Jack Shainman Gallery is pleased to present Claudette Schreuders’
fifth solo exhibition with the gallery, whose intimately scaled
lithographs and sculptures speak to the ambiguities of the search for a
South African identity in the post-apartheid era. Featuring a new group
of painted and carved busts, Note to Self
reflects the artist’s diverse trove of personal and creative
touchstones. The resulting body of work is both a tribute to these
influences, as well as an opportunity to explore the uncanny intricacies
of portraiture in wood.
The titular work of the exhibition depicts the artist standing, a
paint-splattered apron tied around her waist, a sketchbook and pencil in
hand. Her face looks out past the viewer, as if to pause between
thoughts or summon inspiration from the well of individuals behind her,
which include the musician Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, the painters Alice
Neel, Balthus, and Paula Modersohn Becker, and several family members. Note to Self,
2015 is grounded firmly on the floor, while the menagerie of faces
float on pedestals of varying heights, a retinue of inspiration made
manifest from the annals of memory and creativity.
Balthus’ presence in the exhibition extends beyond the wooden likeness
of him. Known for depicting domestic interiors and dreamlike nudes, he
is a clear artistic predecessor, infusing Scheuders’ soft lines and
delicate portraits. The 20th-century French painter’s presence is
perhaps most explicitly felt in representations of full figures. The
diminutive Loved Ones, 2012, a girl, nude except for a blue school uniform skirt and grey sandals, formally alludes to Balthus’ painting, Young Girl with White Skirt, 1955, while her big brown eyes reveal an inner complexity. Lithographs (such as Mirror, 2015, a take on Balthus’ Nude Before a Mirror, 1955) document poignant bodies, dense and round. Their unselfconscious imperfection renders them vulnerable.
The appearance of fellow South Africans, Marlene Dumas, Bessie Head,
Anton Kannemeyer, Nelson Mandela, and Brett Murray, shed further light
on the genesis of the artist’s unique biography, born to Dutch parents
in Pretoria. The amalgam of individuals underscores a long-held interest
in how the fabric of a place shapes a person:
It's portraiture, but it's a vehicle for telling a particular
story, or the way in which society makes people who they are, or the
group against the individual. As soon as you make a figure, it has an
identity…
For Schreuders, a single portrait alludes to the particular web of
individuals who impact the person represented. If the staggered
installation of wood figures brings to mind the famous exaltation, “be
bold and mighty forces will come to your aid,” the exhibition as a whole
is a deeply personal portrait of the artist, annotated with the people
and relationships that made the physical work in the gallery space
possible. Note to Self encourages us to cite our influences proudly, and most importantly, to keep them close.
Born in 1973 in Pretoria, South Africa, Claudette Schreuders now lives
and works in Cape Town. Her work is featured in collections around the
world, with a strong presence in major New York City institutions,
including both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern
Art, where a suite of her lithographs were part of Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now in 2011.
Schreuders has shown extensively in international exhibitions that
address themes of childhood, intimacy, and lingering tensions in a
post-colonial world, such as Disturbing Innocence, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, New York (2015), Prose/Re-Prose: Figurative Works Then and Now, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia (2012), The Rainbow Nation, The Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, Netherlands (2012), and Artist in Residence: Claudette Schreuders at LUX Art Institute, Encinitas, California (2011).
Concurrently on view is
Of a Different Nature, featuring the work of
El Anatsui,
Bernd and Hilla Becher, and
Maya Lin at 513 West 20th Street and a group exhibition,
Winter in America, at The School in Kinderhook, NY. Upcoming exhibitions include
Barkley L. Hendricks at our 24th Street gallery and
Malick Sidibé at
20th Street, both opening March 17, 2016. Gallery hours are Tuesday
through Saturday from 10am to 6pm. For additional information and
photographic material, please contact the gallery at
info@jackshainman.com.
