Browsing by Subject "History of Art"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Art, gender ideology and Afrikaner nationalism : a history of the Voortrekker Monument tapestries
    (1996) Van der Watt, Liese; Klopper, Sandra
    This dissertation considers the role both verbal and visual culture played in the growth and articulation of Afrikaner nationalism. For this reason it focuses not only on the central topic under discussion, namely the Voortrekker tapestries, but also on the discourses that informed the production of these tapestries and the circumstances surrounding the decision to commission them. The Voortrekker tapestries were commissioned in 1952 by the Vrou-en Moederbeweging van die A1XV (Suid-Afrikaanse Spoorweё en Hawens) and presented to the Voortrekker Monument in 1960. It was decided that the tapestries should depict the Great Trek of 1838 and, due to his widely acclaimed status as an authority on visual representations of Afrikaner history and culture, the artist WH Coetzer was approached to be the designer of the tapestries. But Coelzer's version of the Great Trek of 1838 perpetuates many popular myths about the Afrikaner past and, in examining this version, I have identified certain discourses as being influential. For example, the role of Gustav Preller in the formation of Coetzer's historical consciousness; the precedent set by the 1938 centenary celebrations of the Great Trek for later verbal and visual depictions of the Great Trek; the period 1948 to 1952, marked by significant historical events such as the triumph of the National Party, the inauguration of the Voortrekker Monument and the tercentenary Van Riebeeck celebrations and, finally, the rolevolksmoeder ideology played in shaping Coetzer's vision of the Great Trek. Drawing on these discourses, I proceed to examine the iconography of the Voortrekker tapestries. A number of themes in the tapestries are identified and elucidated with reference to a range of contemporary theoretical writings. Finally, the dissertation moves beyond a consideration of the iconography of the tapestries, investigating instead the status of needlework. I argue that the gender ideology embedded in the production of the tapestries is parallel1ed in the historically sanctioned separation of 'art' from 'craft'. Just as 'craft' has been marginalised in relation to 'art', so the Voortrekker tapestries and, with them, the women who made the tapestries, were marginalised in the public spheres which were inhabited and controlled by Afrikaner men.
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    Figurative art in Soviet Russia circa 1921-1934 : situating the realist-anti-realist debate in the context of changing definitions of proletarian culture
    (1994) Nolte, Jacqueline Elizabeth; Klopper, Sandra
    In this dissertation I demonstrate that in many Western and Soviet texts the work of so called formalist leftists and figurative artists are viewed as diametrically opposed to one another. I argue against the perpetuation of this polemic and the assumptions that inform this view. These assumptions are that the leftists produced self-referential works indicative of an anti-realist philosophy and that figurative artists produced social commentaries informed by a philosophy of realism which led 'inevitably' to Socialist Realism. Although a few recent texts warn against oversimplifying this debate, none go far enough in deconstructing the view that there were two groupings diametrically opposed to one another. In fact, many simply repeat the argument as it was articulated in the twenties and thirties, which is to ignore the possibility of a critical analysis of the theoretical principles and constraints informing the debates current at that time. Categorising leftists as anti-realist and figurative artists as realist is not satisfactory firstly because neither the leftists nor the figurative artists existed as homogenous groupings and secondly because many figurative artists (the so-called realists) in fact challenged the idea of a coherent world order existing external to the art work. Nevertheless there are artists from both these categories who asserted the importance of an objective world that was external to and a primary determinant of the art work. In this dissertation I demonstrate that these figurative artists often shared the same ideological goals with leftists. Instead of working with the idea of viewing artists of the twenties and thirties as realist or anti-realist, figurative or so-called formalist, I discuss their philosophical and stylistic choices in relation to the political and economic project of the period, namely the empowerment of the proletariat and the attempt to foster a proletarian culture.
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    Old masters and aspirations : the Randlords, art and South Africa
    (1997) Stevenson, Michael; Klopper, Sandra
    In the last three decades of the nineteenth century, a small group of capitalists, many of whom were from middle-class German-Jewish backgrounds, made vast fortunes from exploiting deposits of gold and diamonds in South Africa, using local labour. These mining magnates accumulated their wealth first in Kimberley in the 1870s and, later, in Johannesburg in the late 1880s. Thereafter, most of them moved to Britain, where they lived for the rest of their lives. By the mid-1890s, as their aspirations became increasingly pronounced, the term 'Randlords' was coined in the London press to describe them. In this study, I have used this collective term in reference to the men who took part in the rough-and-tumble scramble for gold and diamonds before adopting an upper class lifestyle in Britain. Critical discussion of almost all the Randlord collections is hampered by the scarcity of primary material relating to the formation of their collections and, in some cases, even to what was in them. A point of departure for this thesis therefore was to reconstruct an inventory for each of the collections. These inventories (which are included as appendices) list each painting in the collection, possible changes in its attribution (where this is known), its title, its provenance (from whom and when the painting was purchased, and at what price), the present-day whereabouts of the painting (where this is known), and, wherever possible, an appropriate reference to the painting in a catalogue raisonne or sale catalogue or, in the absence of the latter, in the art historical literature The thesis is primarily concerned with the manner in which the identities of the Randlords were shaped and redefined through the acquisition of works of art and other material goods. It demonstrates that their eventual efforts to construct new upper-class identities were strenuous and pronounced. An integral component of this strategy to assert their social position was to participate in the accumulation and display of highly symbolic goods and properties to convey their new-found status in Britain. Throughout this thesis, the Randlords' acquisition of art is treated as one facet of their conspicuous · consumption. In keeping with this argument, the purchase and furnishing of country 11 houses, lavish expenditure on entertaining, the ownership of town houses, and the acquisition of titles are considered in relation to their an collections. The introduction includes a survey of the literature on the Randlords, a brief overview of the history of their involvement in the South African mining industry, an overview of their collections, and the context in which they assembled these collections. This is followed by five chapters focusing on the collections of Sir Julius and Lady Wernher, Alfred Beit and his brother Sir Otto, Sir Max and Lady Michaelis, Sir Lionel and Lady Phillips and Sir Joseph (and Lady Robinson). A range of issues are foregrounded in each of these chapters. For example, the widespread preference for seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish paintings is considered in the Beit chapter, and for eighteenth- century British portraits in the Beit and Robinson chapters. The limited interest in Italian and Renaissance paintings is explored in the Wernher and Robinson chapters, and the strong interest in eighteenth-century French furniture is discussed in the Wernher chapter. Issues relating to philanthropy are discussed in the Michaelis and Phillips chapters, and the Randlords' connections to South Africa are explored through an examination of Michaelis' gift of Dutch and Flemish pictures to the Union of South Africa in 1912, and through Lady Phillips' involvement in founding an art gallery in Johannesburg in 1909. The thesis argues that works of art served a range of functions for the Randlords - acting as a store of wealth, providing public confirmation of the extent of their wealth, and in this way, assisting them in realising their social aspirations.