Georgina Gratrix exhibits a conversation with history

Georgina Gratrix exhibits a conversation with history
Georgina Gratrix.

The UCT Irma Stern Museum is delighted to host the celebrated painter Georgina Gratrix as its second artist in residence for 2022. As part of the museum’s 50th anniversary year, Gratrix has worked in the museum residency studio from July to September 2022. Artworks produced during this time will be exhibited at the museum from 28 September 2022 onwards.

Born a century after the renowned South African artist Irma Stern (1894 – 1966), contemporary artist Georgina Gratrix (1982) is, like Stern, a dedicated colourist testing the limits of oil painting. Many aspects of Stern’s work are reflected in Gratrix’s pieces; composition, colouration and subject matter. In this way, Gratrix makes both direct and indirect references to Stern.

Shortly after her first exhibition in South Africa a century ago, Stern was lambasted by the local media. In a review titled “Art of Miss Irma Stern – Ugliness as a Cult,” one critic referred to her work as a “Freak Picture Exhibition.” 100 years later, Gratrix takes this sentiment as her point of departure to examine the ways in which Modernism, and in particular German Expressionism, have made an impact on her own work and how this historical influence continues to shape contemporary art today.

“The Cult of Ugliness” has a long precedent. It begins with the publication of German philosopher Karl Rosenkranz’s “The Aesthetics of the Ugly” in 1853. Later, in 1913, the poet Ezra Pound used the phrase to distinguish artwork that differed from what he described as belonging to the “Cult of Beauty”. Most recently Umberto Eco deployed the phrase in his 2017 book “On Ugliness,” where he asks why it is that through the centuries, there have there been so many theories on beauty but none on what we call “ugly”.

“You can’t have one without the other” says Gratrix, who, like Stern, has had accusations of ugliness levelled at her work. Gratrix is interested in the gaudy, the obvious and the banal. Her paintings playfully investigate the boundaries between desirability and the grotesque. “All painting is a conversation with the history of painting,” Gratrix says of her intentions for her show at the museum.

During the residency, Gratrix spent time painting her own collection of objects, as well as the rich and varied archive of Stern’s personal trove. Brought together, these resources offer endless inspiration. In addition to these new works, Gratrix will include previously unexhibited paintings from her own collection, that will find new meaning in the context of the museum.

For more information and dates for walkabouts and events, please see below and visit the UCT Irma Stern Museum website – https://irmasternmuseum.co.za/. Follow the museum on social media via https://www.instagram.com/irma_stern_museum/.

Walkabouts with Georgina Gratrix:

  • 05 October 2022 from 15h00 – 16h00
  • 26 November 2022 from 11h00 – 12h30

Booking via [email protected] is essential.

 

Discussion with Georgina Gratrix and Sean O’Toole:

5 November from 11h00 – 12h00

Booking via [email protected]is essential.

 

Ugly/Beautiful: practical art-making workshops with UCT Irma Stern Museum Curator and Educator Nobukho Nqaba

Date to be confirmed.

Booking via [email protected] is essential and the cost is R 200 per person which covers light refreshment and art materials. Limited sponsored bookings are available.

 

Contact: Nadja Daehnke

021 650 7240 or 0823165272

[email protected]

Irmasternmuseum.co.za

 

EDITOR’S NOTES

 

About Georgina Gratrix

Known for her thick and almost obscenely excessive application of oil paint, Georgina Gratrix works within traditional art modes – such as portraiture and still life painting – and has developed a unique style that is uncompromising in its commitment to medium. Gratrix’s paintings feature icons pulled from her personal life, pop culture and the traditional art canon. Part criticism, part play, Gratrix’s work offers an inverted visual take on the world. Her use of extreme colour and texture contrasts with her classic subject matter to invoke a youthful energy and often deprecating humour.

Born in Mexico in 1982, Gratrix grew up in Durban, South Africa and graduated from The Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 2005. In 2022, Gratrix is the artist-in residence at the UCT Irma Stern Museum in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2018, Gratrix was awarded the Discovery Prize at the 50th Anniversary edition of Art Brussels, for her presentation with SMAC Gallery in Brussels, Belgium. Gratrix is a recipient of the Ampersand Fellowship Award and completed a residency at the Ampersand Foundation in New York City, USA in 2018.

In 2022, Gratrix presented her work at the Armory Art Fair, in New York, USA with Nicodim Gallery. Notable recent group exhibitions include: Would you still love me if I painted parrots all day? At Dirimart in Istanbul, Turkey; Inner Landscapes at Bloom Galerie in Geneva, Switzerland; and Fifty Sounds at Galerie Kiche in Seoul, Korea in 2022.

Gratrix is currently showcasing a solo exhibition titled The Cult of Ugliness at the UCT Irma Stern Museum in Cape Town, South Africa. In 2021, the Norval Foundation in Cape Town presented a major solo exhibition of her work entitled Georgina Gratrix: The Reunion.