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Du Plessis, Johannes

Born: 1953 Hofmeyr, Cape Province

 

A painter of landscapes.  Works in watercolour, pencil and charcoal.  A series of animal skulls, painted in oil.  A sculptor, working in ceramics of abstracted heads.

 

Studies: 1968-70 studied privately under Maureen Quin; 1975-79 Port Elizabeth Technical College (Technikon), under Phil Kolbe and Hylton Nel, gaining a Higher Diploma in Fine Arts.

 

Profile: A part time artist at a silkscreen company.  1982 illustrated the Loerie series

of books, Maskew Miller, Cape Town. A potter.

 

Exhibitions: He has participated in several group exhibitions from 1982 in SA; 1985 Artscene, Cape Town, first of three solo exhibitions.

 

Represented: Port Elizabeth Technikon

 

 

His artistic talent was never a secret, even at the age of four. He grew up on a farm in the Hofmeyr district, Eastern Cape. He was born with a creative talent. Also in music, but he had to make a difficult choice. Visual arts as a career were the path he would follow. At the age of 14 he got private sculptural lessons in the small town Adelaide in the Eastern Cape. From there his life as an artist took shape. Sculpture was always his passion. Growing up in the Karoo (Eastern Cape S.A.) with its rocky hills and mountains, influenced him in his sculptural forms. The title of his thesis was “The relation between art and nature”.

1974 – He studied at Potchefstroom University, then commenced his studies further at the Nelson Metropolitan University of Art & Design, 1979 – gaining a higher National Diploma with distinction in Fine arts (sculpture and drawing).
Johannes has held over 40 successful exhibitions since 1982. He staged many solo, two man and attended group exhibitions, locally and internationally. He participated in international exhibitions: France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany and UK – London between 1994 and 2007.

Apart from private commissions in painting and sculpture, collectors invested in his unique versatile style of work around the globe, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Switzerland, USA, Germany, France, Scotland, Ireland, Australia and South Africa.

Johannes uses a distinct abstract expressionistic cubist style in acrylics on canvas to express his love of form inspired by nature. Johannes uses cubism as a vehicle to arrive at a statement. As Jackson Pollock said “…. it does not make much difference how the paint is applied, as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement.” An artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery, which will later enable him to express himself in his own language. The observation of nature is part of an artist’s life. It enlarges his form knowledge, keeps him fresh and from working only by formula, and feeds inspiration. Johannes reveals in his artworks, not only the artistic value of the visible but also of what remains beyond that.

 

Source: http://www.odagallery.co.za/johannes-du-plessis/

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