SUZANNE BELLING
“I didn’t take it to heart,” says Coleman, who studied graphic design for three years at the old Johannesburg Technikon.
He surprised his parents with his choice of career after such a conventional Johannesburg Jewish background – barmitzvah and Sydenham-Highlands North Shul and education at Highlands North Boys’ High School.
At present, he has a permanent exhibition at the Arteye Gallery, run by Tyrone Selmon, in new Doornfortein. In fact, it is not just a gallery, but almost an entire building, where South African artists are foremost and where Selmon encourages them and takes a personal interest in every one of his creative team.
Art lovers can browse at leisure, while enjoying a cup of freshly ground coffee.
Now, Coleman’s art has captured the imagination of his colleagues, so much so that there is a portrait of him in a prominent place in the gallery.
He stayed in Swiss Cottage in London in the early sixties, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Henry Moore, David Hockney and Indian artist Francis Souza and he continued his studies – this time in textile design – at the London Central School of Art.
He had shared exhibitions at various galleries. His one-man shows were at the Adler Fielding Gallery and at Artists of Fame and Promise. His prints were even accepted by the Victoria and Albert Museum. “I think I may have been the only South African to have my paintings on show there.”
Coleman had five solo exhibitions and eight group shows in England. On his return to South Africa “for family reasons”, he became first the South African artist to exhibit at the Goodman Galley, for which he designed the logo.
He had commissions from the Greek government, is a member of the Colour Council of Great Britain and, in South Africa, has paintings in the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the National Gallery, Cape Town, the Polokwane Art Museum and at the Stellenbosch Modern and contemporary (SMAC) Art Gallery.
This abstract artist, who paints in every medium possible, including acrylic, oil and mixed media, does many collages, which have proved popular. He uses bright colours and his imagination is evident in each of his works.
His figure work is a blend of colours with the outlines discernible on close inspection. He has travelled to Senegal, Morocco, Mali, Egypt, Tunisia, Zanzibar, Madagascar and India, delighting in the various cultures and transforming them onto canvas, as well as photographing subjects and people, and gleaning inspiration from them. “I am fascinated by heat and colour,” he says. “An artist should be an explorer.”
His travels also took him to Uzbekistan, where he felt the influences of Kublai Khan and Mongolian art and architecture.
“In Bokhara, I met the rabbi of a shul, which still exists in the middle of nowhere.”
In spite of Coleman’s modern art, he is essentially old-fashioned – “I do not own a cell phone or a computer,” he revealed.
Early next year, Arteye will honour him with a retrospective exhibition. Tyrone Selmon refers to him as “a great leader and an uncompromising man of principle”.
