A little while ago one of my readers requested I do a piece on our 'neef'...Pierneef...you know, the great South African artist...Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef. I am not going to go into his whole life and career, but will just give you a brief, and my opines on the artist and his work...
Born in Pretoria in 1886 to a Dutch builder and a trekker decendant mother was our boy, and he makes us proud of his achievement and contribution to South African art...
Due to family financial constraints, Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef received little formal training during his younger years, but did attend the Staats Model School in Pretoria, where he excelled at drawing.
During the Anglo-Boer war, the family left for the Netherlands, where he came into contact with the paintings of the old masters. He must have been a fan of Van Gogh, if you ask me. During 1900, Pierneef studied drawing under an architect at Hilversum. He worked part time in a paint factory, attending night classes in drawing. In 1901 he studied at Rotterdamse Kusakademie.
Now I have never been a big Pierneef fan really, I'm a kitchy Tretchi girl myself, but many Afrikaans folks used to love Pierneef paintings, and many old tannies used to do tapestries and felt work copies of his landscapes to hang over the fireplace in the sitkamer...so maybe that's why I wasn't so keen on them...I saw to many kak copies done as handicraft!
I have always found his works very 'thirsty' and a bit sad, but that is all a matter of personal taste. I have seen many of his originals, the most impressive were the very large canvasses in the Anne Bryant Museum in East London, which are perfect examples of his style.
In my humble opinion, Pierneef was like the South African Van Gogh...he had a style that even a layman would recognize, just like Van Gogh had...and his thing was thirsty, dry South African landscapes dotted with tall trees....never fat lush trees... and these desolate landscapes he painted, can be very sad, especially if you are a farmer trying to raise crops there... but I have to admit, from a technical point of view, he did it very well, and in an original and unmistakable style....so...he was brilliant...like Van Gogh...but, he wasn't a nutter, he was just married to one, and that was probably why his paintings had a bit of a 'vibe'...another sad man, married to a dark dank cloud of misery, he plunged himself into his art to compensate...sound familiar?
His main thing was his trees...and the first top pic is a very typical Pierneef...those longggg tall umbrella shaped trees in flat gray/blue and muted colours, scattered over his earthy landscapes..they look so lonely and desolate...not a hint of man or beast in the near... almost like a landscape from a forbidden planet...This second pic, although earthy and of trees, has a very different look...the trees are like Art Deco/William Morris style...Jugenstil...I like it best...Notice those rain clouds and thunderstorm clouds gathering in the background...you will see them in many of his paintings...I like it...the sound of thunder far away...I think Pierneef was the beloved artist of the government of the day, because he did many large commissions for public buildings, panels and murals for schools, and public offices, the Joburg railway station had a whole lot of Pierneefs...wonder if they are still there...one of his mentors was the sculptor Anton Van Wouw, with whom he also exhibited...so I guess that also helped kick start his career and kept him in commissions...
Dear reader, rest assured, if you are a proud owner of an original Pierneef, you are sitting on a goldmine, because they are worth a tidy sum!
My tip would be to hang onto it, because as time marches on, and all that was White and right in South Africa becomes part of history and fades away, to be replaced with the new feelgood history...the landscapes depicted, morph into something ugly filled with tin shacks and plastic shopping packets fluttering on the trees...so these remnants of a forgotten time and era will become ever more valuable, and less frequently found in private hands...they will be snapped up by galleries and museums, and fetch enormous prices...just like Van Gogh's paintings..!
SA artworks rake in millions
Artworks by South Africa's old masters are still raking in a fortune despite the current global economic turbulence, say auctioneers.A two-day auction of decorative and fine artworks held at Stephan Welz and Co in Cape Town, in association with Sotheby's, brought in R43-million.
Auctioneer Bina Genovese said paintings alone yielded close on R39-million, accounting for 85 percent of the sale total.
"Despite negative financial indicators, these outstanding results prove that the art market in South Africa is very much alive."
| 'Art is a good place to go. People buy art for all sorts of reasons' |
Giles Peppiatt, director of South African art sales at Bonhams, said: "Our recent sale of the South African art movement of the early 20th century was the biggest sale of South African art ever.
"We set a new world record, including the highest price ever paid for a South African painting. Jacob Pierneef's The Baobab Tree sold for R12-million. We are still seeing strong demand and have a very good sale pending in February."
She said art was doing well for all sorts of reasons. People looking for a home for surplus cash were reluctant to put it into stocks or property.
"Art is a good place to go. People buy art for all sorts of reasons. Every picture is different. The quality of this Pierneef was wonderful and probably won't come onto the market again for the next 10 to 15 years.
"Artists like Maggie Laubscher, Irma Stern and Pierneef are receiving prices and critical recognition which would have delighted them had they lived to see it."
Genovese said back home, South African art holds strong despite negative financial indicators. All sort of records were achieved at the recent auction; one painting sold for over R4m, two for over R3-million, two for over R2-million and two for over R1-million.
Nineteen new art records were achieved, including R1,6m for a work by Alexis Preller called New Eden which, after ferocious bidding, sold for five times its pre-sale estimate.
An outstanding work by Pierneef Naderende Storm in die Bosveld sold for R 3,1-million, matching the previous record set in 2006, followed by Wild Fig Tree, which sold for R2,6-million.
Genovese said the market for quality Stern works held strong: a record of R3,5-million was achieved for a series of 14 works on paper depicting scenes on the French Riviera, an exceptional portrait titled Woman in the Kitchen fetched R4,4-million and Tending the Garden fetched R2,2-million.
She said the sale also featured top quality period English, Continental and Cape furniture which achieved good results, including R392 000 for a Cape armoire, R224 000 for a Victorian walnut and inlaid gilt-brass-mounted bookcase and R212 800 for a pair of Empire mahogany gilt-brass mounted and marble-topped commodes.
"Modern and contemporary furniture is highly collectable and this is apparent from the high prices realised for the examples offered," said Genovese.
Consultant for the auction house Ann Palmer said the catalogue for this auction was put together in June.
"Two weeks ago we were really anxious. But we received lots of support. The art in particular flew out the door."
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20081103053221295C940102
