View Art
Artist Statement
I am endlessly fascinated by the buildings, shops, bioscopes and general dealer stores that lie scattered across South Africa, especially those of the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape and Karoo.
In the early 1970s, fearing they may soon be demolished, I began to photograph these buildings in my home town of Worcester, in the Western Cape. The supermarket was coming to town. Television was still to make its presence felt. I wanted to preserve their memory.
In trying to establish my voice as a painter and searching for a focus, I realised that the everyday buildings of my youth meshed with my idea of doing something essentially South African. This concept crystallised after my first overseas trip to Europe in 1974, when I returned to Cape Town and realised how extraordinary the local townscape was and how much it differed from its European counterparts. Influenced by the photo-realism movement of the time, I began to use the buildings in my photographs as the subject matter for my realist works.
My paintings are not about architecture as such, about structures that have been designed; instead, they have to do with buildings that have grown and matured over time, that show the ravages of alteration, that reveal their amusing quirks and peculiarities, with all the eccentric bits and pieces added by their owners.
The first step is to observe and compose through the eye of the camera. This can be a very satisfying process, for the photographic image has its own reality. If no one else recorded the building at the time, that moment in its life is unique. In a way, it is the photograph that preserves the memory and becomes the subject of the painting.
I try to create paintings that have an intensity about them. I have been told that my images seem frozen, eerie and surreal. What makes them so, in my opinion, is the absence of living elements. This is a deliberate omission to draw attention to the buildings themselves. The facades become a kind of portrait. I want the viewer to concentrate on the structural detail, advertising and lettering. The strong light, so typical of South Africa, that casts shadow, texture and pattern over the structure is emphasised. I try to comment on a particular kind of building that expresses something of the people who built, lived and worked in it, but who themselves are not necessarily conscious of the image it conveys.
Over the years my painting style has loosened. I now place more emphasis on brushstrokes and paint texture than I did in my earlier works, which tended to be harder, flatter and more hyper-realistic. I remain a realist. This is the only approach that is able to put across the message I want to convey. With realism, you have to be calculated – you cannot just work from the heart or the imagination – because the weight of every element counts.
Ultimately, my aim is to create a painting that makes a statement about a specific place that existed at a specific moment in time.
Solo exhibitions
1981
South African Association of Arts, Western Cape
1988
South African Association of Arts, Western Cape
2014
‘New Work’ UCT Irma Stern Museum
2020
Artist of the Month (February) Cape Gallery, Church Street, Cape Town
2021
Streetscapes. Solo show at Prince Albert Gallery. June -August 2021
Looking at Long Street and other city paintings, Cape Gallery, Church street, Cape Town
2023
All Square, selection of square format paintings at the Cape Gallery
Road Trip, exhibition of 20 paintings at Gallery 2, Parkwood, Johannesburg
Selected group exhibitions
1971
Art South Africa Today, Durban
1973
Art South Africa Today, Durban
1975
Art South Africa Today, Durban
New Cape Art, S. A. Association of Arts, W Cape
1976
Group Exhibition, S.A. Association of Arts, W Cape
1977
Festival Art ’77, S.A. Association of Arts, W Cape
Selected Works, Wolpe Gallery, Cape Town
1979
Cape Town Biennial
1981
Republic Festival Arts Exhibition, Durban
1982
Cape Town Triennial
1983
South African Contemporary Realism, Pretoria Art Museum
Group Show, Hugo Naude House, Worcester
Group Show, Gallery International, Cape Town
1984 Cape Artists, University of the Orange Free State Art Gallery
Artists’ Guild Cape Town Festival Exhibition, S.A.Association of Arts, W. Cape
Masterworks on Paper, South African National Gallery
1985
Works on Paper, S.A.Association of Arts, W. Cape
1986
Visions of the Cape: Three Decades, S.A.Association of Arts
1987
Streets Exhibition, Forum Gallery, Green Point
1990
Critics Choice, S.A. Association of Arts, W. Cape
Different Views: Looking at Landscapes, Primart, Claremont
Second Gala Summer Exhibition, Edrich, Stellenbosch
Group Exhibition, Jacobs Liknaitzky Gallery, Cape Town
1991
Cape Town Triennial
Art 1991, Baxter Gallery of Art
Art-on-the-Box, Primart
1992
Friends’ choice, S.A.National Gallery
The Real Thing, Primart, Claremont
Quintessentially South African, Primart, Claremont
1993
Images of the Western Cape, Grahamstown and South African National Gallery
Momentum Art, Pretoria Art Museum
Icons, Oude Pastorie Museum, Paarl
Art Salon on the Bay
1994
Art Salon on the Bay
Looking at Table Mountain, Primart
1995
De Kleur van Verandering – Aparte Kunst uit Zuid-Afrika, Grote Kerk te den Haag, Netherlands
Art Salon on the Bay
1996
Kunst uit Zuid-Africa Cultureel Centrum, Mechelen, Belguim (April – May 1996)
Naive and Beyond, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town
False Bay Coast – Labia Museum
Contemporary South African Art 1985-1995 South African National Gallery Permanent Collection
Art Salon on the Bay
1997
Freedom Flight – Westfries Museum, Hoorn, Netherlands
Art into Architecture – South African National Gallery
Art Salon on the Bay
1998
The Landscape: Unity and Diversity, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival
Art Salon on the Bay
1999
Cape Artists, Group Show – South African Association of Arts, Pretoria and Dorp Street Gallery Stellenbosch
Art Salon on the Bay
2000 -2007
Art Salon on the Bay
2008
Forty years of Friendship – The Friends of the SA National Gallery: 1968-2008
Stellenbosch Art Gallery – Gala Summer Show
Art Salon on the Bay
2009
Stellenbosch Art Gallery – Gala Summer Show
Art Salon on the Bay
2010
Transitions – Gallery2, Parkwood, Johannesburg
Art Salon on the Bay
2011
Stellenbosch Art Gallery – Gala Summer Show
Art Salon on the Bay
2016
“Landscapes” Oude Libertas Gallery, Stellenbosch with Brahm van Zyl
2017
Sanlam Top 100 Portrait Competition
Elements of Realism – Absolut Art Gallery Stellenbosch
Cape Salon- AVA Gallery, Cape Town
2019
Vanishing Karoo – Imibala Gallery, Graaff-Reinett and Somerset West
Biography
1946: Born in Worcester, Western Cape, South Africa.
1960-64: Takes art as a school subject at the Hugo Naude Art Centre in Worcester.
1965: Completes National Service in Oudtshoorn and Walvis Bay.
1966-1968: Studies for a Diploma in Fine Art at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, majoring in painting.
1968: Wins the Michaelis Prize, awarded to the top student in the final year of study.
1969: Joins the advertising agency of Van Zijl and Robinson as a junior finished artist. Paints part-time at night and over weekends.
1970: Appointed to the South African Museum as an exhibition display artist.
1972: Begins to document the small town shops, algemene handelaars and corner cafes photographically to form a visual resource for his paintings.
1974. Tours Great Britain and Europe on first overseas trip and visits all the major art museums. Wins first prize in the Crown Cebestos Competition, Western Cape for Instamatic Family Group.
1975: Undertakes a field trip to Tsumkwe in Namibia to photograph San (Bushmen) for a museum travelling display to be sent to Europe.
1976: Kontantwinkel, Riebeeck-Wes and B. Maritz, Worcester acquired for the Friends’ Collection at the South African National Gallery (subsequently transferred to the Permanent Collection in 1992).
1977: Appointed Head of the Design Department at the South African Museum.
1979: Included in the Cape Town Biennial. Visits museums in Israel, Paris, London, the United States and Canada in preparation for planned new exhibition extensions to the South African Museum.
1980: Becomes a member of the Artists’ Guild in Cape Town.
1981: Holds first solo exhibition at the South African Association of Arts, Church Street, Cape Town.
1982: Selected for inclusion in the Cape Town Triennial.
1983: Promoted to Head of Exhibition Department at the South African Museum.
1984: Included in Masterworks on Paper, South African National Gallery. Undertakes a study tour of museums in the United States and Canada to investigate latest display techniques.
1988: Holds a second solo exhibition at the South African Association of Arts, Church Street Cape Town.
1991: Selected for inclusion on the 1991 Cape Town Triennal; painting entitled Boerewinkel, Loeriesfontein, acquired for the South African National Gallery Permanent Collection.
1992: Friends’ Choice, South African National Gallery.
1994: Sent by the South African Museum to Paris, London, New York and Ottawa to look at new advances in museum displays. Featured in South African National Gallery Permanent Collection 1984-1994 Exhibition.
1996: Invited to participate in Kunst uit Zuid-Afrika at the Cultureel Centrum, Mechelen, Belgium.
1997: Participates in Freedom Flight in the Westfries Museum, Hoorn, Netherlands; Architecture into Art – South African National Gallery.
2002: Starts painting full-time.
2003: Accompanies his brother singer/songwriter, David Kramer, on the Karoo Kitaar Blues project to do the still photography.
2007: Photographic documentation of Karoo corbelled and stone structures. Ongoing project with wife Patricia Kramer.
2014: Solo show at the Irma Stern Museum together with launch of book, ‘John Kramer’, published by the Penny Dobbie Gallery.
2019: Vanishing Karoo. Group show at the Imibala Gallery, Graaff-Reinett
2020: February: Artist of the Month. Exhibition, Cape Gallery, Church Street, Cape Town
2021: Streetscapes. Solo show at Prince Albert Gallery. June -August 2021
Looking at Long Street and other city paintings. Cape Gallery, November 2021.
2023: All Square, selection of square format paintings at the Cape Gallery
Road Trip, exhibition of 20 paintings at Gallery 2, Parkwood, Johannesburg
