Wayne Cahill Barker (South African 1963 - ) ROCK & ROLL ...

Estimate

R50,000 - R70,000

Wayne Cahill Barker (South African 1963 - ) ROCK & ROLL CHURCH LADY

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digital print with oil and enamel paint on canvas
signed and dated 2010
187 by 194cm, unframed

Barker has been, and remains, a prolific and active figure on the contemporary South African art scene. The artist’s name is synonymous with rebelliousness and recklessness, which is reflected in his energetic, seemingly aggressive compositions, but also extends to Barker’s personal and artistic identity. Through painting and creating, the artist has explored a nation's history, as well as his own experiences of growing up on a military base in Pretoria in the 60s and 70s in the midst of apartheid South Africa. His response as an artist was an aggressive and rebellious attack on the conservatism that surrounded him. The artist’s iconoclast approach to many of his pieces and his attempts to deconstruct and reinterpret Nationalist ideals has caused controversy on numerous occasions, with many associating him with a dubious sense of morality.

Rock ’n’ Roll Church Lady (lot 362) demonstrates the sheer energy in Barker’s large-scale works, made up of gestural, dynamic mark-making and a riot of colour and visual noise. This work was created after the artist’s move to Cape Town, which acted as a catalyst for the emergence of a new body of work titled ‘Rock ’n’ Roll’. This series of works, completed in 2009, was a continuation of those pieces he had been creating in his Troyeville studio in previous years, but had a new energy and focus. “Like the musical genre that gives them their name, they are loud and brash and full of complex harmonies. Their scale is large, often being made up of multiple panels, but they also have an intimacy and quiet parts, as if they are a ballad.” (Brown, 2010: p. 54). This is true of, Rock ‘n’ Roll Church Lady (lot 362) which illustrates Barker’s sensitivity, which borders on poetic, but also shows his deep-rooted commitment to the pursuit of truth.

The artist’s works have been included in several global biennales, art fairs and exhibitions, and would be a feature in any corporate or private collection.
-AC

Carol Brown (2010) Threading Through History in Wayne Barker: Super Boring, Stellenbosch: SMAC, p. 54
Everard Read, Wayne Barker, Accessed 10 September 2021:
https://www.everardread.co.za/artist/WAYNE_BARKER/biography/