Kebble Art Awards on the death of Brett Kebble
You may recall that we ran the ‘call-for-entries’ for the Kebble awards on our site for a few months – here Clive van den Berg, curator of the awards shares their thoughts with us on the untimely death of the Awards patron:
“We are shocked and deeply sad to hear of the tragic news of Brett Kebble’s death, it is a great loss. The Kebble Art Awards team send our deepest condolences…
to the Kebble family at this difficult time.”
“Brett Kebble had a great love for art and was the most generous art patron South Africa has known. He made a substantial difference to livelihoods of many artists and ensured that artists, even from the most remote areas, benefited from his patronage. He will be remembered by the arts community as the sponsor who acknowledged all the forms of contemporary art and created a platform for them.
Kebble made enormous strides in highlighting the investment potential of visual arts and created a new platform for artists all over the country to showcase their work. He created the finest and most prestigious art awards in South Africa, and artists have become proud to be associated with an award of its calibre.
Through The Kebble Awards, Brett has generated enormous support from the media for artists. How else in South Africa are artists given the importance of front page news for the achievement of excellence in fine arts?
There are many sponsorship options available to businessmen, and it was Brett Kebble who had the courage to use sponsorship money for the overlooked area of culture. He realised the role of culture in a changing society and made a significant difference in helping us understand our transition and each other.”
Kathryn Smith, co-curator of the Kebble Art Awards, said: “Brett Kebble has made an invaluable contribution to South Africa by creating a public consciousness about contemporary art. That one individual has been able to make such an impact is something that should be remembered and celebrated.”
Roger Kebble said today, “The Kebble Art Awards will proceed as it is and the family will meet at an appropriate time to discuss going forward.”
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18 September
The third Brett Kebble Art Awards have just been launched, offering incredible prizes for outstanding South African artists – the big moolah is the R200 000 prize for the top award, and then there are six major awards of R60 000 each. Brett Kebble has also announced the introduction of a new themed award which will change every year; this year it is focused on Beauty. The aim of the new Award is designed to encourage debate around the concept of beauty and stimulate discussion among artists, critics and viewers.
A major goal of the awards is to achieve recognition of rural artists working in fields that have in the past been treated quite dismissively by some members of the art community. In addition to that, it’s also about exposing more people to contemporary South African art.
Th art will again be exhibited in February NEXT YEAR at the Cape Town International Conference Centre , which saw a record-breaking 13 000 visitors attending the art exhibition this year, including 600 school children.
The time frame druing which Artworks can be created has been extended in response to a request by the artists – all the works selected for the Kebble must have been created in the 12 months leading up to the awards and may not have been exhibited elsewhere. The closing date for entries is the Monday 22 August 2005. This means that the finalists’ exhibition will be held from Saturday 4 February 2006 to 23 February 2006. The recipients of the third Brett Kebble Awards will be announced at a function on 11 February 2006.
The works will be selected by the curators, Clive Kellner, director of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Tanya Poole, the Grahamstown-based artist who shared top honours in last year’s Kebble and Sipho Mdanda, respected artist and curator of Pretoria’s Freedom Park Museum. The difficult task of selecting the winners fall to Julia Charlton of the Wits Art Gallery, art administrator Frank Ledimo and a third judge who will be named later in the year.
Entry forms are available from the award website (www.thekebble.co.za) or from the organisers on 021 797 0467. Any artists over the age of 21 living and working in South Africa may enter. There are no technical or size restrictions on the art works entered, providing unique opportunities for artists working particularly in installation and new media to be contenders for the title.
