 PAUL DU TOIT Still Moving |
 PAUL DU TOIT Focused |
 PAUL DU TOIT Firm Foundation |
 PAUL DU TOIT Prehistoric idols series |
 PAUL DU TOIT Prehistoric idols series |
 PAUL DU TOIT Prehistoric idols series |
'At the basis of Paul du Toit's latest work' writes a critic, 'lies a way of working, long regarded by Paul as essential to instinctive creativity, namely, surrendering to concepts as they surface, while in the act of painting. Letting them run wherever they want to, in contrast to the more rational practice of working along a specific theme....Paul's ongoing experimentation and inventive techniques with thick, intuitive colour have led him to new media, artistic and industrial.'
While his previous show was largely informed by his research into ancient Chinese scripts and his invigorating experiences in China and Hong Kong, his latest work on this exhibition integrates these concepts with pictorial languages or mythical societies closer to home: rock engravings and cave paintings, as much as pictograms, eccentric calligraphy and personal scribbles going back to his own childhood.
Special Feature
Click here to view the special feature from Paul du Toit's website 'PlanetPaul' and 'Mandela day'.
Selected Reviews
Click here to view a selection of Reviews from Paul du Toit's website.
Selected Essays
Click here to view a selection of Essays from Paul du Toit's website.
Selected Interviews
Paul recently hosted a group of American journalists, including Indagare?s Simone Girner, for lunch in the impressive wine cellar of his Hout Bay atelier, which can be visited by appointment. He spoke about his work and South Africa?s burgeoning contemporary art scene. The interview can be viewed on Indagare?s website; click here to view the full article.
Selected Videos
Click here to view a selection of videos including the CNN interview.
Click here to view Paul's youtube video channel.
Artist's Statement
Over the last couple of years I have started working in series and one body of work take on a particular theme. In 2008, I again destroyed certain works through a strict editing process. Like before I have used the off-cuts to create new smaller works. The longer I studied these works and enhanced them I noticed how they stand on their own as individual works, even when grouped together. The works have a certain primitiveness about them, mainly because of the way they were created : by using cut up canvas from previous imagery and pasting them onto stretched canvas with a thick paste of paint. Once dry, I work over them with various media like oil paintsticks and gels to get a desired effect. The new habit of working has spawned exciting imagery with signature awkward scrawls from my forest of symbols.
Biography
Paul du Toit is a South African artist who has carved a unique niche in the international arena. Beyond being able to access and be exhibited globally, du Toit has simultaneously continued to create a very personal form of art that has not adjusted itself to the demands of a commercial art market. Du Toit's art is his own; a linear, phantasmic world that he has created from his mind and experiences.
Over the years, he has built up a forest of symbols - his own alphabet of awkward scrawls that spawn off each other. When he creates a work of art, he retains only forms that are appropriate. This combined with the treatment of space and master lines (scratched into wet paint with sticks) result in a desired unity of composition. Primary colours are added on top of the impasto and movement is created by a variation in the dimension of forms in relation to other elements. His work starts out with a line(origination) and ends with a black line defining the pools of colour.
Among the many awards he has received is a medal from the city of Florence in the Biennale Internationale Dell'arte Contemporanea. He was nominated for the Daimler Chrysler Sculpture Award of 2002. He was recently invited to work with former president Nelson Mandela and international musicians on the 46664 campaign.
Paul was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on 31 October 1965
Solo exhibitions
2009Graham's Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
Johannesburg, South Africa
Recent works by Paul du Toit at Rose Korber
Cape Town, South Africa
Prehistoric idols, 34LONG Fineart
Cape Town, South Africa
2008
Generative markings: PlanetPaul in Apogee, Kyle Kauffman Gallery
New York City, NY, USA
Dieu Donné Papermill, Annual benefit auction
New York City, NY, USA
Some Strange Alphabet, Graham's Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
Johannesburg, South Africa
Open Art Fair
Utrecht, Holland
2007
Winwood Art District, Miami, USA
Kee Club
Hong Kong
Highly Charged, 34LONG Fine Art
Cape Town, South Africa
2006
Dieu Donné Papermill, Creation of paper pulp paintings
New York City, NY, USA
Fighting with my weak hand, University of Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa
Drawn to abstraction, Erdmann Contemporary
Cape Town, South Africa
2005
Off the wall, Erdmann Contemporary
Cape Town, South Africa
Dieu Donné Papermill, Creation of paper pulp paintings
New York City, NY, USA
2004
Visitors from PlanetPaul, Galerie Plett
Zeist, Holland
PlanetPaul
New York City, NY, USA
2002
PaKua Gallery
Sandton Convention Centre
Johannesburg, South Africa
2001
Paul du Toit, Bell-Roberts Contemporary Art
Cape Town, South Africa
Galerie Plett
Zeist, Holland
2000
PaKua Gallery
Cape Town, South Africa
1999
Millennium Gallery
Pretoria, South Africa
1998
Bang the Gallery
Cape Town, South Africa
Galerie Apart
Paris, France
South African Virtual Gallery
Selected group exhibitions
2009
Ilana Raviv and Paul du Toit, Art Vine Fine Art & Wine Gallery
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Mixit, 34LONG Fine Art
Cape Town, South Africa
In Storage, 34LONG Fine Art
Cape Town, South Africa
2008
Regeneration, Kyle Kauffman Gallery
New York City, NY, USA
17th Art Salon, Rose Korber Art
Cape Town, South Africa
Four, 34LONG Fine Art
Cape Town, South AFrica
Face 08, 34LONG Fine Art
Cape Town, South Africa
Lustre, dots and more, 34LONG Fine Art
Cape Town, South Africa
2007
Art Now Fair, Kyle Kauffman Gallery, New York
Miami, USA
Dieu Donné Papermill, Inaugural exhibition and auction
New York City, NY, USA
Face, 34LONG Fine Art
Cape Town, South Africa
Sculpture by the Sea
Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia
Cottesloe Beach, Perth, Australia
KKNK, Bell-Roberts Gallery
Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Twogether, 34LONG Fine Art
Cape Town, South Africa
Review, 34LONG Fine Art
Cape Town, South Africa
Recent Arrivals, 34LONG Fine Art
Cape Town, South Africa
2005
Association for Visual Arts
Cape Town, South Africa
2004
13th Art Salon, Camps Bay
Cape Town, South Africa
Association for Visual Arts
Cape Town, South Africa
University of Stellenbosch Gallery
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Bell-Roberts Contemporary Art
Cape Town, South Africa
Artiade 2004
Athens, Greece
Represented South Africa
Association for Visual Arts
Cape Town, South Africa
2003
12th Art Salon, Camps Bay
Cape Town, South Africa
Bell-Roberts Contemporary Art
Johannesburg, South Africa
2002
11th Art Salon, Camps Bay
Cape Town, South Africa
Toronto International Art Fair
Toronto, Canada
2001
Florence Biennale, Florence, Italy
Medal Award
Holland Art Fair, Netherlands Congress Centre
The Hague, Holland
10th Art Salon, Camps Bay
Cape Town, South Africa
Johannesburg Art Museum
Johannesburg, South Africa
Nomination for the South Africa
DaimlerChrysler Sculpture Award 2002
70/2000 Touring Exhibition
Oxford Brookes University, UK
2000
Bell-Roberts Contemporary Art
Cape Town, South Africa
9th Art Salon, Camps Bay
Cape Town, South Africa
Galerie Plett
Zeist, Holland
Edinburgh City Art Gallery
Edinburgh, Scotland
Art Museum Potchefstroom
Potchefstroom, South Africa
Stanley Picker Gallery
Kingston, United Kingdom
1999
8th Art Salon, Camps Bay
Cape Town, South Africa
A3 Gallery
Moscow, Russia
Liberman Room, South African National Gallery
Cape Town, South Africa
Gallery 88
Sasolburg, South Africa
1st Edinburgh Internet Festival
Celtica Gallery
Edinburgh, Scotland
Windsor & Newton
Millennium Exhibition, Sandton
Nominated as a finalist
1998
7th Art Salon, Camps Bay
Cape Town, South Africa
Sara Pearce Fine Art
Bond Street, London
Gallery 88
Sasolburg, South Africa
Augsberg City Hall
Augsberg, Germany
1997
Groot Constantia Art Gallery
Cape Town, South Africa
1994
Association of Arts
Bellville, Cape Town
Awards
2001
Florence Biennale, Italy
Medal award for sculpture
Finalist for the DaimlerChrysler Sculpture Award
1999
Windsor @ Newton Millenium exhibition, Nominated finalist
1994
Association of Arts, Bellville, Cape Town
Awarded 1st prize for best artist with no formal training
Corporate Collections
South African Breweries Ltd
Vodacom
DaimlerChrysler
HSBC
NH Group of Hotels
OB7
Special Feature
Paul has been asked to work with Mr Nelson Mandela again for the call of a global 'Mandela day' on 18 July.
Mandela Day celebrates the idea that each individual has the ability to make an imprint, the power to transform the world.
Earlier this month Paul met with Mr Mandela in Johannesburg again to take imprints of Mr Mandela's hands in order to create a unique sandstone casting to be auctioned in New York during July 2009.
Paul will join the campaign in New York.
46664 AND THE NELSON MANDELA FOUNDATION CALL FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF GLOBAL ‘MANDELA DAY’
President Clinton supports global tribute to inspire people to mirror Mandela’s values
April 27, 2009
46664 and the Nelson Mandela Foundation are calling on people around the world to support the creation of an official Mandela Day, to be held annually on July 18, Mr. Mandela’s birthday. This celebration of Nelson Mandela’s life will serve as a global call to action for people to recognize their individual power to make an imprint and help change the world around them for the better.
A series of special events will take place in New York City in 2009 involving many of the charity’s global ambassadors from the worlds of entertainment, music and film. An exhibition will take place in New York on Mr. Mandela’s life and the work of his charitable organizations. More information can be found at www.MandelaDay.com.
This annual celebration is being created to inspire people from every corner of the earth to embrace Nelson Mandela’s values as they seek to improve their lives through service to their communities.
“We would be honored if such a day can serve to bring together people around the world to fight poverty and promote peace and reconciliation,” said Mr. Mandela.
As part of this year’s celebration, 46664 and the Nelson Mandela Foundation together with the New York City Department of Education will host a group of middle and high school students as they travel to South Africa in June to the offices of Mr. Mandela, to see the work of his Foundations and meet South African students in order to develop a student charter that applies Mr. Mandela’s ideals to their day-to-day lives and local communities.
Nelson Mandela has been making an imprint on the world for 67 years, beginning in 1942 when he first started to campaign for the human rights of every South African. His life has been an inspiration to the world. To date, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and 46664 have focused mainly on supporting projects in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa where current needs are greatest, particularly for those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.
President Bill Clinton said, “More than any other human being, Madiba has been the great inspiration for the life I lead and the work I do, especially in the area of HIV/AIDS. The philosophy of my Clinton Global Initiative – which has inspired 1,400 commitments improving 200 million lives in more than 150 countries – was built on his enduring example that the power of public good does not require public office, just a well-placed heart and a determined mind. In return for everything Madiba has taught us, we each owe it to him to support his work and legacy by doing and living our own as best we can, not just on this day, but throughout our entire lives.”
The Mandela Day campaign calls upon people around the world to commit 67 minutes of their time to make an imprint and help change the world around them.
46664 will also be working with partner organizations, other city authorities and community associations and volunteers across the globe to create a worldwide series of Mandela Day events to honor Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy.
For photos, footage and EPK visit www.MandelaDay.com.
April 27th (Mandela Day announcement day) marks Freedom Day an annual celebration of South Africa’s first non-racial democratic elections of 1994.