From the point of view of holiday makers in South Africa passing through from Gauteng on their way to the Cape coast once or twice a year, the isolated Southern Free State town of Philippolis, like many of the small towns in this area and the adjacent Karoo, consists of only a few guest houses run by middle aged and elderly couples. The environment is usually dry and extremely hot, with dirt roads, mountainous half desert landscapes, white washed buildings from a bygone era built with thick walls and small windows to isolate the interiors from the heat. Gardens consisting of vegetable beds and grapevines, display windmills and small dams of which many are in a state of disrepair.
Laurens Van der Post
The town of Philippolis is famous for being the home town of writer and Jungian philosopher Sir Laurens van der Post, who is well known for his descriptions of ancient tribe of the San. The town has a small Van der Post Museum linked with a guesthouse as well as a rather ambitious second hand bookshop combined with a restaurant and publishing house. Here and there an entrepreneurial younger couple who prefers to live in the country can be seen roaming the dirt streets.
After a night in a town like this, even the least sensitive city dwellers have to admit that there is something unique about the atmosphere of these small towns: the brightness of the stars, the clearness and harshness of the light, the dryness of the air, a primeval kind of quietness remaining with the visitor long after he has left.
This is the atmosphere depicted in the works of architect and painter Gerrie van Tonder, who has grown up in Philippolis.
Being a self taught artist, his style has not been shaped by any of the trends of the twentieth or twenty first centuries. While it does vaguely remind of some hyperrealist works in as far as the use of an unconventional angle and composition is concerned, the artist concentrates on depicting the atmosphere, the colour of the ground, its relationship to an isolated building often in a state of melancholy disrepair more than on any exact detail.
The realism is not so much in technical detail as in his depiction of the vibrant light, the silence surrounding the scenes, the intimate memories and the authenticity of the artist’s experience of the landscape.
Karoo Impressionism
Observing some of Van Tonder’s unfinished works, one can literally see the building blocks he uses in order to obtain areas of quietness and light in the works. As such his work could best be described as Karoo Impressionism.
The compositions have the same simplicity and clean lines as the landscapes and the old buildings, often focussing on a single wall. A simple, rectangular shaped Karoo house built directly on the street would repeat the lines of the frame of the art work.
The Importance of Time
Works seen from a distance would focus on an unusual angle, and often an old windmill would be visible. States of disrepair are seldom hidden, and forms an integral part of the composition, the atmosphere and the feeling of nostalgia.
Time plays an important role in these almost meditational works. Not only does the artist remind us of the time of the day through sun and shadows, but also of the passing of time through images of decay.
The Heart of the Karoo Landscape
The heart of the Karoo landscape is ultimately revealed in an interior depicting simple furniture and décor hiding in shadows from the scourging sun.
While the scene represents a completely isolated moment in time, the small piece of afternoon light falling through the window connects the hidden interior with far away planets in a wider universe.
Fransi Phillips - Published author of poetry, short stories, novels, art books in Afrikaans and English Writer of art reviews in Afrikaans and English ...
