Remembering a South African versatile artist, a gifted writer of short stories, a mentor and a book-binder who could have been 91 years this month

Listening To A Distant Thunder was a retrospective solo exhibition that made it possible for me to meet Peter E. Clarke, an esteemed versatile artist, a book illustrator, a poet, a gifted writer of short stories, and a book-binder.  

Peter E. Clarke holding his exhibition catalog book. Pic Credits: Leadership Magazine 

This exhibition was displayed at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa. The exhibition - aimed at honouring Clarke’s life, work and contribution to art and cultural development in South Africa, was accompanied by a book of the same title, by curators Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin. It must have been June 2011 when he conducted a walkabout which I attended. The gallery was packed to the brim with art students, fans, collectors curators and gallery trotters.

FOR SOME, THE PATHWAY TO EDUCATION LIES BETWEEN THPRNS, Linocut 28 x 34.5 cm edition 14/22 

I had seen his work of illustrations before, especially the color reduction of linocut and woodcut prints. This is a technique from a Printmaking medium. Printmaking is often defined by high-contrast, single-color images. A reduction print includes several colors. The artist carves away or “reduces” portions of a printing block, printing at intervals, one color at a time. Colors are usually printed from lightest to darkest since dark colors cover lighter color better than the reverse. This is a technique which Clarke mastered, amongst other techniques and mediums in the visual arts.

Peter Clarke, Afrika which way?, 1978. Gouache and collage

As a printmaker he has been influenced by the prints of the German Expressionists and by Japanese woodcuts. He also has a strong interest in 20th-century Mexican artists such as Diego Rivera (1886–1957) and David Siqueiros (1896–1974). Their subject matter, with its strong social and political content and their depiction of ordinary people in a bold, naturalistic style, influenced his approach. (revisions.co.za)

After he gave such an insightful walkabout, I walked to him and asked for his email address so I can send him my review of his exhibition. He was quite impressed or rather curious, I suppose, to hear that I was going to write a review of his exhibition. At the time I just played with words after most gallery and museum visits. I was at the time doing my final year at art college, Artist Proof Studio. Clarke smiled and said to me 'No I don't have email address, I am an old school but I do have a business card. Here you will post me your review through postal mail. I cannot wait to read what you make of my retrospective exhibition,' he said handing me an illustrative business card. It was for me a great privilege to have his business card, handed to me personally by the legend himself.

I was taking notes on this walkabout session, noting what Clarke says along with what curators were saying about the artist and his work because at the time I couldn't afford the exhibition catalog/monograph that accompanied the show. I wrote exhibition review and printed it out to post it directly to his house in Ocean View, in Cape Town. In the envelope I have included other reviews of other artists exhibitions and few of my poems about Johannesburg including my business card (which had my email address)Hahaha.

A picture of me with Peter E. Clarke taken by a passersby in front of his house in Ocean View, Cape Town in 2013. 

To my suprise, few weeks later he made a  ring to me. It was Saturday and I was on my way to an exhibition at  Art On Paper around Stanley 44 in Auckland Park. I answered and a voice on the other hand punctuated 'Hi Kaycee, this is Peter Clarke from Cape Town'. For a second I couldn't believe that I would receive a call from this great artist. After exchanging pleasantries he commended me for a wonderful review I wrote on his exhibition. He thought it was an interesting take by a young artist. The phone call, he told me, was to inform me that he received my post and he dropped a reply to me at post office which I should get it in a week's time. After a long chat, I had a humbling request for him. The request was for him to be my mentor to which he agreed without hesitation. The rest is history. 

I waited with great anticipation, checking my mailbox more often than before. Finally I got this much awaited post from him. The envelope had a catalog of Picasso and Africa exhibition, a letter (that I treasure to eternity) and two small artworks signed and dated 1956 and 1970 respectively. He told me in his letter that I should never stop learning. He wrote 'Kaycee you're a very gifted artist and writer. Keep writing and doing your art but mostly READ READ READ!!!'

From this, we became good friends till his death in April 2014. We would often call to check on each other. This culminated into my first ever visit to Cape Town in 2013 by bus where I stayed at my cousins' house for a week and thanks to my cousin Hlatso Makgato who stayed at Parrow. I took a train to Simons Town train station and hopped in a taxi to Ocean View. The meeting was incredibly special. He welcomed me warmly and had long discussions. I had carried with me some of my prints to show him so I can get feedback. It was at the time of the former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela's passing. I had asked him what he made of his passing and he calmly replied 'At some point in life, we all have to go.' I remember asking him how would he like to be remembered and he jokingly said 'I shall not be there to see how I am remembered.' He told me that he would hate to have a public statue erected in his honor because all the birds of the sky would find a way to come shit on him. He laughed so hard at his comments.

The following extra reading is been sourced from the REVISIONS website:

Peter Clarke was a dock worker in the Simonstown dockyards before he became a full-time artist in 1956. For many years he has been intimately involved in the Cape Town arts community, organising many exhibitions and cultural events. His strong sense of social responsibility is evidenced by the fact that he has held art classes for local children for many years as well as acting as a mentor to aspiring artists. He has also been involved as an active supporter of a number of cultural organisations, particularly non-governmental organisations during the apartheid years.

The earliest work in the Campbell Smith Collection by Peter Clarke is a watercolour dated 1949 (plate 93) which is a gentle and lyrical evocation of a summer’s day at the beach along the False Bay coastline. The colour ink drawing of Two heads (plate 91), of just a year later, represents a significant development in his work. It has a sculptural solidity – Clarke’s knowledge of both Mexican and African art is readily apparent – and this was to become a feature of his figurative style in his subsequent work. In its sculptural stylisation it significantly pre-dates Gerard Sekoto’s ‘African’ heads of the 1960s and, more pertinently, Dumile Feni’s stylised ink drawings of the 1970s. When Campbell Smith first purchased the work he showed it to Clarke to see if the artist remembered it. Clarke smiled, disappeared upstairs and returned with a paper knife made from wood (plate 92). He explained that the figures in the double portrait were derived from whittling pieces of wood while employed as a dock worker in Simonstown.

His drawing Father and son (1957) (plate 81), illustrates the empathy and humanity which infuse his work. His fascination with masks stems from childhood memories of the festivities surrounding Guy Fawke’s Day – November 5th – in Cape Town. The masks worn by children, known as mombakkies, fascinated him, particularly in their variation in colour and design and the way that the masks disguised the individual. This strange, unknown persona is captured in the figure of the child in Father and Son. In the period from about 1954 to 1963 Peter Clarke depicted people wearing masks. It was in 1963 that he completed the engraving Girl with masks (plate 82). The works in the collection also illustrate Clarke’s intimate knowledge of the customs of people resident in the Cape Peninsula and all have a strong sense of place, rooted in the Cape and its immediate environs. In fact, Clarke’s work can also be seen as an invaluable social document celebrating both the joyous and the darker sides of life. An example of the latter is The chilum smokers (plate 79) (1975), which exposes the raw underbelly of life and drug taking on the Cape Flats in a manner matched by few other artists.

Joe Dolby