Jean Powell debuts selected pieces of her work
There are two participative parallel educational events included in the exhibition.
AN EXHIBITION of work by Durban artist, Jean Powell is currently on at the Durban Art Gallery Circular Gallery until 27 January, curated by Robert Brusse. Selected examples of her fabric works, traditional graphic works, botanic studies, calligraphy, and her collaborations with architects in vitreous enamel and etched glass are on display.
Jean, now in her mid-80s, is an artist remembered as an active committee member of the KwaZulu-Natal Society of Arts and the Friends of the Durban Art Gallery, as well as other bodies, but is less well known for her own artistic production.
Jean is probably best known for her enamel works, both private and public. Several of the works that she has on exhibition have a strong empathy towards women and their perceived problems in a male dominated world.
She has discovered, taught and helped countless young artists to develop skills and talents, but few know the breadth of her work, nor her journey through life.
Jean trained in Britain, working in Kenya before coming to South Africa. She is one of the few art teachers alive who taught on Salisbury Island in Durban. She went on to teach textile design at the University of Durban – Westville, before moving to the Natal Technical College. She was one of a group of dedicated artists who developed the talents of various communities under trying circumstances.
She worked with a number of architects – some for private homes, some for public buildings. She did a large number of wall panels, starting off reinterpreting industrial designs, and later introducing botanic motifs. She must be one of few enamel artists who experimented with the incorporation of fabric, or who investigated the possibility of doing a series of three enamels, as one would in a graphic work on paper.
The exhibition includes examples of her tinted drawings, crayon and pencil works, lino prints, silkscreenings, lithographs and etchings.
