Erik laubscher biography

Erik Laubscher was born in 1927 in Tulbagh, and grew up in Port Elizabeth.
Erik Laubscher was a South African artist.
Born in 1927 Tulbagh in the Western Cape, South Africa, son of Hilda and Dr Bernard Laubscher, Erik began drawing at the age of seven inspired by the mountains.

•

Erik Laubscher was a leading South African abstract painter best-known for his highly stylised depictions of the local landscape. Laubscher was born in Tulbagh, and grew up in Port Elizabeth, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. Having been rejected by the Michaelis School of Fine Art, in 1946 Laubscher enrolled at the Continental School of Art in Cape Town where he trained under the artist Maurice van Essche.

Laubscher went on to further his studies in London (1947–49), and Paris (1950–51) where he was mentored by British painter John Minton and French modernist Fernand Léger. Whilst at the Académie Montmartre, Paris, Laubscher met his wife, the artist Claude Bouscharain who returned to South Africa with him in 1951.

Not long after his arrival in South Africa, Laubscher established his now-famously distinct style, achieved by applying his European influences to his local landscape. What resulted were ground-breaking, primordial depictions of the landscape described merely by the geometric shapes that comprise them, painted in flat planes of bold colour. In his attempts to capture th

•

ARTWORKS

« ….we cannot drive through South Africa without thinking of the landscapes in terms of Erik Laubscher paintings. Just as we cannot look at one of his paintings without remembering the landscapes from which they came from in South Africa. »

André P Brink, South African writer.

Erik Laubscher represents all that is vital and important in South African art. He was not only a brilliant artist but also in the heart of art action, a spokesman, teacher and personality.

His canvases have been selected for 4 Biennales in Venice and Sao Paolo. At the 1966 Venice Biennale his works received votes for a UNESCO prize. Several works are part of the South African National Gallery, Pretoria Art Museum, Rembrandt Art Foundation and Wits and U.C.T. collections (see ABOUT page).

Erik began drawing at the age of seven inspired by the mountains around Tulbagh in the Western Cape in South Africa. His parents encouraged him to study architecture. But when he moved to Cape Town at the age of twenty he chose to study art under Maurice van Essche a well k

•

Erik Laubscher

South African artist (1927-2013)

Erik Laubscher (1927, Tulbagh, South Africa - 22 March 2013) was a South African artist.

Career

Born Erik Frederik Bester Howard Laubscher in Tulbagh, he grew up in Port Elizabeth. After showing an interest in art, he began his studies at the Continental School of Art in 1946.^[1] Laubscher trained under Maurice van Essche from 1946 – 1947 before studying further in London and Paris under John Minton, Claude Venard and Fernand Léger respectively.^[2] He was awarded a Carnegie Study Grant to the US in 1966.^[3] In South Africa, he was awarded the Cape Arts Medal in 1972, the S.A. Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns - Besondere Erepenning vir Skilderkuns in 1990, and The Cape Tercentenary Foundation Award for Outstanding contributions to the Visual arts in 1994. He founded the Ruth Prowse School of Art in 1970 and retired as its principal at the end of 1995. He was married to the artist Claude Bouscharain who he met at the Académie Montmartre in 1950.^[1] In 2012 he received the Molteno M