Hermann Niebuhr is a South African artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 who lives in Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

. He utilizes oils on canvas in a classical painterly style to document urban decay as well as rural landscapes.
Niebuhr was born in Johannesburg in 1972. He studied at Rhodes University

Rhodes University

Rhodes University is a public research university located in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, established in 1904. It is the province’s oldest university, and is one of the four universities in the province...

, Grahamstown

Grahamstown

Grahamstown is a city in the Eastern Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa and is the seat of the Makana municipality. The population of greater Grahamstown, as of 2003, was 124,758. The population of the surrounding areas, including the actual city was 41,799 of which 77.4% were black,...

 and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (with distinction in History of Art) in 1993.

He spent six years in the arid region of South Africa known as the Karoo

Karoo

The Karoo is a semi-desert region of South Africa. It has two main sub-regions - the Great Karoo in the north and the Little Karoo in the south. The 'High' Karoo is one of the distinct physiographic provinces of the larger South African Platform division.-Great Karoo:The Great Karoo has an area of...

. Working from the small town of De Rust

De Rust

De Rust is a small village at the gateway to the Klein Karoo.De Rust is located at the foot of the Swartberg Mountain range between Oudtshoorn and Beaufort West...

, Niebuhr isolated himself and developed his technique. Upon his return to his hometown of Johannesburg in 2002, he began to confront the challenges of living and making art in one of Africa's largest and politically most complex cities.

Niebuhr's exhibition 'Night Shift' (2008) brought him to the heart of the city. Armed with only a camera, he entered the neighborhoods which had most dramatically shifted from Art Deco

Art Deco

Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...

 affluence in the mid-to-late 20th century to poverty and crime in the early 21st. Niebuhr photographed the foyers of the lovely old buildings and then painted them in oils, taking the perspective of the (somewhat symbolic) security guards protecting the edifices and their residents. These accurate and objective paintings, unpeopled but resonant with history, create a sense of melancholy around the city's decline.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2010
White Painting, CASA LABIA, Cape Town

2009
Mine, ASHANTIGOLD GOLD OF AFRICA MUSEUM, Johannesburg

2009
Bram Fischer Memorial, BRAMFISCHERVILLE COMMUNITY HALL/JOHANNESBURG DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, Johannesburg

2009
The Great South African Nude, EVERARD READ GALLERY, Johannesburg

2009
Champagne for my Facebook Friends, THE CANOPY GALLERY, Johannesburg

2008
South Africa Abroad, HODNETT FINE ART STUDIO GALLERY, Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

2008
Night Shift, THE CANOPY GALLERY, Johannesburg

2007
Antarctica - On Thin Ice, UNITED NATIONS GALLERY, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

2006
A Month of Sundays, GALLERY ON THE SQUARE, Johannesburg

2005
Night Ride Home, ABSA GALLERY, Johannesburg

2004
City Berlin, JABLONSKI STRASSE STUDIO, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

2004
An African in Ireland, ENNISKERRY GALLERY, Dublin

2004
Celebrating 10 Years of Democracy, EVERARD READ GALLERY, Johannesburg

2004
Town/Country, CAROL LEE FINE ART, Johannesburg

2001
Up and Coming, SOAN STUDIO, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

2001
South African Landscape, UNISA ART GALLERY, Pretoria

Pretoria

Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...

COLLECTIONS

Absa Bank; Webber Wentzel; KPMG; Sasol; Rhodes University; General Cologne; Rosengarten-Rosin & Wright; J.P.Morgan; SAB Miller; Nedcor; Modise Attorneys; Ashanti Gold; Novocol

External links

• Hermann Niebuhr's homepage