Walter Battiss – I Invented Myself

Description

The exhibition titled I Invented Myself consisted of works privately owned by well-known art collector and philanthropist Jack Ginsberg, who has over many years assembled an astonishing collection that includes more than 700 artworks, books, and collectibles by South African artist Walter Battiss, including some works which have never been on display in public before. The exhibition was held due to a massive donation by Ginsberg to the museum of this entire collection of works. The exhibition is curated by Warren Siebrits, an art dealer and Walter Battiss expert who recently stumbled upon a collection of more than 100 letters written by Battiss, which had been sold to Unisa by Battiss’s former lover. Siebrits’s discovery of the letters adds yet another layer of depth to what is already a very thorough and exciting exhibition encompassing the different periods of the artist’s life and career. Walter Battiss only began to date his artworks in the 1950s but in spite of this, Siebrits has used the letters to construct an exhibition that follows his career in chronological order. Working in a time of intense censorship in South Africa, Battiss arguably never quite gained the level of international acclaim that he deserved, especially given the pariah status of the South African state (Battiss died in 1982). Some of his more radical moments of protest art are often forgotten, such as the collection of erotica which he created in protest against puritanical apartheid censorship. More than 30 works of such erotica are also on display in the exhibition. Meanwhile it is his imagination, whimsy and sheer breadth of talent that Battiss is best remembered for. Inspired by rock art, Picasso and his own travels through the Indian ocean and south Pacific, through his career Battiss produced prints, paintings, performance art, watercolours, conceptual works and pop art images that have become iconic. Accompanying the exhibition is a 335-page illustrated book including essays by Siebrits. A second exhibition of work by the artist The Origins of Walter Battiss: Another Curious Palimpsest is also on display at the nearby Origins Centre until the end of September.