Athi-Patra Ruga (South African, born 1984) Portrait of an Indian Woman (After Irma Stern 1936), 2012
Herkunft : Provenance A private collection. Exhibited Iziko South African National Gallery, Brushing Up on Stern, (July, 2015) The present work is a response to Irma Stern's Portrait of an Indian Woman which was completed in 1936. Many of Athi-Patra Ruga's reinterpretations held in the 2015 exhibition, Brushing up on Stern, are responses to works created by Stern in Zanzibar. The aim of this exhibition was to 'explore the current attraction to her work, as well as earlier antipathy to it'. In an interview with the Cape Argus, Stern described painting an earlier portrait of an Indian woman as a quasi-mystical experience: '(The) East - the cradle of culture. Its symbols, its philosophy, all its mystery lie in their large almond-shaped eyes. I completely lost my heart to one Indian lady, the wife of a rich Indian merchant. Her face was like a delicate ivory carving, and just like ivory when time has touched it - tinted; her neck was like a fragile stalk of a hot-house flower. Only after promising never to show her portrait in public did she permit me to paint her.' (Irma Stern, The Cape Argus, 3 April 1926). Athi-Patra Ruga shifts the narrative of these works by Stern, opting to highlight the problematic nature of the works in othering these women with an Orientalist gaze. The skull iconography offers numerous interpretations ranging from symbols of universal humanity, to zombifaction, and the infinitely more aggressive othering of the 'Grindhouse cannibal'. The point is that the passive, apathetic stare of Stern's initial portrait is replaced by angry confrontation that is no longer subject to desire. In a sense, by utilising the cover format, Ruga is annotating Stern's original piece; the pair are viewed as palimpsest. Working in tapestries, textiles, print, video and photography, Ruga extends his exploration of dystopian translations, perceptions, and ideologies in post-apartheid South Africa. Ruga's work is in the possession of numerous public and private collections. Included amongst these are the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa permanent collection, Iziko South African National Gallery, the Museion – Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, in Bolzano Italy, and the CAAC Pigozzi Collection. Bibliography H.Proud & C.Kaufmann, ed. Brushing up on Stern: Featuring Works from the Permanent Collection of the Iziko South African National Gallery, (Cape Town, 2015)
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