Last year I attended two art talks hosted by the Fynarts Festival in Hermanus. Both talks gave me pleasure in the fact that I was learning things I never knew before…and probably would never have come to know… were it not for my invested interest and attendance.

Two gems worth penning:

Re: Vincent Van Gogh

My guess is most creative enthusiasts and scholars of the arts identify Van Gogh as the mad Dutch artist who cut off his right ear – and then had the audacity to paint self-portraits of his new look. Absurd, I know!

But I have always wondered what motivated…or angered him so badly…so as to make him carry out such a self-inflicting act of bodily harm.
Nothing I had ever read of the artist or of his work, ever posed answers or addressed the real reason.

So it was, as they say, music to my ears that I learnt of the artist’s state of mind at the time of this act of rage.
History has it he was shacking up with a prostitute – an ugly one at that – at the same time as the notorious Jack the Ripper was killing prostitutes in the greater London. And it’s well recorded that Jack took pleasure in cutting off an ear of his victims as some kind of wicked trophy of his achievements.

Now we don’t know for sure, but in joining the dots, theory has it Vincent was deeply moved by these midnight killings and so in a show of personal empathy for these slain prostitutes… he cut off his own ear.

Was it empathy or was it guilt?

Re: The Rock Art of the San

The second talk I attended was a journey back in time… going back precisely 30 000 to 40 000 years ago.

I, as do many a contemporary artist, regard the creative etchings and murals on the cave walls of the San tribes as the very birthplace of art in Southern Africa. So my interest in learning more of the way of the San was a no brainer. In discussing Bushmen cave paintings the million dollar question has always been –
who painted these murals?

Needless to say, there is as yet, no undisputed answer. But modern theory tells us two facts that we know are true of the life at the time of the early San. Firstly, they were hunter gatherers. And we know the men did the hunting while the women did the gathering.
So who did the painting?

We can deduce from the intricacies and the detail of the rock art that time spent on these murals was well vested. These are not quick art sketches. And paint was not readily available from the local art shop.
So they required dedication and time.

Art historians and learned professors who have studied the way of the San, have ventured forward with only two considered possibilities : the artists were either men who were now too old to continue hunting. Or women who had finished their outdoor chores and – while the men were still out hunting -returned home to paint.

So who were the artists… the San tribe’s old men or women?