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I recall the respect I
felt for her when the then South African High Commissioner to the Court
of St James, Her Excellency Ms Lindiwe Mabuza, opened Cecily's first
exhibition here and spoke powerfully about the link between art and the
liberation struggle. How in the dark days of Apartheid Ms Mabuza had
found in the art of Cecily and the Amadlozi Group great inspiration and
a reconfirmation of the belief in ultimate freedom. One sensed that
leaving South Africa back in 1974 was a great wrench for Cecily Sash.
I remember with great fondness and a certain amount of amusement our
first meeting. We had been encouraged to meet with her to discuss the
possibility of an exhibition here by an ex-student in South Africa, the
artist Thirza Kotzen.
Thirza had spoken warmly of Cecily in the highest terms, of the quality
and finesse of her work, explaining that she had been the most erudite,
dedicated and inspirational of teachers. She then spent some time
conveying that Cecily could appear somewhat harsh or even gruff in her
conversation and dealings, but behind this exterior façade, she was a
most unassuming and compassionate person. Thirza warned me not to be
riled or irritated by this outward demeanour.
True to form I spent the first 10 minutes of our meeting being told by
Cecily what to do, what not to do, with warnings of the dire consequence
if I should put a foot wrong. After I had taken most of this in and
re-assured her that I would do my best to meet her understanding of how
an exhibition (even a gallery for that matter!) should be run I began to
find the sensitive, passionate and caring person that actually Cecily
is.
However these personal traits and notes are only ephemeral details that
feed my admiration, the essence of my esteem lies quite simply in the
outstanding quality of the work Cecily Sash produces.
It is not only that her work bears the mark making of a master in full
control of their media, a consummate professional at the peak of their
power, it is not even Cecily's great understanding of the use of colour
and tone, it is not even her graceful, perceptive ability to convey
complex spatial planes within a given work. Their real power, for me, is
their noble modesty and the sure intellectual basis of her work.
When I viewed her first
exhibition here at this gallery I was consumed by a feeling, almost
palpable in the room, that the work was special. Not loud and shouting
its magnitude, but quietly omnipresent, solid, an immoveable presence;
the restrained and understated self belief of a great artist in their
work and its value.
That show, largely made up of her melancholic but fiercely defiant caged
birds, tents clinging tenaciously onto rural landscapes and ravaged,
gnarled and blasted woods and vegetation, spoke to me of Cecily's great
compassion, of a certain sadness at the world, of fearful and heart
rending life cycles, of loss of homeland, but ultimately of renewal,
defiance, and above all, of hope.
That exhibition was, it seemed to me, a vivid statement to the world, a
solemn declaration that Cecily Sash had still something important and
vital to say. That searing talent, that in her native South Africa had
won her the highest praise and position, had not gone away, had not
fallen silent after its self imposed, yet unavoidable, banishment. Here
she confirmed her voice had been nurtured and had continued to flourish
and had grown more powerful in the seeming anonymity which is often the
fate awaiting many a talented 'exile'.
Her work since that show, largely made up of still life constructions of
objects or food stuffs with the occasional reference to her adopted
Welsh landscape, has lost none of its power; it has perhaps become more
contemplative, somehow more at ease with itself, but has lost none of
its power to enthrall the viewer.
I sometimes imagine
Cecily in her studio, sitting studying her chosen arrangement for her
next work, Shostakovich's deeply contemplative 15th string quartet
playing quietly in the background, her 'intellectual discipline and
vigour' working through the composition before her, waiting patiently
for the work to resolve itself, then incising and mark making, in what
Henrietta Wilkinson has described as her 'intense scratchy' style.
She seems to remind me of the mature Giorgio Morandi, quite happy to be
left alone, public recognition no longer sought or required, to quietly
carry on her work. Or perhaps a more meaningful comparison would be to
her contemporary, Eric Rimmington, both are now in their eighties, both
it would seem to me are as youthful and energetic as twenty year olds
and both have a reassured confidence in their ability and a complete
nonchalance, which only comes with a life time of experience, regarding
whether anyone recognises their immense talent or not.
I think this is what Walter Sickert was apt to mean when he spoke of a
'great humility and a certain weight in the drawing of a great master',
Cecily Sash, I believe has both these qualities in abundance.
Introduction to 2007
Food for Thought exhibition catalogue
© Jeff Jackson
1954: First one-man
exhibition, Johannesburg: subsequently in most centres of South Africa.
South Africa:1958; 1960; 1961 (opened by Prof Nicholas Pevsner); 1962;
1963; 1964; 1966; 1967; 1971 (3); 1974 (retrospective); 1975; 1976;
1981; 1982(2); 1985 1990: Johannesburg, Durban, 1994: Karen McKerron
Gallery S.A Association of Arts, Natal and Cape Town, London 1978; 1984;
1988 (Boundary Gallery); 1998 Ben Uri Gallery, 1984: Leominster
(Herefordshire), 1986: Bath (Victoria Art Gallery, 1987: Hay Farm (Gloucestershire),
1988: Bath (University), 1989: Hereford Art Gallery, 1995: Burford House
Gallery (Worcestershire), 1995: La Charte, France, 1998: Burford House
Gallery (Worcestershire), 2001: The Millinery Works Gallery (London),
2002: Broughton House Gallery, 2003: Duncan Campbell Gallery (London),
2003: Chelsea Gallery, Cape S.A, 2004: Millinery Works Gallery (London),
November 2004: Assembly Rooms, Prestinge (small retrospective). 2007:
Food For Thought, The Millinery Works Gallery (London),
Group shows:
1946: South African Academy, 1950 & 1954: South African Quadrennial,
1952: Van Riebeeck Tercentenary Exhibition, Cape Town, 1956: First Quad
of South African Art, 1961: Ghent, Belgium, 1963: Sâo Paulo Biennale;
Amadlozi Group exhibits in South Africa and Italy, 1963-64: Rome,
Florence, Milan, Venice, 1964: Third Quad of South African Art; Venice
Biennale (graphic); Belgium,New Orleans; Johannesburg Festival, 1965:
One of 11 artists in ‘South African Artists’ exhibition, Grosvenor
Gallery, London, 1966: Venice Biennale, 1967: Sâo Paulo Biennale, 1970:
South African Graphics shows, Belgium and Germany, 1972: Florence
Biennale, 1974: South African Art Exhibition, Athens, 1986: Venice
Biennale, 2004 - 05: Six South African Artist, University Salford,
Manchester
Please email
info@hgsummershow.org or call 020 7275 0383 for further information.
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