Alert! The Albie Bailey A.R.T. Gallery invites you to the launch of Koos Malgas sculptor of the Owl House, a book by Julia Malgas and Jeni Couzyn. It’s published by by Couzyn’s Firelizard imprint.
The Owl House is, of course, the “internationally known site of Outsider Art” in Nieu Bethesda, Eastern Cape. The work there – sculpture, glass and tile mosaics, spectacular decorations of the house’s interior – is attributed to Helen Martins, who owned the house and took her own life in 1976. “What few people know,” says the book’s blurb, “is that her Camel Yard of haunting cement sculptures was made by a Bushman artist of extraordinary talent who could neither read nor write. His name was Koos Malgas. His story is told here for the first time – in his own words, and through the eyes of his granddaughter.”
The authors will be present at the event to sign and have and open discussion around the book.
Also on show will be linocuts by the artists of the Bethesda Art Foundation and photographs of the Owl House by Jac de Villiers.
Event Details
More about the book
from the book blurb
With searing honesty Julia Malgas and Koos himself describe a life of discovery, struggle, joy, and at times tragedy. Koos’ words, recorded in a series of interviews not long before his death, are interwoven with vivid memories of growing up with her beloved “Pa” by a young artist of real promise, Julia Malgas.
The drama of these lives, lived in the depths of the apartheid era in the remote village of Nieu Bethesda, is explored in a thoughtful preface by poet Jeni Couzyn, and reflected in numerous photographs of Malgas’ work, five of them by photographer David Goldblatt. Pictures and narrative uncover a vivid portrait of an artist, and present Koos Malgas in his rightful place as a sculptor for the first time.
Book Details
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