Peter Clarke (2 June 1929 in Simon's Town, South Africa – 13 April 2014 in Ocean View, Cape Town)[1][2] was a South African visual artist working across a broad spectrum of media. He was also a writer and poet.

Early life

Clarke was born in Simon's Town near Cape Town, in 1929.[3] Much of his work is inspired by that coastal village where he lived until 1972, when he was forced to move to Ocean View under the Group Areas Act. He left high school in 1944 and was a dock worker until 1956 when, aged 27, during a three-month holiday to Tesselaarsdal, a small farming village near Caledon in the South West Cape, he began his artistic career.

With assistance from his lifelong friend, poet James Matthews, Clarke held his first solo exhibition in the newsroom of the newspaper The Golden City Post in 1957. He said, "Before my exhibition, I was just another coloured man. Our people took it for granted that only whites could do such things. Now they are becoming aware of the fact that we can do these things too; that we are human beings!"[This quote needs a citation]


Education

Art career

Clarke was best known for his graphic prints, particularly his woodcuts, and in later years he moved into collage. He also used leather, glass, found objects and other mixed media. He used oil pastels for his art work “October Landscape”.

His artistic career spanned more than six decades and he produced a large number of works and appeared in many exhibitions.[4] Described as a "quiet chronicler", his work offers a critique of South Africa's social and political history over 60 years.[5]

He received six international and six national awards for his art and writing, and had more than 70 solo exhibitions since 1957 in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Australia, USA, Norway, Israel, Austria and the UK. He also had many group shows in South Africa, Yugoslavia, Germany, Brazil, Austria, Italy, USA, Argentina, Norway, Botswana, Japan, Switzerland and France. In 2005 he was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga (Silver) by President Thabo Mbeki, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.[6] His 2011 exhibition was entitled Listening To Distant Thunder.[7]

A major retrospective exhibition of his work, Wind Blowing on the Cape Flats, took place in London in 2013.[5]

Awards and recognition

Among the honours Clarke received were 27 international awards in writing and art (Italy, USA and Taiwan), including Honorary Life Membership of the Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles (1984); six South African awards for writing and art, including three since 2000—notably the Order of Ikhamanga, silver class (2005);[3] and the Molteno Award (2000) for services to the visual arts, from the Cape Tercentenary Foundation.[8]

Key dates

Collections

Clarke's work is in the following collections of the A

Arnold Becher Museum, SA; Baerum Kommune, Sandvika, Norway; Caledon Museum, Caledon, SA; Cape Town City Library, SA; Community Arts Project, SA; Dennis W. Koles, Kiama, NSW, Australia; District Six Museum, CT, SA; Durban Art Museum, SA; Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, US; Fuba Collection, Johannesburg, SA; Hymie and Jean Berndt, Kenilworth, SA; Johnson Publishing Co., Chicago, US; King George VI Art Gallery, PE, SA; Kunsthalle Museen der Stadt Bielefeld, Germany; Library of Congress, Washington D.C., US; Livingstone High School, Claremont, SA; Municipal Collection, Fish Hoek, SA; Municipal Museum, Simon's Town, SA; Museum of African American Art, LA, US; Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Yugoslavia; Natal Technikon, Durban, SA; National Museum and Art Gallery, Gaborone, Botswana, PAM; Nasou Publishing Co, CT, SA; National Art Gallery, Gaborone, Botswana, Pentech, Bellville, SA; Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, SA; SA Fine Worsted Co, CT, SA; Sasol Collection, Stellenbosch, SA; Stichting Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, Holland; South African National Gallery; University of Fort Hare, Alice, SA; University of the North-West, SA; University of Stellenbosch, SA; University of the Western Cape, SA; University of Zululand, SA; William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley, Sand the B; Bruce Campbell Smith Collection.

Image of the Peter Clarke Art Centre, a white, double-story building with arches.
Peter Clarke Art Centre, named after the artist as a former artist in residency.

Honours

In 2016 the Peter Clarke Art Centre, formally the Frank Joubert Art Centre, was named after him.[9]

References

  1. ^ Daneel Knoetze (15 April 2014). "Artist Clarke kept his cool in the ghetto)". IOL. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  2. ^ "Towards Simon's Town – The life of Peter Clarke by Joline Young | South African History Online". www.sahistory.org.za. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Gabriel Clark-Brown, ed. (15 April 2014). "Peter E. Clarke 1929 – 2014". The South African Art Times. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
  4. ^ Kim Gurney (September 2003), "Peter Clarke", Artthrob, Archive: Issue No. 73, September 2003.
  5. ^ a b "UK exhibition honours 60-year career of SA artist Peter Clarke". TheSouthAfrican.com. 4 January 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
  6. ^ "Peter Edward Clarke (1929 - )". The Presidency - Republic of South Africa.
  7. ^ Van Robbroeck, Lize (2012). "Listening to distant thunder: The art of Peter Clarke". South African Journal of Science. 108: 2. ProQuest 1243032320.
  8. ^ "The Cape Tercentenary Foundation Medal".
  9. ^ Jolly, Lucinda (31 August 2016). "Art Centre renamed after Peter Clarke". Cape Times. Retrieved 18 December 2020 – via PressReader.

External links

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