The Athlete ,1979
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Notes : Peter Clarke never considered leaving South Africa, mindful of his mother’s saying, ‘always see that the house is tidy before you go out’ – and there was so much to be ‘tidied’ in his home country. But time at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in 1962, and in 1976 at the International Writing Programme at Iowa, USA, made him aware of the value of travelling, meeting international artists and seeing their work. Despite the cultural boycotts against South Africa, he was able to win a place at Atelier Nord in Oslo in late 1978. There he began exploring collage extensively, and in larger format. Works produced in Norway, and while visiting George Hallett in France in 1979 before he returned home, like The Athlete, are an important transition to his later abstract work.Clarke had always hoarded paper: torn scraps are layered with paint to make up the broken sky. The Athlete himself is clipped from a magazine, while fragments of marbled endpapers make up the crazy-paving of the ground. Tulips with painted stems and leaves are formed of shaped pieces of bright crimson fabric, while slivers of red paper define the handlebar grips and saddle of the painted bicycle propped against the wall. It was at this time that walls reminiscent of Cape Dutch architecture entered Clarke’s work – for him symbols of the divisions of South African society. And the runner probably represents a Cuban winner at athletics, a subject Clarke spoke of as a symbol of black agency in a white-dominated world. But his political message is handled with a light touch. The ‘LUCIFERPUZZEL’ poster on the wall hints at a puzzle in the work to tease the viewer. The Dutch poster logo refers to ‘Samen Rationeel Verkopen’ mobile supermarket service. Does it, and the bicycle, humorously suggest the athlete’s speed, or perhaps alternate forms of mobility?
Elizabeth Rankin
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