Diane Victor, (born 1964,

Witbank Witbank (), officially eMalahleni, is a city situated on the Highveld of Mpumalanga, South Africa, within the Emalahleni Local Municipality, Mpumalanga, Emalahleni Local Municipality. The name Witbank is Afrikaans for "white ridge", and is named ...

, South Africa) is a South African artist and print maker, known for her satirical and social commentary of contemporary South African politics.

Biography

Victor was born in Witbank, South Africa. She received her BA Fine Arts degree from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

in Johannesburg in 1986. From 1990 to the present, Victor has lectured part-time, teaching drawing and printmaking at various South African institutions including the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria (, ) is a multi-campus public university, public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and ''de facto'' capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johan ...

, Wits Technikon, Pretoria Technikon, Open Window Academy, Vaal Triangle Technikon, the University of the Witwatersrand,

Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...

and the

University of Johannesburg The University of Johannesburg, colloquially known as UJ, is a public university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant fundi ...

Artwork

Victor's work uses the figure, often her own self-portrait, to create complex narratives relating to contemporary South Africa and to the more global crisis of war, corruption and violence in both the public, political and in private life. According to Virginia Mackenny, Victor's work challenges the viewer "to scour her heavily packed images, densely rich in individual detail, to discover their levels of irony and action. Singularly devoid of any classicising hope of order, these images recall Breugel or Bosch in their pessimistic view of the world and the heaping of one folly on top of another". Victor depicts reality fraught with injustice, revealing the complexity of contemporary existence. Her "ability to present her themes and subjects in a manner that all but forces our identification with them ejects us out of our complacent stupors, whether we wish it or not." Victor's ability to keep moving forward throughout a career that spans over 30 years, has ensured that she remains at the cutting edge in terms of craftsmanship and techniques. It also pertains to experimental drawing techniques, as seen in her invention of smoke drawings and ash drawings."Little History" Proferssor Karen von Veh, interview with Diane Victor 2018

Printmaking

In her portfolio of dry point prints, ''Birth of a Nation'' (2009), published by David Krut Projects, Victor explores the history of colonial engagement in Africa in the context of contemporary corruption and imperialism. She uses historical and mythological references as a platform to insert South African narratives, fusing a recognisable storyline with new characters and South African subjects. In the ongoing series of etchings, started in 2001, ''Disasters of Peace,'' Victor directly references

Francisco de Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, a ...

's ''Disasters of War.'' In this series, Victor evokes Goya's criticism of the atrocities of war while demonstrating the continuation of violence after war, and in the case of South Africa, after the end of apartheid. Highlighting overlooked and everyday violence, this series draws attention to this contemporary desensitised gaze or tolerance of violence. To Victor: "The images I am working with are taken from our daily media coverage of recent and almost commonplace happenings in newspapers, on TV and on radio of social and criminal acts of violence and ongoing unnecessary deaths – occurrences so frequent that they no longer raise an outcry from our public, yet they still constitute disaster in peacetime.". To date (2020) this series consists of forty five etchings, each depicting a different ''disaster''. In the striking ‘4 Horses’, a set of four etchings with additional digital printing, Victor throws the viewer off balance with the sheer force of the imagery as she fuses herself crouched into or on to the body of a horse. Three of the four horses carry a human figure within like a foetus. The fourth horse, carries a diminutive female figure strapped to its back. As a print maker, Victor's interest has led her to work with several lithography studios around the world in South Africa, France and the United States. With stone lithography in particular she has explored and stretched the boundaries which exemplify the richness and diversity that can be achieved with this print form. Exploring the manière noire technique she has brought a richness of texture to her stone lithographs. in the stone lithograph 'Jumping the Shadow', helplessness is inferred where a huge wild boar/man appears to be about to rape or crush the landscape existing in its shadow. The shadow landscape also takes the form of a sleeping woman and the inference is that the man's inherent bestiality and aggression is the destroyer of both. The boar has been created using the manière noire technique. On the other hand, the shadow figure is created with delicate line work and a wash that expresses the vulnerability of the sleeping landscape/woman. Meaning is thus created not only by graphic content but also by technique and medium.

Smoke drawings

Victor's smoke portraits explore subjects often overlooked, for example South African prisoners awaiting trial and missing children. These portraits capture individuals caught in a vulnerable moment, an idea reinforced through the impermanent nature of the medium used. Victor uses drawing media to capture both the subject's portrait and vulnerable condition that is somehow in-between presence and absence. Victor is attracted to the direct correlation between the fragility of human life and the susceptibility of the physical image. For Victor, "the portraits are made with the deposits of carbon from candle smoke on white paper. They are exceedingly fragile and can be easily damaged, disintegrating with physical contact as the carbon soot is dislodged from the paper. She was interested in the extremely fragile nature of these human lives and of all human life, attempting to translate this fragility into portraits made from a medium as impermanent as smoke itself"' Victor used the same medium to express the similarity between human genetic coding and that of other primates who are almost "little brothers". Yet like some distant and disowned family line we seem to feel no qualms at the knowledge of their persecution and endangerment. The fragile and ephemeral process of candle smoke Victor felt was an appropriate medium for the portraits of the primates rendered fragile and impermanent by mankind. Victor made another series of large smoke drawings of farm animals on glass called "Brief Lives", which were displayed in an abandoned abattoir. The glass drawings deal with the loss of body and identity and the nature of the smoke speaks of the transience of life.

Ash drawings

The technique of using ash as a drawing medium developed from printmaking. Texture and tone in etching is produced when rosin dust is sprinkled onto an etching plate to create an aquatint. Victor realised that a similar textural effect could be created on a drawing by sprinkling ash. Victor has exhibited her large scale ash drawings on numerous occasions, notably at the exhibition 'FUIR' at the Fondation Blachère in France, 2017 and at 1–54, Somerset House in London, 2019.

Solo exhibitions

* 2024 "La Charge at Museum of Angoulème, France * 2024 "Suie et Cendres at LAAC museum, Dunkirk, France * 2024 "Les Raisons de la Colère at Museum of Drawing and Original Print, Gravelines, France * 2023 "Diane Victor 'Prints Drawings Smoke' at Spier Arts Trust, Cape Town * 2021 "Folly, Frailty and Fear" at University of Johannesburg Art Gallery * 2019 "New World Order" at Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg * 2018 "Little History" at Johannes Stegmnn Gallery, Bloemfontein * 2018 "The 14 Stations" installation for Aardklop Festival, University of Potchefstroom * 2018 "Which Hunt" at Goodman Gallery, Cape Town * 2017 "Showing Truth to Power" at David Krut Projects, New York * 2015 "One Pound of Flesh" at Goodman gallery, Johannesburg * 2014 "The Needle and the Damage Done" at David Krut Projects, Cape Town * 2013 "No Country for old women" KKNK Festival artist exhibition, Oudtshoorn * 2012 "Ashes to Ashes and Smoke to Dust", University of Johannesburg Art Gallery * 2012 "Diane Victor – Recent work" at David Krut Projects, New York, USA * 2011 "Fables and Folly" at the Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Iowa, USA * 2011 "Brief Lives", Festival artist at Innibos exhibition, Nelspruit * 2011 "Ashes to Ashes and Smoke to Dust", University of Johannesburg art gallery * 2010 "Smoke Screen: Frailty and Failing" at David Krut Projects, New York, USA * 2010 "Transcend" at Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg * 2009 Festival artist at Aardklop exhibition, Potchefstroom * 2006 Solo show at Goodman gallery, Johannesburg * 2005 Smoke Drawings at Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town * 2003 Solo show at Goodman gallery, Johannesburg * 1999 Solo show at Goodman gallery, Johannesburg * 1997 Joburg Theatre, Civic Theatre, commission, Tesson Theatre, Johannesburg * 1994 Solo show at Goodman gallery, Johannesburg * 1990 South African Arts Association, Pretoria Gallery on the Market, Johannesburg

Group exhibitions – selection since 2010

Collections

Victor's works are included in the following permanent collections:

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

in New York, the MoMA –

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

print collection (NY), Smithsonian Institution, Iziko South African National Gallery,

Bibliothèque Nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

, Albertina collection Vienna, Grinnell College Iowa USA,

Johannesburg Art Gallery The Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) is an art gallery in Joubert Park in the city centre of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was once the largest gallery on the continent with a collection of more than 9000 artworks. The gallery collection is la ...

, University of Witwatersrand Art collection, University of Johannesburg collection, Standard bank of South Africa, Pretoria Art Museum
Fondation Blachère France
Musée du Dessin et de l'Estampe Originale, Gravelines, France

Press reviews

* Herlo van Rensburg, "An interview with Diane Victor." ''Image and Text''. No.5, pp. 27–31, August 1995 * Herlo van Rensburg, "Purging in the work of Diane Victor: Contradiction and Convergence", June 1996 * Chris Roper, "Each to his/her own", Mail & Guardian, 8 May 1998 * Brenda Atkinson, "Some gems at the end of the rainbow", Mail & Guardian,8 April 1999 (Review of Winsor and Newton Millennium Painting Competition) * Brenda Atkinson, "Clean: An Exhibition of De-saturated Contemporary Art", ArtThrob, November 2001 * Daniel Thöle, "Social statements cross boundaries", Business Day, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 (Review of 'Transmigrations' at Pretoria Art Museum) * Sue Williamson, "Grime' at Bell-Roberts Art Gallery", ArtThrob, July 2002 * Andrea Jonker-Bryce, "More than meets the eye", Dispatch Online, Thursday, 21 November 2002 (Review of 'Transmigrations' at Ann Bryant Art Gallery) * Gordon Froud, "Dianne Victor"

No 2, December 2010, pp. 63–73 * Bongo Mei, "Diane Victor's art and catharis", Daily Maverick, 30 September 2023

References

Bibliography

* 2022, Diane Victor: Prints Drawings Smoke, Published by Mare et Martin * 2021, Vitamin D3: Today's Best in Contemporary Drawing, Published by Phaidon * Hobbs, Philippa and Rankin, Elizabeth. ''Printmaking in a transforming South Africa'' Parkwood: 2008, David Phillip Publishers, 1997. . * 2012, Bronwyn Law-Viljoen, Juliet White, Karen von Veh and Luke Crossley ''Diane Victor – Burning the Candle at Both Ends'' Parkwood: David Krut Publishing. . * 2008, Rankin, Elizabeth and Karen von Veh. ''TAXI-013: Diane Victor.'' Parkwood: 2008, David Krut Publishing Taxi Art Book. . * 2004, Perryer, Sophie, ed. ''10 years 100 Artists: Art in a Democratic South Africa''. . * 2004, Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in Contemporary South African Art. * Rankin, Elizabeth, 2011. "Human rights and human wrongs: public perceptions of Diane Victor’s Disasters of Peace." South African Journal of Art History 26.1 (2011): 85–95. * Rankin, Elizabeth, 2011. "Collateral: Printmaking as Social Commentary", Gus Fisher Art Gallery, University of Auckland * Karen von Veh, 2018. Essay for ''Little History'' Johannes Stegmann Gallery, University of the Free State. * Karen von Veh, 2012. “Loss and Transience in the work of Diane Victor.” Diane Victor: Burning the Candle at Both Ends. Johannesburg: David Krut. pp. 5–78. * Karen von Veh, 2012. "Diane Victor, Tracey Rose, and the Gender Politics of Christian Imagery." African Arts. Winter 2012.Vol.45. no.4. pp. 22–33 * Karen von Veh, 2012. “The intersection of Christianity and Politics in South African art: a comparative analysis of selected images since 1960, with emphasis on the post-apartheid era.” De Arte 85. 2012. pp. 5–25. * Karen von Veh, 2009. “Saints and Sinners: Re-Evaluating gendered power bases entrenched by religious imagery.” In A.A. du Preez (ed.) Taking a Hard Look: Gender and Visual Culture. Newcastle on Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 47–70. * Karen von Veh, 2007. “Considerations on the Sasol Wax Art Awards” De Arte 75, September 2007, pp. 64–72. * Karen von Veh, 2007. “Transformations of Religious Icons in the work of Diane Victor.” Proceedings of Transformation/s in Visual Culture. The 22nd Annual Conference of the South African Association of Visual Arts Historians, Published by VUT 2007 pp. 179–188. * Karen von Veh, 2006. “Is there a place for Feminism in contemporary South African Art?” De Arte, No.73, 2006, pp. 28–42.

External links

Goodman GalleryDavid Krut PublishersArt.co.zaMoMAArtskop
{{DEFAULTSORT:Victor, Diane 1964 births Living people South African contemporary artists South African women painters 20th-century South African artists 20th-century South African women artists 21st-century South African artists 21st-century South African women artists Academic staff of the University of Pretoria University of the Witwatersrand alumni Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand Academic staff of Rhodes University Academic staff of the University of Johannesburg