"CECILY SASH: PAINTINGS AND DRAWINGS"
2000-05-18 until 2000-06-07
UNIVERSITY OF STELLENBOSCH - UNIVERSITY MUSEUM
STELLENBOSCH, , ZA South Africa

Cecily Sash, who since 1975 lives and works in Britain, (presently in Wales), celebrated her 75th birthday in October 1999. To celebrate this occasion she decided to exhibit her new work at the galleries of 3 universities in South Africa, country of her birth. Last year, during her short visit to the country, this exhibition was presented at Wits' Gertrude Posel Gallery (2- 20 October) in Johannesburg and UCT's Irma Stern Museum (2-19 November ) in Cape Town.

During 1955-75 Sash lectured art at the University of the Witwatersrand. Some of her students are now well known artists and art educators, for example Judith Mason, Terry King and Greg Kerr. During the forties Sash herself studied as an artist and teacher at the Witwatersrand Technical Art School (Maurice van Essche) in Johannesburg and the Camberwell School of Art in London (Victor Pasmore). Subsequently she obtained the BA and MA in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The art works exhibited on this occasion are mostly abstract portrayals of a number of organic forms referring to the artist's recollections of a recent visit to Egypt. They are linear composite scenes of recognisable subjects, such as trees, water, fishes, birds and the mantis. Critics have referred to these works, mostly executed in charcoal and pastels on paper, as metaphysical compositions

The following was recently noted by Alex Dodd on the Web (Mail and Guardian,ZA@Play, 14/10/99): Things change and Sash has been through many stages and re inventions in her vast artistic career. Her recent works bristle with those fundamental elements: dry, arid, spiky, thorned, attenuated. It might not be 'The Transvaal' that she is painting today, but the Transvaal in her has never gone away.

(written by Prof Muller Ballot)

The following items will be on sale during the exhibition: Book by Victor Thorne (ed), Cecily Sash: Working Years (1999), R200-00 per copy.

- artslink

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for South Africa

Other Important Exhibitions in South Africa