NORMAN CATHERINE

(b. 1949 East London, South Africa)

‘Norman Catherine's prodigious career spans more than 50 years and has straddled the most formative periods in South African contemporary art, from the '70's through the end of the last millennium and into the youth of this one. His oeuvre includes painting sculpture, printmaking and mixed media.His nutrients have, at times, included the cultural equivalent of junk food: pop culture, comic books, cartoons, sci-fi movies, pulp fiction; and, whether deliberately or inadvertently, like all South Africans, he has subsisted on a daily diet of news reports reflecting the violence, brutality, corruption, and dandified revelry of an empire dangling on the edge of the precipice. In short, his art has both depicted and mitigated South Africa's growing pains and it fractured psyche.’

Hazel Friedman, 2013

 

Since his first 1969 solo exhibition, consisting of oil paintings on wood, bone, wire and an assortment of found objects, Norman Catherine's art has since undergone "several metamorphoses, from the pristine airbrush paintings of the 70s to the frenzied, ritualistic mixed media works of the early and mid 80s; the wire sculptures and tin can works of the late 80s, and the primitive-futuristic paintings of the early 90s which provided the seeds for his pre-millennial menagerie of anthropomorphic beasts. In the years spanning his past and present output, Catherine's visual trademarks have included rough-edged comical and nightmarish forms, rendered in brash cartoon colours. His idiosyncratic vision - a combination of dark cynicism and exuberant humour, as well as his innovative use of everyday materials, has secured his place at the forefront of South African contemporary art" (Hazel Friedman).

Norman Catherine’s art imbibes a dystopian vision of the socio-political landscape that informs his psyche. History, horror, crime, conflict, psychoses, politics & pathologies serve as stimuli for his creative output that vacillates between the macabre and the comic, between a gasp and a giggle. He conveys his cynical vision through a juxtaposition of dark and light sensibilities veering between an internal hallucinatory realm and literal commentary on the material world. There are no easy classifications for the genre of his work suffice to say that he rebels against any dogma or rigid definition.

Catherine has exhibited extensively in South Africa and internationally. His work is included in public and corporate collections in South Africa and internationally including the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York City.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023

Head to Toe, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2013

Incognito, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2006 

Now & Then Retrospective, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa

Dualities, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

2005

Now & Then Retrospective,Stellenbosch Art Gallery, South Africa

Now & Then Retrospective,Nelson Mandela Metro Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth, Polokwane Art Gallery, Durban Art Gallery, South Africa         

2004

Urban Mutations, Moba Art Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

Now & Then Retrospective, Pretoria Art Museum;, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa

2002   

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2000  

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1995

Espace XL, Luxembourg

1994 

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1993 

Spot-On Gallery, Windhoek, Namibia

1991 

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1987    

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1986   

S.A. Association of Arts, Pretoria, South Africa

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg (Fook Island-Walter Battiss Commemoration Exhibition), South Africa

Gallery 21, Johannesburg (100 works from Pelmama Collection), South Africa

Area-X Gallery, New York, USA

1985  

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1984 

S.A. Association of Arts, Windhoek, Namibia

1982  

Gowlett Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1980

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa    

1979  

Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg (Retrospective exhibition 1969-1979), South Africa

1978 

Kunsthandel SIAU, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Gallery 21, Johannesburg, South Africa

1977 

No 13 Abel Road Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1976

Gallery 21, Johannesburg, South Africa

1974   

Goodman-Wolman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

1973  

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa    

1972

Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1971  

N.S.A. Gallery, Durban, South Africa

1970 

Motif Gallery, East London, South Africa

1969 Herbert Evans Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023

What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2022

3D in 2022: South African Contemporary Sculpture, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

Ancestors & Dreams in African Art, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa & Jacaranda, New York, USA

2021    

Spring Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

Oasis, 25th anniversary exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2020

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Odyssey, online exhibition, Everard Read, South Africa & UK

2017

Off the wall: A Group Sculpture Show, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2015   

Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2014   

Summer of Sculpture III, Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa     

2013 

It’s New, It’s Now, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, USA                        

2012 

Impressions from South Africa: 1965 to Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA         

2011  

Art Monaco 11, Grimaldi Forum, Monaco

Entre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, Spain

Water – the [Delicate] Thread of Life , Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007 

Local Racism, Global Apartheid , CCCP, Barcelona Spain

2006 

1er Salon d Art Contemporain Africain , Brussels, Belgium

2004    

Identity - The ID of South African Artists  Exhibition, Scheveningen, Netherlands

2003

Brett Kebble Awards, Cape Town, South Africa

Art 34 Basel, Switzerland

2002  

Passport to South Africa, Centro Culterale Trevi, Bolzano, Italy

Natural Born Painters, Galerie W, Paris, France

L humour dans i art contemporain, Espace Belleville, Paris, France                

Zeignössische Kunst aus Südafrika, Bayer AG, Leverkussen, Germany

1998

Included in United Nations Portfolio:  “New York - Artists Salute Gerard Schroeder”

1997 

South Africa, Kohn Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

Fin de Siecle, Michel Luneau Art Gallery, Nantes, France

1996 

Simunye, Adelson Galleries, New York, USA

Modern Konst i Afrika, MalmöKonsthall, Malmö, Sweden                

Common and Uncommon Ground, Atlanta, USA

Chicago Art Fair, Chicago, USA (May)

Art 27 96, Basel, Switzerland

Eight from South Africa, Centre for the Arts, Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, USA 

Colours, Zeignössische Kunst aus Südafrika, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany

1995  

Seven Stories About Modern Art in Africa, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK         

On The Road, Delfina Studio Trust Gallery, London

Mayibuye i Afrika, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, UK

Kunsthal, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Panoramas of Passage: Changing Landscapes of South Africa, Meridian Cafritz Galleries, Washington, Touring USA (Dallas, Atlanta, Detroit and Wilberforce,Ohio)

1994

In Full Color, Les Sacks Fine Art, Los Angeles, USA

Cuban Biennial, Havana, CUBA & Ludwig Forum, Aachen, Germany     

1993   

Venice Biennial, Venice, Italy                          

Graphica Creativa, Jyvaskyla, Finland

1991 

AA Life Vita Art Exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa

1990-1 Art from South Africa, Zabalaza Festival, Oxford Museum, Oxford, UK (touring exhibition)

1990    

Voices from South Africa, Contemporary Art against Apartheid, Stuart Levy Gallery, New York, USA

1989 

Art 20 89, Basel, Switzerland

1987

Art 18 87, Basel, Switzerland

1986 

Pictures of People, Area-X Gallery, New York, USA                    

1985

Tributaries  Exhibition, Johannesburg & Germany (BMW-sponsored touring exhibition)

Soker-Kaseman Gallery, San Francisco, USA

1981 

Defense Art Gallery, Paris, France

Art EXPO, San Francisco, USA

Art EXPO, Los Angeles, USA

1975 

Art 6 75, Basel, Switzerland

1973 

Galerie Daniel Gervis, Paris, France

1972

Galleria d’Arte L’Orizonte, Senigallia, Italy

 

AWARDS

1973   Art South Africa Today, Durban (Cambridge Shirt Award)

1981   Republic Festival Arts Exhibition, Durban (lst prize for Graphic Art)

1991   AA Life Vita Art Now 3rd Quarterly Award (Shared with Andries Botha)

2012   SA Academy of Science & Art: Award for Visual Arts.

 

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

SA National Gallery, Cape Town

Johannesburg Municipal Art Gallery, Johannesburg

Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria

Durban Art Gallery, Durban

Ann Bryant Art Gallery, East London

Sandton Municipal Art Gallery, Sandton

Oliwenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein

The Haenggi Foundation Inc, Switzerland

Pelmama Permanent Art Collection, Johannesburg

University of South Africa, Pretoria

Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg

University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

University of Natal, Durban

Walter Battiss Museum, Somerset East

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth

Roodepoort Public Library, Roodepoort

Department of National Education

Carnegie Art Gallery, Newcastle

Gauteng Legislature, Johannesburg

Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg

Constitutional Court of SA, Johannesburg

Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (MOMA)

Reserve Bank of South Africa

Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA

Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

CORPORATE COLLECTIONS

Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, USA

Mobil Court Art Collection, Cape Town

Volkskas Bank, Pretoria

Everite Ltd, Johannesburg

Premier Milling Co, Johannesburg

Trust Bank, Johannesburg

Bankorp, Johannesburg

Standard Bank, Johannesburg

Sasol Art Collection

World Bank, Johannesburg

BHP Billiton, Johannesburg

World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland

Union Bank of Switzerland, Sandton

Telkom, Johannesburg

Absa, Johannesburg

Saronsberg Wine Estate Collection, Tulbagh

Vodacom, Cape Town

Berardo Foundation, Portugal

Sanlam Ltd., Bellville

Fortis CircusTheater, Scheveningen, Netherlands