A short account of my stay at the UP Department of Fine Arts at the University of Pretoria: 1973-1990 – Mike Edwards

REVISITING HISTORY

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF MY STAY AT THE DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA: 1973-1990

MIKE EDWARDS

Between 1918 and 1939 the major universities in South Africa had established Fine Arts departments. The University of Pretoria (UP) was a late starter, only having its first own on-campus graduates at the end of 1972. From 1955 to mid-1972 the creative practical art subjects for the BA(FA) degree course in Painting, Drawing, Sculpture and Information Design were outsourced and first presented by the Pretoria Art Centre (Pretoria Kunssentrum), and from 1960, by the Pretoria Technical College’s (Pretoriase Kollege vir Gevorderde Tegniese Onderwys) Art Department (du T Spies & Heydenrych 1987:40) but administered by UP’s Department of Art History. Art History and other academic selective subjects for the degree course were followed on UP’s main campus. There were four permanent members of staff in the Department of Art History at that time, Prof. F.G.E. Nilant, Nico Roos, Murray Schoonraad and Dr Ute Scholz (Bergh et al 1996:38).

Following a “personality and ideological” break, which became evident as early as 1964 (Du T Spies & Heydenrych 1987:40) between UP and the Pretoria Technical College during 1972, the practical Painting, Sculpture, Drawing and Information Design courses were hurriedly accommodated on UP’s main campus.

The Department of Art History had been a part of campus life since 1930 (under various names) and in 1973, Fine Art was formally added to the name to become, the Department of Art History and Fine Art.

January 1973 was however the actual birth of the Department of Fine Arts, the creative practice of art, in that it was the first, first-yearintake that would be completely presented by UP’s own staff with their own course structures – history and practice forming a logical unit between “the what and the how”. The how is loosely called “practical” – too often referred to in a derogatory way. The painter Eben van der Merwe was the first permanent appointment in 1972, together with several part-time lecturers from the Pretoria artist community, with Ernst de Jong responsible for Information Design. I was the second permanent appointment, joining the staff of the Department of Fine Arts in January 1973, followed later by François de Necker, and Jeanne KotzeLouw in 1975 as full-time staff.

This brand new Department of Fine Arts (Beeldende Kunste) was hastily housed in Intersaal (Figure 1), the large hall upstairs in the Old Arts building (Ou Lettere-gebou) with additional accommodation in two prefab buildings, where the new Merensky Library complex is currently situated. Between these two prefabs was a roofed area with a walled back and a concrete floor. The front of

this area was enclosed with chicken wire and gave access to the graphic art (printmaking) studio to the left, and to the right to a store, which in turn gave access to the painting studio. The open section with the chicken wire ‘wall’ was the sculpture studio.

This prefab complex, the “new” Department of Fine Arts of “the biggest Afrikaans University in the World” (at the time), was known as Die Duiwehokke (The Pigeon Pens). We spent some time in those prefabs.

I was tasked with the job of developing Sculpture as a strong major subject and also with establishing Printmaking as a major elective for the BA(FA) course. There were two part-timers, Eugene Bouffa, the Belgian sculptor who specialised in figurative clay modelling, assisting me in the sculpture studio, and Raymond Andrews who assisted me in the graphic art (printmaking) studio. Raymond specialised in woodcuts and silk screen prints.

Figure 1: Fine Arts studio in the Old Arts building, 1973. UP Visual Arts archival photograph. Figure 2: Fine Arts studio in the prefab complex, 1974. UP Visual Arts archival photograph. Figure 3: Sanette Schoeman, Bome. The first etching printed on campus in 1973. Photograph by the author.

The very first etching, by fourth-year student Sanette Schoeman, printed on our very new Hunter Penrose Etching Press, was created in this prefab (see Figure 3, I still have this print). While there, we also took delivery of a litho printing press, from the Rembrandt Graphic Arts Company of New Jersey. With this scraper system press, we experimented by printing off aluminium plates.

While working in the Duiwehokke, the division of Fine Arts was allocated the recently vacated Old Merensky Library building for our new home in 1975 (du T Spies & Heydenrych 1987:260). With the prospect of a new home I was tasked to plan and liaise with the appointed contractor to renovate the Old Merensky Library building to accommodate a Fine Arts school (Figure 4). This we achieved by putting Sculpture (Figure 5) and Graphic Art (Printmaking) in the basement, under the water table, with two big pumps keeping the studios dry! The ground floor, which at the time had a huge open circular hole in the floor, giving visual access to the basement below with a very attractive brass railing, had to be covered over with a new concrete slab. This gave us a magnificent gallery at the entrance to the building, with an Information Design studio housed to the left and a first-year studio to the right of this large open gallery space. Upstairs we housed the Painting, Drawing and general-purpose studios as well as the admin office.

The Fine Arts division of the Department of Art History and Fine Art happily spent several years in this new environment, where many changes continued to take place staff-wise as the department grew in size.

At about this time the long association with Eduardo Villa started, which culminated with the establishment of the Villa Museum

on campus, a project that Prof. Roos piloted to success in 1995, opening in the Old Merensky building where the department had first entertained him.

Frieda Harmsen of Unisa had taken me under her wing shortly after I started at UP. She took me around to meet various artists, Alexis Preller and Eduardo Villa being the most important. Freda, having seen my portraits of Frank Spears and Frans Claerhout, was keen on my sculpting portraits of Preller and Villa. Sadly, Preller

Figure 4: Old Merenskly Library, circa 1974. UP Visual Arts archival photograph. Figure 5: Mike Edwards and students in the sculpture studio. circa 1975. UP Visual Arts archival photograph. Figure 6: Stefan Cornelius (left) and Mike Edwards (right), circa 1975/6. UP Visual Arts archival photograph.

died before it could happen, but I was able to sculpt Villa’s. I cultivated the contact with Villa and introduced him to Prof. Roos

and the department when Stefan Cornelius was a student making steel sculpture (1975/6) (Figure 6). I had invited Villa to see what we were doing sculpturally and to give the students a critique and a talk.

In 1978 the Department of Art History and Fine Arts’ two disciplines were split into two independent departments, each with its own name, budgets, staff and accommodations. Prof. Roos was appointed as head of the Department of Fine Arts (Beeldende Kunste) (du T Spies & Heydenrych 1987:51).

The department also acquired another lithographic press which we bought, together with all his other studio materials, from the artist Hannes Harrs in Johannesburg. This gave us a second litho press as well as several genuine litho stones to work with. The department also acquired a working antique copper letter printing press in 1980 after John Clark joined the staff. We proudly printed the catalogue, for the Beeldhou 80 Exhibition of Sculpture which I curated, on this old machine.

But time moved on and the powers-that-be wanted the Old Merensky building for more “important” or “high-profile things” (speculation). The official UP historic record Ad Destinatum II reports: “Die ou Merenskybiblioteekgebou is tydelik aan die Departement Beeldende Kunste afgestaan. Voordat die trek na die nuwe gebou plaasgevind het, is ‘n subkomiteee aangewys om hom opnuut oor die inrigting van die beskikbare ruimte te besin” (du T Spies & Heydenrych 1987:260). The parts highlighted in bold, clearly indicate the temporary nature of the arrangement.

The Department of Fine Arts was then allocated the recently vacated Human Movement Sciences building (previously Physical Education/Liggaamsopvoeding) on Lynnwood Road. Once again, this building also needed extensive renovation for conversion

to an art school. Between 1983 and 1986 I was again tasked with the job of planning and liaising with the same contractor who had worked on the Old Merensky, to convert the former gymnasium into an acceptable space. This we achieved by making it a workable building housing Sculpture in what had been the ablution section. By adding new concrete floors dividing the high roofspace of the former gymnasiums, we created a second floor and gained two big studios. The second floor was the new home for Printmaking and Drawing while downstairs, Information Design was allocated the whole of the Lynnwood Road side of the building, with Painting allocated the opposite side of the wide central corridor.

The phased move took place from mid-1986 to 1987 when the building was officially renamed. All in all, we had an exhibition hall, a small lecture hall, adequate staff accommodation, space and studios for Drawing, Information Design, Painting, Printmaking and Sculpture. This was a huge change from the humble beginnings in a prefab with a chicken wire enclosure.

In May 1989 there was a re-merger of the traditional practice and history disciplines and the name was changed to the Department of Fine Arts and Art History, this time with practice in the primary position (Bergh et al 1996:39).

The years rolled on with the early highlight for me being the achievement of the Printmaking section from the first printed etching in 1973 to the production of some very fine work in the following years.

Sadly, I was not able to continue in both disciplines, and after several years hopping between studios with the help of Sanette Schoeman, Carola Brotherton and Julia Beaton I handed over to John Clark, around 1979/80. Figure 7: Installation of Mike Ewards’s sculpture that formed part of the Beeldhou 80 Exhibition. UP Visual Arts archival photograph.

In sculpture there were two major highlights during my time with the department; one was the Beeldhou 80 Exhibition where I was able to bring together the major names of “workers” in our field in the Pretoria/Johannesburg area. It was the time of bulldozers and resettlements in the Cape Town area. My contri- bution to the show was a wall of steel with a small window to a

world denied, with the menacing jaw of the bulldozer threatening any passer-by (Figure 7). It stands today at the H.W. Snyman building on the Prinshof Campus.

The second highlight for me was in 1982 when I was lucky to be sent to the International Sculpture Conference in Oakland, California. This was an eye opener to the staggering American openness in sharing technology and technique, as well as their obvious positive interaction between institutions, which was almost unheard of here in South Africa. The real high point was learning of the then very secretive shell casting techniques for bronze, which I was able to bring home and developed the experimental facility

on campus. I believe this humble beginning (with Guy du Toit’s mother’s washing machine motor for stirring) was partly instrumental in starting a renewed interest in bronze and studio casting in particular. We produced some good work in bronze for the campus, the Union Buildings, Villa and several others, with the assistance of Guy du Toit, Etienne de Kock and Andre Prinsloo, all this in spite of some serious objections because of smoke in the building when the wind was blowing in the wrong direction.

During these years of general unrest, change and development in the country, there was also unrest between the two major sections of the Department of Fine Arts and Art History – not an easy time all round. History and practice split and again became two separate departments (while the country also stopped talking sense). Both had an impact and spilled over into life. On campus the result of the split was that too much friendship shown between the two disciplines was frowned upon, as was too much outside concern. At a point in 1990 it seemed that my tenure had run its course and it was time to move on and I resigned my “commission”.

It has been a great pleasure and a real tonic to go back and visit the kaleidoscope of memories and realise how many alumni from 1986 to 1992 are currently practicing, making statements in colour, form and line, and of remembering: the early steel taxi; finely balanced bronze moving constructions; insect-like bronze “things”; a large concrete equestrian construction; surprising wood/plank animals; a papier-mâché figure with infinite care for facial detail; and with pride and sadness, the shops all over, selling unique silver utensils; and to the influence we have had in far afield places ... we must have done something right.

REFERENCES

Bergh, J.S., Ferreira, O.J.O., Pretorius, F., Grobler, J.E.H., & Stals, W.H. (eds). 1996. Ad Destinatum III 1983-1992. Pretoria: University of Pretoria.

Du T Spies, F.J. & Heydenrych, D.H. (eds). 1987. Ad Destinatum II 1960-1982. ‘n Geskiedenis van die Universiteit van Pretoria.

Pretoria: University of Pretoria.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Edwards was born in Port Elizabeth in 1938. He completed a National Art Teachers Certificate at the Port Elizabeth Art School

and later BA(FA) and MA(FA) degrees at the University of Pretoria. He started his teaching career in Bloemfontein in 1961, and since 1973, lectured at UP until 1990.

He has exhibited locally and internationally since 1959 and has completed numerous prominent public and corporate sculpture commissions. His sculptures have roots in the harsh African landscape, a landscape carved by wind and rain with growth forms of visual splendour but often also menacing in their thorny struggle to survive, reflecting so strongly the diversity, intolerance and precariousness of our African life. His sculptures reflect his concern, joy and despair in our Africanism. A keen portraitist, he balances likeness with the plastic quality of clay. He enjoys the infinite variety found in facial structure, the fun in developing profile upon profile – to freeze a personally perceived moment, remains paramount.

He currently lives in a retirement village where he spends his time hard at work with wood, clay and lino printmaking.