Harold Voigt – The Poetry of Sight

Description

Harold Voigt has, over the past 35 years, produced an impressive oeuvre which distinguishes him as one of South Africa’s finest painters. His works range from landscapes and animal studies to abstracts, and the alter contemplative interiors. However varied the subject matter of his paintings, the brilliance of execution ensures that in each instance that timeless moment is reached when craftsmanship transcends into art, and each painting resonates with a life of its own.

Cyril Coetzee, writer, lecturer, and painter himself, has explored the work of Harold Voigt, and offers an insight into the fascinating world of Voigt’s painterly laboratory, his visual vocabulary, and extraordinary craftsmanship.

Painter Harold Voigt has always held that art must speak for itself. As a result, little is known about the artist himself. This book chronicles and reveals his art to an audience beyond the small group of collectors at his infrequent exhibitions. It presents a literary and pictorial window into the life of a man who is both respectful of the great masters and aware of his African context.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM:

´It is his combination of worldliness and seclusion, of artistic awareness and independent perseverance which has led to the unique blend of an art which is rooted in the tradition of the old masters, yet totally modern in its vision and forlorn hope.

If one had only a square inch from any of the paintings he has ever done, one would immediately recognise it as a ´Voight´, by reference to his brushwork, the surface texture, or the sensitive way the colour is handled. Although the subject matter of his paintings may have changed over time, the same magical effect of light and colour, which has become a hallmark of his art never fails to fascinate.

As for the natural lyricism of his landscape paintings, the horizontal layers of colour with their smooth recession into space are evocative of a mood akin to lyric poetry or verse of faintly shadowed vowel sounds… [His paintings] seem to pulsate with a life of their own, as if they had not been painted but given birth to.

He may not be a prolific painter, yet by working without interruption, as nature does, he has been able to produce an important collection of painting that has gone to corporate and private collections, both in South Africa and overseas.´

Gunter Schlosser
2002