Irma Stern: 'n Fees Van Kleur (Afrikaans Edition) by Arnold, M.
Irma Stern: 'n Fees Van Kleur (Afrikaans Edition) by Arnold, M.
Author: Marion Arnold
Publisher: Fernwood Press (1995)
ISBN-10: 0620190159
Condition: Very good+. Very slight shelf wear to the DJ. Protected with Cellophane. Contents is bright, clean and tightly bound. Beautiful book.
Binding: Hardcover with dust jacket
Pages: 156
Irma Stern was a South African artist, whose expressive portraits rendered in saturated colors were among her most widely known pieces. The painter and sculptor traveled throughout Africa to capture not only likenesses, but also landscapes that are unique to the continent. She was a major South African artist who achieved national and international recognition in her lifetime.
Irma Stern was one of South Africa's most prolific artists. This book discusses her life, her career and the impact of Africa on her work.
Irma Stern’s paintings are remarkable for their saturated colors and sensory nature. Her most arresting works are portraits of Africans, but she also paints landscapes and still lifes. Some of the still lifes incorporate works of African sculpture from her personal collection, e.g., “Buli stool with fruit” (1952), which depicts a Luba caryatid by the Buli master (page 146).
In this full-blown art historical study of Irma Stern, Arnold explores the life and work of this expressionist painter whose “vision of Africa” has today “become a target for post-colonial analysis and is often discussed as too eclectic, politically incorrect, and as a mere appropriator of other cultures” (page 150). Arnold takes a more sympathetic view, while recognizing the limitations of the artist and the woman. There is, however, no denying the richness of Stern’s œuvre — a feast for the eye. More than one hundred paintings are reproduced in color.
