Walter Battiss (1906-1982) – “I invented myself”

The exhibition was divided and installed into five separate ‘lives’ or periods. This conceptual basis was informed by an extract from a letter written by Walter Battiss to friend, lover and confidant Dacre Punt in London in December 1967: “I have decided to live for ever, but am ready, if necessary, to die now & for me I’ve had 4 lives already & am on my 5th.”

The ‘lives’ included:
Early Years as Student, Artist and Teacher (1916 – 1932)
Rock Art and Meeting Picasso (1933 – 1949)
The Fifties: International Success and Financial Difficulties (1950 – 1959)
The Sixties: The Explorer in East Africa, Southern Arabia and Greece (1960 – 1967)
Eroticism, the Anti-censorship Debate and Fook Island (1968 – 1982)

Featured artworks from the collections of Rupert Art Foundation, Jack Ginsberg, Eduard du Plessis and Wits Art Museum.

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