To mark the celebration of her 90th birthday, the famed artist Bettie Cilliers-Barnard holds
an exhibition of her recent paintings, which she calls Colour as Language, in the Mackie
Street Gallery of the Association of Arts Pretoria from 7 to 24 November 2004. The
exhibition is opened on Sunday 7 November 2004 at 17:30 for 18:00 by Professor Muller
Ballot, author of the book on the life and work of the artist which was published in 1996
and the second edition of which is presently in preparation.
There is a preview of the exhibition on Saturday 6 November 2004 from 10:00 to 13:00 and
Bettie Cilliers-Barnard is the doyenne of South African artists. She has become a legend
in her own times.
Born in Rustenburg, Transvaal, on 18 November 1914, her works, since 1946, have been shown
in seventy two solo exhibitions in South Africa as well as in Paris (paintings 1956),
London (graphic art 1971) and at the Prestige Invitation Exhibition at the Tapei Fine
Arts museum in Taiwan (paintings and graphic art 1987).
She has represented South Africa at a number of International Exhibitions some of which
include the XIe Grand Prix International d’Art Contemporain de Monte Carlo in Monaco 1977;
the Venice Biennale 1956 and 1964; and the Sâo Paulo Biennale in 1957, 1959, 1961 and 1963.
Her participation in South African graphic art exhibitions abroad have included Austria,
Germany, Spain, Greece, Israel and the Americas.
Her tapestries, paintings, and murals in oils have been commissioned for public collections
and museum- and private collections in South Africa and abroad.
In 1992, she painted “Vision” for the Pretoria Eye Institute. Some of her other commissions
include the painting “Flight” for the South African Airways(1983), the tapestry
“Guardian Angel of the Arts” for the State Theatre of Pretoria (1981), and her mural
in oils “Mens sana in corpore sano” for the Department of Health in Pretoria (1880).
Bettie Cilliers-Barnard is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes. In 1966 she was
presented a Gold Medal for Painting from the Transvaal Academy for Science and Art.
In 1983 she received the State President’s Decoration for Meritorious Service and in 1985,
the Chancellor’s Medal of the University of Pretoria. She won recognition by the
International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, as well as the American Biographical Institute.
In 1988, she was granted a full membership of the South African Academy of Science and Arts
and in 1991, she received a Prestige Award for painting from the Federation of South African
Culture. In 2002, she received a similar award from the Tshwane University of Technology.
She is the holder of three honorary doctorates from the Universities of Potchefstroom (1990),
the Rand Afrikaans University (1999) and Pretoria (2002). Two retrospective exhibitions
of her work were held, in the Pretoria Art Museum (1995) and in the Sasol Art Museum (1996).
Professor Muller Ballot comments on her recent work: “The mystical remains ever present in
the work of Bettie Cilliers-Barnard. Yet, the temporary and earthly questions about the
meaning of life and reality transcend more and more into the eternal and sacred realms of
the spiritual. In the artist’s constant quest for wholeness, subtle spaces, a purity of
form and an abiding humaneness immediately meet the eye.”
The Bettie Cilliers-Barnard exhibition promises to be one of the major arts events of
this year.