Landscape and star, an exhibition of recent paintings by Nicolaas Maritz, will be on at Moor Gallery, Bordeaux House, Franschhoek, from Saturday June 4, opening at 11am, until Sunday July 17.
In art, as in life, hope is central to existence. Maritz is well known for his optimistic landscape paintings, the colourful creations of an individualist perspective, resembling no other.
Where there is land, there is hope. Life is a landscape of experience, geography of projections.
To paint is to live a life of hope, says Maritz. Above every landscape, hope hangs like a lambent star in the sky.
Any blank surface seems to harbour the promise of creative activity, and, ultimately the figuration of joy.
As a painter, Maritz has harboured a life-long fascination with the seductions of surface and layering; the inherent tensions of painterly depth.
The titles of his paintings are often a tongue-in-cheek play on the confusing meanings of words, and the inscrutable similarities and differences between English and Afrikaans.
For more information, contact the curator, Aidon Westcot, at 083 739 6196.
