(A Vista Imagined
iPhoco – the Love Letter Mixed Media)
Running in the Durban Art Gallery’s Circular Gallery until January
27 is an exhibition of work by Durban artist Jean Powell showing selected
examples of her fabric works, traditional graphic works, botanic studies,
calligraphy, and her collaborations with architects in vitreous enamel and
etched glass. The exhibition is curated by Robert Brusse.
Jean Powell, now in her mid-80s, is an artist remembered as
an active committee member of the KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts, the Friends of
the Durban Art Gallery and other bodies, but is less well known for her own
artistic production. She is probably best known for her enamel works, both
private and public. Several of the works that she has on exhibition have a
strong empathy towards women and their perceived problems in a male-dominated
world.
She has discovered, taught and helped countless young people
to develop skills and talents, but few people know the breadth of her work, nor
her journey through life.
Jean trained in Britain, working in Kenya before coming to
South Africa. She is one of the few art teachers alive who taught on Salisbury
Island in Durban. She went on to teach textile design at the University of
Durban Westville, before moving to the Natal Technical College. She was one of
a group of dedicated artists who developed the talents of various communities
under trying circumstances.
Powell was born in Kenya, on February 11, 1927. Her parents
had emigrated from the UK where her mother had studied, and graduated as a
doctor from the University of Edinburgh. Jean’s mother is famous for driving
around on a motor bike with a side car, almost always wearing a tartan skirt!
Immediately after matriculating, her mother decided that she
should gain further design experience and had her booked into the then Natal
Technical College in Durban. After 18 months, she moved to the UK and trained
at the Bartlett School of Architecture and later the Central School of Art and
Craft where she followed a design curriculum and was taught drawing by a young
Lucian Freud!
After her studies were completed, she worked in the fabric
design studio in London. From London she returned to Kenya where initially she
worked in a woman architect's office, before moving on to teach art at one of
the more prestigious schools in Nairobi.
In time, they decided to return to South Africa, where they
settled in Durban. Soon after the Powell family returned to South Africa, she
got an appointment to the Salisbury Island College, teaching students in the
Fine Arts Department. When, two or three years later the University of Durban
Westville opened - and Salisbury Island was closed - she started the Fabric
Design course at UDW.
“These were heady days in the creative world of Natal. The
fine art studios at Natal University, Durban Westville and the then Natal
Technical College had a galaxy of artist luminaries and this lead to a
flourishing period for the visual arts in all forms,” recalls curator Robert
Brusse.
Powell worked with a number of architects - some for private
homes, some for public buildings. She did a large number of wall panels,
starting off reinterpreting industrial designs and later introducing botanic
motifs. She is arguably one of the few enamel artists who experimented with the
incorporation of fabric or who investigated the possibility of doing a series
of three enamels, as one would in a graphic work on paper.
The Jean Powell Retrospective exhibition runs at the Durban
Art Gallery until January 27.
There will be a walkabout with curator Robert Brusse on
January 17 from 14h00 to 15h30 in the Circular Gallery at the Durban Art Gallery
which is open seven days a week: Monday until Saturday from 08h30 until 16h00
and Sunday from 11h00 until 16h00. Entry
is free and all are welcome!
For more information on the gallery, contact 031 311 2264 /
9 or email Jabu.Mngwengwe@durban.gov.za
(weekdays). DAG is on the second floor of the magnificent Durban City Hall,
enter opposite the Playhouse.
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