Linocut signed by Cecil Skotnes and Stephen Gray

The "White Monday Disaster" refers to a significant 1773 event in the Cape of Good Hope where a ship wrecked, leading to the heroic but tragic rescue attempt by Wolraad Woltemade, who repeatedly rode his horse into the stormy sea to save lives, ultimately dying with the horse and passengers; it's famously depicted in Cecil Skotnes' linocuts with poems by Stephen Gray, documenting this historical tragedy.

Cecil Skotnes (1 June 1926 – 4 April 2009) was a prominent South African artist.

He was born in East London in 1926, studied drawing in Florence, Italy, the Witwatersrand Technical Art School and then the University of the Witwatersrand. He was appointed cultural officer in charge of the influential Polly Street Art Centre in 1952. Skotnes was a founding member of the Amadlozi Group in 1961. In 1979 he moved to Cape Town, where he lived until his death. He died on 4 April 2009 at the age of 82. In 2003, he was awarded the Order of the Ikhamanga (Gold) by the South African government for his contribution to South African art.

Stephen Gray (30 November 1941 – 22 October 2020) was a South African writer and critic. Gray was a prolific poet and published eight novels. Recurrent themes include attitudes to homosexuality and the many rewritings of history in South Africa, including examining attitudes to class and race. His literary journalism appeared in the South African weekly newspaper, the Mail & Guardian, from the 1990s to the 2010s. He also wrote for the theatre and edited collections of work by Athol Fugard and Herman Charles Bosman.

775mm x 600mm

R3,500