'My Country'

John Meyer, one of South Africa’s most celebrated modern landscape painters, presents a series of 10 iconic South African landscapes in his latest exhibition titled ‘My Country’ at Everard Read Johannesburg.

For many years the diverse and varied landscapes of South Africa have been an inspiration for John Meyer. Since his first solo exhibition with Everard Read in 1972, Meyer has dramatically captured the essence of the terrain of his birth country, from the arid Karoo to the spectacular Drakensberg; from the abandoned wilderness of the coast or the bushveld, to the ordered grandeur of the winelands. In these landscape works Meyer captures the soul and feeling of the land and our imagination. It is almost impossible for anyone who has had the pleasure of encountering his work to visit the places that have inspired them, without a sense of deja vu. This is why he is unequivocally the country’s pre-eminent contemporary painter of landscape.

This collection of paintings is a commissioned series which has taken two years to complete. Meyer has painted ten of the most arresting vistas that embody, for him, the essence of this country. It was created in response to a collector’s desire to have a coherent body of iconic works that celebrated the diversity and beauty of our South Africa. When confronted by these paintings one is reminded of J.H. Pierneef’s 'Station Panels', which were commissioned in 1929, and one suspects that eighty years hence they will represent a similarly legacy defining project for Meyer.

18 April - 04 May