Jacques Dhont's latest collection of sculptures deals with masks, masquerades and myths of modern society. The animal masks worn by the figurative pieces have different functions and symbolic values that draw on African and Ancient customs and beliefs: an instrument of possession, destined to capture the vital energy emanating from an animal. The inherent danger is that the masked being may in turn find himself transformed and possessed, capturing Greek and Minoan symbols of identity whilst revealing the masked character’s inner being.

According to Dhont, the sculptures are portraits of contemporary life: reflections on modern man as a scavenger; the relentless passing of time forewarning about man’s troubled relations with nature unable to escape from the confinement his own complacency has created. The Earth has become an island prison where man may be concerned and become extinct because of a terrible lack of insight, energy and effort. In the context of this environmental catastrophe, the sculptures seem quaint and nostalgic: a tribute to human folly.

Nicolaas Maritz's idiosyncratic artworks show his consuming interest in the workings of society and the ambivalent contemporary role of the traditional visual artist, manifesting some of the hidden and taboo aspects of collective visual reality and memory whilst simultaneously exposing the persistent ambiguities of mythologies and belief systems around icons and artistic vision. Often working in a pseudo-anachronistic style, sometimes approaching impressionism or pointillism; at other times veering towards expressionist fragmentation and heightened colour usage, even going as far as completely ‘abstract’, Maritz is both neo-everything and anti-nothing. This gives his work a rather cryptic aspect, which is further emphasized by the tense visual dialogue between generalized figuration (as in Pop Art) and private speculation (as an outsider or Naļve Art) in the same work.

Maritz does not subscribe to notion of ‘artistic handwriting’, or at least to surface style masquerading as content. He does not offer his artistic output as final versions of either some romantic escapist journey, or deep analytical exploration, but rather as visual stations of a private and rather schizophrenic via crucis. Not surprisingly, ‘sense’ does not really seem to matter here, rather there appears to be the convivial but bitter-sweet visual interchange between the polar modalities of mild and generous hedonism on the one hand, and a bitter and determined cynicism on the other. Maritz stresses that humour, or at least the traditional workings of parody and satire, are often the only means by which to overcome seemingly contradictory visual positions.

Nicolaas Maritz is one of South Africa’s leading painters and his works are in most of our major public collections.

This exhibition can be seen at The Gallery at Grande Provence from the 31 May to 30 June 2009, Grande Provence Wine Estate, Main Road, Franschhoek. For information about this exhibition, an interview with the artists or more images of the work, please contact Johann or Ilse @ 021 876 8630 or email us at gallery@grandeprovence.co.za.