Peter Clarke (2 June 1929 in

Simon's Town Simon's Town ( af, Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern sid ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

– 13 April 2014 in Ocean View,

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

) was a South African

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

working across a broad spectrum of media. He was also a writer and poet.

Early life

Clarke was born in

near

, in 1929. Much of his work is inspired by that coastal village where he lived until 1972, when he was forced to move to Ocean View under the

Group Areas Act Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of u ...

. He left high school in 1944 and was a dock worker until 1956 when, aged 27, during a three-month holiday to Tesselaarsdal, a small farming village near Caledon in the South West Cape, he began his artistic career. With assistance from his lifelong friend, poet James Matthews, Clarke held his first solo exhibition in the newsroom of the newspaper ''The Golden City Post'' in 1957. He said, "Before my exhibition, I was just another coloured man. Our people took it for granted that only whites could do such things. Now they are becoming aware of the fact that we can do these things too; that we are human beings."

Education

*1948: Technical College, Roeland Street, Cape Town, SA *1961:

Michaelis School of Fine Art The Michaelis School of Fine Art was founded in 1925, and is the Fine Arts department of the University of Cape Town. The school's current director is Associate Professor Kurt Campbell. There are three research institutions associated with the sch ...

, University of Cape Town – etching classes *1962-3:

Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten The Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (State Academy of Fine Arts) was founded in 1870 in Amsterdam. It is a classical academy, a place where philosophers, academics and artists meet to test and exchange ideas and knowledge. The school supports ...

– graphics *1978-9: Atelier Nord (Graphic Art Workshop) in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

Art career

Clarke was best known for his graphic

prints In molecular biology, the PRINTS database is a collection of so-called "fingerprints": it provides both a detailed annotation resource for protein families, and a diagnostic tool for newly determined sequences. A fingerprint is a group of conserve ...

, particularly his

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

s, and in later years he moved into

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...

. He also used leather, glass, found objects and other mixed media. His artistic career spanned more than six decades and he produced a large number of works and appeared in many exhibitions. Described as a "quiet chronicler", his work offers a critique of South Africa's social and political history over 60 years. He received six international and six national awards for his art and writing, and had more than 70 solo exhibitions since 1957 in South Africa,

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and the UK. He also had many group shows in South Africa,

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, USA,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, Norway,

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. In 2005 he was awarded the

Order of Ikhamanga The Order of Ikhamanga is a South African honour. It was instituted on 30 November 2003 and is granted by the President of South Africa for achievements in arts, culture, literature, music, journalism, and sports (which were initially recognised b ...

(Silver) by President

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki KStJ (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who was the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC ...

, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. His 2011 exhibition was entitled ''Listening To Distant Thunder''. A major

retrospective exhibition A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

of his work, ''Wind Blowing on the Cape Flats'', took place in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 2013.

Awards and recognition

Among the honours Clarke received were 27 international awards in writing and art (Italy, USA and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

), including Honorary Life Membership of the Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles (1984); six South African awards for writing and art, including three since 2000—notably the

, silver class (2005); and the Molteno Award (2000) for services to the visual arts, from

the Cape Tercentenary Foundation The Cape Tercentenary Foundation (or Cape 300 Foundation) was set up in 1950 by brothers Edward and Harry Molteno, pioneers of the Cape fruit industry. The influential exporters were great appreciators of music and the arts, and were deeply conce ...

. * 1955: Drum International Short Story Award * 1965: Awarded the Accademico Onorario of the

Accademia delle Arti del Disegno The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno ("Academy of the Arts of Drawing") is an academy of artists in Florence, Italy. Founded as Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno ("Academy and Company of the Arts of Drawing") on 13 January 1563 by ...

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

* 1975: Elected Honorary Fellow in Writing,

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

, US * 1982: Diploma of Merit in Literature, Universita delle Arti, Italy * 1983: Diploma of Merit in Art, Academia Italia * 1983: Honorary Life Member of the Museum of African American Art, LA, US * 1984: Elected Honorary Doctor of Literature, World Academy of Arts and Culture,

Taipei, Taiwan Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

Key dates *1929: Peter Clarke was born *1957: ''Golden City Post'', Cape Town, South Africa (first solo) *1960: Yugoslavia (SA Graphic Art) *1961: Galerie Schoninger,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, West Germany (SA Graphic Art) *1961: São Paulo Biennial *1963: 5th International Graphic Art Biennale, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia,

Albertina Museum The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...

Vienna, Austria en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

(International Graphic Art) *1964: Venice, Italy (

Biennale Biennale (), Italian for "biennial" or "every other year", is any event that happens every two years. It is most commonly used within the art world to describe large-scale international contemporary art exhibitions. As such the term was popularis ...

) *1965: Mbari Cultural Centre,

Ibadan, Nigeria Ibadan (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the List of Nigerian cities by population, third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano (city), Kano, with a total population ...

(solo) **Chem-Chemi Cultural Centre,

Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi ( ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows throug ...

(solo) **6th International Graphic Art Biennale, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia *1968: Palazzo Strozzo, Florence, Italy (First Exhibition of International Graphics) *1969: Palazzo Strozzo, Italy (Second Exhibition of International Graphics) *1970: Edrich Gallery, Stellenbosch (solo) *1971: SA Graphic Art touring Netherlands, Belgium and W. Germany *1972:

Buenos Aires, Argentina Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

(Tercera Bienal Internacional del Grabado) *1973: Shell Harbour Art Centre, Shell Harbour, NSW Australia (solo) **Pratt Graphics Centre, New York City (group) *1973-74:

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

, US (solo) *1976: Kuumba Workshop, Southside, Chicago, US (solo) *1977-78: SAAA, Cape Town (''Our World is a Ghetto'' – solo) **Community Arts Project, Mowbray, Cape Town (solo) **Public Library, Grassy Park, Cape Town (solo) *1978-79: Sandvika Kino Vestibyle, Sandvika, Norway *1979–82: Atelier Nord, Oslo, Norway (Graphic Art – group) *1979:

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

, New York *1981: Atlantic Art Gallery, Cape Town (Illusions and Other Realities – solo) *1982: South African Art, National Gallery, Gaborone, Botswana *1983: Kanagawa, Japan (International Exhibition of Prints) *1984: SANG (Masterworks on Paper), Kanagawa, Japan (International Exhibition of Prints), Jerusalem Artists' House, Israel, Frederikstad, Norway (Norwegian International Print Biennale) *1985: FUBA (A Selection of Work by Distinguished Black Artists), Grenchen, Switzerland (X Internationale Triennale Fur Originale Graphik) *1987: Chelsea Gallery, Wynberg, Cape Town (solo), Campinas, Brazil (Bienal Internacional de Gravura), Museum fur Volkerkunde, Frankfurt, W. Germany *1990: ''Freedom Now'', Namibian independence exhibition, Windhoek, Namibia *1992: Retrospective exhibition – ''The Hand is the Tool of the Soul'', at Natale Labia Museum, Muizenberg, Cape Town *1994: 3rd Triennial World Exhibition of Prints,

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auverg ...

, France *1995: 18th Triennial World Exhibition of Prints,

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

*1996: Drawings of Tesselaarsdal, Caledon Museum *1998: ''Vital Expressions'', Association of Arts Gallery, Bellville, South Africa *1999: Lipschitz Gallery – ''A Personal View'', Cape Town *1999: Vital Expressions at Natal Technikon Art Gallery, Durban *2000: Bertolt Brecht House, Berlin, Germany *2000-01: City Press exhibition called ''Baggage'' *2001: Manuscript Exhibition 3 (Art Studio), Johannesburg *2001: Solo exhibition in Exeter, UK *2002: Collection of books at Natal Technikon, KwaZulu-Natal *2003: AVA, Cape Town: ''Surface=/=Print'' (part of Impact conference) *2011: ''Listening To Distant Thunder'', The SA National Gallery

Collections

Clarke's work is in the following collections of the A Arnold Becher Museum, SA; Baerum Kommune, Sandvika, Norway; Caledon Museum, Caledon, SA; Cape Town City Library, SA; Community Arts Project, SA; Dennis W. Koles, Kiama, NSW, Australia;

District Six Museum District Six Museum is a museum in the former inner-city residential area and, District Six, in Cape Town, South Africa in an old Methodist church. District Six Foundation was founded in 1989 and the museum in 1994, as a memorial to the forced mo ...

, CT, SA; Durban Art Museum, SA;

, Nashville, Tennessee, US; Fuba Collection, Johannesburg, SA; Hymie and Jean Berndt, Kenilworth, SA; Johnson Publishing Co., Chicago, US; King George VI Art Gallery, PE, SA; Kunsthalle Museen der Stadt Bielefeld, Germany;

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

, Washington D.C., US;

Livingstone High School Livingstone High School is a school in the Western Cape of South Africa. It was founded by Abdullah Abdurahman in 1926. As of August 2017 Theodore Bruinders was the school's principal, currently the Acting Principal is Mr D.R. Niekerk. Ashley va ...

, Claremont, SA; Municipal Collection, Fish Hoek, SA; Municipal Museum, Simon's Town, SA; Museum of African American Art, LA, US; Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje, Yugoslavia; Natal Technikon, Durban, SA; National Museum and Art Gallery, Gaborone, Botswana, PAM; Nasou Publishing Co, CT, SA; National Art Gallery, Gaborone, Botswana, Pentech, Bellville, SA;

Pretoria Art Museum The Pretoria Art Museum is an art gallery located in Arcadia, Pretoria in South Africa. The museum in Arcadia Park occupies an entire city block bounded by Park, Wessels, Schoeman and Johann Streets. The Pretoria Art Museum was established to ho ...

, Pretoria, SA; SA Fine Worsted Co, CT, SA; Sasol Collection, Stellenbosch, SA; Stichting Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, Holland;

South African National Gallery The Iziko South African National Gallery is the national art gallery of South Africa located in Cape Town. It became part of the Iziko collection of museums – as managed by the Department of Arts and Culture – in 2001. It then became an agenc ...

;

University of Fort Hare The University of Fort Hare is a public university in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was a key institution of higher education for Africans from 1916 to 1959 when it offered a Western-style academic education to students from across sub ...

, Alice, SA;

University of the North-West af , Noordwes-Universiteit , image = https://www.nwu.ac.za/sites/www.nwu.ac.za/files/NWU-Logo-SW.png , motto = ''Dit Begin Alles Hier (Afrikaans)'' ''Gotlhe Go Simolola Fano (Setswana)'' , mottoeng ...

, SA;

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

, SA;

University of the Western Cape The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other un ...

, SA;

University of Zululand The University of Zululand or UniZulu is the only comprehensive tertiary educational institution north of the Tugela River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Its new status is in accordance with South Africa's National Plan for Higher Education ...

, SA;

William Humphreys Art Gallery The William Humphreys Art Gallery, in Kimberley, South Africa, was opened in 1952 and named after its principal benefactor, William Benbow Humphreys (1889–1965). Origins In 1948, William Humphreys gave to the City of Kimberley a major part of ...

, Kimberley, S and the B; Bruce Campbell Smith Collection.

Honours

In 2016 the

Peter Clarke Art Centre The Peter Clarke Art Centre, formerly known as the Frank Joubert Art Centre, is a co-educational government art school in Cape Town, South Africa. The school specilises in teaching the visual arts and design within the Western Cape Education De ...

, formally the Frank Joubert Art Centre, was named after him.

References

External links

Peter Clarke profile
on Africa South Art Initiative (ASAI) website {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Peter South African artists People from Simon's Town International Writing Program alumni Recipients of the Order of Ikhamanga 1929 births 2014 deaths