I ♥ the Irma Stern Museum

We once had an Irma Stern - a pale pink beauty with a creamy skin and coy profile. Sold long ago for far too little. I dream about our lost Irma and wonder sometimes where she ended up?

One of Cape Town's best kept secrets - a little off the beaten path - is the fabulous Irma Stern Museum in Cecil Rd, Rosebank, where the artist lived in for almost four decades

 

A wonderful little garden surrounds the house filled with pieces the marvellous Ms Stern painted or collected herself

 

A quirky forthright character - Irma (1894-1966), was a major South African artist who achieved national and international recognition in her lifetime, born in 1894 to German Jewish parents in a small town in the North West Province of South Africa with the strange name Schweizer-Reneke

She studied in Berlin and Weimer and met the Expressionist, Max Pechstein in 1916 who encouraged her work and helped arranged her first exhibition in Berlin. Initially derided as an artist in Cape Town with reviews titled: "Art of Miss Irma Stern - Ugliness as a cult" -  but Irma remained passionate to her vocation

Irma's development as an artist is shown in dozens of portraits, lush landscapes and still lives

Almost 100 exhibitions were held during her lifetime in  SA, Germany, France, Italy and England

The museum is a mix of her paintings, African, European and Asian art of all sorts and antique furniture - she even painted the doorways and furniture in the house

Her method of working in her studio demanded intense concentration. She often put up a sign saying "Do not disturb" and proceeded to paint while chain smoking and drinking strong black coffee. She generally framed her own work, packed exhibitions and arranged sales herself. Apparently, when working on a portrait she would observe the model very closely, step back and view them through half closed eyes and aim to complete the painting in one sitting.

 

 

 Ms Stern described the process of art production as follows: "I work a long time at a picture in my head... I never touch the canvas after it is finished."

 

 

She painted numerous portraits of her artist friends as well as a number of the prominent German Jewish writers and intellectuals of South Africa

And travelled extensively in Europe, Southern Africa, Zanzibar and the Congo, her trips providing subject matter for her paintings and giving her opportunities to acquire an eclectic collection of artifacts for her home



In 1931 she visited Madeira and Dakar, Senegal, in 1937 and 1938.
A letter from the artist, June 1937, written from Brussels, describes some of these travel plans:
"... after Holland - a week in Paris for sights and hats and pictures... - then Salsburg Festspiele for a week - then Vienna. After that Italy - and I start working - there and in Marseille and on my back I am staying a month in Dakkar... We hope there will be no war - things are so unsettled just now."

 
These expeditions resulted in a wealth of artistic creativity and energy as well as the publication of two illustrated journals; Congo published in 1943 and Zanzibar in 1948


Malay girl with hibiscus - one of my favourites painted in the war year of 1944 - the artist responded to the exotic as an escape from world events, in the manner of Matisse in the South of France during the 2nd World War or Gauguin in his South Sea bubble

Above Watussi Woman, famous for her beauty - Emma Bakayishonga - in the court of a Watussi king in the Belgian Congo.
In her journal Congo, published in 1943, Ms Stern describes the richness of the country and the untainted indigenous people in a sort of Noble Savagey Rousseauian manner:
 "At night the forest glows with swarming fire-flies, and a buzzing and singing begins, a dark, heaving noise of frogs; the insects sound at night like a huge orchestra. The forest is alive with animals... It is all like prehistoric days when man was still in his childhood."


Above - The Lemon Pickers
"I am on the road to the interior of the Belgian Congo. The Congo has always been for me the symbol of Africa, the very heart of Africa. The sound "Congo" makes my blood dance, with the thrill of excitement; it sounds to me like distant native drums and a heavy tropical river flowing, its water gurgling in mystic depths."

Portrait of a sad-eyed Indian Woman 1936

In Zanzibar the artist describes Indian women in purdah and painted this gorgeous rich piece


She describes Arab men wearing turbans and white robes and the food market: ".. fish are brought in straight from the sea, huge skites, small vivid blue fish with yellow stripes, silvery kinds, red roman, enormous lobsters as made of turquoise matrix, phantastic huge turtles-all came out of the tropical sea. The stall had a daily surprise of strange kinds of fruit and vegetables. A pale yellow grapefruit called ballunga intrigued me. When I opened it the flesh was a lovely pink embedded in a heavy woollen white...."

Among the collection my beautiful Aunt Lorraine Edelstein's serene torso of white marble with her daughter Andy M and husband Glen

Susie in January 2009 in front of the portrait of an Indian Woman

And Mr P with Irma's famous "Hunt"

Angelic Jessica L, with painted Irma wings

And her mom, Orly L - my galleriest companion

The guest exhibition - you can hire the space - was of the delightful Jill Trapler's - series entitled "No Trace of Vertigo"

A collection of pained, collaged and 3-D clothing made of rice paper, painted in bright colours
 

"‘Notion of being’ refers to the life-size objects of clothing which are woven or constructed from painted and stained canvas. They are informed by memories, imaginings, and play; lives that have been lived now occupy these garments":  so says Ms Trappler

"They have inhabited my dreams in different ways either worn by me or unknown others.” 

 
Collaged paper skirt in bright hues.

Mixed media works come from many different sources - Trappler’s own woven objects - tapestries -  real dresses, images from books, garments seen, dreams or the artist’s imagination

"Redolent of absence, they carry the imprint of imagined or real bodies, evoking associations with different people, cultures, rituals and seasons"

"Colour, marks, shapes, decorative motifs and texture suggest notions of cultural opposites – from delicate lace to strong chevrons, from bold patterns inspired by Chinese plastic to a shamanistic image from South America"

"Some are no longer recognisable as clothes or cloth. These garments never covered real bodies, yet they are anthropomorphised and speak directly to the personal experiences or emotions of the onlooker."

The ritual of transformation is captured and the 'cloth'  become a metaphor for garments worn and imagined

Love this pretty daisy dress - a field of spring flowers moulded into a gorgeous but entirely unwearable confection

And this large lady's patterned sheath dress squeaking at the seams over an invisible derriere

And here is our own very sexy young artist friend Helen Benigson aka Princess Belsize Dollar - advertising her solo show “Swimming to the Roses" held at the Irma Stern at the end of 2009

A determinedly naked Ms B holding a PlayBoy mag aloft, does a little self promotion with Daddy B in the b.g.
The spiel says she is "a video artist and rapper who layers colours, print, sound and objects to create hyper-hysterical, dreamlike multimedia installations."

Helen's eye-view - she has her own TV Channel and website http://www.helenbenigson.com/ which promotes her work under titles such as "Saturation between my Legs" and "Super Wet - A Women's only Beach" - the Chance Muse has only admiration for such single minded dedication to the shrine of art

Helen's world view - an illuminated globe painted Princess B's favourite colour - shocking - or otherwise - pink - a great pun on the map of the Brit Empire of my schooldays

A rose tinted view. Africa, mon amour, je t'aime

PBD's fabulously frenzied colourful psychedelic lightboxes

 

And fabulous colourful Mama and brother dizzy Izi

Big Daddy Victor with music-mogul beard

An audience of CT's beautiful people in suitably jewel-like shades and adorable pouts 

Tantalising Tash with snack in someone famous and lots of lippy

In sync with the ethos of the show - florescent pink patent killer heels with matching pedi and duct tape

The Princess of Belsize Park calls herself "Video Artist, Rapper, Lover and Sushi Addict" and lists "Eminem, Match of The Day, Poker, sunworshipping and moisturising" - among her many pastimes. The Lux.org web reads: "Benigson makes narrative–based videos, where she layers saturated colour, pulsating sound, print and high anxiety symbols (sushi, palm trees, soldiers, poker). Her aim is to create highly visceral environments, concerned with current biology / technology and sexy images and sounds."

 

Here she is in daring swimming attire floating on a sexy sea - or is this her doppelganger cousin Jess, who looks almost identical - though not actually when you know her. PBD's performances "referencing pop culture, contemporary game playing and animation are played out in psychedelic digital carnivals, which repetitively enact the blurred boundaries between performer, producer and spectator innate to on-line video sharing."  
So now you know

The Chance Muse loves roses and pink and sushi too - though not as much as PBD

All in all - a gorgeous life-affirming, feminine, feminist show in a fabulous setting

With amazing colourful eats displayed like works of art by a very talented flavour of the month chef. Irma would have approved!

After all, she had a penchant for pink too...


Her portrait of a woman wearing rosey-hued Hijab - not sure the colour will catch on in the Malay Quarter - has been auctioned in CT this week for nearly a million pounds sterling!
Bina Genovese of auction company Strauss & Co: “Irma Stern’s Portrait of a Woman Wearing a Pink Hijab, which depicts a woman swathed in drapery that concentrates all attention on her expressive face, is at once a thoughtful portrait of an individual and an evocation of the cultures that have enriched Africa and the place she called home.”

Right on Irma!