Obituary: Neville Dubowby Sue Williamson
Neville Dubow, chair of the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town from 1971 to 1988, and founding director of the University of Cape Town's Irma Stern Museum, died on August 24, at the age of 74.
Dubow was a key figure in the cultural life of Cape Town, a lecturer whose rigorous intellectual standards and consistent questioning of the status quo set a benchmark for his students. He was director of Michaelis during one of the most politically turbulent periods of South African history, a period in which the apartheid government imposed a series of restrictive States of Emergency to try to maintain control over the general population. Press freedom was restricted, and the rate of detentions stepped up. I recall Neville telling his students at the time how lucky they were that they had all this interesting social and political material to work with, and how students he had lectured in London had expressed envy of their South African counterparts on this very point.
Favourite themes in his lectures were the Berlin Dada scene in the Weimar Republic in Germany from 1911-33, and the social commentary inherent in the work of German artists like George Grosz and John Heartfield. Dubow consistently drew parallels between the decadence of Germany at the time and the enormous gap in resources between the haves and the have-nots in South Africa. Artist Brett Murray recalls that although he remembers Dubow as an excellent and stimulating lecturer, unfortunately, his theory of art lecture was always given on a Friday, and after a long hard week in the studio, on a hot summer's day, it was very tempting to close one's eyes and let the mellifluous tones of Neville's voice soothe one into a nap.
A stalwart of the annual UCT Summer School lecture programme, Dubow's deep knowledge of and perceptive insights into art history, and his analysis of contemporary art, were shared with a much wider audience than the UCT student body, and he had also held visiting professorships in England, the United States and Israel.
Dubow encouraged and supported expressions of protest by his students, and in December 1987 offered as a venue a wooden building then on campus, and known as the Ping Pong Palace for an exhibition of anti-apartheid work by local artists called 'About Time: Images of South Africa'. The exhibition was advertised on the exhibition poster as being open from December 11-22, but was banned by the security police shortly before opening. Fortunately, the banning order took effect only from December 11, and the opening night was actually on the 10th, which drew a huge crowd. Artists exhibiting included Billy Mandindi, Brett Murray, Roger Meintjes and Roger van Wyk.
Next day, behind closed doors, I found Neville photographing the entire exhibition for his records. I asked him if the light was not too dim for a sharp image without the use of a tripod. He assured me that his hand was steady enough to hold the shutter down and get perfect sharpness at 1/30 of a second, a detail I have always remembered.
For Dubow, photography was a major interest. In 1992, he was chosen as the Standard Bank guest artist for the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, and his exhibition entitled 'Neville Dubow - Sequences, series, sites: Photographs 1971-1992' opened at the Festival and thereafter toured the major museums of South Africa.
His contribution to the current global interest in the work of Irma Stern is considerable. Although highly regarded as painter in South Africa during her lifetime, at the time of her death in 1966, interest in Stern's work had waned. In the past few years, however, international interest in her work has exploded. In December 2007, her oil on canvas entitled Congolese Woman realised ?569 300 or R8 000 000 at Christies, a record for the artist. Dubow wrote extensively about her work, and was also the founder and director of the UCT Irma Stern Museum, which houses many of her finest works.
Dubow's last public engagement was on May 22 this year, when he opened the exhibition of the work of his friend and colleague, architect Pancho Guedes at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town. Said Dubow in his opening words, 'I've spent a large part of my professional life exploring the permeable boundaries, the bridges and links between art and architecture. All of Pancho's work demonstrates and celebrates this interconnection; he has made it real and has shown how rich and exciting the fusion can be.'
For those who would like to read this fine speech in full, with all of its wisdom and its engaging tangential comments, it can be found online at http://www.iziko.org.za/sang/exhib/guedes/index.html
Dubow has made the links between art, architecture and life rich and exciting for all of us, and his legacy is profound.
He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Rhona, and his children, Saul, Gideon and Jessica.
