Notes

Peter Schütz began carving in wood shortly after his German immigrant family arrived in South Africa in 1952. His father worked as an architect at the Mariannhill Mission Society in Durban, where Schütz had formative encounters in the carpentry workshop. His formal art training in Durban coincided with the emergence of Pop Art. His early sculptures reiterated the graphic clarity and wit of this art movement. St Lucy is representative of his later practice from the 1990s until his death in 2008. Catholic icons and martyrdom featured prominently in this work. Made from smooth-grained jelutong dressed in oil paint, typically bold primaries, the present work depicts the murdered Christian martyr Lucia of Syracuse (283-304). The brilliant apple green is typical of works from this period. "In bringing the suffering saints into our contemporary world via a style of representation derived from comic books mixed with traditional and commercial religious imagery, Schütz seeks to evoke human presence and sacred themes in terms that he feels are appropriate to a contemporary audience," writes artist, colleague and friend Walter Oltmann.¹ Known for his deadpan wit, Schütz offered his own interpretation: "Saints are just like us but better at being better."²

1. Walter Oltmann. (2015) 'Of Relics, Icons and Idols', in Peter Schütz, An Eye on the World, Johannesburg: Wits Art Museum. Page 46.
2. Peter Schütz. (2002) in KKNK 2002, catalogue, Johannesburg: Sasol. Page 37.