François Krige; South African 1913-1994; Reclining Nude
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Notes : Two contrasting narratives have framed the reception of François Krige's art. For some, including Esmé Berman, he failed to deliver on his early promise as a member of the New Group, despite the quality of his later work. A retiring figure who exhibited infrequently, Krige's achievements have been reclaimed in two posthumous books: Breyten Breytenbach's memoir Dog Heart (1998), which devoted an entire chapter to the artist, and Justin Fox's 2000 monograph. Painting, when 'true to the deeper body', writes Breytenbach, is movement: 'François moves our eyes and our memories.'1 Both Breytenbach and Fox liken Krige's ambition to that of Rembrandt van Rijn. It is a fair comparison. Like his Dutch predecessor, Krige's output is studded with nudes. His pencil and charcoal drawings bear out Berman's observation of Krige's 'sensitive and powerful' draughtsmanship.2 But it is the artist's oils that distil his ambition as well as engagement with the body as sensuous, unavoidable matter: flesh. Krige painted homoerotic male studies as well as female reclining nudes. The latter is a firmly established genre, of which the odalisque is a particular sub-genre. The relationship between the artist and the plump, languorous model in this undated work is unknown. Details such as her blue head adornment and gold jewellery link her to odalisques by Ingres, Manet and Gauguin, whose post-impressionist technique and earthy Polynesian palette Krige's nude bears some affinities with. The nude has long staged an argument between fact and myth. Krige's stacking of his dominant colours (corroded blue, coffee and egg yellow) suggests a mystical unity of water, earth and sky through an encounter with the human body. 1. Breyten Breytenbach (1998) Dog Heart, Pretoria: Human & Rousseau, page 118. 2. Esmé Berman (1970) Art and Artists of South Africa, Cape Town: AA Balkema, page 163.
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