Now internationally-acclaimed as an artist and author, Clarke finished his schooling in 1944 and worked as a ship painter in the Simon’s Town dockyard. In 1947, he read an article on
Gerard Sekoto, the first South African black artist to be represented in a public collection. For Clarke, Sekoto’s success was to be inspirational.

‘I remember thinking,’ he says, ‘if he who is black can be an artist , so can I.’

Clarke is largely self-taught and has learned much from books and magazines. He did however, receive some informal art tuition, which began in 1947 in District Six where he was taught by the London-born artist , John Coplans. In 1948, these classes moved to the Roland Street Technical College, Cape Town where they were run by pioneering members of the New Group. Clarke later worked with Katrina Harries at the Michaelis School of Art , University of Cape Town in 1961, and then spent time at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam and at Atelier Nord in Oslo.

With assistance from his life-long friend, James Matthews, Clarke held his first solo exhibition in the newsroom of the newspaper, The Golden City Post, in 1957. At that time he said: ‘Before my exhibition, I was just another coloured man. Our people took it for granted that only whites could do such things. Now they are becoming aware of the fact that we can do these things too; that we are human beings.’

Clarke has recorded many aspects of South African life. His works constitute subtle critiques of apartheid and are often humorous. Although he and his family were forcibly removed from his home in Simon’s Town during the apartheid era, his art is without bitterness.

July/August 2011 issue

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