The Loom Of the Land
‘Landscape is so beautiful. It is probably the most terrific thing there is.’
– Gerhard Richter, The Daily Practice of Painting: Writings and Interviews 1962-1993
While celebrating what to Kannemeyer too is a ‘most terrific’ subject, this exhibition reflected his curiosity about images of the South African landscape that in some way disrupt expectations – whether of landscape as a genre or a particular artist’s oeuvre. This is most evident in artists, like himself, who usually focus on other issues and subjects, and then also choose to depict landscape. There are many instances throughout art history of artists whose focus lay elsewhere but who have painted and sketched landscape scenes as formal exercises or incidental observations of daily life. Across time and eras, all artists who desire to depict the landscape are challenged by formal and aesthetic challenges because, as Kannemeyer would see it, it always starts to verge on abstraction at some point.
Participating artists included Conrad Botes, Wim Botha, Paul Edmunds, David Goldblatt, Ian Grose, Pieter Hugo, Mark Kannemeyer (Lorcan White), Jacques de Loustal, Johann Louw, Mack Magagane, Titus Matiyane, Zanele Muholi, Brett Murray, John Murray, Daniel Naudé, Hylton Nel, Deborah Poynton, Jo Ractliffe, Claudette Schreuders, Ina van Zyl, Garth Walker, and Kannemeyer himself.