The Artist
Gert Pietersen was born in 1930 on a farm in the Northern Transvaal. He had enjoyed creative activities for as long as he can recall, from making clay oxen as a boy, to making drawings in the ground when no equipment was available during the depression years. Even at an early age, Pietersen understood and cherished the value of nature, and often incurred the wrath of his family when he tried to protect the environment from inconsiderate destruction, which was often the norm in early farming practices. He started school at Swartwater Primary, and then attended Piet Potgieter High School in Potgietersrus. Due to the depression and the financial strains that followed, he never completed school but moved to Pretoria, where he worked at a family printing press in order to support his family back home. Pietersen later moved to Johannesburg where he studied art informally under Professor Mario Scarpa and Mr WH Coetzer. He was still working at the printing press when he got involved with the Johannesburg art society. He painted after hours and exhibited his work at Joubert Park and the Johannesburg Zoo, and was one of the founding members of the “Artists in the Sun” at Joubert Park. Pietersen began painting professionally in 1970.
In 1971, Harry Tennison, President of The International Organization for Game Conservation (Game Coin), visited South Africa in search of a Wildlife Artist – which he found in Pietersen. This led to an invitation to exhibit at the Game Coin Congress held in San Antonio. Convinced that Pietersen would become one of the world’s greatest Wildlife painters, Tennison appointing him “Artist in Residence for Game Coin”, one of only two artists who ever received this honour. Pietersen visited many art galleries overseas and several of his works are displayed at the San Antonio Art Gallery in Texas.
Pietersen, an unadorned man with a straightforward, philosophical outlook, soon became disillusioned with the art fraternity’s requirements and values. There were customs that demanded certain behaviour, and there was great pressure on artists to commercialise their work. He felt that the emphasis on painting what was fashionable would prevent him from expressing his art truthfully. He thus decided to work independently from the formal arts’ structures. Ansie Pietersen played an integral part in selling her husband’s paintings. His works sold at private exhibitions, agricultural shows and wherever else he felt comfortable with the crowd. He usually preferred to stay out of the limelight, and let his cheerful and genial wife do the talking and trading. Living in the West Rand was taxing for Pietersen, and as soon as his 2 sons left the house, he moved back to his much-loved Bushveld.
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