OUT OF THE HEART OF DARKNESS
Oil paint on canvas
685 X 838mm
Framed
Sold
This work forms part of the Portrait 100 (Portrait Award /2021) Exhibition at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch. The exhibition runs from 4 September 2021 – 28 November 2021.
“Portrait 100 is a carefully curated collection of some of the best contemporary portraiture South Africa has to offer.” Quote by Rupert Museum.
Out of the Heart of Darkness is 1 of 919 portraits entered into the biennial National Portrait Award Competition. 2021 is the 5th year the competition has been run. The exhibition was adjudicated by a panel consisting of Lucia Burger (Art critic and collector), Robyn Cedras-Tobin (Director of the Rupert Museum) and Stefan Hundt (Curator of the Sanlam Art Collection).
The top 100 of the 919 entries are exhibited – 60 at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch and 40 at the Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in Durbanville.
Detail of Out of the Heart of Darkness.
Out of the Heart of Darkness was inspired by a photograph I took while on a relief mission to Zimbabwe some years ago. A friend and I had taken 1,5 tons of food to be distributed in the rural district close to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. An elderly gentlemen had received his allocation of food and was walking away from the distribution point when I took the photo. His posture and very demeanour speaks volumes of the years of toil and struggle, first under an imperial colonial power of exploitation and then continued under the country’s liberationists.
The title initially had no connection to the novel with a similar name, authored by Joesph Conrad and published in 1902, “Heart of Darkness”. I had read the book many years ago, and it may be that deep within my memory was the title. Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness, examines the horrors of Western colonialism, depicting it as a phenomenon that tarnishes not only the lands and peoples it exploits but also those in the West who advance it. My painting is found deep within the Heart of Darkness, yet is an expression of a yearning and longing to escape, to be liberated from it’s bondages, to be able to be set free, “Out of the Heart of Darkness“.
Click on the link to read the full story including photographs and details of the painting, STUCK IN THICK MUD IN RURAL ZIMBABWE OPENS UP 1 IN 919 DREAM OPPORTUNITY!
The painting is rendered in dark earthy tones. I had been researching and experimenting with Rembrandt’s paint techniques and felt that the tones were particularly suitable for the work. Glazing was used extensively to achieve a richness and depth of colour.