Rakgoathe, Daniel

Bobbie Burgers is a contemporary Canadian painter. Her lush and Expressionistic depictions of flowers teeter on the verge of abstraction, bursting with bright color and laden with thickly applied, textural paint. “Flowers, to me, are the opposite of still,” the artist has explained. “Changing from minute to minute, they are perfect symbols for life, death, yearning, and beauty. My brushstrokes are layered with my own internal charges, depicting anger, frustration, softness, wanting, and more.” Born in 1973 in Vancouver, Canada, she studied Art History at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. Her work has been exhibited widely at home and abroad, notably including Art Market San Francisco and Equinox Gallery. Today, her works are in the collections of the Berost Corporation in Toronto and the Royal Bank of Canada, among others. Burgers lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.

Rakgoathe, Daniel

Born: 1937 Randfontein, Transvaal

An artist of metaphysical subjects. Works in oil, pencil and in various graphic media, particularly linocuts, etchings and aquatints. A number of series “Moon-Bride and Sun-Bridegroom”, “Unfolding Man”, “Rain Queen”, “Maternal Anxiety”, “Cosmic Trinity”, “Mystic Flute”, “Mystical Awakening”, “Mystery of Time”, “Mystery of Space”, “Horse People”, “The Omen”, “Ape Totem”, “Symbol of Peace” and “Adoration”.

Studies: 1960 Ndaleni Educational Training School, Natal under Peter Bell; 1967-69 Rorke’s Drift Art Centre under Olle Granath and Peter Gowenius; 1976-79 University of Fort Hare under Professor Estelle Marais, gaining a BA (FA); 1981-83 on a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of California, Los Angeles, USA, under Ray Brown, where attained an MA (FA).

Profile: 1962-62 a teacher at the Botshabelo Teachers Training Centre, Middelburg; 1969-76 and 1980-81 a lecturer at the Mofolo Art Centre, Soweto; 1984 a lecturer at the Taung College of Education, Bophuthatswana.

Exhibitions: He has participated in numerous group exhibitions from 1967 in SA, West Germany, Sweden, the UK, Australia, the USA and Japan; 1979 Contemporary African Art in SA, touring; 1981 Standard Bank, Soweto, Black Art Today Exhibition; has held several solo exhibitions in SA and in the USA.

Represented: Durban Art Gallery; Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Pretoria Art Museum; University of Fort Hare.

References: BSAK; E J de Jager, Contemporary African Art, 1973, Struik, Cape Town; AASA; Echoes of African Art; SA Panorama January 1977 & July 1982.