Andre Naude

Artist Biography

André Naude has been painting, educating, printmaking, collaborating, judging national art competitions, curating, and spending time abroad for at least three decades.
These ventures have included group shows in America, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East. This includes New York, Washington, Toronto, Paris, Hamburg, Leverkussen, Ribevac, Barcelona, Budapest, Bangladesh, and Beijing.
Naude has presented solo exhibitions at the Pretoria Art Museum, the University of Pretoria, AVA Gallery Cape Town, NSA Gallery Durban, the University of Johannesburg art gallery, ABSA gallery and Galeria Blau in Palma, Majorca.
His work can be found in the South African National Gallery in Cape Town, Durban Art Museum, Pretoria Art Museum, and corporate collections such as ABSA collection; RMB collection; Anglo Gold Foundation; Amsterdam Rotterdam Bank; Old Mutual head office, London, UK; Nando's UK; University of Pretoria; Telkom South Africa; Tshwane University of Technology; Cite Internationale, Paris; University of Stellenbosch; and several other institutions.
In 2006 Naude presented a solo show at Fried Art Contemporary, Pretoria. In April, he was the Festival Artist at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival in Oudtshoorn and this show titled 'Parade' was then presented at the SASOL Museum, University of Stellenbosch. It traveled to Port Elizabeth in October 2006.
Naude worked at Atwood Press in Witrivier, preparing proofprints with Mark Atwood. Six new lithography editions were proof printed. To quote Lucia Burger who spoke at a solo show at the University of Johannesburg gallery:
'Above all André Naude is a flirt. He cannot resist the seduction of forms and textures. Colour is for him the essence of the diversity, richness and the very soul of the Life of objects, nature and humanity. In his paintings, he handles the issues relating to culture with the panache that would make politicians blush. He refers to certain symbols and icons in a language which is unique and exclusively his own. He uses paint on any surface with the assurance and dexterity of a magician and he allows colours to compliment each other, blend and oppose with the confidence of an accomplished lover.'
Prof Keith Dietrich, head of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Stellenbosch:
'Irony is one of the crucial dimensions to his work, and in particular his sense of dark humour, crouched in a luscious though fragile veneer of paint that enchants and lures the viewer. Underneath the decorative, visceral, sensual and tactile surface of André's painted sufaces lies a darker side to his reality as a South African. Dark humour, satire, and parody are directed toward the social norms of living in Pretoria. The alarming and absurd social conditions that he experiences in his home city are transformed into an ambiguous interplay between survival, optimism and hope. For André, his paintings express his ambivalent relationship with South Africa with its extreme splendour and feelings of hope and optimism on the one hand, and its extreme sense of absurdity, banality and despair on the other.'

On his passing on January 4th, 2023, Eunice Basson wrote a eulogy and tribute to Andre:

Nie in my wildste drome sou ek kon dink dat ek vanoggend hier voor julle almal van ‘n geliefde vriend sou moes afskeid neem nie. Ons het nog op Sondagmiddag 1 Januarie notas uitgeruil oor die slopende gastro-entiritis wat tans die rondte doen. Hy het pas na vier daardie middag tuis gekom nadat hy by Ongevalle by Groenkloof Life ‘n drip ontvang en bloedtoetse laat doen het.
‘n Hegte vriendskap het in 1969 in die Kunsgeskiedenisklas by UP begin. André het langs my op die bank ingeskuif met die woorde; ‘Ek is Naudé van Springs en wat is jou naam’. So het ‘n lewenslange vriendskap en gesprek ontstaan wat, helaas, na 54 jaar op Donderdagoggend 5 Januarie afgesluit is.
André Naudé was an inspiration to so many students and artists. He was passionate about painting, the process of painting and art making. He understood form and colour so well and he delighted in the challenges and possibilities that paint could bring to the different surfaces he worked on, be it his cutouts, ceramics, found objects, printmaking, paper or canvas.
Ek dink aan die vormelemente wat hy met soveel oorgawe uit sy onmiddellike leefwêreld na sy doeke toe oorgedra het. Dink aan die naboom/euphorbia by sy Broderickstraat huis in Groenkloof, die roos- en boomtakke wanneer hy en oom Boet gesnoei het en die snoeisels hulle pad na sy doeke of gevonde voorwerpe gevind het. Dink aan die smeeysterreëling op sy trapskag in sy ateljee en daardie ysterkrulmotief wat in flambojante kleur vir ‘n tyd lank in sy werk neerslag gevind het, ook sy orgidee.

With his keen sense of line and form and as one of South Africa’s foremost colourists, André created a world in which, at first glance, lured and seduced the viewer into his world of exuberant line, form and the endless possibilities colour. But on closer viewing, his subject matter pointedly addressed so many of his concerns regarding the human condition. With his often dark humour and profound sense of life’s absurdities and ironies, he infused his work with his distinctive visual language and mark making often echoing an insightful dialogue between cross-cultural interaction and visual influences within our society.

En ja, André het sy windmeulens gehad wat hy van tyd tot tyd bestorm en mee geveg het, veral wanneer die melancholie hom oorval en hom magteloos gelaat het. Dan het hy teruggetree en onttrek, en homself voor sy esel gaan plant met musiek in die agtergrond en die stilte van sy ateljee. En dan, ‘n week of drie, vier later, sy oproep aan my met daardie besondere toonkleur van sy stem: ‘Is die ketel aan? Ek bring ‘lemon swirls’ van Lucky Bean.
Daar was baie vreugdes in André se lewe, maar die grootste vreugde was om betrokke met vriende en geliefdes te leef, om te kon skep, homself telkens visueel uit te daag, dikwels grense nóg ‘n bietjie verder te verskuif wat hy met sy studente en toeskouers kon deel.
Wie sal ooit sy lag vergeet?
Daar is êrens ‘n gedig opgeteken oor André se wêreld, toe sy geliefde hond Axel nog gelewe het, die opslag-vyeboom swaar gedra het en die orgideë geil geblom het op sy stoep: die titel van die gedig waarmee ek wil afsluit is : Tekenend

Tekenend

Vir André Naudé, skilder
Soos ’n insek oor papier
kriewel ’n bries deur die ateljee.
’n Man gee sy plante vroegdag water,
proe-proe ingedagte aan ’n beker tee.

Marianna Pizzolato sleep deur ’n Stabat Mater –
miskien Pergolesi, of Gounod?
’n Swart hond snuif verby ’n waterbak,
lig sy been geel oor ’n orgidee,
stap traag om iewers koel te gaan lê.

Eenkant op ’n doek sal vorm en lyn integreer,
die skilder sy leitmotiv verbeeld
om aan die einde van die dag terug te tree,
lank te sit en kyk, te kontempleer.

Dan straataf met sy hond gaan wandel
om later na die esel terug te keer
waar hy ’n kwas diep in seladon invou,
as hy die groen van sy ma se Linnware-vaas
uit ’n kinderkaleidoskoop onthou.

Uit: By die dag (2020) Eunice Basson