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Clarke, Peter

Born: 1929 Simonstown, Cape Province.

A painter and graphic artist of figures in landscapes and of interiors, social events, portraits, still life and seascapes. Works in acrylic, gouache, ink, wash, pencil

and in various graphic media.

Studies: 1961 Michaelis School of Fine Art, under Katrine Harries (qv) and Maurice van Essche (qv); 1962-63 Rijks Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, under Kuno Brinks; 1978-79 Atelier Nord, Oslo, Norway, graphics under Anne Breivik.

Profile: A member of the SAAA; 1984

a founder member of the Vakalisa Art Associates.  1965 awarded Accademico Onorario of the Accademia Fiorentina delle Arti des Disegno, Florence, Italy; 1975 elected an Honorary Fellow in Writing, University of Iowa, USA; 1982 awarded a Diploma of Merit in Literature, Universita delle Arti, Italy; 1983 awarded

a Diploma of Merit in Art, Accademia Italia; 1983 elected an Honorary Member of the Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles, USA; 1984 elected

an Honorary Doctor of Literature, World Academy of Arts and Culture, Taipei, Taiwan.  1979 an art teacher at Kleinberg Primary School, Ocean View, Cape Province.  From 1979 voluntarily teaches children in Ocean View.  Has illustrated books published in SA, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Nigeria and the UK.  From the 1950s has written short stories, essays and is an internationally recognised poet.   1962-63 and 1978-79 visited Europe.  He has also visited the USA, Botswana and Israel.

Exhibitions: He has participated in numerous group exhibitions from 1951

in SA, Yugoslavia, West Germany, Brazil, Austria, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium, the USA, Argentina, Norway, Botswana, Japan, Switzerland and the UK; 1957 Golden City Post, Cape Town, first of numerous solo exhibitions held in SA, Nigeria, Kenya, Australia, the USA, Norway and Israel; 1982 National Gallery, Gaborone, Botswana, Exhibition of SA Art.

Represented: Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA; King George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth; Kunsthalle der Stadt, Bielefeld, West Germany; Library

of Congress, Washington DC, USA; Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Yugoslavia; National Gallery, Gaborone, Botswana; Pretoria Art Museum; SA National Gallery, Cape Town; Stichting Afrika Museum, Bergen Dal, The Netherlands; University of South Africa; Willem Annandale Art Gallery, Lichtenburg; William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley.



References: Art SA; SAA; SAP&D; SESA; BSAK 1&2; 3Cs; AASA; LSAA; Echoes of African Art; South Africana April 1958; SA Panorama November 1961;  Personality 21 May 1970; Soul Motion III: Peter Clarke – South African Artist-Poet introduction by Professor David Driskey, 1973, Fisk University, Tennessee, USA, Exhibition Catalog.

Tesselaarsdal, an artist's refuge:

 

Peter Clarke produced a number of paintings of rural images in Tesselaarsdal near Caledon in the Western Cape, during the mid-1960s. He painted these rural subjects retrospectively from his considerable sketchbook images of this subject matter. It was here in the rural world, beyond the mountains, that Clarke could access at will, and relive in his imagination, this place of sanctuary. As a coloured artist living through Apartheid, Tesselaarsdal was a place of creative refuge from the political world and day to day struggles of the city. Despite the poverty that existed there, Tesselaarsdal must have seemed a desirable and stable world, in contrast to the threatening situation found in Simon’s Town, where Clarke resided.The rural landscapes he recorded of Tesselaarsdal at the time are mostly captured in oils (although lot 276 is painted in tempera) in landscape format and include simplified forms similar to that of the Post Impressionists, such as Paul Gauguin. While Clarke was aware of how difficult the work of the farm labourer was, the workers that appear in his paintings over this timeseem to be in harmony with the land. He often portrayed the labourers in profile, or rear view, as a way of rendering them as types rather than as individuals, as well as being a space away from a turbulent political climate, Tesselaarsdal is situated inland away from the threat of bad weather conditions. This sense of calm permeates the Tesselaarsdal, Cape and is represented through broad brushstrokes and the bright greens and blues, which are tonal variations of the same colour. He has stated that the sky in Tesselaarsdal was never completely cloudless.“…it was quiet, peacefully, soothingly quiet after the racket left behind at the Peninsula… When I first came here I did so in order to ‘get away from it all’. Now it still amounts to the same thing. I want to get away from everybody and everything that is hot air, pretentious. I came to Tesselaarsdal to mix with ordinary people. When I get back, and after staying here, I regain my sense of balance.”

 

(Clarke 1964: 40)- Suzanne DuncanClarke, P, 1964, Winter Shepherding, in Contrast X: South African Quarterly 3 (2) (as cited in Hobbs, P and Rankin, E., 2011) Hobbs, P and Rankin, E., Listening to distant thunder: the art of Peter Clarke . Fernwood Press, Cape Town, 2011

Huistoe (returning home)

 

Shows a dark figure leaving a rural area, this could very possibly be Tesselaarsdal. The dark figure could represent Clarke’s reluctance to leave his place of sanctuary to return to his home in the city, with the dark black and brown tones that are painted in contrast with the colourful surroundings. The figure is in transit and with the advent of the forced removals, the plight of displaced people became an increasingly prominent theme in Clarke’s work.

 

- Suzanne DuncanHobbs, P and Rankin, E., Listening to distant thunder: the art of Peter Clarke . Fernwood Press, Cape Town, 2011

Bone of Contention

 

In 1973, under the Group Areas Act, the Clarke family were relocated from Simon’s Town to Ocean View, a barren, unestablished area without the sea or distinctive mountainous topography. It was understandably difficult time for an aesthetically aware artist from a strong, but now fragmented community who found it increasingly difficult to travel to Simon’s Town to gather inspiration and compositions for his work. The artist’s father passed away in 1975 and the following year the Soweto uprisings took place at heavy cost in human life. This, together with the restrictive emergency measures of the Apartheid state in response to these events, is transmuted in symbolic metaphor in Peter Clarke’s artworks of this time.

 

These images are frequently characterised by large uninhabited spaces and structures such as walls and houses, sometimes cluttered with abandoned objects and debris or, in the case of this work, inhabited by an empty home and animal skull. A pair of birds, possibly doves, in a perversion of peace, struggle and fight in the sky above this colourful yet sad tableau, illustrating the psychological damage and despair being felt by so many South Africans at this time. These fighting birds are borrowed from the first panel of Clarke’s triptych, Haunted Landscape dating from 1976. 

 

Ref:  https://www.straussart.co.za/auctions/lot/5-mar-2018/612#view

 

cf. Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin. (2011) Listening to Distant Thunder, The Art of Peter Clarke. Johannesburg: The Standard Bank of South Africa. Page 136

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