects depict the timeless principle that when power is being misused and not handled responsibly, freedom cannot be attained either.
Van Nazareth hopes that his work carries the message of a 21st century human being that has experienced a larger life, that is aware of the universal order and that possesses a comprehensive visual literacy. He has at his disposal the masterful handling of different mediums of art to capture all these aspects in his art.
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