Notes

Following the completion of his Masters degree, Louw departed from Neo-expressionism as a visual vocabulary toward more simplified, monumental compositions rendered in a monochromatic palette.

Painted in 1997 during the turbulent early period of South Africa’s new democracy, this diptych is part of a powerful body of work featuring men in dramatically compressed and psychologically charged interiors, tempting some to read into its socio-political undertones.

‘The use of a palette, almost entirely reduced to shades of gray, dominates Louw’s painting in the middle to latter part of the 1990s … The reduced palette and amorphous interior spaces inhabited exclusively by men create an atmosphere of conspiratorial foreboding.’¹

1. Stefan Hundt. (2007) Johann Louw, Cape Town: Koerikai Document Solutions. Page 6.

Provenance

Purchased by the current owner from the Association for Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery, Cape Town. November 1996.

Exhibited

Sanlam Art Gallery, Bellville, Johann Louw: A Mid-Career Retrospective, 19 September to 2 November 2007. Travelled to: Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria; Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein and SASOL Art Museum, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, 2008 - 2009.

Literature

Stefan Hundt (ed.) (2007). Johann Louw, Cape Town: Sanlam Life Insurance Ltd. Illustrated in colour on pages 26 and 27.