Windhoek’s galleries have been closed for over a week but the late Martin Layton’s ‘Abstracts in the Desert’ is just about visible above the cheese display.
As the city braces for the night’s coronavirus lockdown, the retrospective –currently on show at Superspar’s Bean There café – may be the last collection art lovers will catch a glimpse of for a while.
Featuring a selection of eerie and unpopulated scenes of landscapes, nature reclaiming shipwrecks and buildings, as well as strange sights of the moon strung between mountains and a boulder suspended in the air, Layton’s often surrealistic paintings embody what the artist called ‘dimensionism’.
The paintings’ mysterious aesthetic is echoed in Layton’s titles, such as ‘We Share the Same Fate’, in which a portal seems cut into the side of a building connoting the mortal passage into the next life or dimension.
Describing his work as an expression of emotions, feeling and experiences using whatever is available to him to create an image that conveys his inner thoughts, Layton’s collection is also a play on words.
While Layton was born in the UK and settled in South Africa, his travels in Namibia are reflected in his work.
“An appreciation of wide open spaces and fascination of objects man made or otherwise, actual or imagined combine to create an image which at times may confuse or provoke thought,” he once said.
“My motivation is not to create ‘pretty pictures’ but to create an image with lasting impression that the viewer can relate to and appreciate long after the initial viewing.”
At times reminiscent of Dali and an intriguing insight into the peculiar world of the mind, ‘Abstracts in the Desert’ will be on display at Bean There until 17 June. Artworks are for sale.
– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, marthamukaiwa.com
