About The Artist
(1928 - 1990)
The most powerful element in Anna Vorster’s painting is it’s strength. It is there in each component – colour, subject, especially line. It is poetry, which cannot be subjected to revision.
The statement is never half-hearted. It does not deal with the trivial, the inconsequential.
- Diana Gordon (Art review - Association of arts gallery)
Short Biography
1928 Born at Hartebeesfontein, Transvaal.
1948–1952 Student at the university of the Witwatersrand.
1952 Obtains Fine Arts Degree. Wins a two-year post-graduate bursary.
1952–1953 Slade School of Arts, London.
1953–1954 Studies at the Academy Andrá L’hore in Paris.
1955–1956 Obtains Education Diploma at the UOFS.
1960 Undertake study tours through Israel, Turkey and Greece.
1962 Lecturer at the Art School of the Johannesburg
Technical College. Linear elements are prominent in her semi-abstract style. Also do studies of landscapes and rock formations.
1963–1964 Works in Greece, Rome and Paris. Translates Harold Jeppe’s “S.A. Artists” into Afrikaans.
1965 Paints with Maud Sumner in the Namib Desert.
1967 Appointed as lecturer in Fine Arts at UNISA, but withdraw herself from formal education to concentrate on her own work.
1970 After her marriage, she moves to Cape Town. She is strongly attracted to the coastal scenes and harbour subject. She moves towards a more figurative approach with series of paintings of hunts, Boland landscapes and figure studies.
1978 Moves back to Pretoria. Several exhibitions follow. [Anna Vorster in die Vrystaat, 1985. 11]
1988–1990 The artist gets very sick, a few works follow and she eventually dies in Pretoria on 15 April 1990.
Exhibitions
1952 “Association of International Artists” - Gallery. London.
1953 Exhibition of Statebond Art.
1956 Fourth yearly exhibition of South African Art.
1960 Fourth yearly exhibition of South African Art.
1955–1962 Exhibitions in Cape Town, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.
1963 Sao Paulo Biennale.
1964 Women’s International Art Club. London.
South Africa Arts Association, Pretoria.
Rembrandt exhibition.
Fourth yearly exhibition of South African Art.
Transvaal Academy of art.
1965 Wolpe – gallery. Cape Town.
National gallery. Cape Town.
National Gallery. Athens.
Pretoria Art Museum. One-man show.
1966 Venice Biennale.
1969 5 yearly exhibition of South African Art.
1970 SA Arts association. Pretoria.
1971 Republic Festival. Cape Town.
1973 Die Kunskamer. Cape Town.
1974 SA Arts association. Pretoria.
1977 SA Arts association. Pretoria.
1979 Hoffer- gallery. Pretoria.
1981 Republic Festival. Durban.
Hoffer- gallery. Pretoria.
1982 Belville Art Gallery.
1983 Pretoria Artists. Pretoria Art Museum.
Retrospective exhibition, 1953 – 1983. RAU. [Anna Vorster. RAU. 1983]
Public Collections
Africana Museum. Johannesburg, South Africa.
Durban Art Gallery, KwaZulu-Natal.
Hester Rupert Museum, Graaff-Reinet.
S.A. National Art Gallery, Cape Town.
Potchefstroom Art museum.
Pretoria Art Museum.
Johannesburg Art Museum.
William Humpreys – Museum, Kimberly.
UNISA.
Embassies in Bonn, Sao Paulo, Washington.
Anna’s description of her studies.
In October 1953 I registered as a pupil of André Lhôte in his studio near the Gare Du Montparnasse, Paris. The academic year 53 to 54 was devoted to the study and painting of the figure. I was to learn at firsthand the principals of figure composition as set out in the master’s book "Traite de la Figure" – a companion to this book "Traite du paysage" which I had studied for my treatise on landscape painting submitted for the final examination of the B.A. in Fine Arts two years previously in 1951, at the University of the Witswaterrand, Johanesburg.
To conceive the figure in main volumes was the purpose of André Lhôte teaching.
[Anna Vorster’s notes, own handwriting in personal archives]
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