Jean Welz (1900-1975)

Esmé Berman (1996:494) describes Jean Welz's career as "a solitary adventure, unrelated to surrounding trends and fashions. There is nothing of Africa imprinted on his paintings, there is little that is truly modern, even in his abstract style. It is the delicate balance between reason and emotion, the impeccable technique and the additives of sensitivity and meditative insight which permitted him to pursue a path outside the main line of SA artistic development and yet retain widespread regard as one of the country's most distinguished artists."

Welz's approach to his art is best reflected in a letter he had written to his brother, a gallery owner in Salzburg, before an exhibition there in 1965. He expla...