Notes

‘There’s a sadness in my paintings, I use Namibia as a medium for the colonial collapse, the transition, as in South Africa today (the years leading up to South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994), from the old order to the new. The physical language is so aggressive and hostile. At the end of it all, though, Africa will be there forever. Long after all the schemes and dreams have passed, it remains the ultimate winner.’¹

The present lot epitomises the central themes and influences of the remarkable South African realist/surrealist artist Keith Alexander, and it reveals how memories from his life experience were synthesized into recurring motifs in his distinctively photorealist and surrealist paintings. In this expansive and seductive landscape, Alexander evokes the eery beauty of the Namibian desert set against the magnificent almost mirage like distant blue mountains. He incorporates a recurring subject, the quintessential abandoned home, a reminder and remnant of greed and opulence that was built on a diamond rush that was not to last.

There is something both romantic and unsettling about the foreground, the partly buried black and white paving that conjures the grandeur of a former era, perhaps a ballroom where couples danced the night away. Here nature is reclaiming the landscape with a pair of resilient daisy bushes flourish again and cast a single dark shadow from the unseen setting sun.

This painting recalls Alexander’s past that began on a 10 000-acre farm his family owned in the country of his birth, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). His recollections of boarding school in London where the damage sustained during war-time bombing raids still lingered, and upon his return to southern Africa, he became increasingly aware of the contradictions inherent in his deeply politically charged upbringing.

He studied art at the then University of Natal, a decision based on affordability, and majored in sculpture but his honour’s thesis led him to an exploration of Surrealism. He studied the work of Salvador Dali, Joan Miró, Max Ernst and Rene Magritte. After university, he attempted to make a living as a sculptor but with minimal success. In 1974, he started painting instead. "My perception of what art should be had begun to change. In fact, I came to the realisation that I wasn’t a sculptor at all. Gradually, my thoughts turned towards putting paint on canvas, and also to the Surrealism I had researched for my honours thesis."²

A key aspect to understanding the life and work of Keith Alexander is the love story between him and his wife Elizabeth White. They met in 1972 when Elizabeth purchased a sculpture from him at an exhibition and commissioned a second one. She immediately recognised his potential and became both his muse and his business manager. On their honeymoon they travelled to the quiet towns in southern Namibia, which was a turning point for the artist as he fell in love with the desert. On annual visits, they continued to explore the Namib desert and travelled throughout Africa and visited Madagascar, but it was the desert that enabled him to create a language of his own through which he could articulate his personal vision.

The years leading up to South Africa’s first democratic election in 1994 were characterised by turmoil and uncertainty – television screens and print news media were flooded with disturbing images of political and social unrest, which caused a sense of fear and impotence. Keith Alexander experienced this along with other South Africans but instead of depicting violence and bloodshed directly, his images are often dark and foreboding, sometimes with symbolic images of destruction such as flames and veld fires.

Sadly, Elizabeth was diagnosed with cancer, and during her treatment, Keith himself fell ill with a brain tumour. The couple supported each other, side by side, until Keith’s untimely demise on 17 November 1998. Elizabeth passed away six months later.

^1. David Robbins (2000) Keith Alexander: The Artist in Retrospect, Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, page 24.

^2. Ibid, page 16.

Literature

David Robbins (2000) Keith Alexander: The Artist in Retrospect, Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, illustrated in colour on page 151.