South Africa Blog

The his­toric Cape Winelands town of Tulbagh is host­ing a Spring Arts Festival over the week­end of 26–28 August 2011, cel­eb­rat­ing the arts in all their var­ied forms. The fest­ival also coin­cides with the spring wild­flowers, which include sev­eral vari­et­ies of rare endemic bulbs that only flower in the Tulbagh val­ley. It is aimed at rais­ing funds for the Tulbagh Community Gardens and Galgeheuwel Reserve ini­ti­at­ive, which will cre­ate a pub­lic pleas­ure garden for the enjoy­ment of all in his­toric Church Street.

The Tulbagh Spring Arts Festival is head­lining with the open­ing of the Christo Coetzee House Museum and Gallery (post renov­a­tion of the dilap­id­ated barn, where Coetzee painted from 1973 until his death in 2000, and the Rhenish mis­sion­ary house where he lived behind the stu­dio.) For the dur­a­tion of the fest­ival the work of past, present and future mas­ters of the val­ley will be on display.

Christo Coetzee is obvi­ously our past mas­ter. The South African Encyclopedia says about Coetzee’s work: “He has broadened art in the sense that he con­trib­uted to the fad­ing of the tra­di­tional bound­ar­ies between paint­ing and sculp­ture and because he insisted on viewer par­ti­cip­a­tion in the cre­at­ive pro­cess. As Marcel Duchamp is today known as the twentieth-century father of con­cep­tu­al­ism, so Coetzee is the most import­ant innov­at­ive artist in South Africa.” The exhib­i­tion of Coetzee’s work will also fea­ture a col­lec­tion of pho­to­graphs by award-winning Cape pho­to­grapher Jean du Plessis, entitled: “Christo Coetzee – The Tulbagh Years”.

Vasek Matousek is our present mas­ter. Resident in Tulbagh since 1975, Vasek exhib­its from his extraordin­ary stu­dio in the Winterhoek and will be demon­strat­ing glaz­ing tech­niques and Raku kiln firings.

Tulbagh-born Jannie Du Toit is our future mas­ter – young and tal­en­ted. His early work reflects his Tulbagh roots, although he now lives and works in the city bowl of Cape Town.

For more information see Tulbagh Spring Arts Festival 2011

Be Sociable, Share!

•