ARTLOOK February, 1971
Lily Herzberg

In September, 1969, six artists were invited to submit designs for a mural for the 1820 Settlers Memorial Monument. The award went to Kevin Atkinson and Richard Wake for their joint entry.

The ensuing commission has proved a landmark in the careers of the two young artists, both still in their early thirties. „It has been a golden opportunity, „they said, „to express our ideas on movement, colour, light, and form in space.“

The monument is intended as a cultural complex in Grahamstown, consisting of two theatres, halls and a library, centred on a stairwell 140 feet in height. Originally, the artists were required only to propose a sculpture, mural or mosaic for the 140′ x 70′ back wall of the stairwell area. While at work however, they found that they could control light by carefully designed apertures in the wall, and that they could induce a time sequence of colour as the sun moved over the wall and cast its rays through the central shaft overhead.

„At the moment,“ they said, „we are preoccupied with bringing the design away from the wall, to incorporate the space. Instead of standing back and looking at the wall as people would do in a church, we want to achieve a monumental effect that is commemorative rather than religious.“

The artists‘ aim is to create a three-dimensional composition that will encompass roof, walls and suspended staircase in a total artwork – a space conceived in relation to light and colour, movement of people through it and their reactions in this complete space.

Wake and Atkinson have received the enthusiastic support of the designer of the Monument, with whom they have established an ideal modus operandi. „A problem in architectural work,“ says Kevin Atkinson, „is to find some way in which the artist can integrate his ideas with those of the architect to achieve a total approach. Since starting the project we have had to temper some of our ideas, and so has the architect, to arrive at a mutual understanding of the nature of the whole. It has been very exciting to work with the architect in this way right from the beginning.“

The artists‘ winning design has already undergone many changes. When working on a monumental scale, technical difficulties and costs are limiting factors, and often ideas have to be relegated to the pigeonhole of dreams for future fulfilment.

One of their schemes for the Monument was a series of large prisms suspended in the roof. With the assistance of two University physicists, Atkinson and Wake conducted painstaking research, to the fourth decimal place, on how light would pass through these prisms to cast, on the wall, a complete spectrum of colours fluctuating with the movement of the sun. The variations of refractive indexes of different liquids were investigated, as well as combinations of liquid  and glass. However, the scheme would have proved too costly within the budget allocated, and it had to be abandoned.

This is not the first time that Atkinson and Wake have received a joint architectural commission. Theirs must be a unique working relationship in this context in South Africa. How is it practically possible for a sculptor and a painter to work together in such close harmony? Basically, of course, there must be a strong empathy, a compatibility of aesthetic approach, which does not necessarily imply uniformity.

For Cape Town’s new Heerengracht Hotel, the two created a number of art works of different types, and most were combined efforts. „Take the sculpture for instance, „said Kevin Atkinson. „We would each do a model and then criticise and evaluate the artistic merit of both. We have a certain understanding. Richard doesn’t argue too much with me when it comes to colour, and I don’t argue too much with him when it comes to form. But when it comes to the actual execution, one may be more involved than the other.“

Their relationship with the architect and his team for the Heerengracht Hotel commission was somewhat different from that for the Monument. their brief was a strict one and the artists had to achieve the effect desired by the architect. Each work was designed for the place it was to fill and works very well in its particular  environment.

Other joint projects of Atkinson and Wake have been as art consultants, with Professor Neville Dubow, to the architect o the new Muizenberg Beach Front Redevelopment Scheme, and together they supplied the sculptured mural for Lerici Restaurant in Cape Town.

Kevin Atkinson and Richard Wake have built up their reputations as two of South Africa’s most important artists quite independently of each other and, besides their joint commissions, both continue to work as individuals. (…)

Richard Wake majored in sculpture at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, where he is now assistant lecturer in sculpture. He continued his studies in Stuttgart and Paris, and has been awarded scholarships and travel grants. On of his most recent commissions was for the major sculpture for the Nico Malan Theatre , Cape Town. He is represented in private and public collections in South Africa, England and Germany.

He has had one-man shows in South Africa and West Germany and his works have appeared in group exhibitions locally and overseas. His sculptures were shown at the Venice biennale in 1964 and at São Paulo Bienal in 1965. He was also chosen for the Venice Biennale, 1970, but as South Africa was subsequently excluded, the S.A. Association of Arts arranged for the works to be shown at the South African National Gallery and the Pretoria Art Museum.

Recently, an unusual exhibition was held at the new Cape Town Gallery of the S.A. Association of Arts. The exhibition was called „Critic’s Choice“ and critic Neville Dubow was asked to nominate six artists whose work could be shown together in a meaningful way in the small space available. Wake and Atkinson were two of the six artists selected. It is believed that „Critic’s Choice“ exhibitions may become a regular feature on the local art scene. There can be no doubt that the sculptures and paintings of Richard Wake and Kevin Atkinson have had not a little influence on the South African public’s orientation towards a more contemporary approach to art.