Notes

The title Temple of the Sun was first introduced in Preller’s Pretoria exhibition of 1963, which included a series of seven paintings dedicated to the theme. The artist’s tendency to undertake several variations of a concept resulted in numerous similar versions of this leitmotif that he produced over the following years. Temple of the Sun (Red Temple), 1966, replicates Gold Temple’s form replacing a red shade for the gold leaf and an azure ground in place of black (see Berman/Nel Collected Images page 211). Individual titles were used to identify separate works: The African Temple; The Great Temple etc, even an earlier version of The Gold Temple which predated the painting discussed here.

Prior to this work, however, these abstracts were additively produced – whereby the artist would work from the base layer, developing the form by adding paint on top of the canvas surface. His account of the chance events that delivered this painting’s final form is as follows:

“A spark of inspiration had ignited while [Preller] was developing an emblematic concept on an abstract foundation of gold leaf. Somehow the desired form was failing to emerge and he had reached that moment of despair when he felt that he had lost control. In desperation, he seized a roller and proceeded to coat the canvas with black paint to obliterate the existing brushwork. Halfway through he paused, horrified by what he was doing, and began to wipe away the wet black paint. Again he came to a sudden halt, arrested this time by what he saw before him. The remaining streaks of black had transformed the partly realized underlying emblem into a mysterious gilded form, with hints of time-worn symbols half-hidden in the shadowed surface.
Whereas the contours of his recent decorative concepts were precisely drawn and taut, this accidental composition was spontaneous and informal…he had exactly the effect he could have wished for. It was indeed a striking visual statement. He called it Gold Temple.”¹

Preller did not employ gold leaf in his paintings of this period solely for its decorative value: “Gold, he felt, reflected the divine light of spirituality. It had distinct associations with the sacred solar disc of the Egyptians; it symbolised the radiance of enlightenment to Buddhists…it has distinct symbolic value.”²

¹ Berman, Esmé and Nel, Karel. Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows. Shelf Publishing, Johannesburg, 2009, page 246
² Berman, Esmé and Nel, Karel. Alexis Preller: Collected Images. Shelf Publishing, Johannesburg, 2009, page 209-211

Exhibited

Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows, 13 October to 5 December 2009

Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows, 22 December 2009 to 28 February 2010

Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, Alexis Preller Retrospective, 24 October to 26 November 1972, catalogue number 117

Literature

Berman, Esmé and Nel, Karel. Alexis Preller: Collected Images. Shelf Publishing, Johannesburg, 2009, illustrated in colour on pages 208 and 209

Berman, Esmé and Nel, Karel. Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows. Shelf Publishing, Johannesburg, 2009, illustrated in colour on page 247