Beezy Bailey Icon - Iconoclast, Everard Read in Johannesburg, soft cover, 2010,
The catalogue published to accompany the Beezy Bailey exhibition ICON ICONOCLAST at Everard Read in Johannesburg, May 2011., condition: new.
Artist Beezy Bailey has made art accessible in Icon Iconoclast, using photographs of Nelson Mandela and influences from American pop artist Andy Warhol.
PHOTOGRAPHS of Nelson Mandela, the global icon of peace, have beenplayfully modified using silk-screening and splashes of colour to create a three-dimensional effect for an upcoming exhibition of works by Beezy Bailey.
Beezy Bailey, Prophets Old and New, OilBeezy Bailey, Prophets Old and New, Oil, Silkscreen and Enamel on Canvas
These revitalized images will be exhibited at the Everard Read Gallery in Rosebank, northern Joburg, as part of an exhibition entitled Icon Iconoclast.The exhibition will be opened by former minister of intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils. It will run from 5 May to 16 June.
It pays tribute to Mandela as well as the late Andy Warhol, the American artist who spearheaded the pop art movement.
Kasrils says: Bailey captures the iconic figure with wit and the irreverence of a genuine iconoclast. This collection is a vivid, touching and illuminating journey around Madiba that teases, tantalises and transfixes the viewer in an effervescent celebration.
Bailey accredits his inspiration for the exhibition to Warhols silkscreen images of celebrities; his paintings of famous faces such as Marilyn Monroe,Mick Jaggerand Mao Zedong, the founding father of the Peoples Republic of China, are well known.
Bailey used photographs by Bob Gosani from before Mandelas imprisonment as well as photographs by Benny Gool from after his release to create the same effect.
The symbolic tapestry of South Africas haunting landscape, secretive mists, visceral imagery of birds and broken shacks weave and float around the elusive, multidimensional charisma of a man who has always reminded us that love is central to liberation and the masses, not great men, are the true creators of history, notes Kasrils.
Photographs in silkscreen format were printed onto canvas, which were then painted on by Bailey.
The exhibition celebrates not only the icon Nelson Mandela, but also the liberation of South Africa through the use of images portraying other heroes such as Joe Slovo, says Kasrils. The paintings have a transcendental quality, rich in layers and colours, yet conveying the all-important message that brings out the dream of a free South Africa.
