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The exhibition The first of a series of exhibitions of illustrations by Francois Smit was held at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg, January 2006. The next exhibition is sceduled for June 2007 at the University of Stellenbosch Art Gallery
All illustrations in this exhibition are selected from a body of work by Francois Smit, freelance illustrator for The Sunday Independent newspaper. Produced weekly over a period of 10 years, the work is a fascinating visual record of news and views from South Africa and abroad. Francois has always been intrigued by the paradoxical relationship between the image as a metaphor of contemporary mass-mediation and the image as an original artwork. The images selected as artist's editions were chosen out of more than 500 works originally conceived for the Sunday Independent. During the past decade many of these images instantly became iconic references in the visual discourse surrounding South African and international editorial and journalistic art.
Editioned artists prints of the work are available for purchase.
The artist – FRANCOIS SMIT
Francois Smit is an illustrator for The Sunday Independent and a director of QUBA Design & Motion, a company specialising in advertising, graphic design, illustration and video production. He studied Fine Art (Painting) in Port Elizabeth from 1996 to 1998.
During the past decade he has conceived some of the most memorable images ever published in the South African media. The exhibition of his work at GIBS showcases a selection of work by one of South Africa's most intriguing illustrative artists.
Exhibition curator Vivian van der Merwe says of him: "Francois Smit is one of those exceptional artists; his art somehow manages to balance on that almost impossible edge between sharp conceptual narrative and beautiful visual forms. Perhaps it is his extraordinary cultural background and personal experience, offset by a profoundly idiosyncratic sense of the contemporary world, which merge in a remarkable and unique vision. It is not often that we see imagery that engages complex media issues and yet is able to stand alone as compellingly good art." |  |
The curator – VIVIAN VAN DER MERWE
Vivian van der Merwe, an internationally respected artist whose work appears in many major collections, is the curator for Francois Smit's exhibition. Born in 1956 in Cape Town, he studied painting under Stanley Pinker at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, and was awarded the Master of Fine Art Degree in 1983.
Vivian's early works (1976-81) expressed a remarkable aptitude for high realism, and at times extreme naturalism; a sort of twentieth century tribute to his own Dutch and Flemish heritage.
During the decade from 1978 to 1988 his painting became increasingly abstract.
In the artist's own words: "When language is pushed to the limits of its expressive form, it reaches a threshold beyond which it can no longer cope. It comes, as George Steiner put it, to 'the shores of silence'. Speaking as a painter, it is my conviction that it is at these shores where disciplines such as mathematics, physics, music and painting begin, and the conditioned perspectives of history, style and semantic lineage are transcended and sloughed away. It is in these moments of potent silence that Form is rediscovered and affirmed . . . yet man cannot create ex nihilo."
Since 1996 Vivian van der Merwe has lived and worked in Stellenbosch. |  |
The work of Francois is distinguished by a rare marriage of innovative technique, potent yet subtle imagery, and a highly sophisticated sense of visual form.
Like the best traditional visual artists (especially painters and printmakers), Francois uses his digital medium and tools with impressive mastery. Unlike popular work by most of the younger generation of digital artists and illustrators, you never sense or see the medium. The medium, or visualisation process, never intrudes or "shows off". It never postures. Perhaps it is the fact that Francois has literally grown up with the various evolutions of graphics software and hardware that allows him to work almost unconsciously with his medium. Where imagery does pixel-ate, or textures do become digitized, or you do glimpse evidence of digital aesthetics, you always sense that these references to the medium are not accidental or unwanted. Many years ago, when Francois worked with oil paint, these same qualities of objectification of the medium and process were distinguishing features of his art too. This has become a hallmark of Francois' work.
Whereas a studio painter would classically use a paintbrush, palette, canvas and approximately 20 oil colours, Francois works with Photoshop, Freehand, Illustrator, Painter, Bryce, Maya, Poser and Stratavision in conjunction with hand drawn images, digital photography, scans and 3-dimensional modeling. These have become the tools of Francois' studio.
One of the most remarkable, and "invisible" aspects of this exhibition is the process that has yielded these compelling and often magical images: the fact that virtually all of these artworks were executed in an almost impossibly short time (between 2 and 5 hours, from initial conception to final print-ready completion!) tells a story that most artists and illustrators would find difficult, if not impossible, to believe! It is this rare combination of technical virtuosity, an unstoppable imagination, and relentless creativity that makes Francois' art especially unique. Most artists and illustrators would find working within such constraints, week by week, for ten years, completely untenable, and yet Francois has developed a distinctive visual idiom that resonates with technical depth and artistic insight.
Francois' imagery and artistic style has not really changed dramatically since the "earliest days". His art has simply evolved to become increasingly sophisticated and much more complex. This refinement, or distillation, is something that can only come with experience and time, and something that is underpinned by a vision that is conceptually complex, often satirically humorous, sometimes forbiddingly dark, and always visually compelling. As has often been stated about Francois the artist, he treads the tightrope between contemporary narratives and a kind of universal iconography, combined in images of great pathos and beauty, in a way that few other artists and illustrators are capable of doing with such consistency.
- Vivian van der Merwe
A special thank you from the artist
Francois Smit would like to thank the following people for their support in making the exhibition possible: Caroline Hooper-Box for initiating the whole process.
Sunday Independent, GIBS and BASA who made the event financially possible. GIBS for hosting of the event and their support for the arts.
Shaun Johnson for commissioning that very first Dispatches illustration that grew into the collection that we have today
Jovial Rantao, Andrew Walker, Alf Hayter and the staff of Sunday Independent for helping to build this extraordinary relationship between paper and artist over the past 10 years. To the readers of Sunday Independent, thank you for your loyalty and encouraging letters. Rory Bester for his input on editioning and presentaion.
David Goldblatt for his continued support, advice and encouragement.
Mike Dann for his encouragement, support and friendship and his valuable marketing advice.
Curator Vivian van der Merwe for his visual insight and enthisiasm that gave the exhibit its final form. Gary White for his input on the work. Charl Matthee for doing the databasing and e-mailing of the exhibition invites. The Bureau for sponsoring half of the exhibition catalogue and doing the exhibited prints and mounting at such short notice. Lynn-Ann Gauger from Independent Papers for her organisational assistance.
Nicola Danby from BASA for her support.
Cheryl Adamson and Xana Ramalho for organising the event.
My wife Debbie for always being there and her support during those unspeakable deadline moments. There is a bit of her in all this work.
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