“(Un)known | (On)bekend” – August 2024
Strauss & Co is pleased to announce that it will once again collaborate with art collectors and philanthropists Frank and Lizelle Kilbourn in hosting August Art Month at Welgemeend, a vibrant month-long programme of activities at Welgemeend manor house in central Cape Town. A joint initiative of the volunteer group Friends of Welgemeend and Kilbourn family, the eleventh edition of this boutique arts and culture event will run from 1–31 August 2024. As is tradition, the 2024 edition of August Art Month at Welgemeend is anchored by a curated exhibition of modern and contemporary art from the Kilbourn family collection.
This year’s exhibition is titled (On)bekend / (Un)known and will showcase lesser known and under-estimated artists as well as sometimes atypical examples of work by acclaimed artists like Cathy Abrahams, Norman Catherine, Willem Boshoff, Igshaan Adams, Walter Meyer, Karel Nel, Berni Searle, Jarryd Ginsberg and Moses Tladi.
The Friends of Welgemeend was established in 2007 as a voluntary association. An extract from the Friends’ Constitution summarises its main purpose:
- To support and participate in the advancement, promotion and preservation of the historic homestead of Welgemeend (birthplace of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr in 1845) and that of the artworks, books and documents known as the Boerneef Collection (donated by the author I.W. van der Merwe, whose nom-de-plume this was) and other artworks, books and documents housed there and in the adjacent buildings of the Hoërskool Jan van Riebeeck.
- To foster a wider public interest, firstly in both the Homestead and the Art Collection, and secondly a wider appreciation both of the visual arts and of early Cape architecture and other related fields of interest.
