Johannes Meintjes
Description
Meintjes was a painter that enjoyed tremendous public support for his art since early age and also received international acclaim as an author later on. He is a well known historian and one of South Africa's most versatile artists. The fame he enjoyed as a 21 year old artist is completely unequalled in the South African history of art. Esmé Berman wrote in her authoritative Art & Artists of South Africa that ‘the spectacular suddenness with which Johannes Meintjes catapulted to the headlines during the last years of WW2 is a phenomenon seldom equalled in SA cultural history. Before he was 22 years old the intense young artist enjoyed the kind of public adulation which was later reserved for youthful idols of the pop-music world’. Johannes Meintjes died in 1980 and had established himself as a major South African painter and writer. Apart from numerous articles and smaller literary works, he had published 35 books, amongst them authoritative works on South African history. He had painted more than a thousand canvases, produced dozens of sculptures and exhibited in all South Africa's major galleries - sometimes alone and sometimes in the company of artists such as Alexis Preller, JH Pierneef, Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern and Maggie Laubser. Meintjes' work reflects something of the naivety of the African artist... a dimension beyond the purely European and his canvases, painted with the knowledge born out of centuries of European experience, speak with the voice of Africa. Meintjes once said: ‘Mine is the vision ... sprung from the soil of Africa and I have given it in a personal statement which may find a response in the heart and imagination of another generation.’ (Compiled by Kobus Opperman)
Books
Olive Schreiner
"From Publishers Weekly : Originally published in 1980 and long out of print, this fine work illuminates Schreiner's life and major writings through a portrayal of her "conscious struggles for self-definition" as a novelist, feminist and political activist. Born in 1855 to English missionaries working in Africa, hers was a lonely, self-educated childhood. She worked as a governess during the late 1870s, and when she sailed to England for medical training in 1881, had with her the manuscripts of three novels, including The Story of an African Farm, her best known. She was quickly taken up by London's intellectual circles; Havelock Ellis and Eleanor Marx were among her closest friends. On her return to Africa, Schreiner supported the Boer cause and took what she herself called an "almost painfully intense interest" in empire-builder Cecil Rhodes, although she quickly became disillusioned with both. Abhorring treatment of blacks as an "engine of labour," she became an outspoken advocate for black citizenship; and her Women and Labour published in 1911 reflected a lifetime of thought on "the Woman Question" and became a crucial work for early-20th-century feminists. The authors write insightfully of the split sense of self in a woman who made such an impact yet felt her life a failure. South African political activist First was assassinated in 1982; Scott is a British book editor.."--amazon.com.
Johannes Meintjes
1. Autobiography and biographical references, etc 2. South African artists, etc 3. South African authors, etc 4. London after World War II; arts, theatre and drama, etc 5. Arts and social sciences, etc 6. South African history, etc 7. German expressionism, etc 8. Travel and education, etc 9. Facsimile edition of artist’s memoirs 10. British celebrities in the 1940's and 1950's
The Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902
South African Anglo-Boer War; 1899-1902 - Pictorial History.
Dorp van Drome - Die Geskiedenis van Molteno; 1874-1974
History of the Town Molteno (South Africa)
Sword in the Sand: The Life and Death of Gideon Scheepers
South African History; Anglo-Boer War. Dedicated to John McIntosh.
The Voortrekkers
Dedicated to the memory of Meintjes’ grandfather, Johannes Petrus Meintjes (1843 - 1919)
(Die) Jeugjare van Johannes Meintjes : 1923-1940
Dedicated to Meintjes’ mother, Valerie Elizabeth Julia Meintjes, born Keyter (1895 - 19??). Biography (Diary/Youth Years) of the Artist/Author Johannes Meintjes. Authors, Afrikaans -- 20th Century -- Biography
Sandile : The Fall of the Xhosa Nation
South Africa -- History -- Frontier Wars, 1811-1878. Dedicated to William Plomer.
Stormberg : A Lost Opportunity; The Anglo-Boer War in the North Eastern Cape Colony, 1899-1902
Dedicated to Evan Robertson
Frontier Family
Autobiography. Dedicated to Meintjes’ three sisters - Ena, Marie and Ernestine Meintjes.
Maggie Laubser
This book is a monograph on the life and work of Maggie Laubser ((14 April 1886–17 May 1973), the South African painter.
General Louis Botha: A Biography
Dedicated to the memory of Colonel Polly de la Rey-Morkel (1887 - 1967)
De La Rey : Lion of the West
Dedicated to the memory of Meintjes’ father, Ernest Frederick Meintjes (1893 - 1928)
President Paul Kruger
Historical Biography on the Life of President Paul Kruger of the ZAR