Nel Erasmus

Nel Erasmus (born 1928 in Bethal, Transvaal Province, South Africa) is a South African artist, and is considered as one of South Africa's earliest abstract artists.

Erasmus studied at the Académie Ranson, École des Beaux Arts, and Sorbonne in Paris in 1953 and exhibited her works for the first time in Paris in 1955. Her first solo exhibition was held in South Africa in 1957. She has produced thirty solo exhibitions and taken part in over seventy group exhibitions. Her work received critical acclaim as the only South African artist included in Michel Seuphor’s 1964 survey of abstraction, Abstract Painting: 50 Years of Accomplishment.

Erasmus spent time in Paris in the early 1950s with other South Africans (Christo Coetzee, Paul du Toit, and Eric Loubser) who were inspired by the intuitive processes of post-war abstract painting in Paris. Her writing has also been widely published.

Abstract art in Africa

Nel Erasmus was an early proponent of abstract art in South Africa, both in practice and in principle. She was the director of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (1966–1977).

Erasmus' paintings feature bright colors and dynamic forms.

Education and influencers

• 1950 University of the Witwatersrand, BA in Fine Arts (under Joyce Leonard and Heather Martienssen, with Christo Coetzee, Gordon Vorster, Cecil Skotnes, and Larry Scully)
• 1952 National Arts Teacher’s Certificate, Wits Technikon
• 1952 Private study under Gina Berndtson
• Henry Focillon’s La vie des Formes: Erasmus has cited Henry Focillon's La vie des Formes as a significant influence on her work.
• Anton Hendriks, Director of the Johannesburg Art Gallery when Erasmus started working there, gave her an appreciation of museum discipline and intellectual honesty through his historical and philosophical interests.
• 1953–1955 Sorbonne, Ecole des Beaux Arts, and Académie Ranson, Paris (under Gustave Singier, Selim Turan, and Marcel Fiorini)

Career junctions

Painting periods

• 1960s – formalist/post-cubist abstract period
• Early 1970s – emotionally-revealing and expressive
• Late 1970s – quiet colour fields fleeting energies give way to slow pushes and pulls
• 1980s – calligraphy and objects in flux
• 1990s – body as vessel, seed, and germination
• 2000s – portraiture, polarity of heart and mind
• 2010s – flight
• Currently – patterns of sound

Director of the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) 1966–1977

Nel Erasmus worked at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) from 1957 until her retirement in 1977, rising through the ranks from a professional officer to the gallery's director. She contributed to the acquisition of artworks for public and corporate (especially Sanlam and Sasol) collections in South Africa, in particular the international modern and contemporary collection at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG).

Erasmus’ notorious acquisition in 1973, the year Picasso died, of Pablo Picasso’s Tête d’Arlequin (1971), was made possible by funding from the Friends of the Museum organization. The acquisition of this painting of a clown was met with resistance from conservative, censored, isolated, apartheid-era South Africa, provoking Erasmus to write a paper about why the acquisition was made.

Erasmus explained that it was the policy of other art museums in South Africa to make collections of South African art, but JAG had a policy to focus on international art.

Current work

Nel Erasmus is in her 80s and still paints daily. Her recent participation in art exhibitions include solo exhibitions in 2009 at the Dawid Ras Art Gallery (Johannesburg) and in 2015 at the Dawid Ras Gallery (Cape Town), as well as various other group exhibitions, since then.

Awards and honors

• 1991 Helgaard Steyn Award for Best South African Painting for Jazz Baby/Spent Autumn

Selected exhibitions

• 1955 Galerie Bogroff, Paris
• 1955 10th Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in the Musée d'Art Modern, Paris
• 1957 Henri Lidchi Art Gallery, Johannesburg (first solo exhibition)
• 1957 Galerie Creuze and Musée d'Art Modern, Paris
• 1965 Second Biennale de Paris, Paris, and year appointed at Johannesburg Art Gallery as Professional Officer)
• 1965 São Paulo Biennale, São Paulo
• 1982–1991 Cassirer Fine Art Gallery, Johannesburg

Selected collections and works

• Anglo-American
• Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town – Sketch for the Great Cellist (1963), The Great Cellist (1963)
• Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg – Whirlpool in a Human Matrix (1974)
• Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein - Jazz Baby/Spent Autumn (1991)
• Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria – Space Dance No. 5 (1984); Bold Swimmer (1986)
• Rand Merchant Bank
• Rembrandt Art Foundation – Lamps (1964)
• Sasol Collection
• Sanlam Art Collection – 6th Day of Creation (1995)
• Telkom
• University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch – Hands Off (1989)
• University of the Witwatersrand Art Museum, Johannesburg

References

• SMAC Gallery

Further reading

• Abstract Painting: 50 Years of Accomplishment, from Kandinsky to the Present by Michel Seuphor. New York: Dell Publishing, 1964. ASIN: B000MXA55U. Amazon.com
• Art and Revolution by Diana Wylie. University of Virginia Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0813927640. Amazon.com
• Emerging Johannesburg by Richard Tomlinson, Robert Beauregard, Lindsay Bremmer, Xolela Mangcu. Routledge, 2014. ISBN 978-0415935593. Amazon.com
• Nel Erasmus: Portraits 1949–2009 by Nel Erasmus, Antoinette Glatthaar-Theron. Stellenbosch Modern and Contemporary (SMAC) Art exhibition catalogue, 2009.
• Nel Erasmus – Review by Marelize van Zyl (editor), Deon Viljoen, Antoinette Glatthaar-Theron, Linda Stupart, Elza Miles. Stellenbosch Modern and Contemporary (SMAC) Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, 2011.
• Paris and South African artists, 1850–1965 by Lucy Alexander. Unknown, 1988. Amazon.com