“A hot and quiet evening”

An Exhibition By PETER CLARKE, South African Artist

The University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus

Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination

and

the Art and Ubuntu Trust South Africa

present

us

the EBCCI Gallery, Wednesday, April 15 2009 at 6.30 p.m.

RSVP or Appointment 417 4776/77

Open Monday to Friday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

The Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination is delighted to host this significant body of work by

Peter Clarke, artist and poet, of Cape Town, South Africa

Peter Clarke’s life story and artistic expression reveals the power of the creative imagination, even in

the most adverse conditions. It also reveals the power of art which is made by an artist who is linked to

his community, its life, joy and struggle.

Without formal schooling in art and with very little to guide him Peter Clarke sought inspiration and

example from art from the 4 corners of the globe. Without having many opportunities to see the originals,

Peter Clarke explored the work of the Mexicans of the 30s, 40s & 50s, the German Expressionists, Japanese

prints and Africa’s mask tradition. Eventually his mastery saw his work travelling to the 4 corners of the

globe and Peter Clarke has exhibited widely internationally, but never before in the Caribbean.

This exhibition is particularly meaningful to him, as his statement makes clear, and it is one which is

especially meaningful to us. It is the first exhibition of a South African artist that we have hosted and it is

one which has many resonances in the Caribbean.

We are pleased to present it in collaboration with the Art and Ubuntu Trust, South Africa whose guiding

proverb is umuntu ngamuntu ngabanye abantu or a person is a person by and because of other

people. As we reach out to make tangible our links across the Atlantic these works remind us of the

significance of our common humanity.

Professor Gladstone Yearwood, Director of the Errol Barrow Centre for the Creative Imagination

1

EBCCI STATEMENT

ART UBUNTU THANKS

Ernest Mancoba, the South African artist, whose aesthetic and philosophy inspired the formation of the

Art and Ubuntu Trust, speaks of artists being ‘ in contact across space and time in their awareness that

the spiritual and the material dimensions of our world need to be reconciled’.

Through an insightful engagement with Bajan culture, Abdulkadir Ahmed Said, facilitated contact

between Peter Clarke and George Lamming across the Atlantic Ocean last year. Although they didn’t

know it, they had been in indirect contact since the 1950’s through Peter Clarke’s reading of and

strong identification with George Lamming’ s work.

Prof. Gladstone Yearwood, Director of the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, responded

with faith and determination to the possibilities of this contact and he is primarily responsible for the

exhibition’s manifestation. We thank him profoundly and acknowledge his courage and creative

vision which made contact between our two countries possible.

It is clear that we can, although we might still have to fly via the first world to reach each other,

build initiatives where sharing knowledge and mutual understanding enrich our lives. We have a huge

historical legacy of division to overcome but initiatives like this give concrete expression to Art Ubuntu’s

guiding concept the proverb: “Umuntu ngamuntu ngabanye abantu” (A person is a person, by and

because of other people). This proverb is well known in different forms throughout Africa and could be

regarded as the basis of African humanism based on collective spirituality.

We are more than privileged to have this collaboration with the Errol Barrow Centre for the Creative

Imagination which concretises links between our two similar societies.

At the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination and in Barbados in general we have been privileged

to work with three professionals with great soul: Frances Hinds-Griffith, Nerys Rudder and Shaka Rodney.

Again a positive connection across the Atlantic Ocean manifests in Shaka’s life story. His father Walter

who worked in East Africa is a legendary and inspiring figure for us. Another thanks to Abdulkadir Ahmed

Said for photos and invitation design and to Rodney Ifill for his assistance with the photo session as well

as his passionate appreciation of the art. He gave us a foretaste of how Bajan’s might respond to it,

which was very encouraging. Paula Mascoll and her team for exhibiting professionalisms and grace

under pressure. Brian Elcock must be mentioned especially for his late hours completing the catalogue

and Lorraine Lashley for typing the labels. Josephine Frater, one of the Art and Ubuntu trustees, who

participated in the selection of the works in Cape Town over a number of hot Cape Town summer

Sundays always gives generously of herself to Art and Ubuntu projects. Gadija Badat is keeping the

home fires burning in the Art Ubuntu office in Cape Town. Together they are keeping contact with Peter

Clarke as things proceed here.

Last but not least we thank the artist, Peter Clarke for his thoughtfulness, humility and genius and for

the privilege of being able to show works spanning 6 decades of his life, which powerfully link our two

societies.

Bridget Thompson, Director Art and Ubuntu Trust, Barbados April 2009

1. Landscape with Cart

N.D (hand coloured linocut) a/p 6x8 1200

2. They’ve always got something to talk about

N.D.(hand coloured linocut) a/p 8x9 1200

3. Devil’s Peak & Rain

N.D (linocut) 21/40 8x9 1200

4. Man with white cock

30.5.1959 (linocut) 21/54 15x10 1200

5. Tired

4.8.1958 (linocut) 22/50 15x19 4800

6. Masked Girl

Feb 1977 (woodcut) 1/22 17x13 4800

7. After they went away

N.D.(hand coloured linocut) a/p 15x12 4800

No. Image Description Price (BDS)

8. Washday

1982 (woodcut) 1/30 18x14 4800

9. Sinister moonlight

Oct 1980 (colour linocut) 4/29 10x13 2400

10. Boy with cocks

25.1.1968 (colour woodcut) 22/26 18x10 4800

11. Over dark grasses & past green hills

N.D. (hand coloured linocut) 8/30 15x17 4800

12. Boys struggling with escaping birds

22.6.1959 (linocut) 29/26 13x21 4800

13. Weeds can also be beautiful

N.D. (hand coloured linocut) a/p 5x6 1200

14. The scent of blue blossoms

2006 (hand coloured linocut) 7/28 6x6 1200

No. Image Description Price (BDS)

15. Still life & moonlight

2006 (coloured linocut) 7/28 6x7 1200

16. Lamplight

2006 (coloured linocut) 7/28 8x7 1200

17. Empty Bottles

2006 (coloured linocut) 3/28 8x7 1200

18. Electric Storm

2006 (coloured linocut) 18/28 8x8 1200

19. A hot & quiet evening

N.D. (coloured linocut) 23/54 8x8 1200

20. Chore

May 2006 (coloured linocut) 16/19 15x14 4800

21. At Grandpa & Grandma’s house

2006 (coloured linocut) 18/22 9x7 1200

No. Image Description Price (BDS)

22. Knowledge

May 2006 (coloured linocut) 15/22 14x11 4800

23. Thirst

N.D. (colour linocut) 24/32 8x7 1200

24. Coming from shopping

28.7.1968 (colour woodcut) 14/19 18x14 4800

25. Birds quarreling

ND. (colour linocut) 12/28 13x11 2400

26. Teslaarsdal, C.P.

13.6.1961 (linocut) 10/11 10x13 2400

27. A glass of spring water

N.D. (linocut) 3/30 7x8 1200

28. Plain furniture

N.D. (colour linocut) a/p 7x8 1200

No. Image Description Price (BDS)

29. Mending nets

19.9.68 (colour woodcut) a/p 20x18 7200

30. Yo-yos

July 1968 (colour woodcut) 1/1 30x19 7200

31. Of Earth & Air

N.D.(colour linocut) 15/18 18x22 7200

32. Doing what we have to do, we get on with our lives

N.D. (colour linocut) 9/29 26X31 12,000

33. Bathers with passing yacht

April 1969 (colour woodcut) 1/24 29x21 9600

34. Marinescape

1971 (colour linocut) 25/31 42x31 12,000

35. The song of cicadas

N.D. (colour linocut) 5/28 20x20 7200

No. Image Description Price (BDS)

36. Backyard

Dec 1981 (colour linocut) 16/29 20x28 9600

37 White wings & petals

1982 (colour linocut) 15/22 20x29 9600

38. Overcast sky

17.11.1967 (monoprint) 22x45 12,000

39. Thistledown

1999 (colour woodcut) 24/30 28x38 12,000

40. Iris

N.D. (colour woodcut) 18/36) 37x29 12,000

41. Interior with passerby

N.D. (colour woodcut) a/p 35x41 12,000

42. (no image) Tumbling

1998 leather and paper collage book Not for Sale

No. Image Description Price (BDS)

PETER CLARKE BIOGRAPHY

Now in his 80th years, Peter Clarke has had a varied and interesting artistic career that

in 1956, on resigning from his job as a dock worker in Simon’s Town, sprouted roots in

Teslaarsdal, a small farming community in the South Western Cape. Here he spent a quarter

of a year “exploring the themes that largely define and identify his work to this day”1.

Peter Clarke has exhibited oils and wood cuts from as early as the 1950’s and since then his

work has garnered critical acclaim both in South Africa and internationally.

He has experimented with many media including sculpture, craft and photography. His

latest work is in paper collage – a phase he calls his second childhood. Now that South

Africa has democracy he feels the freedom to be more playful.

He also has a reputation for his book covers and illustrations, so much so that his sketches

were the muse for “Penny for the Guy” by James Matthews. He is both a poet and visual artist

with one medium informing and being produced in tandem with the other. His writing was

included in a selection of prose and poetry broadcast by the BBC in Aspects of Africa and, he

won an award for Eleven O’Clock: the Wagons, the Shore, which was broadcast by the BBC:

“When the days were wintry and eleven o’clock dry, we leant on the weathered timbers of

the wagons and watched the mists of distant rains flushing the faces of the coastal mountains,

hugging the outline of the bay, washing out the colour of the mountain, sea and sky the way

water washes out the tints of a delicate water-colour painting.”

He is largely a self taught artist, albeit one who continues to seek knowledge via his

contemporaries and further study. In 1961 he studied etching techniques under Katrine Harries

at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town. In the same year his work was included

in exhibitions of South African graphic art held in Munich and New York and he has since

exhibited and travelled widely, including to Rijks Academy Amsterdam, Norway, the South of

France and the USA where he participated in writer’s programmes and painting projects.

“Despite his willingness to experience other approaches, Peter Clarke’s work does not imitate;

he does not explore a particular style, but lets his experiences become internalized and

integrated. There are many recurring images in his work, some with strong autobiographical

themes. He uses these images to comment on socio-political occurrences in South Africa.”

“Peter Clarke’s stylized forms, though contextually specific, are universal and timeless. His

gossiping women could be from any rural community in the world, the eloquent gestures

of his figures or the simple presence of wild flowers on a windowsill have meaning in any

context, they are authentic, they are what they are.”

A mild mannered man, Peter Clarke has a wry sense of humour. Committed to the art

community in Cape Town, he has organized numerous exhibits and cultural events – in

order to expose his “displaced and disadvantaged community to the wealth of fine art and

literature”. He teaches, mentors and promotes the arts at community level.

After receiving many international accolades for writing and painting Peter Clarke was the

first previously unheralded black artist to be given a retrospective of his work in the new South

Africa at the South African National Gallery in an exhibtion curated by Patty Hardy.

Peter Clarke was honored with the Order of Ikhamanga by the South African State President

Thabo Mbeki in 2005.

1 All quotes from “The Hand Is The Tool Of The Soul” Patty Hardy

ARTIST’S STATEMENT