Illuminating familiar faces
Spira Tlhankane | Friday April 7, 2017 17:59
Even though it may seem like a thing of the past to certain contemporary artists, painting celebrities can attract people to a piece of art in a significant way. Some artists have the tendency of painting a picture based on the works of a copyrighted photograph without the author’s permission, but as for a local painter and Lobatse born artist, Botho David that is not the case.
David’s recent paintings are part of a solo exhibition called Batswana of Known Appearances (BOKA) and are currently displayed at the National Museum Gallery. Based on their visual representation and uniqueness, the portraits seemed to be based on an existing photograph but the originality speaks out.
His paintings are traditional portraits but more experimental. The images show more depth in the artwork and are able to bring out the mood of the painting and capture what a photograph cannot illustrate.
One of his outstanding works shows Kaone Kario and the artwork gives viewers a helpful way of testing David’s ability to create celebrity portraits. A famous face is recognisable to many Batswana. In another piece an Olympic medalist is used. Even though he does not quite capture the exact likeness of the sprinter, David’s use of red colour illuminates Nijel Amos as the star he is in the field track.
He does not just paint every popular face but he specifically chose people who have done the country proud in the international stage among others Connie and Shona Ferguson. Even though David did not use the same representation in the paintings for the couple, both paintings are radiant. The use of oil medium on the canvas is a perfect way to judge the skill of a portrait artist.
Mostly what differentiates the portrait artists from others out there is perhaps the way the pigmentation in the painting stands out. From the portraits of TJ Dema, Mothusi Lesolle, Lerato Motshwarakgole, Leloba Seitshiro, Donald Molosi, Lillian Moremi, Joseph Seeletso, Dipsy Selolwane to Mpule Kwelagobe, David was able to mix and maintain both the consistency and colour of his palette.
David has shown the knowledge of colour pigments and their permanence or light fastness. Even though the National Gallery is well illuminated, David’s portrait paintings have a resistance to change on exposure to light.
Painting celebrity portraits may seem like an old fashioned popular culture where children used to trace or transfer images from a photograph to guarantee accuracy in representational art. This popular culture of painting celebrities is not wearing out and most upcoming visual artists are currently fixated on it.
He paints these pictures with a double-edged sword and his other works at the gallery shows his darker side as an artist. In one of the portraits in which he used charcoal to create varying images of faces, David painted a scary piece of art that shows a ghost like face. He depicts the edginess of a nerdy student in the other portrait and adds more flavour to the portrait by writing autograph like mathematical formulas and equations.
People who follow these well known faces can recognise the most intricate detail in the faces. Even though they are an accurate representation of the subject, people will look at a painting and wonder if the artist was able to capture Amantle Montsho the way she is in reality. In the end they bring a lot of interpretation and that is what makes it a good piece of art.