Artists

Moses Kottler was born in Joniskis, Lithuania, in the last decade of the 1800s; sources differ as to whether he was born in 1892 or 1896. His parents immigrated to South Africa in 1910, but Kottler did not join as he was studying at the Bezalel School of Art in Jerusalem. After this, he attended the Munich Art Academy and then moved to Paris in the middle of 1913. The following year, at the outbreak of World War I, Kottler joined his parents in Oudtshoorn. He stayed there until 1916 when he relocated to Cape Town. Here, he met and befriended cartoonist DC Boonzaier, joined and exhibited with the South African Society of Artists, and completed several commission portraits – in both painting and sculpture. In 1929, Kottler and his wife Eva left for Europe, returning in 1932 to settle in Johannesburg. He joined the New Group after it was founded in 1938, served on the advisory committee of the Johannesburg Art Gallery for many years, received a medal for sculpture from the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns in 1965, and was honoured with a retrospective exhibition that toured the Pretoria Art Museum, Iziko South African National Gallery, and Johannesburg Art Gallery between 1974 and 1975.

Kottler was a painter and sculptor, but after 1924, he focused solely on sculpting. He is considered one of the most highly regarded South African sculptors and is famous for his many portraits of influential South Africans, including Jan Smuts, Sir Maximillian Michaelis, Gregoire Boonzaier, and General Louis Botha. Kottler’s works are in important art collections such as the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, Johannesburg Art Gallery, and the National Portrait Gallery in London, UK.