Namibian Graphic Art History 101

Who can deny the infinite possibility of paper? For some it is the home of scribbled diagrams and plans, for others it is a site on which to build worlds with words and for a sure handed few, it is a thing that captures reality as it is seen, bent or entirely imagined.

The Annual Visual Art Museum Programme (AVAMP) Exhibition is a celebration of paper. In its diverse collection of graphic art that extends from 1928 to 2012, it presents the various paper types and themes Namibian artists have been working within for the last 84 years.

Offering an assortment of art works from the Arts Association Heritage Trust and the National Art Galley of Namibia’s (NAGN) permanent collections, the exhibition imparts a wealth of Namibian graphic art history that includes drawings, lithographs, etchings, cardboard prints and lino cuts, while also incorporating sculpture and pottery.

Most intriguing about the collection housed in the lower gallery of the NAGN, is the incredible way in which the subject matter matures, as then current historical events and milieus infect or are entirely ignored by the psyche of the artists.

In 1928, Erich Mayer etches a charming pastoral scene of a small ox wagon near a tree and in 1945, Otto Schroder, a German founding member of the Arts Association in Windhoek draws two tranquil portraits titled ‘The Cellist’ and ‘The Pianist’ with pencil on paper as World War 2 draws to a close and South Africa remains mandated to administer the territory of South West Africa after wresting it from German rule in 1920.

This seeming tranquility is just as fascinating in Johannes Blatt’s ‘Bat-Eared Fox’, an etching on paper done in 1930, and in addition to the items by Mayer and Schroder seem to illustrate a persistent renunciation of the reality of the end of the war, South African as opposed to German rule, the UN’s call to bring all former German colonies in Africa under UN control as well as any unrest evident in the black population or even any thought towards this population at all.

Granted, these four works are by no means a cross section of pre-Independence white graphic art, but there is a similar turning inward and regarding of beauty, animals and the landscape that is strangely without any significant social commentary.

Beyond this point in the exhibition, we are presented with works which include the black populace working within the time frame of the struggle of Independence. Here works like John Muafengejo’s linocut ‘Zululand’ (1974), and Joseph Madisia’s serigraph on paper titled ‘African Rhythms’ (1985) depict black faces and drums in Namibia and Natal that are bolder and more subjective in their mood than the realistic graphic art presented by Blatt, Mayer and Schroder.

Also creating in the early 80s was Demetrious Spirou whose serigraph on paper portrait titled ‘Hooker’ reveals the exhibition’s first example of a social ill in his rendering of a bright colourful creature with big breasts while Eberhard von Koenen continues in the natural and realistic vein and draws an elegant ‘Camelthorn Tree’ with charcoal on paper in 1982.

Beyond the 80s in a way that seems to mimic the spirit of freedom taking over Namibia, artists seem to blossom and enjoy the liberty of style, technique and subject buoyed by each individual’s imagination.

Some like Jolanda Somses depict social issues through embroidery in works like ‘Teen Pregnancy’ (1999) where scores of young women are walking around with baby bumps after partying at a night club and others like Andrew van Wyk’s ‘African Child’ (2001) celebrate a plethora of young African faces in a way that juxtaposes rural and city living.

Graphic art extends to pottery in Ellen Masule’s ‘Pot with Three Necks’ (1996) which is an engraved clay pot adorned with bold, earthy patterns and Jackson Damel’s ‘Cat’ (1993) is a wood burnt and engraved cat made leopard replete with deep spots. Both pieces seem to foreground skill rather than elaborate imagining.

A sugarlift/aquatint on paper by Jo Rogge titled ‘Nightswimming’ introduces the freedom of fantasy. Depicting red skies and a man seemingly eating a fish at sea like a dolphin, Namibian graphic art history seems to take a turn towards the unbridled creativity also evident in the green faces of Ismael Wallo Tjijenda’s cardboard on paper ‘Three Sisters’ which presented an angular and geometric trio created in 2006.

Alpheus Mvula’s wood cut ‘Communication’ (2007) and Reinhold Iinane’s ink on paper, ‘Prayers of Hope’ (2002) depict people as tools and present the reality of the masses of a desperate and tattered majority lend some politics to proceedings which are a trend that has resurfaced in more recent years as violence, unemployment and the promised land of milk and honey bear more astute contemplation.

Though not a collection of each historical era, the exhibition is a wonderful gathering of works not often seen but which were celebrated and special in their time and which impart even more meaning and beg reflection knowing what one does in good old 2013.

Each work is accompanied by a short biography of the artist, many of whom have since passed away and the exhibition also offers a graphic art timeline beginning with the invention of paper in China in 105 AD right through woodblock printing, woodcut, drawing, engraving, the wooden printing press, etching, aquatint etching, lithography, daguerreotype and beyond.

Visit this exhibition until February 2014 for the some succinct and carefully curated history of Namibia’s graphic art.

– marth__vader on Twitter or martha@namibian.com.na