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"Pervading
the paintings of Vivian van der Merwe is a sense of living
order - imperceptible, mysterious in its complexity, flexible
and yielding. Van der Merwe is a painter with a profound
respect for the technical, formal and aesthetic aspects
of painting. To some extent the exquisitely sensitive
distribution of elements, their delicate balance and gentle
vibration in pictorial space can be recognised, analysed,
and thus understood. But the process that transforms the
media and elements into beautiful paintings which are
capable of stirring unplumbed depths of feeling is far
more mysterious since, it is informed by the artist's
spirit."
[Benita Munitz; art critic, Cape
Times]
"Far from being detached from moral issues Vivian's art
is a confirmation of the power of painting to move the
spirit in its own unique way, without the aid of topical
imagery, and is the all the more admirable because it
was developed in a milieu where there was very little
faith in art's ability to stand on its own feet. He is
one of the finest painters at work today."
[Deon Liebenberg; author and art
theorist] Translated from the Afrikaans
"Vivian van der Merwe investigates the language of visual
form and in doing so creates a visual poetry. Call it
l'art pour l'art - a reality that exists on the canvas
and from there engages the viewer. It is a central point
of departure of twentieth century fine art and yet it
has fallen into disfavour on account of the avant-garde's
fierce attempts at unquestioning progress. In the face
of the contemporary trends of solipsism and pseudo-political
posturing, van der Merwe's kind of art is all too easily
overlooked.
Through his investigation of the still-life he focuses
attention on three issues which concern the contemporary
artist. In his catalogue van der Merwe describes them
in the following terms as the need to:
1. rediscover the true meaning of form
2. transcend the dogma of contemporary semantic consciousness
3. affirm criteria which are relevant to painting
Van der Merwe addresses and actualizes these issues on
canvas with brilliance. He reworks, reconstitutes, recreates
and composes simple objects like a bottle, a jug, a dish
on a table until an "other" reality appears. Every chromatic
plane, texture, shape and painterly mark is brought together
into an independent new reality. It is as if the bottle
... begins to move into a dimension other than our familiar
three dimensions. It is as if it exists on a paradoxical
threshold, where it could disappear into total abstraction
or reappear as an everyday object. It is a pure sublime
moment, brilliantly handled.
Van der Merwe minimalizes so intelligently and with such
an intensity that one discovers more and more the longer
one looks at a painting. He nowhere denies the physical
nature of his medium. He does not mislead the viewer by
wanting to show something where there is nothing. There
is no conceptual diversion or semantic gimmickry. The
purity, the complexity, the sublime moment, all are there
- in the subtle tonalities, reconstitution of structures,
and textures. It is not conceived out of nothing."
[Deon Viljoen; art critic and gallerist]
Translated from the Afrikaans
"Those who attempt to align Vivian van der Merwe's art
within a particular stylistic mould do so mistakenly and
superficially. His art has assimilated, and now transcends,
the structures of Modernism, confronting the viewer with
new painterly truths. In this context Vivian van der Merwe
makes an important contribution to the art of painting
in our time."
[M.A. Nolte; art critic, Die Burger]
Translated from the Afrikaans
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