Wind your way down Cape Town’s equivalent of Mulholland Drive aka Geneva Drive to Sedgemore to find Rose Korber Art. It’s here you will savour SA’s artistic highlights from David Koloane’s wondrous drypoint etching, Card Players 111 to Deborah Bell’s beautiful dark Fury andher sublime, Divination, a rich rendition of an after-life-soaked monotype and mixed media to Robert Slingsby’s fresh graff-noir commentary in Just Injustice #2.
There are about sixty artists on view this year, including several superb ceramicists like Clementia van der Walt and Kendal Warren. Artists of the stature of William Kentridge, Pippa Skotnes, Robert Hodgins, Norman Catherine, Sam Nhlengethwa and Kevin Brand add high quality value viewing to this annual exhibition.
“With this being our 20th Salon I was keen to present something akin to a retrospective, so I included many of the artists who have shown on our Salons over the last two decades. At the same time, it was essential, of course, to introduce a number of new names,” said Rose Korber a highly respected gallerist. Korber who worked as a free-lance art writer, critic and lecturer, in the late 1980s, was back then approached by an acquaintance and asked if she would assist in putting together the nucleus of a collection of quality, contemporary South African artworks. Although she had never dabbled in the business of art before, she was tempted to give it a try. Three months later, having managed to find a number of particularly fine works for the client, she realised that this was what she really wanted to do for the rest of her life. Shortly afterwards, in 1990, the Rose Korber Art Consultancy was founded, soon to be renamed Rose Korber Art. And what started as a tentative, five-day show in 1992, has grown into an annual six-week exhibition, attended by both local and international clients and viewers.
“The Salons” she explains, “are by definition, essentially eclectic shows, which are capable of eliciting wonderful surprises, according to the way the artworks are juxtaposed with other, often unlikely pieces.” Over the last twenty years, Korber has assured that the annual Salon exhibition has grown into an increasingly sophisticated event. “The raison d’etre was always to bring together - under one roof - a large showcase of quality artworks in various media and styles, which would provide an overview of the current state of South African art. Of course, the past two decades have seen an enormous shift in South African art, with our local artworks becoming more internationalised and our artists taking their deserved place on a world stage! One thinks of names such as Kentridge, Dumas, Mthethwa and Schreuders.”
Korber says she is currently fascinated by the paintings and conceptual pieces of Cape Town artist, Danny Shorkend, currently working on a Ph.D. thesis on the subject of Art and Kabbalah. “Georgia Lane’s portraits and abstracts continue to gain in complexity, while the quirky and highly original ceramics of Alessandro Pappada suggest he is an artist to be watched.”
“I love the challenge of finding new and exciting works by contemporary South African artists to introduce to our local and international clients, and I love the opportunity that gives me of encouraging and stimulating critical appreciation and dialogue. I also never tire of the chance to meet the fascinating people involved in the art world: the artists, architects, interior designers, fellow gallerists, art academics, critics: the list is endless.”
She admits the current economic climate has created bigger challenges than ever for SA gallery owners. “One obvious problem is: which artists to invest in and to promote? Although certain SA artists have indeed become increasingly known abroad, they are still not as well known as they might be. Visitors and clients from abroad, who are still not sufficiently au fait with these ‘new’ names, are often loath to purchase their works. Then there is the problem too with the unstable, fluctuating rand, which certainly does not promote confidence. While the major galleries in JHB and Cape Town can be counted on for good stock, there are often simply not enough buyers around to purchase,” she explains.
And for young, upcoming artists, who are even less familiar to foreign (and local) buyers, the problem she says is even more acute. The auction market, too, has been greatly affected, and prices often appear to be unpredictable, except for top drawer Irma Sterns or major Kentridge’s prints, which are being sold primarily as a hedge against inflation, says Korber. “But are these huge prices sustainable, or will we have to wait for several years until a Kentridge terracotta head fetches over a million rand again? How should the SA gallerist try to overcome these challenges? There don’t seem to be any definitive answers, except just to try to wait it out and proceed with caution.”
Korber recommends purchasing contemporary art with your heart and your head, and only to buy works you love and would like to live with. “To give you the confidence to recognise what it is you are searching for, immerse yourself in art: Start going to as many good exhibitions as you can, look critically, read reviews, read art magazines; discuss what you feel with others who are also looking seriously at art; Get to know the art market; go to auctions to familiarise yourself with what is available. Find a gallerist you can trust completely, and who will get to know your needs as well. Enjoy your purchases, but avoid buying for investment only!”
Picture 1: AFRO-LISA:Julia with Code by Richard Smith is on exhibit at Rose Korber Art in Camps Bay for the annual Art Salon
Picture 2: LIVING TRIBUTE: Sam Nhlengethwa’s tribute to Zwelethu Mthethwa on exhibit at Rose Korber Art in Camps Bay
· ROSE KORBER ART, Art Salon annual exhibition at 48 Sedgemoor Road, Camps Bay, Cape Town until January 31.Tel: (021) 438 9152 or (083) 261 1173. roskorb@icon.co.za www.rosekorberart.com Follow Suzy Bell on Twitter @realloveafrica
This story originally appeared in The Cape Times this morning.
