Context (CMS Context)
(Bio) 'Diane Victor (1964 Witbank South Africa -) is an artist of uncompromising directness but with a strange quietness in her nature who tackles pressing issues - personal and social violence to racial anxiety, corruption, gender inequality, economic exploitation and social commentary - in the new contemporary South African landscape post-apartheid. In 1986, she graduated with a BA Fine Arts Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand. She grew up as an only child on a small farm in Midrand and used drawing as a means to express herself. “I’m not a words person at all, I have a general mistrust for words and I find that I cannot use them in the same way I can use mark or line,” Victor explains. In 1988, Victor became the youngest recipient of the prestigious Volkskas Atelier Award (now known as the Absa L'Atelier Award) which allowed her to experience the European art scene in France, England and Germany. The historical art and architecture had a huge visual impact on her art. But Victor always chose to stick with the imagery she knows and feels, that of the South African society.
Despite the criticism she has received over her career, she has become a renowned South African artist and printmaker. Her works have been used in high school curriculums and she has won numerous awards. She has exhibited widely within South Africa and overseas and her work can be seen in leading South African corporate, state and private collections as well as in international collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Victor and her work is both paradox and dichotomy. One senses that she would be happy never to see or hear humans again and yet she is a dedicated university lecturer, teaching drawing and printmaking, at various South African institutions including the University of Pretoria, Tshwane University of Technology, Open Window Academy, the University of the Witwatersrand, Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg. There is no doubting the immeasurable impact of her style and her personality on her students. Victor says teaching allows her to experience different headspaces from an era that is not her own.
Victor’s recent smoke drawings are a temperament shift her more heavy work of the late 1980s but she still expresses a hatred towards civilisation and states that society has become domesticated and people have retreated into themselves to avoid reality. “I want to reinforce a response, preferably anger, not necessarily at me but at society,” she states. The smoke and ash drawings, sketched using smoke on paper or glass, explore subjects often overlooked and emphasises her interest in the fragility of human life and the damaging physical and psychological interactions between people that she wishes to record. The technique is in itself very fragile and a mere moth could ruin the drawing with its curiosity. “The people are seduced by the technical aspect of the work and in that way it lures the viewer in to look what the image is about.” states Victor. The black and white portraits of men and horses seem fragile in their nature but when one looks closer, the intensity of emotion is beautifully captured in its dust and sud.' [From http://www.art.co.za/dianevictor/, accessed 27/08/2014].
Event Date 27/8/2014
Author: Remke van der Velden

Context (CMS Context)
Presented by The Art Fund and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. An acquisition project to build a collection of modern and contemporary work on paper from Australia, Canada and South Africa was undertaken over 2011-13 with the support of a grant under The Art Fund's RENEW programme. The collection was developed with the expert advice and generous assistance of Annie Coombes and Norman Vorano in relation to South African and Inuit artists respectively. Khadija Carroll, Anita Herle and Diana Wood Conroy also contributed to the selection process. Obtained from Robyn Nesbitt, Artist Proof Studio Curator, The Bus Factory, 3 President Street, West Entrance, Newtown Cultural Precinct, Newtown/ PO Box 664, Newtown, 2113, Gauteng, Johannesburg.

Part of the Portfolio 'Volatile Alliances', 1995 with 23 prints (2014.258 - 2014.280), edition 50/65 (though this is the only print with a different edition number, 63/65). Participating artists included Paul Molete, Gordon Gabashane, Nhlanhla Xaba, Joe Ndlovu, Simon Mthimkhulu, Ezekiel Budeli, Pepe Jose Abela, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, Philippa Hobbs, Dominic Tshabangu, Giulio Tambellini, Moleleki Frank Ledimo, Lothar Riedel, Mbongeni Richman Buthelezi, Velaphi Mzimba, Elvin Sefati Nethononda, Sokhaya Charles Nkosi, Vincent Baloyi, Simon Sejake, Durant Sihlali, Diane Victor, Muzi Donga and Kim Berman.
Event Date 27/8/2014
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Etching by Diane Victor titled 'What's bred in the bone comes out of the flesh', 1995. Edition: 50/65. Inscribed, signed and dated: '50/65 "Whats bred in the bone comes out in the flesh" [autograph] 94'. Condition: Good. Marks all along borders and fingerprint in bottom left corner.
Event Date 27/8/2014
Author: maa