A tribute to Keith Alexander, one of South Africa’s greatest realist artists, is long overdue. Over a relatively short career of 25 years, the artist created an impressive oeuvre of over 500 immediately recognisable photorealist and surrealist paintings. Specific memories from his life experiences were used as motifs in his work throughout his career, beginning with memories of the 10 000-acre farm his family owned in his country of birth, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).

Alexander attended boarding school in London where the damage sustained during war-time bombing raids still lingered, and upon returning to southern Africa, he became increasingly aware of the contradictions inherent in his deeply colonial and political fraught upbringing.1. David Robbins (2000) Keith Alexander: The Artist in Retrospect, Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, page 16. 2. Ibid, page 24....