BATTISS Walter (Whall) FRSA FIIAL

1906 - 1982

b Somerset E, CP - d Port Shepstone, Natal STUDIED

1929: three weeks drawing at Wits Tech Art School; evening classes in painting.

1931-32: Jhb Training College (Teacher's Dip); etching lessons with

Emily Fern.

1941: BA Fine Arts, UNISA (had begun studies at Wits Univ). Continuous research and fieldstudy of SA rock art from 1930s. Many trips abroad to study art of various periods and places.

SUMMARY BIOGRAPHY The son of an English Methodist family long established in Somerset E; drew and painted continuously as a child.

1917: the family moved to Koffiefontein, where an engineer on the local mine first stimulated his abiding interest in archaeology; expeditions in search of primitive art followed.

1919: the family settled in Fauresmith where he completed his education, matriculating in 1923.

1924: he became a clerk in the Magistrate's

Court at Rustenburg, Tvl: spent his leisure hours painting the surrounding landscape; descriptive realism; signed his work WW Battiss.

1929: transferred to Supreme Court, Jhb; he began art studies.

1933: on receiving his teaching diploma, began to teach art at Park School, Turffontein, Jhb. 1936: appointed art master at Pretoria Boys' High School, where his dynamic influence was to operate - with interruptions - for almost 30 years; began serious study of rock art. 1938: his first visit to Europe; met Abbe Henri Breuil. Foundation member of New Group*.

1939: published his first book: 'The Amazing Bushman'; discovered rock art treasury at Zastron, OFS.

1940: married the noted art-educationalist Grace Anderson, ARCA. His previously realistic painting style began to acquire hieratic, symbolistic

character; also worked on woodcuts.

1944: exhibited copies of rock paintings in Jhb; intro to catalogue written by Abbe Breuil (see ROCK ART*); historic importance of first presentation of this art from the aesthetic viewpoint.

1948: expedition BATTISS Walter - 1982 to the Namib Desert where he lived among the Bushmen. Won Bronze Medal and Diploma for Painting and Woodcut at International Olympiad Exhib, London: ' The Quagga Race* reproduced in Orpen's 'Outline of Art'.

1949: took collection of SA art to I taly for exhibition with International Art Club*; elated by his first meeting with Picasso, Severini.

1952: invited to lecture on SA art at Univ of London.

1953: appointed Principal, Pretoria Art Centre. Style by now maturing; acquired the cognomen 'The Bushman Painter'; experiments with coloured woodcuts.

1954: elected Member of the Exec Com of' Internati or.al Assoc of Plastic Arts (UNESCO). Elected Fellow of Royal Society of Arts; printed his first serigraph (silkscreen print - see GRAPHIC ARTISTS*).

1955: appearance of calligraphic forms in his work; animal and human abstractions, influence of 'Ndebele beadwork.

1956: Awarded Pro Arte Medal by Univ of Pta.

1958: returned to teach at Pretoria Boys' High School.

1960: Elected Fellow of International Institute of Arts and Letters.

1962: began exhibiting many canvases employing palette-knife colour-mixing with sgraffito delineation of forms. Several trips through Central Africa to Middle East; growing interest in Pre-Islamic cultures. Abortive tenure of Chair of Fine Arts at Rhodes Univ, Grahamstown; returned to Pretoria Boys' High School.

1964: awarded Medal of Honour of SA Akademie*; appointed (November) Prof of Fine Arts, UNISA. 1965: elected Hon Member of Academy of Florence; founded 'De Arte' - art periodical subsequently published by UNISA. 1966-

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