John Kramer

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  www.rosekorberart.com/artists/kramer3.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/9/2007    Last Visited: 8/6/2008  

  Whether it's a string of rural shops with a lovely old bicycle parked on the stoep or a cluster of blue gums in front of a general dealer, John Kramer wants his paintings to be memories of the South Africa he remembers when he was growing up.
  
  The works of the much-respected artist, who graduated from UCT with a Diploma in Fine Art in 1969, grace the walls of several galleries around the country, including the National Gallery, which has three of his paintings in their collection.
  
  John is an exhibition designer at the South African Museum and has several other interests like web-design, photography and collecting post cards, but he is still most passionate about painting.
  
  'There's a lot of demand for my work from overseas buyers who want some South African flavoured stuff,' says the 53 year old father of two teenage boys.
  
  John's paintings can be found in some exhibiting local galleries and he does a lot of work on consignment.
  
  Five years older and less well-known than his brother, David Kramer, John is proud that "David has done so fantastically well".
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  'Then this top US art critic, Clement Greenberg saw some of my work and commented favourably on it and suddenly people started to take notice of my paintings.' John remembers.
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  It's more creative and never dull.' explains Kramer.

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  R O S E   K O R B E R   a r t - [Cached Version]
  Last Visited: 11/4/2008  

  At first sight, Cape Town artist, John Kramer's paintings resemble those of the American photorealist painters of the 1970s, who also often used photographs as sources for their large, non-committal paintings. They concentrated on mundane, familiar subjects, such as cars, diners and shop windows, rendering details witn uncanny realism While Kramer is equally skilled at creating such illusions on canvas, he has a very difrerent approach to his subject matter, and his paintings are never altogether neutral.
  
  Kramer is endlessly fascinated by the small towns of the Western Cape - its tasteless, nondescript houses, its banal shop-fronts, with their eccentric and naive signs, the seedy, corner cafes and general dealer stores from a pre-supermarket era.
  
  'The kind of paintings I make', he adds, 'are not about architecture as such - structures that have been designed by particular people.
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  Interview with John Kramer by Philip Kramer, 2002
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  Articles about John Kramer
  
  Ogilvie, Grania. Dictionary of South African Painters and Sculptors L.Alexander and E.Cohen. 150 South African Paintings, Past and Present
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  UCT Alumini Magazine - December 1999 'Profiles: John Kramer'
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  Cape Review - July 2001 Conversations in Art with John Kramer' by Sam Woulidge
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  JOHN KRAMER Fauresmith Bargain Centre
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  Rose Korber Art - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/9/2007    Last Visited: 11/4/2008  

  Cape Town artist John Kramer is endlessly fascinated by the small town of the Western Cape - its tasteless, nondescript houses, its banal shop-fronts with their eccentric and naïve signs, the seedy corner cafés and general dealer stores from a pre-supermarket era.As a young man growing up in the Boland town of Worcester in the late 1960s, he began to record these buildings with his camera, fearing they might soon disappear: later, these documentations were to become invaluable source material for his hyperrealistic paintings.
  
  "In my work I want to make a statement about the part of the world in which I live."Kramer has often stated.
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  Yet Kramer maintains there are constant references to people in his work, since whatever he portrays is "man-made".His paintings are not only aesthetic statements, he says, but also social documents.
  
  "What I'm trying to do," he explains, "is to comment on a particular kind of architecture which expresses something of the people who created it or who live and work in it, but who, themselves, are not conscious of the images which they project.
  
  "The kind of paintings I make," he adds, "are not about architecture as such - structures that have been designed by particular people.
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  John Kramer holds a diploma in fine art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town.His work is represented in many private and public collections, including the South African National Gallery, The Durban Art Gallery and the King George VI Gallery in Port Elizabeth.He is also head of the design department at the South African National Museum in Cape Town.

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  Rose Korber Art - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/1/2004    Last Visited: 8/6/2008  

  JOHN KRAMER

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  Rose Korber Art - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/9/2007    Last Visited: 11/4/2008  

  JOHN KRAMER
  
  Fauresmith Bargain Centre

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  Rose Korber Art - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/9/2007    Last Visited: 11/4/2008  

  Like his brother the more famous David, John Kramer is recording the fast-disappearing gems of the platteland.Only, he does it on canvas.
  
  It's no coincidence that in his previous artistic existence, John Kramer was the South African Museum's chief exhibition designer.For John, the past has never been a foreign country.So naturally, the double-storey where he lives in Gardens is more than 100 years old, and the studio he paints in was once the hayloft above where the horses and carriage were kept -now his garage.
  
  It's full of cosy clutter, with several unfinished works on the walls. 'I like to have anything from 10 to 15 paintings going at the same time.Then I can say "That's the one I feel like working on today," says Kramer with that same small warm grin that first endeared his brother to South Africans decades ago, in the same platteland accent.
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  John and his brother, who's five years younger, grew up in the Western Cape town of Worcester in the 50s and 60s. 'It was a time when nothing ever changed.
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  John only became aware of the uniqueness of small-town South Africa when he went to visit his brother in Leeds, where David was studying textile design in Britain on a scholarship. 'People there lived in red-brick houses with no spaces between them.It was a completely different architecture.No single-storey houses with dusty gardens and fences and gate saying Pasop Vir Die Hond.I suddenly saw South Africa with new eyes.It struck me as quite surreal.'
  
  By the 70s, John had got his fine art degree at UCT where he'd been influenced by Professor Neville Dubow's comments about the need for artists to look to their roots to make an impact rather than to simply copy what was being done overseas.
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  John designed the cover for David's first record Bakgat.It harked back to what they'd grown up with; the letterbox made from a kettle and welded chain, the house with the artistically angled street number.
  
  John remembers the Sunday recce trips the brothers would do together into the country. 'David would sit in the car writing, and I'd be out there with my camera.' John went on to photograph thousands of buildings all over the platteland. 'I'm sorry now I didn't record them more systematically.I was much too selective.'
  
  In 1970 he went for an interview at the museum.The job turned out to be so much more than just painting scenic backgrounds that he stayed for 37 years, and became involved in absorbing major projects like the planning of the new building to house the Whale Well.

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  Rose Korber Art - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/18/1999    Last Visited: 11/4/2008  

  Every South African has heard of David Kramer, irrepressible entertainer and impresario; his brother John is less well known.
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  In the art world, however, the name John Kramer is greeted with respect and enthusiasm.
  
  If you're ever exiled from South Africa, don't look at a John Kramer painting - you'll weep with homesickness. For in his oil-on-canvas portrayal of the cafés, stores and houses standing in the sharp sunlight of a sleepy dorp, John encapsulates the very essence of this country.
  
  Although most of his work is flown overseas to be hung in the homes of international art lovers and the aforementioned weeping exiles, there are some local galleries where you can see Kramer's wonderful paintings.
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  John and David grew up in Worcester in the Cape, where their father was the manager of a furniture store.
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  John was interested in drawing from a very young age and remembers being inspired and encouraged by his uncle Theo, who owned a silkscreen-printing factory. After John matriculated he studied fine art at the University of Cape Town's Michaelis School of Art.
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  John was strongly influenced by May Hillhouse and Stanley Pinker.
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  So John embarked on a photorealism adventure that has grown more exciting over the years and has earned him the respect and admiration of critics and art lovers. 'Some people find it strange that there are no people in my paintings,' he says, 'but this is deliberate. In a way, the buildings are portraits that tell you something about the people who live there'
  
  It's true, John doesn't portray deserted towns - just places where people aren't present for a moment. It's easy to imagine that the door of the Zanzibar Restaurant will soon open to reveal the proprietor, replete after a hearty lunch; the owner of that bicycle will walk up and pedal away; the newly shorn farmer will leave the barber's shop and, brushing a gnarled hand across his bare forehead, climb into his bakkie and drive off in a cloud of dust.
  
  More than representing history on canvas, John captures personal stories and freezes them in time. On July 3, 1978, at precisely 4 pm, for instance, that's how a particular situation was. And because of John Kramer, that's the way it will stay.

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  Rose Korber Art Salon 2005 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/23/2005    Last Visited: 11/4/2008  

  This year's Salon saw a subtle shift towards more cutting-edge work while still maintainting its backbone of 'classics' such as John Kramer, Erik Laubscher, Peter Bonney and Walter Meyer.
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  JOHN KRAMER Fauresmith Bargain Centre

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  Rose Korber and Grande Provence - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/1/2005    Last Visited: 8/6/2008  

  JOHN KRAMER
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  At first sight, Cape Town artist, John Kramer's paintings resemble those of the American photorealist painters of the 1970s, who also often used photographs as sources for their large, non-committal paintings.They concentrated on mundane, familiar subjects, such as cars, diners and shop windows, rendering details witn uncanny realism While Kramer is equally skilled at creating such illusions on canvas, he has a very difrerent approach to his subject matter, and his paintings are never altogether neutral.
  
  Kramer is endlessly fascinated by the small towns of the Western Cape - its tasteless, nondescript houses, its banal shop-fronts, with their eccentric and naive signs, the seedy, corner cafes and general dealer stores from a pre-supermarket era.
  
  'The kind of paintings I make', he adds, 'are not about architecture as such - structures that have been designed by particular people.

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