Kleurvenster - St Chapelle

1984

Etching on paper

Artwork 51 X 33.5 cm | Image 33 x 24 

Unframed

Edition: E A

Estimated value between R4500 & R5500

About the artwork: 

The work was inspired by the glorious windows of the St Chapelle and the work was created at La Cite while Dirk and Annie were resident in 1984.

This work is part of a set of 5 etchings paying homage to the Notre Dame, St Chapelle and St Sulpice created in 1984 while Dirk and Annie were resident at La Cite. 

About the Artist:

Dirk Meerkotter was born in Pietersburg (Polokwane) Limpopo on 9 February 1922.  
Being a Pharmacist by profession, gave him the necessary space to develop his visual ideas independently. 
First solo exhibition was held at the Constantia Gallery in Johannesburg in 1950.  The last two of eighty-seven highly successful solo exhibitions were held in Pretoria in 2005 and Stellenbosch in 2009.
Since the early fifties Meerkotter enthusiastically engaged his fellow artists in discussions about modern and contemporary art movements such as post-impressionism, cubism, expressionism, futurism, surrealism and abstract expressionism.  
Most of Dirk and Annie Meerkotter’s friends were artists, including names such as Walter Battiss, Sydney Goldblatt, Ronald Mylchreest, Fred Schimmel, Berenice Michelow, Nel Erasmus, Cecil Skotnes, Larry Scully and Taffy Whippman. So productive was Dirk Meerkotter, that he managed to show new works of art every twelve to fifteen months. 
He often mentioned the importance of his wife Annie’s influence on his ideas and work as an artist. Annie’s intellectual openness not only contributed to the development of their five children, but, also supported her artistic husband, who developed into a prolific abstract and contemporary South African painter.  
His interest in the non-representational streams in the contemporary visual arts, developed progressively. Interestingly, he observed a close link between the expressionistic, semi-abstract and abstract movements in the visual arts in the late nineteenth and the twentieth century on the one hand, and the non-representational side of some classical musicians’ work, as well as that of Stravinsky and his contemporaries, on the other hand.
He did not view himself as a story-telling visual artist. The main inspiration for his creations after the 60’s is to be found in the vibrating world of line, colour, texture, form, rhythm and space, which he endeavoured to portray with integrity in his paintings, etchings and ceramics.

Recognition of Meerkotter’s work:
Dirk Meerkotter’s contribution to the visual arts receive significant recognition.  Apart from the unique qualities of his work, he demonstrated a remarkable sense of the importance of hard work and an artist’s responsibility to share his or her ideas openly with others.
Dirk Meerkotter presented his work and ideas to the public in a remarkable eighty-seven solo art exhibitions across South Africa and Namibia between 1951 and 2009. He also participated in many group exhibitions in Southern Africa, Europe, Latin America and in the USA. Meerkotter, in addition, received invitations and participated in the Florence and Sao Paulo Biennales in the seventies.
In 1992 Dirk Meerkotter received a prestigious award from the FAK. And, in 2001, he was awarded an honorary medal from the South African Association for Science and Art for his extraordinary contribution to the visual arts.

“Small works could be greater than large works!”

When asked to name five of his most important works sometime ago, Dirk Meerkotter’s immediate reaction was that “ – there are small and large works – oils, graphics, ceramics, and water colours in private and public collections – which fall under my best work. Small works could be greater than large works!” However, he continued saying: “In answer to your question, I am reasonably happy to mention the following works done over a period of time in different media.”

The works referred to by Meerkotter included:
A ceramic panel made for the Drama Theatre of the State Theatre in Pretoria in 1979. The theme of the panel comprises interlocking figures on a stage. The deeply carved work on self-made tiles, and entitled The Stage, are sixteen metres wide with a height of three and a half metres.
There were several other ceramic commissions of importance including one for the Sand Du Plessis Theatre in Bloemfontein (1985) and another for the University of Potchefstroom (1969-1970). 

He passed on November 2017 but he lives on in his work.

CONTACT DETAILS:

Auctioneer: SANAVA

Contact No: 073 228 3682

Email: [email protected]