A Tretchikoff retrospective is proving once again that the master of kitsch is as popular as ever.
■ In its first few weeks Tretchikoff: The people’s painter, an exhibition of the works of Vladimir Tretchikoff, drew more than 2 000 visitors to the Iziko South African National Gallery. The attendance is hardly surprising. In his heyday, in the 1960s, the Russian-born artist who lived in Bishopscourt drew record crowds, despite the hostile criticism levelled at his work from many in the established art community. That has all changed. Tretchi is now no longer kitsch, despite the racial and sexual clichés that litter his syrupy paintings. But does the newfound Tretchi fever signify a bold new approach to art history or mere populism? Or is it just crass Rainbow Nation historical revisionism?
Iziko SA National Gallery, Government Avenue, Company’s Garden, Cape Town. Until September 25.
■ ‘Zolani Siphungela is young, black and disappointed,” reads the first line of the press release for the artist’s new exhibition, Angels with Dirty Faces. The introduction serves to position her as part of a growing new generation of young artists who are returning to politics. This return is not based on nostalgia: Siphungela’s multilayered oil paintings are too diverse in their references, too richly imbued with her personal narrative, to be seen as struggle art ‘redux”. Referencing everything from township painting to expressionism and surrealism, her works construct fragmented narratives that encourage the viewer to piece together a subjective view of South Africa’s contested political history and present.
Worldart Gallery, 54 Church Street, Cape Town. From June 13 to June 25.