Beguiling: The Self and The Subject
Various Artists at Irma Stern MuseumTo beguile is to deploy charm, flattery and beauty in order to divert attention from an act or specific content. It is the most delightful form of trickery, enjoyable as it is deceitful, and hence often easily forgiven.
Artists negotiate their selves in every work they create. In this sense a portrait can reveal as much about the artist as the sitter, or the subject as the case may be. When we read an artwork that utilizes the body, in one way or another, we not only read the subject, but into the artist - formally locating them in their era. We read this all through that context which is ourselves, and so every portrait has the power to beguile.
Beguiling: the Self and the Subject initiates a long neglected conversation between contemporary artwork dealing with aspects of the body and Irma Stern’s portraits. In so doing it encompasses a broad negotiation of the use of the body as a conduit for investigating the social and existential, through unlocking the relationship between the subject, the artist, the viewer, the captured, the projected and the portrait.
Curated by Kirsty Cockerill, the exhibition includes work by: Lisa Brice, Steven Cohen, Georgina Gratrix, Hasan & Husain, Essop, Pieter Hugo, Zanele Muholi, Andrew Putter, Claudette Schreuders, Guy Tillim, Nontsikelelo Veleko, Sue Williamson, and Irma Stern.
09 July - 30 July
