Notes

Peter Clarke's paintings from the 1970s represent his achievement of a fluent and mature style. The magical-realist works of this period represent the synthesis of a journey that started two decades earlier. In 1952, while working at the docks in Simon's Town, Clarke's watercolours generated public notice. Four years later, aged 27 and still living with his family, Clarke quit his harbour job to pursue painting. He had sufficient savings to keep him going for three months. Clarke's commitment and talent was matched by his formal daring. Proficient in oil, watercolour and gouache, Clarke also drew, photographed, produced artists' books, and wrote poetry and fiction. Clarke did not narrowly pigeonhole himself as an artist, neither formally nor in terms of influence. His work was variously informed by German expressionism, Japanese woodblock prints, Mexican social-realist paintings and the work of Pablo Picasso.

Clarke's output, while diverse, demonstrated his abiding commitment to the human form. The lithe figure in this composition is typical of his portrayal of long-limbed young subjects. Clarke produced few nude studies, although sexuality is a "minor theme" in his work.¹ This lot, which was acquired directly from the artist by jazz photographer and political photojournalist Rashid Lombard, is notable for its use of sexual innuendo. Its "naughty pleasure" is both a product of the lot's punning title and its choreographed visual signs - "a smug rooster perched on the buttocks of a man whose arched body takes up an absurd acrobatic pose, while a supine snake slithers below".²

Of note, in 1975 Clarke also painted a naked female figure holding a rooster aloft in a composition entitled Desire. Clarke also attended the renowned University of Iowa writing programme in the United States. Two decades earlier, in 1955, he won the Drum International Short Story Award, beating now-canonical writers Richard Rive and Cyprian Ekwensi.

1. Elizabeth Rankin and Philippa Hobbs. (2011) Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke, Johannesburg: Standard Bank of South Africa. Page 196.
2. Ibid. Page 196.

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by Rashid Lombard, photo-journalist and founder of the Cape Town International Jazz Festival

Exhibited

Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke, 2 May to 2 July 2011

Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke, 20 October 2011 to 19 February 2012

Literature

Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin. (2011) Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke. Johannesburg: Standard Bank of South Africa. Illustrated in colour on page 196.