Claudette Schreuders (born February 6, 1973) is a South African sculptor and painter operating out of Cape Town, South Africa. She is known mainly for her carved and painted wooden figures, which have been exhibited independently and internationally in galleries and museums. She is the first South African artist to have a sculpture acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Artthrob News. "Schreuders at the MET." In Press of Claudette Schreuders, compiled by Jack Shainman. New York, USA: Jack Shainman Gallery Inc, 2018. Previously published in artthrob, June 14, 2012. Accessed January 9, 2019. http://www.jackshainman.com/files/6714/5589/6037/Schreuders_Press_Package_sm.pdf . Schreuders has been a finalist for both the Daimler Chrysler Award (South Africa) and the FNB Vita Art Prize (South Africa), which is South Africa's version of the Turner Prize.

Early life and education Schreuders was born in Pretoria (Tshwane), Gauteng Province, South Africa on 6 February 1973. She is first-generation South African born to Dutch parents. Schreuders' adolescence was during the period leading up to the end of apartheid in 1994.

She attended Linden High School in Johannesburg and graduated in 1990. She attended Stellenbosch University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1994, after which she attended the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town for her Master of Fine Arts (1997).

Career Schreuders began exhibiting her work in 1998, with a show titled Family Tree.FLAG Art Foundation. "Disturbing Innocence Curated by Eric Fischl." News release. October 2015. Accessed January 9, 2019. http://flagartfoundation.org/exhibitions/disturbing-innocence-2/ . Her earliest bodies of work were Burnt by the Sun (2001), Crying in Public (2002), The Long Day (2004), and The Fall (2007). She began exclusively with wood carving but has since expanded to produce bronze sculptures, lithographic prints, etchings, and drawings.Pollock, Lindsey. "Claudette Schreuders." In Press: Claudette Schreuders, compiled by Jack Shainman Gallery Inc. New York, USA: Jack Shainman Gallery Inc., 2018. Previously published in Art in America, February 2015.

Her work has been shown in the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, the Nobel Peace Center, the British Museum, and the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has two public sculptures. One is in Cape Town's Nobel Square: statues of the four South African Nobel Peace Prize laureates Nelson Mandela, FW de Klerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Albert Lutuli. The other is in the Aga Kahn Walk in Nairobi, Kenya: a seven-foot wooden figure titled Thomas.

Style

Her work has been praised as a "mastery of carving" by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and compared to the work of the other sculptors Jeff KoonsSmith, Roberta. "Claudette Schreuders." The New York Times (New York, NY, USA), December 6, 2002. and William Kentridge.Hanley, Sarah Kirk. "Notes from a Transforming Democracy: South African Prints." art:21, May 6, 2011. Accessed January 9, 2019.https://magazine.art21.org/2011/05/06/ ink-notes-from-a-transforming-democracy-south-african-prints/#.XDY4CGbMzOQ. It has also been described as an "exploration of self-identity, cultural discomfort and a strong if clouded spirituality" and the depiction of figures who appear "monolithic, stoic and timeless" and "reflect the ambiguities of the search for an 'African' identity in the post-apartheid era"Jack Shainman Gallery, "Claudette Schreuders," Jack Shainman Gallery, last modified January 2, 2019, accessed January 8, 2019, https://www.jackshainman.com/artists/claudette-schreuders/ . and "the malleability of an African identity in the wake of apartheid." Art critic Okwui Enwezor has said that her work "proposes a new language resulting from a synthesis of African and European figural forms."Bester, Rory, Claudette Schreuders, Faye Hirsch, and Antjie Krog. Claudette Schreuders. Munich: Prestel Art, 2011.

Her wooden figures rarely deviate from what Schreuders has established as her personal style. First, her work is often autobiographical. Her first six bodies of work represented different phases of her life: her graduate show reflected her life as a student; her second collection reflected her time in residencies in foreign countries; her third reflected on the reception of her work, and the following works concerned the birth of her first child and domestic life. Schreuders states that “I enjoy art in which you can see the life where it comes from. Art that is solely about art is not as attractive to me as when there is life outside the work.” The wood she often uses to carve her figures is jacaranda; a wood readily available in Pretoria, her hometown.Chiya, Sinazo. 9 More Weeks. Cape Town, South Africa: Stevenson, 2018. Second, the bodies are "stocky figures with slightly oversized heads and hands, carved in wood and rendered with enamel paint."Claudette Schreuders, "Claudette Schreuders and the Autobiography of Complexity," interview by Rory Bester, Claudette Schreuders, last modified 2012, accessed January 8, 2019, http://www.claudetteschreuders.com/texts/autobiography-of-complexity-rory-bester/ . Third, her work has "small solitary figures with the aura of invisible or indeterminate narrative silences [and] generally expressionless faces that mask any overt or strong feelings." Fourth, her depictions of everyday South African life comment on the residue of South Africa's colonial past and her own relationship with South African history. For instance, one sculpture is of "a black woman with a white child on her back" and "the child is built up out of cuts, as if the child is going to fall apart into slices the moment the woman unties the blanket." Fifth her figures often have "vacant stares" and a "rigidity, even paralysis of movement" communicating that "all is not what it seems."

Influences Her wood carved statues often begin from a single piece of wood, akin to traditional African art practices, especially the West African colon statues and Baule Blolo sculptures native to the Ivory Coast. Colon sculptures originated as figures for indigenous rituals, but as decolonization infiltrated African society Europeans began having them commissioned as portraits of themselves. Christopher Steiner explains the importance of colon figures as a "symbol of social status ... [whose] very ownership by a Western signifies the reappropriation of Africa and is thus prized as an image that pays homage to the conquest of the continent." Schreuders has stated that the colon figures "were crucial to me in how I wanted my sculptures to look" due to their living quality.

Exhibits and Residences +Notable Solo ExhibitionsTitleLocationYearIn the BedroomJack Shainman Gallery, New York, USA2019Note to SelfJack Shainman Gallery, New York, USA2016Great ExpectationsStevenson, Cape Town, South Africa2013Close, CloseJack Shainman Gallery, New York, USA2011The Long Day: Sculpture by Claudette SchreudersUniversity Art Gallery, San Diego State University, San Diego, California; Hand Art Center, Richmond, Virginia; Atlanta College of Art Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa; Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona2005Claudette Schreuders: Six StoriesKlein Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn, South Africa2002 +Notable Group Exhibitions TitleLocationYear9 More WeeksStevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa2018Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to NowMuseum of Modern Art, New York, USA2011Strength and Convictions: The Life and Times of the South African Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway 2009Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and its Diasporas Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles; Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia; Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, California, USA2008Since 2000: Printmaking NowMuseum of Modern Art, New York, USA2006Conversation with Art, on Art - Bauhaus to Contemporary Art: From the Daimler Chrysler Art CollectionTokyo Opera City Art Gallery, JapanPersonal Affects: Power and Poetics In Contemporary South African ArtMuseum for African Art and Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York, USA2004Voices of South AfricaBritish Museum, London, UK2000Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art form South AfricaMuseum for African Art, New York; Austin Museum of Art, Texas; Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, California; University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, USA1999Lake Naivasha International ArtistsNational Museum, Nairobi, Kenya1998Earth and Everything: Recent Art From South AfricaArnolfini, Bristol; Center for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; Firstcite Contemporary Art, Colchester, Essex; Wrexham Arts Centre, UK1997

+Notable CollectionsCollectionPlaceDaimlerChrysler Art CollectionBerlin, GermanyIziko South African National GalleryCape Town, South AfricaJohannesburg Art GalleryJohannesburg, South AfricaMetropolitan MuseumNew York, USAMichaelis School of Fine ArtUniversity of Cape Town, South AfricaMuseum of Modern ArtNew York, USAParliament of South AfricaCape Town, South AfricaRBC Dann Rauscher Art CollectionMinneapolis, USA

+ResidenciesTitleLocationYearLux Art Institute Artist ResidencyEncinitas, California, USA2011Art Omi International Artist ResidencyNew York, USA2001Aftershave International Artists WorkshopJos, Nigeria1999Lake Naivasha International Artist ResidencyKenya1998Gasworks Studios International Residency London, UK1996

References

External Sources Official website