Andrew Putter's ‘Secretly I Will Love You More’ is a video recreation of a 17th century Dutch painted portrait and supposedly represents Maria de la Quellerie, wife of Jan van Riebeeck. In 1652 De la Quellerie adopted the Khoikhoi child Krotoa, and in this recreation, she is shown singing a gentle Khoikhoi lullaby to her daughter.

The soft clicks of the Nama song, the infinitely nuanced facial expressions of the singing woman, and the calm solitude of the installation all suggest a moment of profound realization and bonding between this most different mother and child. In doing so the installation proposes a whole new way of understanding intimacy and dominance, the past and the present, historical narratives and the alternative tales of individual relationships.

In a subtle and visually engaging manner ‘Secretly I Will Love You More’ allows us to recognize the complexities underlying the often simplistic interpretations of history that we receive as undisputed fact.

DUTCH TREAT: DUTCH WORKS FROM THE 17TH–20TH CENTURIES IN IZIKO COLLECTIONS
FROM APRIL

In this exhibition, highlights of Dutch art from the Iziko Michaelis Collection and many seldom-seen Dutch works in the Iziko South African National Gallery collections provide a setting and a context for Andrew Putter’s installation piece entitled Secretly I will love you more (2007), which was recently acquired for the Iziko Art Collections. The example of a contemporary South African artist using the Iziko Michaelis Collection as a base for a work of art that has cutting-edge relevance for the present indicates the valuable role our Dutch Old Master collections can play in the building of a new heritage.