Still Life With Fruit And Bottles ,
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Notes : Known for his compassion, admired for his skill and revered for his talent, Cecil Skotnes’ works continue to capture the creative imagination of viewers and are appreciated both locally and abroad. Unsurprisingly, it was a work by Skotnes which became the first by a South African artist to be reproduced in the Encyclopedia Britannica.Skotnes is best known for his woodcuts, carved and incised panels and for his skill as a printmaker. [ii] His still lifes, such as this work at auction, are seen more seldom, although he painted them throughout his career. His first professional exhibition in 1955, held at Whippman’s Gallery, Johannesburg, featured still life paintings and landscapes.[iii] Subsequent years saw Skotnes engage with more graphic media until his move to the Cape in 1979 marked his return to painting, with a large body of his oil paintings exhibited in 1981.In this work, Skotnes’ awareness of the spatial planes and compositions possible in various media is evident. Illustrating a more painterly rather than graphic approach by the artist, the painting’s objects and colours appear animated. Skotnes’ flattening of the foreground and background allows for the bottles and fruit to appear as if delicately balanced between sliding off the picture or retreating from the viewer. Bringing to mind the colours more closely associated with his African-inspired woodcuts and panels, the warmth of the painting, the poise of its composition and its more unconventional realism conjoin as if to celebrate a humble scene, but one that is no less picturesque.
Marc Smith
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