Anitra Nettleton b.1950 Johannesburg PhD Emeritus Professor taught at the University of the Witwatersrand for 35 years. Author and internationally recognised traditional African Art expert, she commenced, in retirement, to produce ceramic hand painted vases depicting an assorted array of flowers in bright and contrasting hue.
The apparent gaiety and frivolity of the finished vase belies the serious focus and skill required to build each flower with its petals and delicate stamens individually. Each is then separately painted and glazed before the complex firing process. Each vase is functional and unique, tactile and colourful, and encourages the filling of it with living flowers.
The resulting joyfulness does however suggest a message of concern for the need for awareness of the fragility of the plant world. Flowering plants are entirely dependent on insect life, and their ever-growing disappearance the result of careless spraying and climate change.
Intethe Gallery is proud that one of these vases was selected to become part of a collection in the private contemporary Museum in Munich.
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