Valerie Desmore

Valerie Elizabeth Desmore (1925 — 14 August 2008) was a South African artist and designer, based in London.

Early life

Valerie Desmore was born in Cape Town, South Africa. Her parents were teachers; her father, Abe J. B. Desmore, was a "leading Coloured intellectual"[1] who held a master's degree in education from the Teachers College, Columbia University.[2] Facing limited opportunities for further education, she left South Africa for London in 1946, to study at the Slade School of Fine Art. After leaving the Slade, she studied in Vienna with Oskar Kokoschka.[3]

Career

While she was a teenager, in 1943, Desmore had a public exhibition of her art at the Herbert Stanley Argus Gallery,[3] which was very likely the first such show by a woman artist classified as "coloured" in Cape Town.[4] In 1951, she began to study fashion design, and produced several collections in the 1960s. She opened a shop in Covent Garden in 1978, and designed clothing for Marks and Spencer for eighteen years, while still painting in her spare time.[5]

She returned to South Africa to visit in 1997, when her work was featured in an exhibit called Land and Lives curated by Elza Miles.[6]

Legacy

Desmore died in London in 2008.[7] In 2012, curator Nontobeko Ntombela produced an exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, called A Fragile Archive, featuring the works of Gladys Mgudlandlu and Desmore.[8][9]

References
  1. Les Switzer, ed., South Africa's Alternative Press: Voices of Protest and Resistance, 1880-1960 (Cambridge University Press 1997): 139-140. ISBN 9780521553513
  2. "Termination of White Rule Foreseen by South African" Columbia Daily Spectator (17 December 1935).
  3. Tracy Murinik, "Valerie Who?" Johannesburg Mail & Guardian (11 December 1998).
  4. Patience Bambalele, "A New Take on History" Sowetan (30 January 2012).
  5. Michael Stevenson and Joost Bosland, "Take Your Road and Travel Along": The Advent of the Modern Black Painter in Africa (2008 exhibition catalog): 104-105.
  6. Nontobeko Mabongi Ntombela, "A Fragile Archive: Refiguring Rethinking Reimagining Representing Gladys Mgudlandlu" (Master of Arts in Fine Arts thesis, University of Witwatersrand, 2013): 7.
  7. Deceased Estates, London Gazette (24 March 2009).
  8. Jackie May, "The Big Read: A Tribute to Real Pioneers" Times Live (3 February 2012).
  9. Robyn Sassen, "Gaps Show Void of Neglect of These Artists" Times Live (26 February 2012).
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