(Work by Andries
Gouws)
Vertoef/Linger will be Andries
Gouws’ fifth one-man show at the KZNSA. Before Durban, it went to the Pretoria
Art Museum, and after Durban it will go to the Irma Stern Museum in Cape Town.
He previously had one-man shows in Chicago, Pretoria, Bloemfontein,
Johannesburg, Kimberley, Cape Town, Grahamstown, Oudtshoorn, Potchefstroom and
Stellenbosch.
Gouws’ artist statement follows:
“Why do I paint the way I do? Why do I paint all these rooms without
people, these mirrors, these feet? I don’t know. What do my paintings mean? I
don’t know.
“As an artist and as a philosopher I have learnt that there is no verbal
equivalent for what happens visually in a painting. Moreover, the artist’s
words carry no special authority. I tread gingerly when making an artist’s
statement. Whatever I say is speculative and tentative. The silence or muteness
I strive for in my paintings would be lost if they suggested a meaning which
can be captured directly in words.
“Meditation – lingering in an awareness of the here and now – plays a
large role in my life. To me the mood of my paintings suggests something
between the meditative and a sense of failure, perhaps abjection. Had they been
only meditative I don’t think viewers would have found them awkward, uncanny or even
desolate, in the way they do.
“Art works don’t simply arise from the artist’s personal experience, but
always also from a dialogue with other artists. My paintings are a modest
salute to painters like Vermeer, Piero, Morandi, Arikha, and how they capture
light, space and stillness. Although many of the artists I admire, like Goya,
Guston and Kentridge, engage with the problems and terrors of the social and
political world, I can’t emulate them – the place my work arises from is too
different.”
Vertoef / Linger runs in the KZNSA’s Main Gallery from May 22 to June 10,
2018. The KZNSA Gallery is situated at 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, in Durban.
More information on 031 277 1705, fax 031 201 8051 or cell 082 220 0368 or
visit www.kznsa.co.za
Posts
