The Story of South African Painting by Esmé Berman (review)

166 Booh-.r resultant impersonality of the portrayals unwittingly reinforces the heroic stature of the artists important to the movement. The book is well researched, very nationalistic, very intimate and certainly a sound professional source for a significant movement in the history ofart in the U.S.A. and the world. Short biographies of the artists and an excellent bibliography appear in the appendix. The Story of South African Painting. Esme Berman. A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Holland, and Cape Town. South Africa. 1975. 256 pp., illus. Hfl. 94,50; f21.00; $38.00. Reviewed by P. M. Erasmus’ This book covers in 10chapters South African painting. from its inception, in about 1870, to 1970. The author’s approach to the subject is, unfortunately, inconsistent. In spite of a fluent style, each chapter involves a shift in approach, for example. from subject matter to style to the activity of a particular historical group to Africa as inspiration and. finally,to quests for identity. This confuses the ‘story’ that she attempts to tell; worse, artists are taken out of their context to fit the preconceived headings. She states that ‘South African painting is a medley of dissociated parts-there have been no co-ordinating movements. There is no South African school’ (p. XII). Therefore, she attempts ’to explain’ its course as a ‘many faceted reflection of a people and a country’ (p. XV). She proceeds to proclaim the ’African experience’ of some South African artists and the Foreword confirms her belief that there is a general search for a distinctive approach. This seems to me to be a personal view rather than an objective one as regards the true story of South African painting. Chapter headings. such as The Landscape Revisited; The Subjective Viewpoint; and Symbolism, Fantasy and the Mystique of Africa, recall Kenneth Clark, however the handling of the material does not. The ‘pattern’ followed by each of the 10 chapters tends to be as follows: Introductory paragraphs, mostly informative. refer in general terms to the content, as indicated by chapter headings. These are followed by a lengthy jumble of factual information. observations and descriptions, and lucid. as well as confusing, assessments of artists’ work; detailed discussions of no less than 84 colour plates; 43 biographical essays: and didactic explanations on media, visual concepts and relevant European movements of the last 100 years. Berman often talks down to the reader. Thiscould be tolerated if the information were uniformly correct. For example, she describes abstract art as ‘. . . not intended to suggest, evoke or imply any image or idea. It is, if you like, “art for art’s sake” and its appeal is addressed only to the eye’ (my italics). Does she really believe that the communication of art stops with the senses? Omissionsalsooccur. For example,someCape Peninsula artists of the period 19161929 (Zerffi, Spillhouse) and the intellectual stimulation provided to a number of Cape artists by D. C. Boonzaier are ignored, although she admits that is where ‘South Africa’s modern painting history began’ (p. 31). Chapters three and nine cover landscape painting, which is described as the ‘greatest perennial stimulus’ that makes it possible to ‘trace the country’s artistic expression in the development of landscape painting’. The South African imprint is described as.’subtle and elusive’, not to be found in subject matter or in uniformity of style. Berman, however, searchesfor it in colour and tone. in shapes of natural formations and vegetation and in spaciousness and ‘uncluttered compositions’ (p. 177). Her chapter on the African Experience, as assimilated by two painters born in South Africa, isclearer than most. Africa is stated to be the central inspiration of their work, and, in one case, the extent of the influence is indeed correctly described as their personal interpretation of an architypal African mythology/mythography. It is a pity she does not point out that South Africa has no tribal art comparable to that found in other parts of Africa. Finally, Berman names some younger South African artists and asks: ’. . . are they more or less significant because they *JohannesburgArt Gallery, Joubert Park. Johannesburg, South Africa. - -~ identified more closely with international trends than did those who emphasized the African aspects of their heritage...