Artists

Brian Bradshaw was appointed professor of Fine Art at Rhodes University in 1960. His inaugural lecture, The Culture Plan: World Techniques in Uniformity, criticised the reigning orthodoxy of social realism in the UK at the time, and proposed replacing it in South Africa with a strident expressionism. Bradshaw’s use of thick impasto, and his aggressive forms, were weighted with the dignified atmosphere specific to a place, engulfed in sunlight and surrounded by opulent, vibrating colour. His influence is apparent in the work of the artists of the Grahamstown Group and his students, including Robert Brooks, Noel Hodnett, Neil Rodger, Penny Siopis and Christopher Till.