Marianne PodlashucDutch & South African Artist
1932 - 2004 Marianne Podlashuc neé Van Den Berg, was born in Delft in 1932. Her parents were Dutch Communists, who met at the Socialist International of 1926. Her father, Ben, was a shop-steward in the Dutch Metal Workers Union; her mother Amalie was a librarian. After the capitulation of the dutch military in WW2, Ben was drawn into an underground cohort and was hardly ever seen. The war dominated Marianne’s early life. The terror and dreadful hunger took its toll. At the close of the war, her mother had TB and weighed 32 kgs. Her only hope, a Red Cross medic advised, was to go somewhere dry and hot, like Argentina, Africa or Australia. And so, in 1947, Marianne’s family set off for Australia, leaving her behind in Rotterdam studying art. By the time they reached Cape Town, Amalie was too ill to continue and Ben, via the international ties of trade unions got work at the power station in Bloemfontein. Hot and dry it was. Marianne made a life for herself in arty, bohemian post war Rotterdam. She loved the world she was in. It was a time of new beginnings and optimism, and her work was washed in this joyous light. But, the Korean War, so soon after WW2, ended this. The atomic armageddon of Hiroshima and Nagasaki convinced her parents that peace would not hold and a nuclear war was immanent between the US and USSR. Europe would again be the battleground and they begged her to come to South Africa. And so, the joyous Marianne, landed in Bloemfontein in 1953. That it was a shock for her is an understatement. The racism, the starving children, the poverty of the masses bludgeoned her. Her paintings moved from cheery light-filled works to brutal social realism. The Cold War deepened and she couldn’t return to Europe, so she put a room in her flat up for rent. A young artist who spoke dutch answered. His name was Pod . . .
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Still Life with Horses
Marianne Podlashuc, ca 1990 Acrylic Signed bottom right |
Two Roman Boys
Marianne Podlashuc, ca 1987 Lithograph Signed bottom right |
South End with Geese
Marianne Podlashuc, 1950 Pen and Ink Unsigned |
Roots and Routes
Clockwise from left: Wheelbarrows, Holland ca 1940, Oil, Signed bottom right
The Bench, Cape Town ca 1990, Acrylic, Signed bottom right Basketball Fan, New York ca 1976, Acrylic, Signed bottom right |
South end and forced removals
Left: from the Children of apartheid
Marianne Podlashuc, ca 1958 Tissue paper and water color Unsigned Right: from the Children of apartheid Marianne Podlashuc, ca 1958 Tissue paper and water color Unsigned |
Other collections
Harbor Workers
Marianne Podlashuc, 2000 Acrylic Signed bottom left |
Mariquita
Marianne Podlashuc, ca 1940s Poster paint Unsigned |
Leo at the Bay
Marianne Podlashuc, ca 1979 Acrylic Signed bottom right |