Pierneef’s legacy lives on at La Motte

In the old days, many artists would trade early work for things like accommodation or food, but how their work ended up at La Motte is a little more interesting.

Art collectors Dr Anton and Mrs Huberte Rupert purchased a set of Pierneef linocuts for each of their children. Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg’s set is not only displayed in all the visitor areas on La Motte Wine Estate, it was also the inspiration behind the estate’s acclaimed Pierneef wine collection.

Obtaining permission to use these Pierneef linocut artworks on the labels of the premium wine range was the motivation for contacting Marita Pierneef-Bailey in 2002. The first meeting between Hein and Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg and UK-based Pierneef-Bailey and her husband, Ian Bailey, was in 2004 in London.

A friendship developed and in 2009, when the Rupert-Koegelenbergs visited Marita again, she mentioned her father’s personal collection and her wish for it to come back to the country he loved, to share it with South Africans. Resonating with La Motte’s culture of sharing, the idea was born to host it at the estate.

Pierneef wine collection.

At that stage, La Motte Redefined, a programme of wine tourism development was under way at La Motte and the museum was added to the existing plan. Today La Motte Museum is permanent host to Pierneef’s treasured heritage collection as well as memorabilia and sentimental pieces such as two small works he painted for Pierneef-Bailey’s doll house.

This year marked the addition of the recreation of another interesting work by Pierneef, probably his most famous work, Station Panels, commissioned for the old Johannesburg Park Station. The recreation in the La Motte Museum’s Pierneef exhibition space comprises a single column with double niches from the old Johannesburg Park Station.

The panels are projected into the first niche, with a replica of the Amajuba panel displayed in the second niche. The reconstruction can be viewed at an installed height of between 3.5 and nine metres, offering a glimpse of the initial intent of the work and providing insight into the creation and history of the artist’s most acclaimed public commission.

Building work on a new Johannesburg railway station started in 1926. At the time, increasing tourism was the responsibility of the SA Railways and Harbours.

Being acquainted with the consulting architects Gordon Leith and Gerhard Moerdijk, Pierneef was officially commissioned in 1929 to paint the 32 works. The works showed the natural splendour of SA and places of historical interest to encourage tourism and rail travel.

JH Pierneef and his daughter, Marita.

The commission was monumental in scale with 28 paintings having to fit within spaces ranging between 146 by 126-149cm, and an additional four spaces of 145 by 31cm. The panels were to be displayed in the arched walls of the station concourse at a height of 4.25m and were unveiled to the public in 1932.

In 1990, South African Transport Services became a public company with the formation of Transnet. Dr Anton Rupert was approached to negotiate the permanent loan of the panels to the Rupert Art Foundation and from 2002 all the panels were exhibited in the Jan Rupert Centre in Graaff-Reinet. In 2010, the panels were moved to the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch.

Today, these paintings are accessible to the public, but not exhibiting them in the original installation means sacrificing the intention for them to be seen within the larger context of the architectonic whole.

This inspired the La Motte Museum’s recreation of the initial setting to offer insight into the creation and original purpose of the project and will stir the memories of those who saw the original installation and inspire the imaginations of those who didn’t.

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