Impressive Jack M. Ginsberg Collection of Walter Battiss art at Wits Art Museum!

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walter-battiss-self-portrait In addition to all the Chefs who Share events I attended in Johannesburg last week, I planned to see the exhibition of the Jack M. Ginsberg Collection of the work of Walter Battiss “I invented myself” at the Wits Art Museum. I was very fortunate to have Mr Ginsberg himself take other Battiss lovers and I on a private tour of his Collection on Saturday.

Due to the student protests at Wits University last week, the university had closed the university all week, and this affected the Wits Art Museum too, which meant that it was a no-go zone. I had been in contact with Mr Ginsberg to collect a book documenting the exhibition (of which only 1500 have been printed), and in talking to him, he made the offer to show me and others the Collection as a private tour on Saturday morning. Despite some unsavory elements near the Wits Art Museum, we were safe during our 90 minute tour.

Mr Ginsberg has owned the largest collection of Walter Battiss art, books, and letters, numbering over 700, and recently donated it to Wits University. The exhibition was curated by Warren Siebrits, a Battiss fundi, and whom I met at a talk he gave about Battiss at the Hermanus FynArts Festival in June. Mr Ginsberg is particularly known for his valuable collection of artists’ books, and has been a patron of the arts community in Johannesburg. The donation of his Collection will go into The Walter Battiss Archive, to benefit art students with their studies.

We could not have had a better tour guide, and if the size of the Collection was not already an indication, Mr Ginsberg’s passion showed during the tour around the Collection exhibition! He could talk to each and every work, giving us a brief background, and remembering almost each name of the works. My interest in Battiss arose in Pretoria, where I lived for six years. In this time my ex-husband had met Battiss’ son Giles, his tobacconist, and this stimulated our interest in the artist and his work, and led to an introduction to Battiss himself. I am the proud owner of a white ink on black drawing of a beach in Samos, which I bought in this time, painted late in Battiss’ life, Mr Ginsberg informed.

Siebrits writes in the introduction that the collection of more than 100 letters from Battiss to his ‘friend, lover, and confidant Dacre Punt‘, which UNISA had bought, allowed him to curate the exhibition of the Collection chronologically, the Battiss works being discussed in the letters. Siebrits categorized the Collection into five eras in Battiss’ life, reflected in his art:

Early years: as student, artist, and teacher, reflecting his early childhood in Somerset East; then in Koffiefontein, where he discovered rock engravings, which he became a world expert of in later life; in Fauresmith; and in Rustenburg, where for the first time he received acceptance as an artist. ‘View through the Trees‘ is one of the works from this period, and bears a resemblance to the work by Pierneef. Battiss became an art teacher at a Johannesburg school.

2. Rock Art and meeting Picasso: Battiss moved to become an art teacher at Pretoria Boys High. In 1949 he traveled to Paris, where he met Pablo Picasso, becoming friends with a revered artist who could not speak English and Battiss could not speak French. He learnt from Picasso that it was acceptable for an artist to paint in different styles and media.

3. The Fifties: early successes and financial difficulties – in this period he held exhibitions in Lorenzo Marques (Mocambique), Venice, and London. A move to Rhodes University as Professor of Fine Arts was short-lived.

4. The Sixties: explorer in East Africa, Southern Arabia, and Greece – Battiss returned to Pretoria Boys High, and traveled to Egypt, and the African East Coast including Zanzibar and Mombasa. He was appointed Professor in Fine Arts at UNISA. A trip to Arabia followed. Finding resistance from locals to be photographed (with his Hasselblad camera), he would make sketches of them. Five trips were made to Greece.

5. Eroticism, the Anti-Censorship Debate and Fook Island – in further visits to Greece, Battiss started introducing erotica into his art, which became the theme of his work for the rest of his life. He used his art to fight censorship. ‘Mantis Man‘ was painted in this period. He created the imaginary ‘Fook Island’, and with it he designed a passport, its currency, and driver’s licence, after a visit to Seychelles. Battiss wrote a poem on a tomato box! His ‘Spirit Birds that Grant Desires‘ was made into a beautiful 2 x 3 meter tapestry by Marguerite Stephens, and is for sale at the Wits Art Museum at R300000.

The book also contains a section ‘Figuring Fook‘, teaching one to write and to read the language of the imaginary island, written by Mr Ginsberg.

The tour was a fascinating journey through Battiss’ life, personally and as an artist, and was almost overwhelming in that there were so many pieces to see. Mr Ginsberg described Battiss as the best water-colorist ever in our country. I asked Mr Ginsberg about the size of his house whilst he owned the full Collection, and he told me that at any one time he only displayed 80 of the Battiss works, having kept the rest in storage. He will retain about twenty works from the Collection for his home.