* JOHANNES MEINTJES: SWORD IN THE SAND - THE LIFE AND DEATH OF GIDEON SCHEEPERS

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JOHANNES PETRUS MEINTJES (SOUTH AFRICAN ARTIST / AUTHOR / HISTORIAN 1923-1980)

SWORD IN THE SAND : THE LIFE AND DEATH OF GIDEON SCHEEPERS

(Published in 1969 and dedicated to Meintjes' friend, the author John McIntosh)

A RARE AND HIGHLY SOUGHT-AFTER BOOK!!

In this book Johannes Meintjes traces what really happened to Gideon Scheepers, the gallant 23-year old Boer fighter who was executed by a British firing squad some months before the Anglo-Boer War was to end.

Though nobody knows, since his body was never found, this young heliographer became an almost legendary figure in South African history. As he was considered innocent and had become an idol because of his daring exploits in the Cape Colony, Scheepers' execution caused an outcry throughout the world.

Despite his tragic end and the interest aroused by the secret and apparently clandestine circumstances of his death, very little is known about his exact movements and experiences. Of special interest is the translation of Scheepers' diary - including notes written hours before his execution.

The execution has now generally been condemned by Boer and Briton as a disgraceful act, but its consequences were more far-reaching than anyone could have foreseen at the time : Gideon Scheepers took his place in the martyrology of Afrikanerdom. (Colin Pretorius)

Published by Tafelberg Publishers (Cape Town) in 1969; 242 pages.

Below: A portrait of Gideon Scheepers by Johannes Meintjes ('Boy against Prickly Pear', 1967, 50x40cm)

>> please scroll down for images on display - including photographs from Meintjes' own, personal archives! <<

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Johannes Petrus Meintjes (1923-1980) was a South African painter that enjoyed tremendous public support for his art since early age and also received international acclaim as an author later on. He is a well known historian and one of South Africa's most versatile artists. The fame he enjoyed as a 21 year old artist is unequalled in the South African history of art. Esmé Berman wrote in her authoritative Art & Artists of South Africa that 'the spectacular suddenness with which Johannes Meintjes catapulted to the headlines during the last years of WW2 is a phenomenon seldom equalled in SA cultural history. Before he was 22 years old the intense young artist enjoyed the kind of public adulation which was later reserved for youthful idols of the pop-music world'.

Johannes Meintjes died in 1980 and had established himself as a major South African painter and writer. Apart from numerous articles and smaller literary works, he had published 35 books, amongst them authoritative works on South African history. Some of his fictional works are considered of historical GLBT interest and early examples of South African gay writing.

Meintjes had painted more than a thousand canvases, produced dozens of sculptures and exhibited in all South Africa's major galleries - sometimes alone and sometimes in the company of artists such as Alexis Preller, JH Pierneef, Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern, Maggie Laubser and Walter Battiss.

Meintjes' work reflects something of the naivety of the African artist a dimension beyond the purely European and his canvases, painted with the knowledge born out of centuries of European experience, speak with the voice of Africa.

Meintjes once said: 'Mine is the visionsprung from the soil of Africa and I have given it in a personal statement which may find a response in the heart and imagination of another generation.'

Below: Johannes Meintjes (in 1944 at age 21), art lecturer at the SA College School

(the artist Peter Clarke on his left)

Below: Johannes Meintjes (1947 at age 24) on the opening night of his exhibition at the Argus Gallery in Cape Town (June 1947)

Below : Johannes Meintjes' studio in Buitengracht Street, Cape Town 1949

Below : Johannes Meintjes in 1952 (exhibition in Port Elizabeth; front page of 'The Evening Post')

 The correct spelling of his surname is 'Johannes Meintjes' (and not 'Johannes Meintjies')