EXHIBITIONS
Opening on Saturday October 3:
Rupert Museum
Stellentia Ave, Stellenbosch
021 888 3344
www.rupertmuseum.org
For the Spring Art Tour, the museum is presenting South African art lovers with the rare opportunity to view 27 original bronze sculptures by legendary French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840 – 1917). Famous works on show include The Thinker, The Kiss and The Cathedral.
Rodin had a profound influence on 20th-century sculpture. At the height of his career, he was regarded as the greatest sculptor since Michelangelo. Straying from 19th-century academic conventions, Rodin created his own sense of personal artistic expressions that focused on the vitality of the human spirit. His modelling techniques captured the movement and depth of emotion of his subjects by altering traditional poses and gestures. His pioneering work has been a critical link between traditional and modern figurative sculpture.
University of Stellenbosch
Department of visual art, University of Stellenbosch
Victoria Street, at the intersection of Neethling Street, Stellenbosch
021 808 2885
Case Studies is an exhibition that presents work by current and former teaching staff and postgraduate students of the department of visual arts at the University of Stellenbosch. It highlights works in a variety of media produced as part of recent collaborative projects as well as independent work. The broad scope of work reflects the departmental ethos of recognising and promoting the expanded field of contemporary art and design practices as critical, creative research.
SMAC Art GALLERY
First Floor, De Wet Centre, Church Street, Stellenbosch
021 887 3607
www.smacgallery.com
Anton Karstel’s Paintings and Photographic installations (1989 – 2009) is the first solo exhibition by the artist in a number of years. The exhibition contains new work as well as important examples of work produced over the past 20 years. The exhibition provides an overview of the artist’s career as a backdrop to his challenging and controversial new body of work.
Running concurrently is the exhibition Portraits (1949 – 2009), featuring 21 portraits created over six decades by the artist Nel Erasmus. These portraits or faces, according to the artist, reflect the journey all people undertake through life: “They make a profound and abstract statement about us: we are dual beings … two, not one, as we casually accept ourselves or as we may like to see ourselves.” The exhibition shows how Erasmus has over the years expanded the repertoire of portraiture in new directions. Less concerned about depicting the visual appearance of the subject, Erasmus is inspired by admiration or affection for the subject.
SASOL Art Museum
52 Ryneveld Street, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch
021 808 3691/5
Mbongeni Buthelezi’s first national touring exhibition Imizwa Yami (“my feelings”) is a showcase of this exceptional artist’s expression of his South African experience. “Painter in plastic” Buthelezi layers coloured plastic, melted together with a heat gun, to reflect a profoundly empathetic vision of his world. The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Seippel Gallery and Art Source South Africa.
Pier Rabe Antiques, Art and Contemporary Design
143 Dorp Street, Stellenbosch
021 883 9730
Opening on October 3 at 6.30pm
The Art of Land Art is a project by Strijdom van der Merwe, who has been asked by Pier Rabe Antiques to come up with an art concept as a new modern foil for reintroducing their antique furniture. He has created a site-specific installation for the Spring Art Tour. The shop is reopening after closing down for the month of September to refurbish its premises from an old 18th-century cottage into a modern, white space — an event it calls a mid-career “refurbishment”. Van der Merwe will give a talk about the project at the opening.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
On Saturday October 3
10am: SASOL Art Museum
Artist Mbongeni Buthelezi will be hosting a workshop on his unique technique of “plastic painting”. Booking is essential on 021 808 3691/5.
2pm: Stellenbosch University, department of visual arts
Kathryn Smith will discuss Visual Sleuthing: Is art a code that needs cracking, or a liberating proposition? Smith is a senior lecturer and head of Fine Arts in the department of visual arts at the University of Stellenbosch.
On Sunday October 4
11am: SASOL Art Museum
Mbongeni Buthelezi will give a walkabout of his exhibition Imizwa Yami.
Red, Black and White Gallery
5A Distillery Road, Bosman’s Crossing, Stellenbosch (see website for map)
021 886 6281
www.redblackandwhite.co.za
Creative Blocks opens at 11am on October 4 and is curated by Jeanetta Blignaut. The show features a competition where participants (anyone who comes to the opening can form a group and compete) are provided with the opportunity to create their own wall of images from the available blocks. The most enchanting “wall” will be chosen by a panel and the creator will win a block painting. During the Art Tour weekend the gallery will present a slide show of “art furniture” — it includes some of the most interesting examples of so-called art furniture. These have been created by artists commissioned to design and make up a unique piece. They are all artists who have had solo exhibitions at the gallery.
Peter ClarkeSMAC Main Gallery
First Floor, De Wet Centre Church Street
021 887 3607
www.smacgallery.com
Artist and writer Peter Clarke will read a selection of his poems and short stories at the gallery. He is also internationally recognised as a poet and gifted writer of short stories. Clarke’s writings have been published both in South Africa and overseas and have been broadcast by the SABC, BBC, Voice of America and NBC in the United States. He has succeeded in sustaining a full-time career as an artist over the last five decades after briefly studying at the Michaelis School of Art in Cape Town in 1961, the Rijks Academie in Amsterdam (1962-1963) and at Atelier Nordp in Oslo (1978-1979). In 2005 Peter Clarke was formally awarded the Order of Ikhamanga (Silver) for excellence in the field of arts.
SPECIAL MENUS
Glen Carlou
Simondium Road, Stellenbosch
021 875 5528
www.glencarlou.co.za
Find the Glen Carlou in the heart of the scenic Paarl Valley with its unique wine-growing conditions. The restaurant offers a tempting selection of cuisine, with both ethnic and international flavours, that can be enjoyed under the high wooden beams of the tasting arena or outside on the terrace, offering a panoramic view of vineyard and mountain.
The Glen Carlou will give daily tours of their art collection for the duration of the Spring Art Tour. Donald M Hess, founder of Hess Family Estates, the company that owns Glen Carlou, has one of the largest privately owned contemporary art collections in the world.
Pane e Vino
Lower Dorp Street, Bosman’s crossing
021 883 8312
www.dallacia.com
Guests can have anything from a coffee to a home-baked focaccia sandwich with Parma ham to a light Italian meal, choosing from slow-cooked mouthwatering dishes and fresh salads displayed in a deli fridge. The Dalla Cia Grappa is served as a digestive to add to a caffe’ corretto, in ice cream, or even as a cocktail softened with cream. The meaning of the name, “bread and wine”, embodies its ethos: simple, traditional and unpretentious. The warmth and enthusiasm of the family is very much part of this philosophy — arrive as guests and leave feeling part of the clan.
The Wijnhuis
Dorpsmeet Centre, corner of Church and Adringa streets, Stellenbosch
021 887 5844
www.wijnhuis.co.za
The 200-seater restaurant offers a Mediterranean and light menu with daily specials making use of the region’s freshest and healthiest produce. Following a major renovation in 2004, the Wijnhuis introduced a large range of tagliatas, carpaccios and venison dishes to its menu and these have proven very popular. Most of the salads and vegetables served originate on their farm in the Bainskloof area in Wellington. These include exotic Italian lettuce, tomatoes, fruits, even their own cold-pressed olive oil. For the duration of the Spring Art Tour, guests can choose meals from the extensive menu or, alternatively, can enjoy the special menu. Uniquely, one can taste as well as purchase from the wine shop or enjoy a glass with dinner. Their wine list focuses on boutique wineries and the Stellenbosch region.