SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL GALLERY
SUID-AFRIKAANSE NASIONALE KUNSMUSEUM
IGALARI YOBUZWE YOMZANTSI AFRIKA
An Exhibition of Works from the Permanent Collection
Icon VIII, Cecil Skotnes, 1984
(Pigments in vinyl medium on incised wood panel
85,5 x 75,5 (includes brass surround))
Cecil Skotnes
Born: 1926, East London.
Has worked in a variety of media. Began experimenting with colouring the wood-block, from which he makes his prints, as an independent art-form in 1961. Work imbued with a strong African character, often referring to subjects or events from African mythology or history.
Training:
1946: Studied under Heinrich Steiner in Florence. Also attended
art classes at the Witwatersrand Technical College,
Johannesburg.
1947-1950: University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg [Bachelor
of Arts (Fine Art)].
Profile:
After visiting Europe in 1951, Skotnes returned to South Africa, and was
appointed by the Johannesburg City Council to take charge of the Polly Street Art
Centre, from which he resigned in 1966 to continue his creative work. Succeeded
Walter Battiss as President of the South African Council of Artists in 1963 and
represented South Africa at the New York Congress of the International
Association of Arts in the same year. One of 5 founders of the Amadlozi Group,
also in 1963. Designed a series of postage stamps for the Republic Festival,
1966. Produced a series of woodcuts in the 1970s for books, with text by Stephen
Gray (The Assassination of Shaka, The White Monday Disaster and Baudelaire's
Voyage to the Cape).
Moved from Johannesburg to Cape Town in 1979, where he taught at the Nyanga Arts
Centre and the Community Art Project in the 1980s.
Solo Exhibitions:
1957: Pretoria Art Centre.
1962: Wittenborn Gallery, New York, USA (woodcuts).
1964: Egon Guenther Gallery, Johannesburg.
1965: Grosvenor Gallery, London, England (wood-panels).
1972: Pretoria Art Museum (Retrospective).
1973: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
1974: Durban Art Gallery (The Assassination of Shaka).
1975: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
1976: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
1977: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
1980: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
1983: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
Group Exhibitions:
1950: Johannesburg Art Gallery (South African Academy Exhibition).
1952: Van Riebeeck Festival Exhibition, Cape Town.
1954: Whippman's Gallery, Johannesburg (with Larry Scully).
1957: Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil.
1958: Venice Biennale, Italy.
1959: Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil.
1960: Second Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art.
1961: Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil.
1963-1964: Amadlozi Group tour, Johannesburg and Italy.
1964: Venice Biennale, Italy.
Third Quadrennial Exhibition of South African Art.
South African Graphic Art Exhibition, the former Yugoslavia.
1965: Grosvenor Gallery, London, England (South African Artists).
Transvaal Academy, Johannesburg.
1966: Republic Festival Art Exhibition, Pretoria.
Grosvenor Gallery, London, England (with Sydney Kumalo).
Venice Biennale, Italy.
1967: Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil.
1968: Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal (Present-day South
African Artists).
South African Breweries Art Prize Exhibition (toured South
Africa).
Venice Biennale, Italy.
1971: Johannesburg Art Gallery (Johannesburg Artists Prestige
Diamond Jubilee Exhibition).
Republic Festival Art Exhibition, Pretoria.
South African Graphic Art, Holland, Belgium and the former
West Germany.
1972: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg (exhibition of tapestries with
Bettie Cilliers-Barnard).
Third Biennale Internazionale della Grafica d'Arte,
Florence, Italy.
1974: Contemporary South African Art, Athens, Greece.
South African Graphic Art, Graz and Vienna, Austria, and Tel
Aviv, Israel.
1978: National Museum, Bloemfontein (with Aileen Lipkin and Wendy
Vincent).
1979: National Museum, Bloemfontein (with Thelma Chait, Olivia
Scholnick and Lorraine Edelstein).
Art from South Africa/Art from Soweto (toured the
former West Germany).
1981: South African National Gallery, Cape Town (South African
Printmakers).
1985: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg (with Sydney Kumalo, Ezrom
Legae and Edoardo Villa).
Africana Museum in Progress, Johannesburg, and the former
West Germany (Tributaries).
1987: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg (with John Skotnes).
Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
1988: Johannesburg Art Gallery (Vita Art Now).
Johannesburg Art Gallery (The Neglected Tradition).
1989: Johannesburg Art Gallery (Images of Wood).
Awards:
1965: Chamber of Mines Gold Medal, Transvaal Academy.
1968: Gold Medal, South African Breweries Biennial.
1972: Gold Medal, Third International Biennial of Graphic Art,
Florence, Italy.
1976: Medal of Honour for Painting, Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir
Wetenskap en Kuns.
Set of commemorative medallions, 1820 Settlers National
Monument Foundation for his contribution to art in South
Africa.
Collections:
South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Durban Art Gallery; Johannesburg Art
Gallery; Johannesburg Central Library; King George VI Art Gallery, Port
Elizabeth; National Museum, Bloemfontein; Pretoria Art Museum; Rand Afrikaans
University, Johannesburg; University of Cape Town; University of the Orange Free
State, Bloemfontein; University of South Africa, Pretoria; University of
Stellenbosch; University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; Anglo American
Corporation New York, USA; Caterpillar Tractor, USA; Kettering Gallery,
Northamptonshire, England; Royal Belgian Library Collection, Brussels, Belgium;
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark; Schlesinger Organisation, London,
England; Uffizi Print Cabinet, Florence, Italy; Stuyvesant Foundation, Amsterdam,
Holland; University of Uppsala, Sweden; Van Leer Collection, Amsterdam, Holland.
Commissions:
1961: Large mural, Thabong Catholic Mission Church, Orange Free
State.
1965: Large mural, Kroonstad Roman Catholic Cathedral, Orange Free
State.
1966: Large mural, Western Bank, African Life Centre,
Johannesburg.
1984: South African Airways 50th Anniversary.
1985: Carved panels, the Sand du Plessis Theatre, Bloemfontein.
Works in Kimberly Library.
1985-86: Murals, 1820 Settlers Monument, Grahamstown.
