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There is something rather special about Cecily Sash that I very much admire. She may find this statement somewhat presumptuous on my behalf; after all I am a mere gallery manager, a few years her junior and a long way short of her great understanding of art history and practice.
That said I should like to explain my admiration because I feel it may be instructive in viewing this exhibition of her latest work. My appreciation stems in some part from the person Cecily is and the life she has led.
I recall the respect I felt for her when the then South African High Commissioner to the Court of St James, Her Excellency Ms Lindiwe Mabuza, opened Cecily's first exhibition here and spoke powerfully about the link between art and the liberation struggle. How in the dark days of Aparthied Ms Mabuza had found in the art of Cecily and the Amadlozi Group great inspiration and a reconfirmation of the belief in ultimate freedom. One sensed that leaving South Africa back in 1974 was a great wrench for Cecily Sash.
I remember with great fondness and a certain amount of amusement our first meeting. We had been encouraged to meet with her to discuss the possibility of an exhibition here by an ex-student in South Africa, the artist Thirza Kotzen.
Thirza had spoken warmly of Cecily in the highest terms, of the quality and finesse of her work, explaining that she had been the most erudite, dedicated and inspirational of teachers. She then spent some time conveying that Cecily could appear somewhat harsh or even gruff in her conversation and dealings, but behind this exterior façade, she was a most unassuming and compassionate person. Thirza warned me not to be riled or irritated by this outward
demeanour.
True to form I spent the first 10 minutes of our meeting being told by Cecily what to do, what not to do, with warnings of the dire consequence if I should put a foot wrong. After I had taken most of this in and re-assured her that I would do my best to meet her understanding of how an exhibition (even a gallery for that matter!) should be run I began to find the sensitive, passionate and caring person that actually Cecily is.
However these personal traits and notes are only ephemeral details that feed my admiration, the essence of my esteem lies quite simply in the outstanding quality of the work Cecily Sash produces.
It is not only that her work bears the mark making of a master in full control of their media, a consummate professional at the peak of their power, it is not even Cecily's great understanding of the use of colour and tone, it is not even her graceful, perceptive ability to convey complex spatial planes within a given work. Their real power, for me, is their noble modesty and the sure intellectual basis of her work.
When I viewed her first exhibition here at this gallery I was consumed by a feeling, almost palpable in the room, that the work was special. Not loud and shouting its magnitude, but quietly omnipresent, solid, an immoveable presence; the restrained and understated self belief of a great artist in their work and its value.
That show, largely made up of her melancholic but fiercely defiant caged birds, tents clinging tenaciously onto rural landscapes and ravaged, gnarled and blasted woods and vegetation, spoke to me of Cecily's great compassion, of a certain sadness at the world, of fearful and heart rending life cycles, of loss of homeland, but ultimately of renewal, defiance, and above all, of hope.
That exhibition was, it seemed to me, a vivid statement to the world, a solemn declaration that Cecily Sash had still something important and vital to say. That searing talent, that in her native South Africa had won her the highest praise and position, had not gone away, had not fallen silent after its self imposed, yet unavoidable, banishment. Here she confirmed her voice had been nurtured and had continued to flourish and had grown more powerful in the seeming anonymity which is often the fate awaiting many a talented 'exile'.
Her work since that show, largely made up of still life constructions of objects or food stuffs with the occasional reference to her adopted Welsh landscape, has lost none of its power; it has perhaps become more contemplative, somehow more at ease with itself, but has lost none of its power to enthral the viewer.
I sometimes imagine Cecily in her studio, sitting studying her chosen arrangement for her next work, Shostakovich's deeply comtemplative 15th string quartet playing quietly in the background, her 'intellectual discipline and vigour' working through the composition before her, waiting patiently for the work to resolve itself, then incising and mark making, in what Henrietta Wilkinson has described as her 'intense scratchy' style.
She seems to remind me of the mature Giorgio Morandi, quite happy to be left alone, public recognition no longer sought or required, to quietly carry on her work. Or perhaps a more meaningful comparison would be to her contemporary, Eric Rimmington, both are now in their eighties, both it would seem to me are as youthful and energetic as twenty year olds and both have a reassured confidence in their ability and a complete nonchalance, which only comes with a life time of experience, regarding whether anyone recognises their immense talent or not.
I think this is what Walter Sickert was apt to mean when he spoke of a 'great humility and a certain weight in the drawing of a great master', Cecily Sash, I believe has both these qualities in abundance.
© Jeff Jackson |
Above: Bamboo I 2007 76 x 56cm
All works are needle etched charcoal and pastel on paper unless stated
Click on small image to enlarge, then click
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Cauliflower II 2007 39 x 29cm
Cauliflower I 2007 76 x 29cm
Tulips 2007 76 x 29cm
Sea Bass Lunch 2007 76 x 29cm
Poppy 2007 39 x 29cm
Last Articokes 2007 76 x 29cm
Vin Rouge 2007 76 x 29cm
Corn on the Cob with Feather 2007 75 x 29cm
Exhibitions: One-man shows
1954: First one-man exhibition, Johannesburg: subsequently in most centres of South Africa. South Africa:1958; 1960; 1961 (opened by Prof Nicholas Pevsner); 1962; 1963; 1964; 1966; 1967; 1971 (3); 1974 (retrospective); 1975; 1976; 1981; 1982(2); 1985 1990: Johannesburg, Durban, 1994: Karen McKerron Gallery S.A Association of Arts, Natal and Cape Town, London 1978; 1984; 1988 (Boundary Gallery); 1998 Ben Uri Gallery, 1984: Leominster (Herefordshire), 1986: Bath (Victoria Art Gallery, 1987: Hay Farm (Gloucestershire), 1988: Bath (University), 1989: Hereford Art Gallery, 1995: Burford House Gallery (Worcestershire), 1995: La Charte, France, 1998: Burford House Gallery (Worcestershire), 2001: The Millinery Works Gallery (London), 2002: Broughton House Gallery, 2003: Duncan Campbell Gallery (London), 2003: Chelsea Gallery, Cape S.A, 2004: Millinery Works Gallery (London), November 2004: Assembly Rooms, Prestinge (small retrospective).
Group shows:
1946: South African Academy, 1950 & 1954: South African Quadrennial, 1952: Van Riebeeck Tercentenary Exhibition, Cape Town, 1956: First Quad of South African Art, 1961: Ghent, Belgium, 1963: Sâo Paulo Biennale; Amadlozi Group exhibits in South Africa and Italy, 1963-64: Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, 1964: Third Quad of South African Art; Venice Biennale (graphic); Belgium,New Orleans; Johannesburg Festival, 1965: One of 11 artists in ‘South African Artists’ exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1966: Venice Biennale, 1967: Sâo Paulo Biennale, 1970: South African Graphics shows, Belgium and Germany, 1972: Florence Biennale, 1974: South African Art Exhibition, Athens, 1986: Venice Biennale, 2004 - 05: Six South African Artist, University Salford, Manchester
Designed by Jeff Jackson.
Published by The Millinery Works Gallery (020 7359 2019) in conjunction with Cecily Sash.
Printed by Cantate (020 7622 3401 / www.cantate.biz).
We can supply professional top quality images and full background information on
Cecily and the works exhibited.
Please call Jeff Jackson on 020 7359 2019 or email
paul@millineryworks.co.uk
for further details. |
