Jan du Toit - The Interior as Self Portrait: The Self Portrait as Interior
In this series of seven paintings in oil on canvas, artist Jan Du Toit explores the theme of self portraiture in his own domestic setting. The mood in these works is pensive and self-reflective, his own human presence being surrounded by familiar objects which in turn reflect his autobiography to date. Many of these objects are in fact works by other artists with whom he has been in contact and who have in some cases served as his role-models.
Growing up in Tulbagh, Du Toit was inspired by the work and personality of Christo Coetzee (1929-2000), a number of whose works are seen in these paintings. Du Toit admired the facility with which Coetzee was able to make paintings. Another artist whose work is reflected here is that of Johannes Meintjes (1923-1980), a pioneering gay artist, whose works are filled with a
romantic nostalgia. Meintjes was also an authority on early Cape heritage, furniture and history. Du Toit has long admired the creative aspects of this early furniture and the aesthetic role it played in people’s lives in early, pre-industrial times.
Using himself as subject within the aesthetic structure of his own intimate spaces with paintings, furniture and ceramics, Du Toit creates a series of self portraits that are arrested moments in the life of an artist. What is seen in these paintings will be subjected to further creative change. Additions and subtractions will be made as the artist’s life is creatively lived and experienced.
