Le petit marin, 2019

Karl Gietl  

Karl Gietl was born in Wocester, South Africa in 1970. He grew up in the small mining town of Benoni and was educated in Johannesburg.

Karl Gietl left his studio in Troyeville and Johannesburg on May 4 to fly to Paris where he will spend six months at the Cité des Arts. He won this stay in France with the 1998 Prix de l'Atelier Volkskas, a trophy awarded each year by the South African banking group Absa. A kind of consecration, for this young 28-year-old painter, a graduate of the School of Arts in Johannesburg. A blessing, too, for this South African citizen who admits to being saturated with the stress and violence of his city. Johannesburg is however his main source of inspiration.

From his journeys, his adventures and his encounters, he draws a kind of diary on canvas. The thirty-five small oils (16×26 cm) which earned him the first Volkskas prize represent as many urban landscapes, characters and scenes that he captions like photos.

His style, focused on painting rather than conceptual art, is distinguished by a very personal tone, in a context where the artistic purpose is often linked, directly or indirectly, to politics.

Karl Gietl is not "disconnected" for all that, but he claims only his own point of view inspired by reality with great intensity.