DEBORAH BELL | Sculpture & Painting | 2000-2023
DEBORAH BELL, Artemis with Dog I - III
Bronze, 380 x 280 x 120 cm
DEBORAH BELL, Interval
Bronze, 208 x 45 x 42 cm
DEBORAH BELL, Be Earth Now
Mixed media on paper, 210 x 140 cm
DEBORAH BELL, Unearthed VI
AP1
Bronze, 205 x 49 x 57 cm
Deborah Bell is one of South Africa’s most celebrated contemporary artists. She works in a range of media on canvas and paper, producing dry point etchings and large-scale bronzes.
Her earlier, more political work has given way to a broader, deeper investigation into the border between mortality and immortality, matter and spirit, presence and absence, the quotidian and the mythic, the grounded and transcendent. In recent years she has developed an immediately recognisable visual language, her images simple, stark, symbolic – grounded, silent, still, poised. In her iconography she draws from a range of cultures (including African, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, early Christian and European) and a range of philosophies (especially the Buddhist preoccupation with stillness and the shedding of attachment and the ego) and psychologies (more Jung than Freud) – but her work digs deeper, arriving finally out of an internal and personal place that Bell occupies in the world as an artist, a woman and an explorer. A central task is to make the unknown present – apprehended in a series of powerful images that are both of her and beyond her.
Bell’s work is represented in public and private collections around the world including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Smithsonian Institute and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, the Gloria Steinem Foundation, the Hara Museum, Tokyo and the IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
DEBORAH BELL, Unearthed II
AP1
Bronze, 205 x 44 x 47 cm
Deborah Bell is one of South Africa’s most celebrated contemporary artists. She works in a range of media on canvas and paper, producing dry point etchings and large-scale bronzes.
Her earlier, more political work has given way to a broader, deeper investigation into the border between mortality and immortality, matter and spirit, presence and absence, the quotidian and the mythic, the grounded and transcendent. In recent years she has developed an immediately recognisable visual language, her images simple, stark, symbolic – grounded, silent, still, poised. In her iconography she draws from a range of cultures (including African, Chinese, Egyptian, Greek, early Christian and European) and a range of philosophies (especially the Buddhist preoccupation with stillness and the shedding of attachment and the ego) and psychologies (more Jung than Freud) – but her work digs deeper, arriving finally out of an internal and personal place that Bell occupies in the world as an artist, a woman and an explorer. A central task is to make the unknown present – apprehended in a series of powerful images that are both of her and beyond her.
Bell’s work is represented in public and private collections around the world including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Smithsonian Institute and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, the Gloria Steinem Foundation, the Hara Museum, Tokyo and the IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
DEBORAH BELL, Invocation: The Ancient Ones I
Bronze, 143 x 45 x 45 cm
Deborah Bell is one of South Africa’s most celebrated contemporary artists.
Bell has called these silent and seemingly ancient figures Invocation: The Ancient Ones. Made of cast bronze on marble bases resting on steel plinths, they evolved from a previous set of five monumental figures that Bell made in 2015 entitled Return of the Gods.
Draped in robes, the figures exude serenity as they drift, eyes closed, towards the horizon. Bell has described the smaller totemic figures resting on their heads as manifestations of one’s higher self, spirit, or soul.
Over the years the artist’s work has become increasingly concerned with surrender – to the higher self, the mystery of the universe, the simplicity of the present. Bell has described her artistic practice as a journey through time and material to show something that has always existed.
Deborah Bell is one of South Africa’s most celebrated contemporary artists.
Bell has called these silent and seemingly ancient figures Invocation: The Ancient Ones. Made of cast bronze on marble bases resting on steel plinths, they evolved from a previous set of five monumental figures that Bell made in 2015 entitled Return of the Gods.
Draped in robes, the figures exude serenity as they drift, eyes closed, towards the horizon. Bell has described the smaller totemic figures resting on their heads as manifestations of one’s higher self, spirit, or soul.
Over the years the artist’s work has become increasingly concerned with surrender – to the higher self, the mystery of the universe, the simplicity of the present. Bell has described her artistic practice as a journey through time and material to show something that has always existed.
Deborah Bell is one of South Africa’s most celebrated contemporary artists. She works in a range of media on canvas and paper, produces dry point etchings and large-scale bronzes. She has developed an immediately recognisable visual language, her images simple, stark, symbolic – grounded, silent, still, poised. In her iconography she draws from a range of cultures, philosophies and psychologies, with her work arriving out of an internal and personal place that Bell occupies in the world as an artist, a woman and an explorer.
Specialists in contemporary art from South Africa. Established in 1913. South African artists are part of the global conversation. We seek to make their voices heard.