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Starcke, Helmut

 

Helmut Starcke was born in 1935 in Offenbach, West Germany.

 

Starcke completed his apprenticeship at the Werbekunst Publicity Studio, Frankfurt. He then joined J Walter Thompson, Frankfurt, as a Graphic designer. After this, he moved to Cape Town and worked with P N Barrett Advertising, Cape Town and Lindsay Smithers (Cape) Pty Advertising, Cape Town.

 

His first one-man exhibition of paintings, was in Cape Town.Starcke then joined Marketing Promotions Inc. He was selected for the Venice Biennale in 1964. He had another one-man exhibition at the Lindchi Gallery, Johannesburg. He participated in the "Contrast" exhibition of drawings opposite paintings by Stanley Pinker, Cape Town.Starcke was a founder member of the Artists´ Gallery, Cape Town. He was again selected for the Venice Biennale in 1966. He participated in the first South African Breweries Exhibition and received a Bronze Medal for his painting "Social Page". He once again had a one-man exhibition at the Lindchi Gallery, Johannesburg, and one at the Artists´ Gallery, Cape Town. He also collaborated with Kevin Atkinson and Richard Wake on an environmental project. Starcke then started own Graphic Design Studio and participated in the second South African Breweries Exhibition. This time, he was awarded a Silver Medal for his painting "Firebird". He also participated in a metal sculpture on Green Market Square, Cape Town. He was selected for the Sao Paulo Biennale.

 

He was also invited to teach Graphic Design at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, after which he was appointed a full-time staff member at the Michaelis School of Fine Art.Starcke has published a Portfolio of 5 screenprints entitled "haystacks", and contributed to the portfolio entitled "Cape Town in Image and Words", published by Fine Art Folios. Other one-man exhibitions were held at Fabian Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, the University of Stellenbosch, the Irma Stern Museum (entitled "Time and Nature of Photographic Information"), the SA Association of Arts, Cape Town, the Everard Read Gallery and Vita Art Now Exhibition, The Johannesburg Art Gallery

From celestial rabbie-rousers to political revolutionaries, Starcke's iconography straddles the shifting spectrum of faith and fact, history and mythology.  In Return of the Exile, he treads on emotionally-charged turf.

 

Possibly the most contentious painting on exhibition, given its political and racial inferences, this work depicts a dark sinuous angel descending through the clouds.  His waist is adorned with unconventional weaponry: the instruments of the handyman, artisan or terrorist, as opposed to the metaphyscial arsenal of the avenging angel.  His form has been appropriated from a nude male drawing executed by Michelangelo, but it is also reminiscent of an illustration by Dore of the Fallen Angel (also from Milton's Paradise Lost), as well as depictions of pagan gods in classical mythology and antiguity.

 

A contemporary reading of this work renders it discomfitting in terms of its suggestions of redemption, reconciliation or retribution."  (Hazel Friedman, Everard Read Exhibition catalogue, 2007) 

Reference :

Bonhams - The South African Sale - March 19, 2014 Catalogue

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