ART TIMES | NEWS / Tretchikoff - Ramblings of a volunteer guide
Guiding Tretchikoff: Ramblings of a Volunteer Guide By Wouter van Warmelo, Cape Town Whether you hate him or like him, Tretchikoff has always been a controversial figure as an artist. The recent (2011) retrospective exhibition of 93 of his works at the Iziko South African National Gallery (ISANG) in Cape Town certainly raised quite a few hackles. Some people were angry, and made their feelings known well enough. But on the other hand there were many others who welcomed it. As a one-day-a-week volunteer guide at ISANG, I had the task of guiding visitors around the exhibition, and making their visit as pleasant as possible. This proved to be easier than I had expected, because a huge majority enjoyed the experience, a few did not, and some couldn’t be bothered either way. Even more interesting was how many couldn’t understand why he was so despised by the art establishment. Vladimir Tretchikoff was born in Petrovlavosk, in present-day Khazakstan, in 1913, but at the age of four the family fled the Russian Revolution (1917), and settled in Harbin, China. However, his parents died when he was eleven, so he put himself through school by earning money doing art. He went to Shanghai as a teenager, and became a well-known artist. He also met his future wife Natalie there. In 1935 they moved to Singapore. His wife and young daughter, Mimi, were evacuated in early 1942 because of the Japanese invasion. He left a few days later, but his ship was sunk by Japanese forces, and then he and sixteen others spent 23 days on a voyage to Java in a lifeboat. The Japanese kept him in solitary confinement for three months, before releasing him on parole. A half-Dutch half-Malay girl, Lenka, became his model and muse for the rest of the war. At the end of the war, he finally found out that his wife and daughter were alive and well in Cape Town, and he was eventually able to rejoin them in 1946.
Dorothy, the great- grandchild of Wilhelmina, the “Herb Seller” still sells herbs Fifteen minutes, that’s all it took! There she was, on the Grand Parade, selling herbs just like her great-grandmother Wilhelmina, the “Herb Seller”, who was over 100-years-old when she died! Dorothy told me quite a bit about their connection with Tretchikoff, the book they have and a few other bits and pieces. Of course she had to come to the opening!
The Cape Town art establishment didn’t like him and actively prevented him from exhibiting in art galleries in SA. So, he made his name through exhibitions in department stores, eventually doing very well indeed, mainly through selling reproductions of his work. The rest, as they say, is history! So, the 2011 exhibition was the first in a South African art gallery.
Tretchikoff’s daughter, Mimi (left) and Natasha, one of his granddaughters I was waiting for her when I met Tretchikoff’s daughter, Mimi, and Natasha, one of his granddaughters at the door. It was a nice start to the evening.
The herb seller, 1948
Apart from meeting him once very briefly in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1973, my first real encounter was with his painting “Herb Seller” (1948), which was surprisingly included in a major exhibition at ISANG during 2010 to coincide with the FIFA World Cup – the first time ever that a Tretchikoff was shown in this gallery. I overheard a father saying something to his daughter about her “auntie” being related to the lady in the picture, and that she too was selling herbs. So, three weeks before the opening of the retrospective, I set out to find her. 10
Then I saw a Chinese lady entering with two younger ladies. She seemed a bit lost, so I asked if I could help them. She asked to see Marianne Fassler, and because I knew where Marianne was, I took them through beyond the still-closed doors. But as I opened the doors, it suddenly dawned on me that she had to be the original model for “Chinese Girl”. As we came face-to-face with the painting, I said, “There, look at yourself!” Monika had never seen the completed painting before, as it was finished in the USA, and had arrived only on the morning of the opening. Her immediate reaction is clear in the photo, and it was quite a moment for her! Obviously I also had to pose her next to herself as it were. She was most gracious in talking to me about it all. They made quite a lot of fuss of her, including interviews and many photographs. It so happened that upon arrival at my gym early one morning, the day after the exhibition was taken down, I saw that the big TV screen was showing CNN. And who should I see there? Monika! She was being interviewed about her and the “Chinese Girl”! It was bizarre! SA ART TIMES. November 2011