Notes

“Die triptiek Nightscape het ek in 1995 vir R30,000 by die Strydom Galery (gekoop, nadat dit amper ’n jaar lank vir die publiek beskikbaar was. Ek dink dis in die vroeë 1990s geskilder. Vir 25 jaar probeer ek al die raaisels waarmee hierdie misterieuse triptiek gelaai is, ontsyfer, en ek sal sekerlik vir die res van my lewe nog geniet om dit te doen.

Ek assosieer Nightscape met die plaas Eensaamheid van die Reineckes omdat ek dikwels daar was, omdat Pinker en sy beste vriende dikwels daar gekuier het, en omdat die swart hond lyk soos Erik Laubscher s’n. Maar dit kon baie ander lekke gewees het. Rod Wengrowe, wat my dikwels by Strydom & Jordaan, en later die Strydom Galery besoek het (hy was ’n Kaapse handelsreisiger deur wie ek byvoorbeeld Belgiese linne vir ons raamafdeling ingevoer het), was ook ’n lid van die Pinker-vriendekring. “Hulle het graag saam by die Wengrowes se vakansiehuis op Vanwyksdorp gekuier. Die werk kon ook daar ontstaan het. Hoe dit ook al sy, toe Nightscape geskilder is was die inhoud van ’n skildery vir Pinker lank reeds belangriker as die plek wat dit geïnspireer het. En hier is die inhoud onuitputlik. Die agtergrondkleur is groen en geel, wat sê, dis hier, ons land. Die oliedrom en watertenk kry jy op meeste plase. Dit, en die huis verskyn in die middelste en regterkantste paneel van die triptiek. Dis nag op dieselfde plaas. Die mense in die huis rustig aan die slaap, onbewus van die geluidlose aktiwiteite buite. ’n Benouende atmosfeer, belig deur die volmaan wat in die regterkantste paneel opkom, weerkaats in volle glorie op die water in die vierkantige tenk in die sentrale skildery. In die linkerhandse paneel is die maan aan’t sakke.

Links en regs is daar ’n pienk engel in vlug, regs met ’n sweeftuig en links met haar eie vlerke. Hier is daar verdere tekens van moontlike onheil. Op links het die engel ’n mensskedel in die hand. Sy word gekonfronteer deur ’n sentour. In die Griekse mitologiese is dit gewoonlik ’n perd met ’n menslike bo-lyf en kop. Pinker het dit gesuidafrikaniseer deur die perd met ’n bontebok te vervang, wat tuis is in ons fynbos- en renosterbosstreke.

Tradisioneel is die sentour geassosieer met barbarisme en wanordelikheid. In die linkertafereel word ons verder gekonfronteer met ’n blou hiért-joubliksempie wat gewoonlik bedoel is om mens te laat skrik of op te beur, maar oorspronklik verwys het na ’n konkelaar of swendelaar, iets wat deesdae in ons land so volop is.”

“I bought the triptych Nightscape in 1995 for R30,000 from the Strydom Gallery, after it had been available to the public for almost a year. I think it was painted in the early 1990s.

For 25 years I tried to solve the mystery of this triptych and decipher it, and I will surely enjoy doing so for the rest of my life. I associate Nightscape with the farm Solitude of the Reineckes because I have often been there. After all, Pinker and his best friends often visited there, and because the black dog looks like Erik Laubscher’s. But it could have been many other places. Rod Wengrowe, who often visited me at Strydom & Jordan, and later the Strydom Gallery (he was a Cape travelling salesman through whom I imported, for example, Belgian linen for our frame department), was also a member of the Pinker circle of friends. ‘They liked to visit together at the Wengrowes’ holiday home in Vanwyksdorp. The work could also have originated there. Be that as it may, when Nightscape was painted, the content of a painting had long been more important to Pinker than the place that inspired it.

And here the content is inexhaustible. The background colour is green and yellow, which says, this is our country. You will find the oil drum and water tank on most farms. The house appears in the centre and right panels of the triptych. It’s night on the same farm. The people in the house sleeping peacefully, oblivious to the noiseless activities outside. An oppressive atmosphere, illuminated by the full moon rising in the right panel, reflects in full glory on the water in the square tank in the central painting. In the left-hand panel, the moon is setting. Left and right there is a pink angel in flight, right with a glider and left with her wings. Here there are further signs of possible mischief.

On the left, the angel has a human skull in his hand. She is confronted by a centaur. In Greek mythology, a centaur is usually a horse with a human torso and head. Pinker South Africanised it by replacing the horse with an ibex, at home in our fynbos and rhino forest regions. Traditionally, the centaur was associated with barbarism and disorder. In the left scene we are further confronted with a blue jack-in-the-box which is usually meant to scare or cheer people up, but originally referred to a con man or swindler, something that is so abundant in our country these days.” —Dr Matthys J Strydom, 2021

Provenance

Dr Matthys Johannes Strydom Family Collection.

Literature

Matthys Strydom (2021) Nog Stories Teen My Muur, George: LW Hiemstra Trust, illustrated in colour on page 75.