Peter Clarke (1929–2014)

Peter Clarke was born in Simon’s Town in the Western Cape, and began his working life on the docks before committing to a career as a full-time artist in 1956, following a formative stay in Tesselaarsdal. His early art education was shaped by both opportunity and restriction: in 1961 he studied etching as a special permit student at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, and later at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (1962–63) and Atelier Nord in Oslo (1978).

A tireless chronicler of his time, Clarke’s work spans painting, drawing, printmaking, collage, and handmade artist books, through which he explored themes of displacement, inequality, and resilience. In 1967 he and his family were forcibly relocated under the Group Areas Act to Ocean View, where he remained a committed community arts educator for over two decades. While his imagery is often marked by subtle yet incisive social critique, it is equally characterised by its warmth, lyricism, and a vibrant sense of humanity.

Clarke’s enduring fascination with paper as both medium and metaphor informed much of his printmaking and collage practice. Equally adept with words, he developed a unique interdisciplinary language where poetry and image met in quiet but powerful reflection. His legacy is that of a meticulous observer and generous storyteller, whose art speaks to both the intimate and the universal.