New Arrivals 17th to 23rd of April 2016

ZANDER BLOM, Modern Painting: Piet Mondrian
120pp., 4to., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Cape Town, 2016. R800
"This artist's book brings together Zander Blom's untitled drawings from the series Modern Painting: Piet Mondrian. Continuing his inquiry into the practices of modern masters, Blom draws in black grease pencil on pages torn from books and catalogues on Mondrian, his irreverent iconography ranging from rats and alien-lizards to palm trees and pussy, and abstract scrawls. The series forms part of Blom's New Paintings exhibition (2016)." from the Stevenson gallery website
Miles (E.) SELBY MVUSI, to fly with the north bird south
123pp., 4to., b/w & colour illus., paperback, CD, Pretoria & Johannesburg, 2016. R815
A monograph on painter, sculptor, printmaker, poet and academic Selby Mvusi. Includes a CD of research papers.

Selby Mvusi matriculated from Adams College at Amanzimtoti in 1948. After he had completed his university studies he enrolled for a course in art education at Ndaleni Teachers’ Training College. He then registered for a BA degree in Fine Arts at UNISA in 1954 while teaching at Loram Bantu Secondary School in Durban. He also attended Neil Sacks’ general art classes offered at the Bantu, Indian and Coloured Arts Group in Durban (BICA) and studied art privately under Julia Norman, David McNab and Nils Solberg.

In 1957 Mvusi received an award from the Ella Lyman Cabot Trust which enabled him to study in Pennsylvania and Boston. In 1961 he started teaching at Clarke College, Atlanta, Georgia. Apartheid legislation passed in South Africa and the Sharpeville shootings made him decide against returning to South Africa. Instead, he and his family moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where he taught art. From 1962 to 1964 he lectured in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Science and Technology at Kumasi in Ghana. In 1965 Mvusi was appointed as a senior lecturer in the Fine Arts Department at the University of Nairobi. He died in Kenya in 1967.

Art historian and critic Elza Miles' other books include "Nomfaneliso, who paints at night, the art of Gladys Mgudlandlu", "Land & Lives, a story of early black artists", "Polly Street, the story of an art centre" and "Irma Stern, expressions of a journey".
van Zyl (M.) ed. GEORGINA GRATRIX,
209pp., 4to., colour illus., hardback, d.w., Stellenbosch, 2016. R705
Published to coincide with the exhibition of paintings, "Puppy Love", SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, 2016.

Includes the essay, "Clowning Wisely" by art historian Emily Freidman.

Georgina Gratrix was born in 1982 in Mexico City. She lives and works in Cape Town.

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