Description
“Gerard de Leeuw believed he could make rain. Or, to be more precise, he believed that the bronze smelting that he practised from his suburban foundry in Orange Grove, Johannesburg, had the unintended but inevitable effect of producing rain, regardless of the season.”
So writes Federicho Freschi, formerly senior lecturer in the Department of History of Art at the University of the Witwatersrand, now director of the Goodman Gallery Cape, in a catalogue accompanying the exhibition “Gerard de Leeuw: a Centenary Exhibition”. This exhibition showcases more than 40 bronze sculptures by De Leeuw and a selection of paintings by his artistic friends, amongst them Father Franz Claerhout, JH Pierneef, Stefan and Iris Ampenberger, Fayetta Varney, Wolf Kibel, Lippy Lipschitz to name but a few. The exhibition was compiled by Dr Fred Scott and opened at the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery in collaboration with the Sanlam Art Collection and supported by Business and Arts South Africa and Stephan Welz & Co.