November 28, 2020 - January 16, 2021
492 Fehrsen Street, Brooklyn, Pretoria, South Africa
In what is undoubtedly
one of the most disruptive and disturbing years in recent history, paying havoc
with peoples’ lives, dreams and aspirations, André Naudé presents an exquisite
body of paintings in an exhibition which he titles, simply and unceremoniously:
‘Beige’.
The title provides
the perfect starting point to write about an artist that understands colour and
form like few other artists: rightfully acknowledged as one of South Africa’s foremost
colourists. But more than this, the title is immediately evocative of the
playfulness, wry sense of humour and dark irony that permeate Naudé’s work, and
life, in various ways. Not an artist that lets himself be dictated to by whim
or the capriciousness of the artworld, Naudé’s visual language is uniquely and
unmistakably his own. “Cantankerous”, Naudé describes himself when we speak,
and I smile. Conversations with Naudé are never dull, always inflected with
humour, and always contextualised by his immense knowledge and love of art.
