Branch Study. Oil on canvas

Branches Oil on canvas

Fish Raft Oil on canvas

Fourteen Pomegranates. Oil on canvas

Background to my art
The Flemish Primitives, Rembrandt, super realism and Biedermeir painting are among the many influences that lie behind my work. Other great influences have been the works of the Romantics and Neo-Classicists such as Turner and Constable, Ingres and David.
Contemporary artists who helped form my vision and whom I admire are:
Gerhard Richter
Anselm Kiefer
Christian Boltanski
My subject matter derives from religious art of the Middle Ages, Dutch genre painting and South African historical references.

At present, I am in the process of consolidating many of my subjects and also, more importantly, elaborating on the theme of branches and skies by painting large scale works (3mx 2m and bigger).
My paintings are anachronistic.
One of the challenges I face in my work is to reintegrate the subjects and symbols of previous eras into an artwork with 21st century sensibilities. This sometimes works and at other times leads to different explorations of subject matter. No matter what the outcome, the painted surface will eventually host an image which pleases my vision. Thus failed paintings often yields  work which leads on to other research topics such as my experiments with the raft of the Medusa and natural grids produced by random branch arrangements.
I have considered the problem of recycling symbols, which in their original Christian contexts were very powerful. There is no reason why subjects should be avoided or ignored simply because we live in a post-Christian era. By post-Christian, I mean that the Church is no longer the political, spiritual and social power it once was, with Western society’s structures having transferred largely into secular control and the blossoming of an overtly materialistic culture. The Church is also not the driving force behind the commissioning of major artworks as in the past       
with special reference to the Renaissance. Due to the secular nature of society it would appear that the need for religious spiritual art has practically disappeared. The moral and spiritual meanings behind much religious art of past eras are often lost on contemporary audiences. What can these potent old symbols mean today and can they still be used effectively through a process of recycling?
In my work I am presenting objects such as fish, bread, cloth, various fruits and other symbols as I interpret them and juxtaposing them in different formats and combinations with a painting style I consider appropriate to the atmosphere and intensity I wish to express. In this way, with whatever memories of previous spiritual meaning that have remained in the viewer’s mind and with whatever new ideas are formed by the rehashing of these subjects, new meanings and interpretations may be made whether of a spiritual or a materialist nature. Or they may be viewed exactly as they are in a purely formal way.
My work is a form of deconstruction of the paintings of antiquity and the overlaying of my own experiences and sensibilities on the subject. Also, most important, my work is never a mockery or “piss-take” on the past.
For me, skies are a particularly potent symbol, which is why I have a whole body of work devoted to them. They can range from a mood of serenity to one of apocalyptic terror and I use them to reinforce whatever atmosphere I need to convey in a painting or simply to paint them as visual experience.
I often use subjects from South African history such as the Anglo Boer War and the Zulu Wars and use these as backdrops in conjunction with other symbols.
In my  work, the bowl and pomegranate have become a metaphor for the human body.
See Pomegranate Myths
Recently in 2010, I have been basing work on an inspiration after viewing Gericault's "The Raft of the Medusa". I was fascinated by the grid arrangement of the raft and this coincided with my viewing the chaotic, natural grid arrangements of cut and fallen branches. I am producing a body of paintings based on this.

CV of James de Villiers

Email

Phone: 083 763 8216

Born 1954 in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal

Presently living in Johannesburg, Gauteng

Republic of South Africa

EXHIBITIONS AND ACTIVITIES (selection)

· 1981 Orange Free State (OFS) Technikon Old Students Exhibition

· 1985 One person exhibition at the Market Gallery, Johannesburg

· 1989 University of South Africa (UNISA) student exhibition, Pretoria

· 1991 OFS Technikon 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Bloemfontein

· 1991 UNISA student exhibition, Pretoria

· 1991 Kempton Park Art Competition, overall and category winner

· 1992 "Made in August" exhibition at the Newtown Galleries, Johannesburg

· 1992 Demonstration at the annual South African Art Historians Conference, UNISA, Pretoria

· 1992 Usable Art, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Johannesburg

1992 101 Miniatures, ICA, Johannesburg

· 1993 Group Show, Anti-Gravity Gallery, Rosebank, Johannesburg

· 1993 "Drawing with light", group show, ICA, Johannesburg

· 1993 Alternative Photographic Print Workshop, University Witwatersrand and the ICA with Bob Cnoops

· 1993 Group Show, Newtown Galleries, Johannesburg

· 1993 Johannesburg Corporate Art, a group show at the Artists Co-Operative, Midrand

· 1993 One-person exhibition at the Long Gallery, S A Association of Art Gallery, Cape Town

· 1994 Group Show at the ICA, Johannesburg

· 1994 "Biting The Ballot", Rembrandt Gallery, Johannesburg

· 1994 Co-designed and worked on the Bensusan Photographic Museum, Museum Africa, Johannesburg

· 1994 Started Newtown Artspace, used for Biennale Fringe activities and studio space

· 1995 Fringe coordinator for Africus Johannesburg Biennale

· 1995 Curators Choice Exhibition, Rembrandt Gallery, Johannesburg

· 1995 Started De Villiers Gallery in Fairview, Johannesburg

· 1996 "Landscapes", two man show at Gallery Palette, Pretoria Art Gallery with Pieter Swanepoel

· 1996 Small Spaces Gallery opened at Carfax, Johannesburg

· 1997 Designed and constructed "Sinclair Beiles and The Beat Hotel" for the French Institute at Carfax

· 1997 Curated Eurovirus Exhibitions and exhibited on same

· 1997 Participated as an artist in Jahn Beukes’ "Group Spiral" music production

· 1998 Left Carfax to start Gallery111, Kimberley Rd, Johannesburg

· 1998 Curated various shows at Gallery 111

· 1998 Participated in group show, " Buttons" at the Civic Gallery, Johannesburg

· 1999 Participated in group exhibition touring Mexico and the US, "Transmigrations 1999" with installation "Architecture of Air" and accompanying soundscape by Andi Spicer.

· 2000 Gallery 111 at Lancaster Square, Kensington. Curated 13 exhibitions and events.

· 2001 Gallery 111.3 project in Fairview.

· 2002 Completion of Botsotso/111 Poetry CD project, "Purple Light Mirror in the Mud".

The South African leg of the Transmigrations Exhibition with a reworked installation piece titled:

'The Architecture of Air -11 September'

· 2003 Worked with composer Andi Spicer on the Auto-da-Fé contemporary classical music CD.

· 2003 Temporarily re-opened Gallery 111 as an experimental music venue

· 2004 Exhibited on group shows at Gordart Gallery, Melville "For the Record/Off the Record". Organised and performed in "Mayday Experimental music evening" at Gordart. Exhibited in Christmas Miniature show.

· 2005 January 16 - February 9: Exhibition "Forty Hand painted Pictures" at Gordart Gallery

March11 - 18: "Earth & Sky" at the Gerard Sekoto Gallery, Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg

· 2006 "Nature Morte" a solo exhibition at the Gordart gallery in Melville, Johannesburg

· 2007-During this year I worked steadily on producing more work and branched out into various techniques including pencil,acrylic and pastel

· 2007-During this year I worked steadily producing more work and branched out into various techniques including pencil,acrylic and pastel

· 2008 Carried on painting. Started work on a Poetry CD production with AlanHorwitz from the Botsotso Jesters.

· 2009 Working on two new series of paintings:1. "Meditations on the Raft of the Medusa". 2. Paintings based on fields of stone and thoughts about archaeology.

· 2009 Participated in GTZ International Photographic workshop and exhibition, "Diversity, the impulse for development".

War and Hate  group exhibition at Right on the Rim, Arts on Main, Johannesburg

· 2010 March: Exhibited "Earth & Sky" at Right on the Rim at Arts on Main in Johannesburg.

December: Organised Ashley Johnson’s “Primal “ exhibition at  Arts on Main.

Release of CD “Roots and Branches”

· 2011 Participated in the  Leonard Cohen exhibition, “Altered Pieces” curated by Gordon Froud

· 2012 Started on large scale oil paintings of branches and skies. Also working on illustrations for a poetry book


Welcome to the website of James de Villiers

I have been working on the theme of branches and grid patterns in nature. This has lead me to explore a more abstract method of expression. Along with the almost abstract colour field qualities of my sky paintings, interesting paintings are starting to develop.

A new development is revisiting older themes, having been inspired by a trip to Belgium in August 2011 where I looked at many of  the Flemish Primitives in detail.

Site always  under construction

Gallery 111 New work in progress
Memento Mori, Oil on board
I have paintings for sale at
Work in Progress
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Fragile   Oil on board