Kin Bentley In Line: The art of politics

Friday, May 11, 2012

The art of politics

Barred from about 2004 from writing anything political for the Herald in Port Elizabeth, where I had worked since 1988, first as a reporter and then as a sub, I still managed to get the odd letter published in the Sunday Times. This posting also includes my art reviews over a six-month period in late 2006 and early 2007. (To read these articles, hold down shift and left click and they come up larger. Click again on the image and it gets larger still.)

I got the 'second lead' on the letters page in the Sunday Times on October 1, 2006. The page was devoted to responses to two articles the previous week by Times editor Mondli Makhanya and columnist Justice Malala. Mondli, who I have not yet met, writes one of the best and most readable columns around. He is now editor-in-chief of the Avusa publications

It is possible to get two letters in the Sunday Times on one day. This appeared in the Times's award-winning Lifestyle supplement

This review of works by Enna Gauthier Dyckman appeared in the Herald on October 11, 2006

This, of an exhibition by Peter Midlane, appeared on October 12, 2006

The Cuyler Street gallery kept me on my toes. This appeared on October 25, 2006

I delighted in promoting up-and-coming black South African artists - but only when their work merited praise. This appeared on November 22, 2006

Mara Sapere, Linda Opperman and Louisa Pasques bore my scrutiny on November 23, 2006

And then a bit more politics. This letter appeared in the Sunday Times on November 11, 2006, at a time when the Mbeki regime was still in denial over the Aids and Zimbabwe crises

Productive. My detractors, as noted in the previous posting, delighted in hammering my reviews when I wrote something negative about shows they staged, but not a word when I praised them. The annual Exhibition of the EP Society of Arts and Crafts is still held, but since they have renamed it artEC, or suchlike, it loses its historic significance. My bet is that in time it will revert to its original name, having already survived one name change - to the EP Society of Fine Art. My reviews of both the Annual and a show by Wehrner Lemmer and Ryno Sauerman appeared on December 7, 2006

My review of Francis Sibanda's exhibition appeared on December 8, 2006

On February 2, 2007, I again had two reviews in the Herald. This group show included works by, among others, Rentia Ferns and Analie van der Merwe.

Also from February 2 is this review of graphic artists, including Alan Grobler and James Malinga

Esme Goosen's art has always appealed to me, because she works in a style so different to my own. This appeared on March 12, 2007

This review appeared on March 13, 2007

On March 22, I again had two reviews in the Herald. One was of a controversial show dominated by Alison Williams. The other featured Rick Becker and Duncan Stewart

I think you'll agree I put in a considerable amount of work to bring art to the Herald's readers. This output excludes the many previews of exhibitions I had published. Given that I also worked a normal eight-hour shift - often longer - as a paginator and sub on the Herald, you'll understand that my days were often pretty full. In a way, I am quite glad to have been relieved of the art responsibility in late 2010. It has freed me up to return to painting, and to work on things like this blog.

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About this blog

This blog has morphed from one thing to the next, and will continue to do so.

The latest offerings are of a political nature, though the main role of the blog is to put online scanned versions of my sketches, which make up the bulk of the first part.

* Earlier, I returned to a project I suspended on September 12, 2011, namely posting clilppings from my writings in the Herald newspaper in Port Elizabeth. From those you'll have gleaned that I was first prevented from writing political letters and articles critical of the ANC government.

Then my art reviews came under fire - from the hallowed halls of academia, no less.

* Before this, I posted a series of book reviews and an account of recent travels.

* There is also a short autobiographical novel, Little K and the Big World.

Below is a summary of what was posted before that. (NB. To view pictures larger, hold down "shift" and left click on the mouse. Click again to see it even larger.)

* During the 27 years I have worked as a journalist, I have kept random samples of my work. Initially, when I joined the Evening Post in Port Elizabeth in 1984, I kept a scrapbook, so those first years – when the anti-apartheid struggle really started hotting up – are fairly well covered.

By the time I joined the Eastern Province Herald in about 1988, I’d stopped collecting my stories, but I have one article I wrote that year which I think captures the mood of those dark times.

During two years in the UK – 1990 and 1991– when I worked as a correspondent for the SA Morning Newspaper group, I kept no cuttings. The same applies to the early 1990s when, back on the Herald, I covered the gradual transition to democracy. After the April 27, 1994, first non-racial elections, I moved to the sub-editing department, where I have been ever since.

When Robert Mugabe started his crackdown in 2000, I took up the pen again in a big way – and was lucky to have been given space by then editor Ric Wilson to vent my spleen in the Herald. In between, I wrote numerous book reviews and art crits, which balance out the offerings. I began this section with the more recent stuff, from 2000 onwards, and will take up this project again in 2012.

* Having all but exhausted my sketches on this blog - though I have yet to post pictures of my paintings and a few carvings - I thought I would digress into other areas of interest, and use a few of my photographs to illustrate them.

As Thabo Mbeki and the ANC set about rubbishing everything to do with our colonial past, I found myself rather cherishing what our ancestors had done here, notwithstanding my obvious detestation of the apartheid system which, had Jannie Hofmeyr lived to succeed Smuts after the Second World War, may not have happened. It is interesting to note that the National Party came to power in 1948 despite polling 100 000 fewer votes than the United Party. This was the effect of "loading" the urban constituencies.

Anyway, the East Cape has seen a fair share of interesting history down the centuries, some of which is covered here.

There is also history in stamps and envelopes. A few years back I went to a Port Elizabeth antique shop in the hopes I could acquire some old SA stamps from my youth. At first things looked bleak. The dealer only had posh albums of expensive stamps. But wait, he said, I do have a couple of black bin bags cluttering up the place somewhere, full of useless old stamps and envelopes. He gave them to me for about R100, if I recall correctly.

From these I have made several postage stamp-based artworks, photos of which I'll be posting, eventually. I also discovered a treasure trove of envelopes which had been posted to the City Treasurer of the PE Municipality as well as to the Divisional Council and another whole batch sent by dealers around South Africa to the Ford Motor Company in PE. These all date from the early 1960s, so we're talking 50 odd years ago. Each envelope tells a story.

* Initially I started this blog to illustrate how I learnt the art of drawing, after many years of toil, and how, once learnt, this skill has accompanied me throughout my life.

At each step, since about the mid-1970s, I have, where possible, made drawings that are often a more telling record than any photographs.

You will find a plethora of styles and techniques, but the bottom line – forgive the pun – is an attempt to get at the visual truth. As we go along, I explain each work and how I came to do it – that is, where I remember precisely when they were made.

* Remember, as this is a blog, the story starts from the first post and works its way upwards, as it were.

Click on the images to see them in a larger format. If you want an image to fill your computer screen, press F11. Press the same key to escape.

My thanks, again, go to my son, Douglas, who was just 16 when he helped me put together the header for this blog. Most of the more creative ideas - and all the technical expertise - in this regard were his.

Friday, May 11, 2012

The art of politics

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