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JEWISH AFFAIRS Chanukah 2015
17 th Century Dutch Master depicting the outline
of a woman with her back to the viewer. The
woman stands at a doorpost leading to further
interiors through open doors, a metaphor of the
artist’s state of mind. The work is interspersed
with angry titles which convey the artist’s inner
ferment. On the other end of the spectrum a
new configuration appears: the motif of the cot
drawn in silver pen on black carton.
Gwen’s 2013 cots series is a new breakthrough.
The cots appear in infinitesimal size, their still
somewhat jittery geometric delineation appeal
to the senses, but are at the same time deeply
disturbing and assert themselves through a
membrane of darkness.
Dahlia
Gwen’s mentor, supervisor and friend
Pippa Skotnes found some containers of colour
pigments when she packed up the studio of her
late father, the great South African artist Cecil
Skotnes. He had labelled them ‘Dahlia’ in his
own handwriting. Pippa gave them to Gwen as
a present. For Gwen, this honour had a highly
symbolic significance. Her mother had grown
dahlias which she sold on the flower market
at Church Square, Pretoria. Making use of
Pippa Skotnes’ precious gift, she combined the
memory of Cecil Skotnes with that of her mother.
Continuing to pursue her newly discovered return
to the brush, she used these pigments to paint
her series. Tiny bursts of an explosive force so
personal that they assume a sense of the elusive
have come to being through this gesture and its
memorialisation.
Cot. From the cot series. 2013
Silver pen on cart. 250x20mm
Gwen’s cot motif has associations with
childhood and security. Yet a sense of
imprisonment and extreme loneliness is expressed
in these silver pen drawings.
The Saltimbanque series
In 2013, Gwen took a further step towards
self-expression, returning to brush and palette,
oil and board to pronounce her humanism and
empathy towards others. She created a series
entitled ‘Saltimbanques’, which harks back to
Picasso’s ‘Blue’ and ‘Pink’ periods (1905/06).
The meaning of saltimbanque is “one who
jumps upon a bench”, and the term was used
by Picasso for his subjects of circus performers
and acrobats. They were the artistes, poor and
isolated bohemians, yet creative and independent
from mainstream society which in turn was in
need of their art. Is this not the everlasting
plight of every artist? Gwen van Embden’s eight
diminutive paintings under this metaphorical title
who face the viewer in frontal sorrow are people
on the fringes of society, yet indispensable to their
well-being, rendered with intense sensitivity and
aesthetic mastery. They resonate in a receptive
South African climate and reveal the artist’s
ever present social consciousness.
Dahlia. 2014
Skotnes pigmet on cotton paper. 100xx70cm
Hybrid. 2014 Monotype, oil on paper
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