Notes

Study for The Ringmaster II serves as a preliminary work for a larger and more complex painting entitled Ringmaster II, which was included in the seminal 1991 edition of the Cape Town Triennial, later purchased by the Gauteng Provincial Administration (formerly the Transvaal Provincial Administration) and is currently housed in their Johannesburg headquarters. Reworked over a decade after initial completion to include a simplified, stage-like spatial setting, the composition centres on a solitary male figure whose attire, trappings and titular role appear to prescribe a position of superiority or prestige. Upon closer inspection, the patriarch's eyes seem to be clouded by cataracts, and his posture stooped within an ill-fitting double-breasted jacket. As with The Ringmaster I and II, as well as Troupe I, II and III, the Study for The Ringmaster II can be interpreted as a meditation on the folly and futility of power. 

Barren Land — Margaret Nel, accessed: 13/09/22

Exhibited

Barriers, 2000, National Cultural History Museum, Pretoria.

Retrospective 1970 - 2017, 2017, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria.

A Focus: 11 Paintings from 1976-2000, 2021, Ebony Curated, Cape Town and Franschhoek.