LISTENING TO THE DISTANT THUNDER: The art of Peter Clarke | Iziko National Gallery
19 Oct 2011
About to open at the Iziko South African National Gallery is ‘Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke’, which runs from 20 October 2011 – 19 February 2012. The exhibition is aimed at honouring Clarke’s life, work and contribution to art in South Africa. It is a real celebration for the people of Cape Town and the residents of Ocean View in particular.
Clarke was born in Simon’s Town in 1929 and worked in the Simon’s Town dockyard for a number of years. He embarked on his pursuit as a full-time professional artist in 1956.
During his career, spanning six decades, Clarke has recorded many aspects of South African life.
Although he and his family were forcibly removed from their home in Simon’s Town during the apartheid era, his art is without bitterness. Often humorous, it is rather a scrutiny and celebration of life in all its aspects, and an expression of his ongoing delight in ordinary, everyday experiences.
The exhibition tells the story of Clarke’s work over the decades. It includes his early pieces, made as a schoolboy: works that reflect the social disruption of the Cape Flats, as well as his prints, for which he is renowned. Also on show are works from the late 1960s that refer to the trauma of forced removals from Simon’s Town, and the ambitious paintings he began making during his trips to America, Norway and France in the 1970s.
In addition, the exhibition highlights his late works that look back on the apartheid years and celebrate the new South Africa.
Clarke was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga (silver) by President Mbeki in 2005 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. Through this exhibition and the accompanying book, curators Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin hope to show the viewer why these accolades are well deserved.
The culmination of seven years of extensive research, the book traces Clarke’s evolution and is a comprehensive account of his art.
The exhibition has been made possible by contributions from the Grand West Casino Cultural and Heritage Trust and the Standard Bank, as well as private donors.
