PETER CLARKE, A MAN AND HIS THOUGHTS. At the Casa Labia. Curated by sociologist Nick Murgatroyd until February 5. LUCINDA JOLLY reviews.
FOUR years ago the late Peter Clarke artist, poet, writer and recipient of the National Order of Ikhamanga had a retrospective exhibition at the Iziko National Gallery. In his obituary, Emile Maurice, artist and educator mentioned how Clarke warned – in his playful way with just a hint of seriousness – that had he not been exhibited, his ghost would haunt the gallery. Although I rather like the idea of a Peter Clarke’s ghost mischievously haunting the hallowed rooms, I’m glad his wish was granted and that it happened during his living years.
The exhibition is a first to showcase work from Clarke’s personal collection – of 30 something works spanning a time period from the late 50’s to 1994, which has been entrusted to the Casa Labia by Clarke’s surviving family. It’s fitting that Clarke’s legacy should be showcased here. For Clarke loved visiting the Casa Labia and lived down the road in Ocean View having grown up in Simons Town until his family were forcibly removed in accordance with the group areas act.
There’s a rather formal photograph of Clarke in a bright red shirt and his characteristic cardi taken by Jenny Altshuler which reveals something of his personality, but which is even more apparent in a delightful, eccentric anecdote told by friend and fellow artist Lionel Davis. The incident took place at a gallery walkabout where a young artist asked Clarke to bless him. Which he did, placing his hand on the students head, making sure no one was looking. The act led to the beginning of a friendship.
The exhibition also marks a number of changes suggestive of new blood at the Casa Labia. Concurrent with this exhibition is the South African Print Gallery’s exhibition Peter’s Friends, which showcases the work of a variety of printmakers who are recognised as having an influence on Clarke including Cecil Skotnes, John Muafangejo and Lionel Davis. And 2016 will see the opening of a permanent collection in the over the top boudoir, a print studio which will serve as a space for artists and printmakers, where technical guidance can be received in keeping with Clarke’s philanthropic nature.
In Clarke’s retrospective exhibition there was a strong sense of his work being “about people and the presence of people”. Clarke is quoted as saying that he expressed himself and his “feelings of affection frustration and resolution… via the people who appear in my work”. This feel is equally present in this exhibition, but so is the pervasive images of birds and thorns which are found in almost half of the images in this collection. Thorns which threaten to pierce the vulnerable feathered forms that rise above them or grow large, threatening to catch and tear the figures which pass them.
The exhibition is made up of woodcut and linocut prints of both black and white and colour reduction. His images are powered by his mastery of this ancient technique through which he gives the process heavy technique a sense of immediacy through his confident scored lines and areas and emotive colour ranges.
As a boy Clarke was fascinated by his uncle, a pigeon fancier. Two of the artist who cited as influencing Clarke, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso also used the image of the dove and pigeon and were pigeon fanciers. His fascination peaked when he watched pigeons being released at his uncle’s funeral only to find them back at his uncles house. Sometimes referred to as “rat with wings”, birds have featured in many religions and spiritual practices. They capture humanity’s imagination with their ability to negotiate both earth and sky and reflect our longing to be free of gravity’s pull. While we may be moved by the raptors power – an unexpected (although increasingly not so rare in urban areas) sighting of a jackal buzzard like an omen in the pine trees of Rondebosch Common or the flight of an African harrier hawk swishing down on large silent wings from its untidy nest in the gum trees opposite the Mount Nelson Hotel is a peak moment. But Clarke’s birds are not majestic messengers of the sky symbolic of spiritual awareness and spiritual rejuvenation; instead they are the simple dove or pigeon. In her book Field Notes from a Hidden City: An Urban Nature Diary by Esther Woolfson points out that these 24 year million old creatures come from the same family.
Clarke depicts them soaring above a crop of thorns or the simple foliage found in expansive tracts of veldt referencing the artists time in Tesselaarsdal. Clarke’s keen powers of observation don’t go unacknowledged by those who have spent time in rural areas and paid attention to their surroundings.
Although it’s easy to interpret the bird as transcending above the thorns of life or release from the “bondage of indoctrination” in classic Clarke realism, they could just as easily be something for the pot.
As the title suggests this exhibition provides a wonderful opportunity to see work from the artist’s personal collection enhanced by the sensitively curated approach of curator Nick Murgatroyd.
Look out for Homage to the poet Langston Hughes and For some the pathway to education lies between thorns. Go see.
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