VISUAL ART

SELECTED PAINTINGS

The Westville Town Hall in William Lester Road will be the venue for the annual exhibition of the Watercolour Society of South Africa (Natal Branch) and the Highway Art Group. Members submitted entries and a panel of five judges eventually selected 75 works. Those highly commended are And They Danced by the Light of the Moon by Wendy Amm, Guardians of Life Here-after by Margaret Burnard (who is to lead a painting tour to India and Nepal next year), Under Milkwood by Thelma Buzzard, Drakensberg Mood by Lilian Leighton-Thomas and The Palm by Roxanne Milne.

Art lovers in Natal can look forward to seeing the difficult medium of water-colour at its best in this wide-ranging and top quality exhibition. Both the subject matter and the techniques are extraordinarily varied and include mixed media and collage.

The exhibition will be opened at 18h00 on October 1 and remains on view until October 3. Viewing times are from 10h00 to 18h00.

More details from Roxanne Milne on (03322) 3550.

ANNUAL AWARDS

The North Coast Art Group's annual awards exhibition to be held at the Limelight complex (old Umhlanga Rocks Country Club) will be opened by Pat Xhosa, education officer of Durban Art Gallery, at 18h30 on October 25. The exhibition remains on show on October 26 to 27 from 09h00 to 16h00.

The Moag Award is presented for the best painting, the Peter Moir Trophy for the best drawing, the Caroline Smart Trophy for the most promising newcomer and the Alternative Medium award for the best other medium.

HUMANIST IMAGES

To mark International Human Rights Day on December 10, Artists for Human Rights are publishing a portfolio of fine art prints, Images of Human Rights, depicting the various clauses of the new South African Bill of Rights.
[mbatha pic]

Some 28 established and well-known artists and printmakers from around the country have been invited to contribute to this portfolio.

Artist Azaria Mbatha, now living in Sweden, was in Durban recently for his exhibition at the African Art Centre (see separate article). He was able to take time off from the workshops he conduc-ted to sign his print which is an interpre-tation of the clause on citizenship.

The Images of Human Rights portfolio will be exhibited at the Durban Art Gallery during December. It is hoped that the portfolio will generate funds to be channelled to Amnesty International (SA). The funds will be used to support a programme of human rights education amongst the youth of South Africa.

FRENCH CHAIRS

Design and everyday objects are a vital part of art and in acknowledgement of this, the Durban Art Gallery, in con-junction with the French Institute of SA, will show an interesting exhibition of chairs made and designed in France from the 18th century onwards.

The exhibition will afford a unique opportunity to see how the style of chairs through the ages has echoed the life of the times.

CARD GAMES

There will be 40 chairs on show from creators such as Mallet-Stevens, Philippe Starck, Jean Nouvel and Pascal Mourge.

One of the earliest on show is the chair called La Voyelle which was specially designed for watching card games, the most popular of which was Tarot. The origins of this card game date back to 1761 when the chair was designed.

The first Chanel bottle in 1921 inspired a chair by Mallet-Stevens, an architect and decorator who was working on a "look" corresponding to the lifestyle of that era.

Smokers of Gauloises and other ciga-rettes, foreign tourists and others cross the gardens of the Palais- Royal in Paris everyday. The chairs in this area were inspired by the design of the cigarette packs and have become well known emblems of Paris.

RECORD

A more recent chair from 1991 is a tri-bute to the long playing record which inspired the Papageno chair's circular seat. Berets, biscuits, Le Monde newspaper, Dom Perignon champagne, the tennis racquet, the Eiffel Tower are among the objects which have inspired the chair designers.

The exhibition, which gives a fascinating portrayal of art and design throughout the centuries with particular emphasis on the French, opens at the Durban Art Gallery on October 1 to run until October 19.

The Art Gallery, situated on the second floor of the City Hall, is open seven days a week. More details from 300-6230 or 300-6236.

LET THE DREAMS BEGIN

Let the Dreams Begin

is an exhibition by American artist, Robin Chandler, who is currently a visiting lecturer at WITS University in the Departments of History of Arts and Sociology.

His collection of installation art and collages runs at the BAT Centre's Upstairs Gallery until October 30.