Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Technology: Fine Art, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015. / This dissertation sets out to investigate the interpretation of the garden in the work of Marianne North (1840-1926), Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) and my art practice. The garden has historically been a site for man’s interaction with nature and has been the subject of interpretation by Fine Art and Botanic artists throughout history. Marianne North’s (1830-1890) interpretation of the garden is positioned somewhere between Victorian flower painter and Botanic artist. An intrepid traveller, she could be considered as a topographical artist in that she documented the gardens and the flora and fauna of the countries she visited. The focus is on her visit to South Africa in 1883. Claude Monet (1840-1926), in his late Impressionist interpretation of the garden, focused on the seasonal play of light on his Japanese inspired garden at Giverny. Artist and poet Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) in his interpretation of his garden Little Sparta, acknowledges the transience of the garden and its constant metamorphosis. His three dimensional poetry in the form of inscribed rocks and sculptures reflects his interpretation of the garden as a location of contestation. In an exhibition titled Hortus Conclusis I explore the fragility of the garden through the use of porcelain as a metaphor for the transience of life. / M

This dissertation will contextualize and analyse selected works of the South African ceramist Marietjie van der Merwe (bl935 dl992; known professionally as Marietjie, aka Mariki, Marikie) between 1960-1988. The text consists of three chapters. The first chapter will outline the life of Marietjie van der Merwe, discuss her political and religious affiliations and ends with a chronological outline of her ceramics. This introductory chapter will help the reader to gain an insight into her character and personality which influenced the work she produced. The second chapter comprises two main sections. The first deals with the ceramists who influenced Marietjie's work. In her early art training years Laura Andreson, her teacher, played a key role in inspiring and influencing Marietjie's work. The Natzlers influenced Marietjie indirectly through Laura Andreson who in turn had been taught by them. Rudolf Staffel manipulated aspects in porcelain inspired Marietjie's later works of the 1980s. The second half of this chapter deals with the influence that Marietjie had on institutions and her students. The works of Katherine Glenday, a student and later colleague, are discussed and comparisons made. Marietjie van der Merwe's contributed significantly to the modernist foundations of South African studio ceramics, was mentor and studio advisor to the ceramists of Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre and was a lecturer at the former Department of Fine Art and History of Art, University of Natal. Links with Nordic countries and Malin Lundbohm (now Sellmann) are drawn. Throughout this chapter the artist's work is compared and discussed with that of Marietjie's. This dissertation concludes with a documentary study of six selected pieces. Original photographs facilitate visually what is been discussed in the text. These samples are found in Iziko South African National Gallery, Tatham Art Gallery and from the private collection of Lara Du Plessis. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

The aim of this dissertation is to contextualise the use of porcelain by the South African ceramist Thelma Marcuson (1919-2009). This paper focuses on her ceramics in the Tatham Art Gallery’s Permanent Collection in Pietermaritzburg. I hope to give recognition to Marcuson as she is considered one of the pioneer South African studio potters by Garth Clark and Lynne Wagner’s in Potters of Southern Africa as she is ranked amongst the top fifteen in that distinct group (appendix 4: Potters’ art demo). This dissertation is divided into three chapters. Chapter one primarily focuses on the influence of contemporary European studio potters on Marcuson’s work, in particular that of Lucie Rie, Mary Rogers and Ruth Duckworth. This chapter also examines the development of ceramics from industrial ceramics, involving mass productions in factories, to the modernist revival of studio ceramics by Bernard Leach, where each piece was handmade and often regarded as an art form, as in the work of the twentieth century British ceramist William Staite-Murray. Chapter two focuses on Marcuson and South African studio ceramics and considers South African potters who had an influence on Marcuson’s early training, and also looks at her involvement with the Association of Potters of Southern Africa (APSA) founded in 1972. In the last section of this chapter I will discuss ceramic practices and technical issues about porcelain and high-firing glazes, specifying how they are made and used, with particular reference to South African developments and local studio potters. As Marcuson was particularly interested in porcelain, this chapter also outlines glaze applications with specific reference to porcelain and firing methods. Chapter three focuses on Marcuson’s ceramics and offers in particular an analysis of the nine pieces of her work in the Permanent Collection of the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg. Through my research I was able to acquire photographic documentation from other South African museums for comparative purposes, such as the Durban Art Gallery and the William Humphreys Art Gallery in Kimberley, as well as some private collections (see appendix 1). / Thesis (M.A)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

This dissertation considers nature imagery in selected South Afiican ceramics and printmaking. The main focus is on ecological issues in recent art productions. The text consists of five chapters. The first examines the ideologies of Fritjof Capra in relation to issues about deep ecology and ecofeminism; this chapter seeks to clarify the scope of the words 'land' and 'landscape' as used in a late 20th century context. The second chapter examines some historical works and ideas that have influenced perceptions of nature imagery in South Afiica. Chapters three, four and five constitute the main body of the thesis, and examine nature imagery in selected examples of contemporary printmaking and ceramics. Chapter three investigates selected landscape images ofceramist Esias Bosch and printmakers Gerda Scholtemeijer and Kim Berman. In chapter four the focus is on the flora as the point of reference. Prints of Gerhard Marx, Douglas Goode, EIsa Pooley and Karel Nel, who were all participants in the Art meets Science: Flowers as Images exhibition, will be examined. Important issues such as the separation ofbotanical and fine art, and art and science will be discussed with reference to their work. This will be followed by discussion of works of Susan Sellschop (a ceramic mural) and Bronwen Jane Heath (a wood engraving) in order to demonstrate the different intentions and outcomes ofthese to artists. Three dimensional works of the three ceramists, Lesley-Anne Hoets, Samantha Read-and Katherine Glenday are discussed in the final section of chapter four. Chapter five examines the interrelationship oflandscape and land. This chapter comprises two main sections. The first deals with aspects of landownership in South Africa reflected in recent ceramics and printmaking. Examples of the work of Marion Arnold and Ellalou O'Meara reinterpret images of early explorers and colonists situating them in a contemporary arena, demonstrating connections between past and present. Landownership is the overt subject in the Fee Halsted Berning, whose ceramic relief panel reflects a different perspective of landownership from the prints ofthe Schmidtsdrift artists. The second section surveys work of four artists whose images draw attention to ecological matters. Wendy Ross, Diana Carmichael, Marion Arnold and Carol Hofrneyr create images that higWight different aspects of the fragile balance of nature. / Thesis (M.A.) - University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2000

In this dissertation the incorporation of cross-cultural imagery and its assimilation is focused on the work of Maggie Mikula, a ceramist from KwaZulu-Natal. Producing within the 1970's and 1980's. her work is investigated within the historical context of the socio-political background of South Africa. Syncretism in the visual arts reflects problems associated with identity and authenticity and this dissertation analyses these issues. A reference is made to select artists and ceramists in South Africa who approach their work in this manner, in particular with reference to the influence that Maggie Mikula has had in their work. Chapter One discusses the history of borrowing in South Africa citing examples of work by artists including amongst others Walter Battiss, Alexis Preller and Cecil Skotnes. This is based around the broad political and ideological relationships in the country that framed local art making. The assimilation and the breakdown of barriers in African/western art in a South African context is argued through a post-colonial reading. The chapter deals with the problems of borrowing related to appropriation and stereotyping from a postmodernist perspective. Chapter Two introduces the history of South African ceramics examining its development and styles, focussing on changing premises within the medium. The second part of the chapter positions Mikula's work, interests, personal history and ideals. Chapter Three deals with the development of Mikula's ceramic work, referring to her technology, processes and sourcing. The reception of Mikula's work and the attitudes to cross-cultural assimilation in the 1980's, as well as current perceptions are addressed in Chapter Four. Her influence on this creative medium is shown with specific examples. Personal interviews attempt to contextualise her position and situate her within the ceramic world. Acknowledging that there is a wealth of collections through out South Africa, the ceramic work predominately researched for this paper is from KwaZulu-Natal. It has been sourced both from the immediate family, and from individual collectors, as this was the site of her production. Other collections have been accessed from around South Africa including the Corobrik collection in Pretoria (of which there are two pieces - one which is broken), the large piece is documented photographically (see Fig.22) and referred to on Page 66. The Nelson Mandela Museum, Port Elizabeth, (accessed on-line and via photographs from the artist's records) has a notable collection, but given the nature of this research, these pieces do not demonstrate any significant features over and above those that were already sourced. This paper is not intended as a catalogue, but is meant to show a variety of Mikula's work to demonstrate her influence and style. Each piece is chosen for its specific aspects and unique features that would support this research. Given the nature of this investigation, the author has been obliged to read widely, including writers such as Berman, Sacks, Cruise and the complete edition of APSA newsletters and magazines to give a comprehensive over view of the changes in style and influence within South African art and specifically, ceramics. / Thesis (M.F.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.

This dissertation explores the importance of narrative in Ardmore ceramic ware and determines how and to what effect ceramic narrative is used by Ardmore Ceramic Studio. It gives a historical overview of narrative in ceramic wares of English potteries from the eighteenth century to date, as a means of contextualising and locating the influences of Ardmore narrative ceramics. This paper examines selected narrative works, by artists such as Andrew Sokhela and Wonderboy Nxumalo, with reference to Noverino N. Canonici’s writings regarding Zulu oral literature. One of the intentions of this paper is to illustrate how the fundamental elements of Zulu storytelling play an influential role in Ardmore ceramic narratives. Narrative as a means of communication, education and entertainment is assessed with reference to Ardmore examples. This dissertation investigates the potential to use ceramic narratives as anthropological research tools. The focus of this paper is to investigate the use of ceramic narrative in disseminating information and creating social awareness. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

Text in English with summaries and keywords in English, Afrikaans and Zulu / Presented in two volumes. Volume 2 contains colour photographs / Bibliography: (volume 1: leaves 181-219) / The history of South African ceramics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries tends to be presented in a compartmentalised manner in that it focuses on the leading exponents within genres and is limited to an investigation of the contexts that have an immediate bearing on their oeuvres. The result is a fragmented (and sometimes biased) view of the role players, circumstances, influences and incentives that have come to define South African ceramics. The thesis introduces key contributors who have hitherto been considered in relation to crafts and fine art but whose work with ceramic materials places them firmly within the ambit of South African ceramics. It also positions and evaluates the roles of the formal and informal twentieth-century educational and training agencies that, within the constraints of imposed political dogma, produced ceramists who successfully challenged staid Western aesthetics. Particular attention is given to how the black “traditional potters” exercised agency in negotiating a contemporary (as opposed to an ethnographic) presence in which they referenced the forms, meanings and values of “traditional pottery” to meet the expectations of the collector’s market. The thesis posits that the ceramists’ quest to claim an identity (or an “indigeneity”) in the turbulent political era of the later twentieth century has parallels with the intent and outcomes of African Modernism. African Modernism, which arose in postcolonial countries, sought to challenge Western binaries of art, craft, identity and presence and typically made use of hybridity to that end. The same presence of hybridity is evident in twentieth-century South African ceramics, which must be read as an engagement with a multi-cultural society within which the ceramists sought to position themselves. The thesis illustrates the progression of hybrid features from an initially crude and superficial referencing of indigenous and African material culture to subjective translations of that culture that are presented in innovative approaches. This theme is further explored in relation to South African ceramics of the twenty-first century, and evidence suggests that some of the ceramists’ oeuvres can now be considered transcultural and even transnational. The thesis, which is by its nature an enquiry that presents new or reassessed evidence is neither a fully inclusive nor an absolutist revision of the history of ceramics. / Die geskiedenis van Suid-Afrikaanse keramiekkuns van die twintigste en een-entwintigste eeu is geneig om op ʼn onderverdeelde wyse voorgehou te word, omdat dit op die hoofeksponente in genres fokus en beperk is tot ʼn ondersoek na die kontekste wat ʼn direkte uitwerking op hul oeuvres het. Die resultaat is ʼn gefragmenteerde (en soms bevooroordeelde) beskouing van die rolspelers, omstandighede, invloede en aansporings wat Suid-Afrikaanse keramiekkuns definieer. Die tesis stel sleutelbydraers bekend wat tot dusver met handwerk en beeldende kuns verbind is, maar wie se werk met keramiekmateriale hulle sonder twyfel binne die sfeer van Suid-Afrikaanse keramiekkuns plaas. Daarbenewens posisioneer en evalueer die tesis die rolle van die formele en informele twintigsteeeuse opvoeding- en opleidingsagentskappe wat, binne die beperkings van voorgeskrewe politieke dogma, keramiste opgelewer het wat oninspirerende Westerse estetika suksesvol betwis het. Aandag word veral geskenk aan hoe die swart “tradisionele pottebakkers” bemiddeling uitgeoefen het in die verwesenliking van ʼn kontemporêre (teenoor ʼn etnografiese) teenwoordigheid waarin hulle verwys het na die vorme, betekenisse en waardes van “tradisionele pottebakkery” om aan die verwagtinge van die versamelaarsmark te voldoen. Die tesis voer aan dat daar parallelle bestaan tussen die keramis se soeke om op ʼn (inheemse) identiteit te kan aanspraak maak in die onstuimige politieke era van die latere twintigste eeu, en die oogmerke en uitkomste van Afrika-modernisme. Afrika-modernisme het in na-koloniale lande ontstaan en het beoog om Westerse binêre pare van kuns, handwerk, identiteit en teenwoordigheid te betwis; om hierdie doel te bereik is hibridisme gewoonlik gebruik. Dieselfde teenwoordigheid van hibridisme kan gesien word in Suid-Afrikaanse keramiekkuns van die twintigste eeu, wat beskou moet word as ʼn gemoeidheid met ʼn multikulturele samelewing waarin die keramiste hulself probeer posisioneer. Die tesis illustreer die vooruitgang van hibriede eienskappe, van ʼn aanvanklik onafgewerkte en oppervlakkige verwysing na inheemse en Afrika- materiële kultuur, na subjektiewe interpretasies van daardie kultuur wat in innoverende benaderings voorgehou word. Hierdie tema word verder ondersoek in verband met SuidAfrikaanse keramiekkuns van die een-en-twintigste eeu, en bewyse dui daarop dat sommige van die keramiste se oeuvres nou as transkultureel en selfs as transnasionaal beskou kan word. Die tesis, wat in wese ʼn ondersoek is wat nuwe of hersiende bewyse voorhou, is nóg ʼn ten volle inklusiewe nóg ʼn absolutistiese hersiening van die geskiedenis van keramiekkuns. / Umlando weseramiki yaseNingizimu Afrika kwikhulu leminyaka lamashumi amabili namashumi amabili nanye uvamise ukwethulwa ngendlela ehlukaniswe ngezigaba ngokuthi igxile phezu kwezingcweti ezihola phambili ngaphakathi komkhakha wezinhlobo kanti lokhu kugxile kuphela kuphenyo lwezizinda ezinomthintela osheshayo phezu kwemisebenzi yonke yalezo zingcweti. Umphumela ukhombisa umbono owehlukene (kanti ngesinye isikhathi umbono owencike kwingxenye eyodwa) wabadlalindima, wezimo, wemithelela kanye neziphembeleli ezichaza iseramiki eNingizimu Afrika. Ithesisi yethula abagaleli abasemqoka ukufika manje okudala benakiwe mayelana nemisebenzi yobuciko kanye nemisetshenzana yobuciko obuncane kodwa imisebenzi yayo yomatheriyali weseramiki ibabeka ngaphakathi komkhakha wezeseramiki eNingizimu Afrika. Lokhu kuphinde futhi kuhlole izindima zezinhlaka zemfundo nezoqeqesho ezihlelekile nezingahlelekile, lezo ngaphaklathi kwezihibhe zohlelo olumatasa lwepolitiki, lukhiqize osolwazi bezeseramiki abaphonsele inselele ngempumelelo osolwazi bezobuhle beNtshonalanga. Kugxilwe kakhulu kwindlela ababumbi bendabuko abamnyama “traditional potters” abasebenzisa ngayo ubummeli uma bexoxisana ukubonakala emsebenzini wesikhathi samanje (njengoba lokhu kuphambene ne-ethinigrafi) lapho baye bariferensa izindlela, izincazelo kanye nezinga lobugugu bobuciko bendabuko bokubumba ukufeza izinhloso ezilindelwe zemakethe yabaqoqi bomsebenzi wobuciko. Ithesisi iyasho ukuthi impokophelo yosolwazi bezeseramiki yokuzitholela uphawu oluchaza ubunjalo babo (or an “indigeneity”) esikhathini esibucayi sezepolitiki sekhulu leminyaka yamashumi amabili inezimpawu ezifanayo ngenhloso kanye nemiphumela yohlelo lwesimanjemanje sase-Afrika African Modernism. Uhlelo lwe-African Modernism, oluqhamuka kumazwe avele ngemuva kombuso wobukoloni, luphonsela inselele yezinhlelo zobuciko, yesithombe sobuciko kanye nobukhona bobuciko kanti ikakhulukazi bukhandwe ngobuciko bokuhlanganisa izinhlobo (hybridity) ezahlukile. Ubukhona bohlelo lokusebenzisa izinhlaka ezahlukile lwe-hybridity lubonakala kwimisebenzi yeseramiki yesenshuwari yamashumi amabili yaseNingizimu Afrika, okufanele ifundwe njengomsebenzi ohlanganiswe ndawonye nomphakathi wamasiko amaningi, kanti ngalo msebenzi ababumbi beseramiki bafuna ukuziphakamisa ngawo. Ithesisi ikhombisa intuthuko yezimpawu wumsebenzi oyingxubevange (hybrid) ovela kwindlela yokureferensa eluhlaza neyobuciko bamaqhinga bosiko lwendabuko lomatheriyeli wase-Afrika ukuphawula ngemisebenzi ehunyushiwe yalolo siko eyethulwe ngezindlela ezinamaqhinga amasha. Lesi sihloko siqhubekela phambili nokuhlolwa mayelana nohlelo lweseramiki eNingizimu Afrika kwisenshuwari yamashumi amabili, kanti ubufakazi buyasho ukuthi eminye imisebenzi yosolwazi bobuciko beseramiki ingathathwa njengemisebenzi ekhombisa ukushintsha amasiko kanye nokushintsha kwesizwe. Ithesisi, ngokwemvelo yayo ingumbuzo owethula ubufakazi obusha noma ubufakazi obubuyekeziwe, le thesis ayiwona umsebenzi oxuba konke futhi ayikona ukubuyekezwa kwangempela komlando weseramiki. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / D. Phil. (Art)