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LAMBERT KRIEDEMANN
Born in 1951 in South Africa
  Portfolio

“I would like people to buy my paintings for the pleasure of living with them, not just for their investment value. I hope that anyone who buys one of my paintings today will still treasure it in 20, 30 or 50 years’ time.  When people try to describe my work, it would please me if they use words like “magical”,” mystical” and “spiritual”.

I taught myself to draw and paint between the ages of 9 and 11. At the age of 11, I was drawing recognizable portraits in pencil. By the age of 13 I’d sold my first oil. When I matriculated in 1968 with art as a subject, I’d already begun my professional career, selling small impressionistic landscapes, still lives and interiors to local art dealers. It took several more years to establish myself as a full-time artist. During this time I worked in a variety of art-related jobs, completed my first year in architecture at UCT, and was a full-time student at the Ruth Prowse School of Art for 6 months. I began what was to have been a B.A. Fine Art with UNISA in 1971. Although I passed the first-year courses in English and Philosophy, the degree was never completed. I also worked as a designer’s assistant to Keith Anderson and as Art Director on a series of movie advertisements filmed by Ashley Lazarus. This last job financed my move to the island of Formentera in the Mediterranean, where I was able for the first time to earn a living as a full-time artist.” – Lambert Kriedemann

Lambert has been a full-time artist since 1975. He has held 17 one-man shows and taken part in many group exhibitions. A 1979 critique by Eldred Green in The Argus appeared under the heading: "Kriedemann shows much promise.” His talent also attracted generous sponsorship from the corporate sector. In 1979, 1980, 1993 and 2002 he held sponsored exhibitions.

Between 1986 and 1994, Lambert designed ten sets of postage stamps. His third series won him the second prize in the national “Stamp Designer of the Year” competition.

In 1995 Lambert won the prize for:"Best Work on Show” in the “Pulse of Africa” exhibition – one of the fringe events at the first Johannesburg Biennale. In the same year one of his paintings was included in the “Art ‘95” “Top 70” exhibition in New York.

As a result of his successful participation in a group show by South African artists in the Netherlands in 1998, Lambert was sponsored to hold a one-man show in The Hague in October 2002. The exhibition was opened by the South African Ambassador to the Netherlands, Ms P. Jana. He subsequently held his 17th one-man show at the Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery in Cape Town, in October 2003.


CAREER HISTORY:

1972/3
Lived on island of Formentera in Mediterranean, made a living doing quick portraits and street scenes for tourists

1978
First one-man show in Cape Town

1979, 1980, 1993 and 2002  
Corporate-sponsored one-man shows 

1986 – 1994:  
Part-time postage stamp designer

1985 – 2016
Commissioned by Sun International (5 large oils in Table Bay hotel, 2 large + 4 small oils in GrandWest casino), Board of Executors and First National Bank, Eidai Corp, Japan, as well as various private clients in Europe, America and the East.

1989 – 94
Worked entirely with handmade paint

1997
Interviewed & filmed working with hand-made paint in my studio for German T.V.

1993
Two-man show with Johan Coetzee at Sanlam Gallery, Bellville

1994
Included in touring exhibition “40 Cape Artists” by S.A. Assn of Arts

1975 - 2005
Won various prizes for drawings, paintings and stamp designs, including “Best Work on Show” in the “Pulse of Africa” exhibition (fringe event at first Johannesburg Biennale)

1995
Included in “Art ‘95” “Top 70” exhibition in New York

1983 – 1997
Group shows in Spain, England, Australia, USA (New York + Spokane), Netherlands, Colombia

1998 
Started painting abstracts.

2000 – 2014
Gradual increase in size of abstracts from miniature to mural + gradual progress from part-time to fulltime focus on abstracts

2002
One-man show in The Hague, Netherlands, (realism) opened by S.A. Ambassador

2003
One-man show with Johans Borman Gallery (realism)

2003+  
Invited to give talks, demonstrations and workshops to various local art societies

2004
Held 2-day workshop on advanced oil painting technique for members of the South African Society of Artists

2005
Held 3-day workshop for honours and masters students from the University of the Orange Free State in which I taught them how to make their own paints and mediums
2008

Abstracts included in group show, Cape Gallery

2011
International  one-man show of abstract and fantasy paintings on internet with Green Chair Gallery
Continuum, Annual Winter Solstice exhibition at The Cape Gallery

2012
Turn Around Time, annual Winter Solstice exhibition at The Cape Gallery

2013
Large abstract sold on group show at Saxon Hotel, Johannesburg

2017
Summer Salon exhibition, a group exhibition at The Cape Gallery
Journey to the interior, solo exhibition at The Cape Gallery
Dream now, dream not, the annual Winter Solstice Exhibition, The Cape Gallery


view image larger
Artist: LAMBERT KRIEDEMANN
Title: The Impossible Dream
Size: 71 x 56 cm
Media: Oil on Canvas
Price: R14 000 Framed

STYLE AND TECHNIQUE

Having been a long-time admirer of the old masters and having studied their work at first hand in Europe, Lambert learned from Ralph Rillman Miller, the well-known portrait painter, how to make his own paints and mediums according to traditional formulae. For five years he worked almost exclusively with hand-made paint before adapting the technique for use with modern tube paints.

His lifelong dedication to the Western European tradition of naturalistic illusionism has been tempered by an open-minded study of the theories and techniques of modern artists. His approach combines traditional naturalism with aspects of modern photo-realism and with compositional ideas and painting techniques gleaned from the study of a number of styles of modern painting, including various forms of abstraction. His ability to combine the old and the new will surprise and delight the discriminating viewer.

TEACHING

Since 2003 Lambert has been actively seeking opportunities to pass on his knowledge of painting. In 2004 he held a two-day workshop on advanced oil painting techniques for members of the South African Society of Artists. In 2005 he held a 3-day workshop for honours and masters students from the University of the Orange Free State, at which he taught them the basics of making and using their own home-made paints and mediums.  More recently he has been invited to give talks and demonstrations at various local art societies, and has followed these up with workshops on oil painting technique.

ABSTRACTION

During his student years Lambert dabbled in various forms of abstraction and surrealism, but eventually settled on realism as his main career path. In 1999 he once more began to experiment with a form of abstraction in his spare time. Having been fascinated for many years by the relationships between painting and other arts such as music, dance, theatre and the martial arts, he now felt able to begin to give form to his ideas. At first he experimented on a miniature scale, but as his confidence increased, so did the scale of the work. 

Lambert’s first efforts were erratic, and very different from his realistic work. Gradually a definite style emerged, in which his interest in abstraction merged with his interest in surrealism and fantasy. It is difficult to classify these works, as they are neither wholly abstract nor typical of surrealism or fantasy painting. The artist suggests subject matter without defining it, with the result that viewers project their own fantasies onto the ambiguous images, with each person seeing something unique.

Since 2012 Lambert has begun to explore the middle ground between his realistic and abstract styles of painting. A new style seems to be gradually emerging which is neither one nor the other, but a blend of both.

COLLECTIONS
Lambert Kriedemann’s work has found its way into private and corporate collections in many countries of the world. In South Africa, Lambert’s work is to be found in the collections of several large corporations, notably First National Bank and The Board of Executors.

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