Irma Stern

Welcome to week 3 of Artist Introductions! This week is a real treat: I will be introducing Irma Stern, a South African artist born in 1894, who was most active between 1930 and 1955. We are going to focus on her lesser-known landscape paintings, which show the rolling hills of northern South Africa, to Congolese rivers and beyond. 

Stern was born in the Transvaal province of South Africa to German-Jewish parents. During the Boer War, her father was held in a concentration camp by the British due to his pro-Boer views (if you’d like to brush up on your South African history, read more about the Boer War). After the war, the Stern family relocated back to Germany and constantly travelled – this was a major source of inspiration for her work. Having studied art at the Weimar Academy in Berlin, she had her first solo exhibition in 1919.

Stern’s travels heavily influenced her subject matter and style of painting. From Southern Africa to Zanzibar and the Congo region, she also travelled to Madeira, Dakar, Central Africa, Spain, and France. Energized by her adventures, she held almost one hundred solo exhibitions during her lifetime – her work was appreciated in Europe, but her exhibitions in Cape Town received reviews like “Art of Miss Irma Stern – Ugliness as a cult”. Nevertheless, she gained international acclaim as a German Expressionist painter; many of her works are on display across the world and in their own dedicated museum in Cape Town. 

From portraiture to still life, Stern experimented with several different genres. Throughout her life, her style also evolved: from pastel portraits and abstract nudes, to impasto flowers and richly coloured landscapes. It is the variety of her work that makes it so special, but for me, her landscapes are her greatest achievement. A sprinkling Van Gogh, a touch of Gauguin, a shade of Cézanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire: Stern’s artistic inspiration is clear to see, but there’s something incomparable about her extraordinary landscapes. It is as if she brought the best of Post-Impressionism to the exotic, fruitful landscapes of Zanzibar and the Congo. Her work is a brightly coloured breath of fresh air, and I hope you enjoy looking at her remarkable landscapes as much as I do.