Description
South African 1914-2010
Bettie Cilliers-Barnard, DMS (18 November 1914 – 15 September 2010) was a South African abstract artist, generally known for her large canvases of birds in flight. She was also the mother of well-known South African actress, Jana Cilliers.
“Bettie” Cilliers-Barnard was born in Rustenburg, Transvaal on 18 November 1914. Bettie Cilliers-Barnard,was a South African abstract artist, generally known for her large canvases of birds in flight. She was also the mother of well-known South African actress, Jana Cilliers. She started painting in the late 1930s and over the years kept experimenting with colour, lines, abstraction and figurative abstractions. In the 1970s, birds unexpectedly started appearing in her work – which could be described as part of her earthy symbolism. She referred to this work as her “flights of the spirit”. Since 1946, Cilliers-Barnard’s works have been shown in seventy solo exhibitions in South Africa as well as in Paris (paintings 1956), London (graphic art 1971), and at the Prestiges Invitation Exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts museum in Taiwan (paintings and graphic art 1987).
Her South African graphic art exhibitions abroad have included Austria, Germany, Spain, Greece and Israel, to name a few. Her tapestries, paintings, and murals in oils have been commissioned both for public collections and for museum and private collections in South Africa and abroad. Most recently in 1992, she painted “Vision” for the Pretoria Eye Institute and some of her other commissions include the painting “Flight” for South African Airways 1983, the tapestry “Guardian Angel of the Arts” for the State Theatre of Pretoria 1981, and her mural in oils “Mens sana corpore sano” for the Department of Health in Pretoria 1980.
Cilliers-Barnard worked especially at night – “because the night doesn’t have shadows”, she maintained.
Two retrospective exhibitions of her work followed: Pretoria Art Museum 1995 and the SASOL Art Museum 1996.
