mixed media, found objects and neon tubing on canvas

Artwork date: 2010
Signature details: inscribed with the artist's name, the date, medium and title on a label on the reverse
Exhibited: Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, 'Super Boring', February to March 2011.
Polokwane Art Museum, Limpopo, 'Super Boring', September to October 2010.
SMAC Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, 'Super Boring', March to May 2010.

(1)

138 x 138 x 5 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Johannesburg.

Acquired directly from the artist.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Born in 1963 in Valhalla in Pretoria, Barker's first performance was the one he put on to get out of the army when he marched like Charlie Chaplin for two weeks before the SADF ruled him mentally unfit for service. He quickly became part of the 1980s white anti-apartheid cultural scene and with the end of apartheid he found popularity overseas, although his work often poked fun at the hypocrisy of an international art world celebrating all things South African because it was fashionable after Nelson Mandela's release. Barker has never shied from biting the hands that feed him. [1]

Fighting Field – Steve Biko and CBS News – 1990: Walter Sisulu both form part of Wayne Barker’s Legends series. Presented at the artist’s mid-career retrospective in 2010, titled SUPER BORING, which featured at SMAC Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, Polokwane Art Museum and at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, the series, addresses individuals Barker found poignant and iconic within South Africa’s history.

Notably, Barker focusses, in this series, on the individual lives behind the myths and stories, “he also appears to be demanding that we look beyond their obvious achievements to the personality that produces them. In titling this series ‘Legends’ it seems that he is reminding us that a legend loses its grip on the reality that produces it by being told too many times and having too much erased (or conveniently forgotten) that conflicts with the ‘official’ story being told.” [2]

[^{1] Smith, T. (2015). ‘Portrait of an artist as normal, but kinda bohemian’, Sunday Times, 25 January. [online]. Available:}

^{https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2015-01-25-portrait-of-an-artist-as-normal-but-kinda-bohemian/}

^{[2] Van Zyl, M. (2010). ‘SUPER BORING – Wayne Barker’. Stellenbosch: SMAC Art Gallery, p.32.}

^COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the Anglo American Collection, Johannesburg; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Johannesburg Art Gallery; MTN Art Collection, Johannesburg; Polokwane Art Museum; Javett Art Centre, Pretoria; Rand Merchant Bank, Johannesburg; Sanlam Art Collection, South Africa; Sasol Art Collection, Johannesburg; SABC Collection, South Africa; Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg; Spier Art Collection, Stellenbosch; Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg; and the Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg.