On one day every month many Cape Town artists make their way to a yellow four-storey building known as Union House in Commercial Street, which was once a clothing factory. There curator and businesswoman Jeanetta Blignaut and her team receive 18cm x 18cm blocks of wood on which the artists have sketched, painted, done mosaics or other creative things.
It is not a new idea — the Creative Block project has been going since 2004 — but it has received an impetus from Nando’s, which is encouraging its franchises to display some of the work. This is where the Jeanetta Blignaut Art Consultancy comes in — it supplies the outlets with artwork.
The most significant of these is Coming to the City, a large 3m x 18m mosaic, designed by Clive van den Berg and created by students of the Spier Art Academy, which was unveiled at Nando’s King’s Cross Ârestaurant in London on June 29.
Although the art roll-out has been rather slow in South Africa, Nando’s intends to insert a clause in its contracts that will “encourage” its franchises to buy and display art by South African artists. The idea is that the patrons of its outlets will also be exposed to art.
Putting it together
It is a decidedly different approach to that followed by most corporates that collect art, which they display in their lobbies and boardrooms — or keep under lock and key. The fact that the franchise chain has hundreds of outlets in which art can be displayed is an added Âadvantage.
Fortuitously, when I visited Union House, artists were submitting their work, hoping that it would be bought by Creative Block for R400 a piece. I watched as dozens of artists carefully revealed their work, waiting for ÂBlignaut’s opinion.
She paced the floor, her face clouding over as she judged the work. It was a performance of instant curatorship. Blignaut combines a sharp eye (she recognised work she has turned down before) with business acumen (she asked one artist how she would interest a potential buyer), a critic’s unflinching gaze and a friend’s familiarity (every artist was greeted by name).
At one stage Blignaut said: “This blue is the most boring blue in the world.” An artist who had painted rather dull, uninspired portraits was rebuked with the remark: “Portraits are boring.”
An artist who produced some particularly bad paintings got advice, delivered deliberately and slowly. Blignaut explained that paint was expensive and the artist should practise figure drawing before using more permanent media.
A teaching opportunity
She said that the gathering was also important for people who worked alone. By asking questions, Blignaut got them to articulate a Âcreative route.
“When I look at artists in the world, the good ones are invariably those who can speak about their work,” Blignaut said, as she sat down on a couch after the gruelling two-hour session.
By developing relationships with the artists, she said she got to know them personally and their strengths, weakness and biases. So the advice she dispensed was “specific to them so that the work they produce isn’t the same”.
She was excited about the Nando’s project, which would provide a market for the large amount of art she collected every month. “Regular income means you can work regularly, buy materials and you know you are going to get feedback,” she said.
The artists get a third of the R1?200 that a work fetches and the project boasts some established artists, including George Tabata (Blignaut said he reminded her of Rembrandt) and Ricky Dyaloyi.
A different platform
But, Blignaut said, Nando’s wasn’t looking for big names; its ethos was “to build careers”. And when she looked at some of the top names on her books, Blignaut said she sometimes wondered why they continued to work on the ÂCreative Block project.
“Perhaps it has a social effect,” she said, “being able to say ‘hi’ to your friend” when the artists gathered to sell their works, or perhaps they were attracted to the platform. As Blignaut put it: “You might as well get paid for your experimentation.”
The relatively small dimensions of the wooden blocks were like a double-edged sword, she said.
“We decided on 18cm x 18cm because it gives the artist the freedom to experiment, play around with ideas and think visually. You have to make decisions about the colour and meaning of every brushstroke, as it’s small. Every brushstroke counts. On the buyers’ side, the idea is to offer original and affordable artworks.”
Her eyes are not trained only on the local market — she said she had representatives in the United States, Europe and Singapore.
She said that the system also spurred growth — most collectors started by collecting blocks by a particular artist before going on to buy larger work. To put words into her mouth, she could be saying: “Don’t be chicken to buy art.”