Vladimir Tretchikoff dies
Vladimir Tretchikoff, better known as 'Tretchi', died in his sleep on Friday August 25 at the age of 92. Tretchi was born in Siberia in 1913 and moved to South Africa in 1946. He had been living in Cape Town for some years before his death. While ardently supported by the public, the artist never attained the respect of the contemporary art world.Although Tretchi was arguably South Africa's best known painter, his work is not included in any of the country's major collections.
He worked in oils, watercolours, ink, charcoal and pencil, but it was the the prints of his paintings that gained him the most fame, leading to the popular belief that he was second to Picasso only in popularity. His subject matter ranged from figures to portraits and still lifes and is generally regarded as sentimental and lacking in depth, but Tretchi seems to have gained some measure of credibility in the last 10 or 15 years. Tretchi prints were seen in the background of a number of popular movies including Quentin Tarrantino's Pulp Fiction. A few years ago a Tretchi painting sold on auction for a record price for a South African print. In the last few years Tretchi has been the source of more inquiries to ArtThrob from all corners of the world than any other single artist.
