Nothing much new about Irma
by Michael Stevenson
There is surprisingly little serious writing and research on Irma Stern considering that she is arguably the most prominent woman painter in twentieth-century South Africa. Since the publication of Neville Dubow's overview about 30 years ago, there have been only a few books on Stern: an account of her early years by Karel Schoeman, Dubow's own discussion on Stern's early Paradise journal, Marion Arnold's glossy but concise (in terms of text) monograph and the catalogue that accompanied the retrospective in Germany a few years back, co-ordinated by Irene Below.
This fragmented literature is more surprising considering the rich array of primary material, as well as the high esteem in which her work are held in the art market. One would have thought the widespread interest in her art, and the fascinating life she led, would have inspired an art historian or writer to have produced a substantial monograph that explores her work in the context of its times and current perceptions. It could also have provided the impetus for a major museum show in South Africa.
The two books under review are intertwined with these two points: Mona Berman's recollections further enrich the primary material available on Stern, while the Standard Bank exhibition and catalogue seeks to tap into the broad and popular interest in Stern's work. However, each book is flawed, primarily because they perpetuate the lack of serious critical and scholarly consideration of Stern's art.
Mona Berman's book is based on an extraordinary (and probably unrivalled) collection of 165 of the artist's letters, written between the artist and Berman's parents in the years 1935 until her death in 1966. They were a remarkable couple, forward-thinking patrons of the arts who throughout their lives supported the avant-garde in art and architecture. Berman has chosen to intersperse extracts of these letters with her memoirs of her childhood in this liberal and engaging Johannesburg Jewish family.
The chapters are structured around themes in the letters; for instance, Stern's relationships with each of Berman's parents, her relationship with 'others', and that with her partner Dudley Welch as well as the artist's relationship with Africa. Berman has an unmatched insight into Stern's life because she has literally lived in the presence of the artist and her work since her birth. Stern first sketched Mona Berman as a baby in 1936, and her parents remained Stern's closest friends until her death.
The author writes well, and there are many evocative descriptions and recollections of fascinating conversations, and her memories of her (mis)perceptions of the artist from the eyes of a child are particularly moving. Berman's personal narrative is so strong that it ought perhaps to have stood on its own. In particular, chapter three, entitled "Growing up with Irma", could have been extended into a full-length self-contained memoir to serve both as an important primary resource in itself as well as a long introductory essay to the letters.
The extracts from the letters strongly suggest that they would have been a wonderful read if they had been transcribed in chronological order and introduced or footnoted to explain some of the more obscure points. The quotes are a revelation in that they provide a rarely seen sense of Stern's temperament and emotions, her moments of elation and her times of depression. The descriptions of her journeys in the Congo and Zanzibar are particularly riveting (and amusing with quirks like "I do not drink a sip of water only soda and whisky" (p.89)).
Stern's accounts of her complex relationship with her mother, as well as with her partner of many years are disturbing. Her account of her protracted decline in health is sad and moving. Stern is so seldom perceived as a vulnerable angst-ridden artist because her exuberant paintings suggest she was emotionally robust whereas, in reality, her colourful work in many respects compensated for her internal frustrations and fruitless searching for meaningful relationships.
The letters are also replete with quirky details, such as when visiting Florence, she was delighted with having "red lacquer nails - a massage daily - my hair is short and done by a good hairdresser - the most fascinating of hats and shoes are mine" (p.57). Or, on another occasion, "I feel as though my face was made of fruit, my arms and breasts are bananas and apples - my nose a prune - my hair bits of carrots. Oh horror" (p.73).
There are also many references to more serious issues such as politics and race, and they suggest that Stern was not a na�ve colonial. In 1955, she wrote a letter to Richard Friedman in which Stern indicates that she was well aware of the romanticism in her earlier work and was pragmatic about the realities of the post-colonial Africa.
"The lovely fairytale outlook on Native life - which my early work had - can hardly continue - when I see the most lovely people acting not like children but like devils incarnate to the white people up in Kenya. Of course I can understand their sudden awakening and finding their land full of white raced people - who have their foot on their necks - but still I cannot say I am looking happy and peacefully into the future of our South Africa. We are just passionately awaiting a huge blood bath. Stoking it on daily - hourly - giving with the left hand and taking with the right" (p.60).
Interestingly, in November 1958, she gave a painting to the Treason Trial Fund but resisted giving a second painting because she did not "particularly want to be mixed up more in this business" (p.141). Thus, as these titbits illustrate, these letters are a unique and fascinating resource and, it is surprising then when the author claims that nobody took up her offers to work them up into a publication (p.3). The use of these extracts by researchers is limited by the fact that they are in many instances not dated or referenced.
The Standard Bank is to be applauded for taking on the huge responsibility, and enormous expense, of exhibiting an overview of Stern's work, not to mention producing a richly illustrated catalogue. This is a show long overdue, and the resources of a public gallery should have been brought to bear on this project. However, priorities in terms of finances, as well as exhibition programmes that redress previous neglected aspects of our art history, have limited the scope of this retrospective undertaking.
It is unfortunate, because a public gallery may have been braver in their curating choices and sought to imaginatively represent her work from fresh perspectives. The Standard Bank curators have chosen the more obvious and conservative approach, dividing up Stern's oeuvre into traditional categories: portraits, figure studies and groups, landscapes and still-life's. The works have been grouped accordingly, both in the catalogue and in the installation of the exhibition, and consequently, although it makes for pleasant viewing, there is so much more that could have been said through careful juxtapositions.
So often an old-fashioned chronological display is the most effective and certainly in this instance, it may have made more visual sense. For the catalogue, the obvious writers - Schoeman, Arnold, Dubow and Below - have been asked to contribute short essays. One does not come away from the catalogue or the exhibition with any fresh perspectives on Stern, which is a pity considering the resources that have been expended on the project.
Stern was a provocative artist in her day and her life and work warrants critical engagement rather than a placid and tepid regurgitation the facts. She was at the juncture of Europe and colonial Africa in the world of art, and, as a result, there are so many approaches both in terms of traditional research and contemporary thought, that could have been be explored in relation to an extraordinarily rich body of art and other material. These two publications are reminders of her vitality. Sadly the scholars and writers of our time have only scratched at the surface.
Irma Stern: a memoir with letters, by Mona Berman
Publisher: Double Storey, Cape Town, 2003, 184 pp
Price: R170 incl.
Irma Stern: Expressions of a journey
Publisher: Standard Bank, Johannesburg, 2003, 190 pp
Price: R200 incl.
