Wind torn island
Nicholaas Oswald Roos
was born near Kimberley in 1940, where his father was a
farmer. He therefore grew up in a rural environment and as a child became
intimately acquainted with the landscape. In 1950 the family again moved, this time to
South West Africa (Namibia), and Roos, then ten years old, got to know the
Namibian landscape which would later play such an important role in his art. Over a
period of nearly thirty years Nico Roos has grown in stature as an artist until today, at
the age of 53, he is to be regarded as one of southern Africa's important artists.
As a student at the University of Pretoria
his professor in Art history requested him to
write a paper on Adolph Jentsch. Jentch introduced him to the world of philosophy,
and also explained to him how he applied his Eastern philosophy in his painting. In
these days Roos's own painting revealed strong sylistic influence form Jentsch's art,
and even today we see certain elements in Roos's work which remind us of
Jentsch's "handwriting".
He was influenced indirectly by European masters such as Picasso and Braque, and
especially by the brilliant Graham Sutherland, who was to have such a strong and
lasting influence on the work of Roos.
Roos's earliest paintings (from the period of approximately 1965 to 1967) reveal a
romantic vision of the Namibian landscape, strongly influenced by Jentsch. Many of
the scenes he paints are landscapes of the imagination.
From the sixties
onwards Roos's concentration on the outward appearance of nature
decreased, while we find in his work an increasing spiritualization. We see him in
these years struggling to reveal the intrinsic characteristics of the South African
landscape in an individual, personal manner, as his work becomes more and more
abstract. Some of the intrinsic qualities of our landscape which Roos captures in his
paintings are the following: its rough textures, the predominance of earth colours, the
staccato rhythms and sharp light and dark contrasts caused by the fierce sunlight,
and predominantly sombre mood and even dramatic qualities which we find here.
This predilection for the dramatic can also be traced back to the influence of Graham
Sutherland's art.
An aspect of the importance
of Roos's art lies in the fact that he has achieved a
unique interpretation of the South African landscape. He has stripped the landscape
of all romantic associations, has investigated its geological structure thoroughly, and
has revealed its essence completely. He depicts imaginary worlds which only come
alive if the onlooker begins to join in the game and is pre- pared to follow the artist
into his imaginary world. Only when we exert ourselves and participate in an
imaginative way in the adventure of rich colours, involved shapes and strange,
romantic emotions, does the world of Roos become reality and do we feel that we
can move around in it. That is when a space is created between our own, everyday
world and our identity, and when we achieve entry into a richer, fuller world where
something fascinating is constantly taking place - it is as if he wants to encompass
the whole cosmos in each of his landscapes. This is especially so in his so-called
"shaft paintings", where practically the whole surface of the painting is filled with a
kind of cross-section through the earth. In this cross-section intricate contrasts of
planes, lines and textures can be found, which, although largely abstract, refer to
rocks, earth layers, roots of plants and to undefined geological structures. These
works often have the feeling of a primeval world, in which the passing of centuries
has gradually altered the geological structure.
Roos's visual language has changed through
the years from a fairly simple, true-to-
nature one to a language which is comprehensive, involved and almost abstract. His
landscapes never carry symbolic elements. What he wants to depict is the more
universal experience of the landscape. In the creative process, however, the
landscape is transformed into a hyper- personal, individual vision and an individual
emotional world. Concomitant to this is his increasingly rich use of colour and his
increasingly intricate composition. Even in his smaller works we find a microscopic
reflection of the macro- cosmos. The intricacy of the works gives a richness to the
painted surface, because each element appearing on that sur- face refers to another
element or elements which appears elsewhere - a fascinating game of point and
counterpoint which, in the large paintings, possess the richness of fully orchestrated
symphonies.
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