acrylic on canvas

Artwork date: 1968
Signature details: signed and dated top left edge; signed, dated and inscribed with the title on the reverse
Exhibited: SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, 'Erik Laubscher: A Major Retrospective', 5 December 2009 to 25 February 2010.
Literature: Fransen, H. (2009). 'Erik Laubscher: A Life in Art', Stellenbosch: SMAC Gallery, illustrated in colour on p. 129.

(1)

122 x 125.5 x 4.5 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Erik Laubscher stands as one of the most influential figures among post-war Cape painters who embraced abstraction in the 1960s. His distinctive hard-edge portrayals of the Cape countryside have left a lasting legacy for which he is best known and remains celebrated.

Karroo (sic) is a hallmark of Laubscher’s large-scale, hard-edge landscapes and a striking interpretation of the region's stark beauty. Here, the artist translates the structural elements of this vast and rugged terrain – its rocky outcrops and distant mountain ranges – onto the canvas using simplified forms and flat layered planes of colour. Laubscher's use of colour is pared down to earthy tones, ochres, and deep blues, which masterfully evoke the arid plains and expansive skies of the Karoo.

The work was painted in 1968, two years after Laubscher visited the United States on a Carnegie grant, where he encountered the works of the Californian hard-edge painters and the New York School, which left a lasting influence on his style. During this period, Laubscher began working on larger formats, with compositions that became bolder and featured “knife-edge sharp” spatial definitions.[1] He also transitioned from painting in oil to acrylics to achieve clean profile lines and opted for more vivid colour combinations that impart a luminous quality to his work.

The Karoo is known for its austere grandeur, clear skies, and a sense of solitude that offers a unique, almost timeless atmosphere. In this composition, Laubscher captures this particular essence of the Karoo landscape, rather than its literal appearance, emphasizing the flatness of the surface, clean edges, and shaped colour planes. The interplay of light and shadow, typical of the Karoo's harsh sunlight, is conveyed through contrasting colour areas and the precise delineation of forms.

The painting’s abstract simplicity gives the depicted landscape a monumental quality, highlighting the enduring and unyielding nature of the Karoo. The sense of scale, depth and space draws the viewer in, inviting a pause to appreciate the scene fully – a testament to Laubscher’s timeless mastery of landscape painting.

Marelize van Zyl

^{[1] Fransen, H. (2009). Erik Laubscher: A Life in Art. Stellenbosch: SMAC Art Publishing. p.122.}

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• In 1968, the same year in which Karroo (sic) was painted, Erik Laubscher was one of seven selected artists to participate in the South African Exhibition at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal.

• That same year, he was also a founding member of the Friends of the South African National Gallery.

• A prolific and much-celebrated artist, Erik Laubscher’s illustrious career spanned six decades, and he was among the first South African artists to represent South Africa at the Venice Biennale (1954, 1956) and São Paulo Biennale (1957, 1959).

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local collections, notably, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Javett Art Centre, Pretoria; South African Constitutional Court, Johannesburg and the Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch.