Natural Born Agitator. Man or animal, black or white, despair or laughter, Norman Catherine's work is part of a tumultuous and creative bipolarity, that of a white sculptor with a black humor living in South Africa. Composed on flat surfaces, oil pastel, oil, or in relief, on wood, fiberglass, the characters of Norman Catherine udergo strange metamorphoses. Both primitive and futuristic, these beasts in suits and ties, with muzzles or two heads, seem to permanently threaten the established order. Indissociable from the political and social context in which the artist lives and works, the works appear however much more than a simple humanist plea against racism and intolerance.
These nightmarish forms, sort of ghostly shortcuts, strike the imagination all the more as their colors and the material from which they emerge, like a devil from his box, immediately catch the eye. Glossy or matte patina, smoothed wood, pencilled pastel, worked resin, attacked and then, in the end, painted in deep blacks, silvers or powerful reds, Norman Catherine's sculptures and drawings first question the surface. What is it about? This metal skin sewn back on here and there, whose scars attest to the battles fought, is it the armor of a living armor, the scales of a prehistoric reptile, is it the tanned iron of these pots and pans that we all drag around with more or less lightness?
Often exceeding the scale, the size of the works also, accentuates the effect of stupefaction. Whether expressed in sculptures or paintings, the artist's mixture of materials and forms never ceases to question appearances, the habits of the eye and the head. Like these mouths or mouths wide open, ready to swallow the one who looks at them, the art of Norman Catherine is both provocative and sharp as a knife blade. Thanks to an extraordinary capacity to absorb the movements of art as well as those of the mind, the artist cuts through the sharpness of his work, a world that he pulls out of his guts like one spits out a bitter fruit.
The fetishistic forms of this tender and aggressive menagerie are born in his gigantic studio near Johannesburg, but they actually inhabit the whole world. The artist uses myths, masks, allegories, legends that run from South Africa to the Orient. All these archaic stories of devouring, of swallowing up, of man as well as of culture. The end of the world in short, orchestrated, ineluctably led to its end by hybrid beings with more or less well domesticated savagery.
Marie-Pierre Guiard
Norman Catherine is a South African artist, born in 1949 in East London. His work combines painting, sculpture, printmaking, wall decorations and bronze.
Norman Catherine's works are included in prestigious international public and private collections.
Exhibitions (selection)
2021
- Spring Show, group show, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2020
- Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Contemporary Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery, Capte Town, South Africa
2017
- Off the wall: A Group Sculpture Show, group show, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2015
- Winter, group show, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2014
- Summer of Sculpture III, group show, Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa
2013
- It's New, It's Now, group show, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, United-States
- Incognito, CIRCA on Jellicoe, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012
- Impressions from South Africa: 1965 to Now, group show, Museum of Modern Art, New York, United-States
2011
- Art Monaco 11, Contemporary Art Fair, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco
- Water - the [Delicate] Thread of Life, group show, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007
- Local Racism, Global Apartheid, group show, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
2006
- 1st African Contemporary Art Fair, Studio Mercedes-Benz Maybach, Brussels, Belgium
- Now & Then Retrospective, itinerant retrospective on the occasion of his 35 years of career, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Dualities, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2005
- Now & Then Retrospective, itinerant retrospective on the occasion of his 35 years of career, Stellenbosch Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
- Past to Present, 34 Long Street Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
- Now & Then Retrospective, itinerant retrospective on the occasion of his 35 years of career, Nelson Mandela Metro Art Gallery, Gqeberha, South Africa
- Now & Then Retrospective, itinerant retrospective on the occasion of his 35 years of career, Polokwane Art Gallery, Polokwane, South Africa
- Now & Then Retrospective, itinerant retrospective on the occasion of his 35 years of career, Durban Art Gallery, Durban South Africa
2004
- Identity - The ID of South African Artists Exhibition, group show, Fortis Circus Theatre Scheveningen, the Netherlands
- Urban Mutations, Moba Art Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
- Now & Then Retrospective, itinerant retrospective on the occasion of his 35 years of career, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
- Now & Then Retrospective, itinerant retrospective on the occasion of his 35 years of career, Oliwenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa
2003
- Art 34 Basel, Basel, Switzerland
2002
- Passport to South Africa, group show, Centro Culturale Trevi, Bolzano, Italy
- Natural Born Painters, group show, Galerie W, Paris, France
- L'humour dans i'art contemporain, group show, Espace Belleville, Paris, France
- South African Art 1850 - 2002, group show, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2000
- Zeitgenössische Kunst aus Südafrika - Contemporary Art in South Africa, group show, South Africa & Cultural Affairs Department Bayer AG, Leverkussen, Germany
- Norman Catherine monologue, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Publications (selection)
2009
- South African Art Now, written by Sue Williamson, Harper Collins
2008
- Art and Justice: The Art of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, published by Bronwyn Law-Viljoen, David Krut Publishing, Johannesburg
2004
- Now & Then Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
- Identity - The ID of South Africa, exhibition catalogue, Fortis Circus Theatre Scheveningen
2002
- L'humour dans i'art contemporain, exhibition catalogue, Espace Belleville, Paris
- Passport to South Africa, exhibition catalogue, A&M bookstore Edizioni, Milan
2000
- Norman Catherine, monography, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
Prizes
2012
- SA Academy of Science & Art: Award for Visual Arts
1991
- AA Life Vita Art Now, 3rd Quarterly Award (shared with Andries Botha)
1981
- 1st prize for Graphic Art, Republic Festival Arts Exhibition, Durban
1973
- Cambridge Shirt Award, Art South Africa Today, Durban
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