06-Sep-2006
until
27 Sept 2006
|
Solo Exhibition "Fighting with my Weak Hand"
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
On the occasion of the exhibition a 160 page book will be launched to showcase Paul's 10 years as a professional artist. Book launch
This landmark exhibition celebrates his ten years as a professional artist and will comprise paintings of oil and impasto acrylic on canvas, paper pulp paintings produced in New York and monumental sculptures. A retrospective in print and film will convey more about this artist's life and work to the viewer.
The fascinating world of "PlanetPaul" is peopled with the creations and moods of Du Toit's mind. His fascination with the human form is worked and reworked in the canvas pieces, which glow with a childlike exuberance, while simultaneously reflecting a "carnival grotesquery".
Closer examination reveals an awareness of facial expression a nd sense of characterization far beyond the scope of naive vision. "Because I live in my head most of the time, I created this space or planet to which I can return and fill with images or portraits. It feels like I have started one work of art ten years ago and just keeps adding to it", says du Toit.
Twenty-five of the earlier inhabitants of Paul's Planet were shown in his first solo exhibition in Paris, France, in 1998. Since then his composition has broadened to include again the humanlike form, while maintaining the obsessive emphasis on the line.
In his more recent work, the lines defining the form have a greater independence, as du Toit allows them their own identity, rather than using them as boundaries for blocks of colour. His later works have become more abstract, with the impasto work deeply textured, as du Toit allows the grimaces and pain of his Planetpeople to be seen without the camouflage of the riotous colours he used before.
The inhabitants of PlanetPaul have developed bodies in some instances; they are maturing as he is. Their increasingly complex social relationships are explored in some of the recent work, which moves away from the sometimes claustrophobic compositions of the single form caged in a portrait. Sometimes quizzical, tormented, pained or slightly amused; PlanetPaul is a place where we cannot but empathize with its populace.
New York art historian and critic Professor John T. Spike personally nominated Paul to take part in the Florence Biennale of 2001 where Paul received a Medal Award for his sculptural work from the City of Florence. Paul du Toit was on the shortlist for the South Africa DaimlerChrysler Sculpture Award of 2002. PlanetPaul's April 2004 debut in the Manhattan art world was an auspicious and solid first landing. His paintings and sculptures have been placed in major corporate collections and successfully auctioned at Sotheby's with resultant placement of works in notable private American collections in Denver and New York.
Kresta Tyler Johnson, arts journalist and critic, London, England reflects as follows on du Toit's work in 2006: "Paul du Toit is a South African artist who has carved a unique niche in the international arena. Beyond being able to access and be exhibited globally, du Toit has simultaneously continued to create a very personal form of art that has not adjusted itself to the demands of a commercial art market. Simply said, du Toit has also been able to create art for art's sake. The cliche may be tired, but it is truly applicable in his case. Du Toit's art is his own; a linear, phantasmic world he has created from his mind and experiences. This is his art."
Lecture / Walkabout : Saturday 16 September 2006: 10:00 - 12:00
You are invited to interact with the artist at this lecture and walkabout
Please book at 011 489 2556
Annali Dempsey
Curator: UJ Art Gallery
011 489 2099
aedempsey@uj.ac.za
|
