Sekoto, Gerard

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.

Sekoto, Gerard

Born: 1913 Botshabelo Lutheran Mission Station, Middelburg, Transvaal
Resided in SA until 1947

A painter of urban scenes, landscapes, genre and figures. Works in oil and gouache. 1924 a series on District Six, Cape Town; numerous paintings of Sophiatown, Johannesburg.

Studies: c.1938 art part time with Brother Roger Castle of St. Peters School, Rosettenville, Johannesburg, but mainly self taught. After 1947 studied at l’Académie de la Grande Chaumiére and in other studios in Paris.

Profile: A school teacher, trained at the Diocesan Teachers Training College, Pietersburg in 1930, who taught briefly at the Pietersburg Khaiso Secondary School. A pianist. Prior to 1947 he lived in Sophiatown outside Johannesburg and then in Cape Town. From 1947 he has lived in Paris. 1967-68 lived in Senegal. 1986, after a car accident, hospitalised in Hospital Dupuytren, Draveil. 1987 living at La Maison Nationale des Artistes, Nogent-sur-Siene, France.

Exhibitions: He has participated in numerous group exhibitions from 1939 in SA, Zimbabwe and France and continued to exhibit in SA after 1947; exhibited with the New Group; 1939 Marlborough Gallery, Johannesburg, first solo exhibition in SA, has also held solo exhibitions in Europe, Senegal and the USA; 1940, 1950, 1952 and 1954, Cape Town, joint exhibitions with Louis Maurice; 1948 Tate Gallery, London, SA Art Exhibition; 1962 Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg, joint exhibition with Louis Maqhubela and Lucas Sithole; 1965 Piccadilly Gallery, London, African Painters and Sculptors from Johannesburg; 1986 Alliance Francaise, Pretoria, Historical Perspective of Black Art in SA Exhibition.

Award: 1937 second prize in a national Bantu art competition

Represented: Johannesburg Art Gallery; Pretoria Art Museum; SA National Gallery, Cape Town; University of Fort Hare; University of South Africa; University of Witwatersrand; William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley.

Publication by Sekoto: Gerard Sekoto, an autobiography, 1988, Dictum Publishing, Johannesburg.

References: David Lewis, The Naked Eye, 1946, Paul Koston, Cape Town; Collectors’ Guide; Our Art 2; Art SA; SAA; 20C SA Art; SAP&S’ SESA; Contemporary African Art; SESA; BSAK 1&2’ SA Art; Oxford Companion to 20C Art (under SA); 3Cs; AASA; Echoes of African Art; SA Art News 22 June 1961; Art March 1988

Side Profile Of An African Lady

Gouche on Card Signed and Dated 74 52 cm x 36 cm

Portrait of a Young Woman Wearing a Headscarf

Oil on Canvas Signed 53.5 cm x 41.8 cm

Fruit Carrier

Ink on Paper Signed 19 x 14 cm

Youth in a Red Wool Hat (4)

Oil on canvas Signed 41 x 33 cm

Trees

Oil on Canvas Signed and Inscribed on Reverse Dated 1978 33 cm x 55 cm