UNSUNG HEROIN OF SOUTH AFRICAN ART WORLD Anti-Apartheid Activist HELEN ANNE PETRIE (1932-2006)

Helen Anne Petrie had a privileged education and completed High School with excellent results, merits and awards; and went on to study further.

A clear indication of her promising career was the fact that her first work of art that was ever published for public consumption was while she was still at school, an illustration for an information guidebook in what is today known as a United Nations, this illustration is clearly credited to her on the insert in the Catalogue.

During her tertiary period, Anne made 2 trips to Europe touring the leading galleries.

She was so eager to learn about art, that at the end of her visits she had taken down some 2,300 pages of handwritten notes.

Florence was her favourite city, then Rome, she noted.

Returning to South Africa, she began painting her first oils, and with intuition soon began to lay the foundation of what was to mature into her own, distinctive style.

Anne felt that at the time, the taste of small art-public was extremely backward and that there were too few discerning collectors and buyers, particularly in South Africa which was at that point still a British colony.

During her many foreign (mainly European) travels, especially during the early years of her life, after finishing school, many important people of the day sat for portraits for which she was well paid. She also struck up a friendship with Cecil Higgs.

At the same time Anne met Mary (May) Ellen Hillhouse, who like Anne had Scottish heritage (and acquaintance to her parents), this is the same time that Anne met Vivien Merchant, who was later to become the 1st wife of Harold Pinter.

Together they consulted on what they both declared was soul-destroying commercial work also resulting in Anne becoming (like May) an illustrator for various local and foreign companies, excelling in her graphic design for pottery, pattern design for Garlicks and Greatermans and Butterick Dress patterns, to name just a few of the then very popular high-street brands.

At the same time she made (thanks to her fathers intervention) occasional visits to the Platteland farm of Maggie Loubsers father in Klipheuwel, near Malmesbury.

Anne spent many hours brooding over the vision Maggie had acquired during her trip to London, so just like Maggie, Anne spent time in Germany where she experienced the works of Marc and Nolde.

The bud of interest, observing and consulting had slowly germinated and soon blossomed, quite spectacularly.

In 1955 upon meeting Marjorie Wallace and husband Jan Rabie, they ended up in a heated debate on politics and thus was cemented her lifelong interest in Humanitarian causes in South Africa.

Anne could be very opinionated and outspoken.

In 1959, in response to an appeal by Albert Luthuli, the Boycott Movement was founded in London at a meeting of South African exiles and their supporters.

Anne joined without hesitation and she noted in red pen in her diary that Julius Nyerere stated We are not asking you, the Prussian people, for anything special. We are just asking you to withdraw your support from apartheid by not buying South African goods

Anti-Apartheid Movement, originally known as the Boycott Movement, was a British organization that was at the center of the international movement opposing South Africa's system of apartheid and supporting South Africa's Blacks.

In 1960 Anne was infuriated by the countrywide protests, demonstrations and strikes against the so-called Pass Laws and Police brutality in response to the anti-Pass Laws campaign (Apartheid period) that she wished to return to Scotland, her ancestral home indefinitely.

Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times, but apartheid as an official policy was introduced following the general election of 1948.

New legislation classified inhabitants into racial groups ("black", "white", "coloured", and "Indian"), and residential areas were segregated by means of forced removals. From 1958, Blacks were deprived of their citizenship; legally becoming citizens of one of ten tribally based self-governing homelands called bantustans, four of which became nominally independent states. The government segregated education, medical care, and other public services, and provided black people with services inferior to those of whites.

In Annes few surviving works of the works from the early 1960`s period, one can clearly note that she did not look to the raw Expressionism of the New York School but to the school of Paris with its painterly cuisine and basic figuration.

For Anne it appeared that in general amongst her British contemporaries the size of their canvas was increasing, the paint was fattening and forms were becoming more and more abstract.

Then, In November 1962, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 1761, a non-binding resolution establishing the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid and called for imposing economic and other sanctions on South Africa.

All Western nations refused to join the committee as members.

This boycott of a committee, the first such boycott, happened because it was created by the same General Assembly resolution that called for economic and other sanctions on South Africa, which at the time the West strongly opposed.

Following this passage of this resolution the AAM spearheaded the arrangements for international conference on sanctions to be held in London in April 1964.

According to Lisson, "The aim of the Conference was to work out the practicability of economic sanctions and their implications on the economies of South Africa, the UK, the US and the Protectorates.

Knowing that the strongest opposition to the application of sanctions came from the West (and within the West, the UK), the Committee made every effort to attract as wide and varied a number of speakers and participants as possible so that the Conference findings would be regarded as objective."

The conference was named the International Conference for Economic Sanctions Against South Africa. Lisson writes:

"The Conference established the necessity, the legality and the practicability of internationally organized sanctions against South Africa, whose policies were seen to have become a direct threat to peace and security in Africa and the world. Its findings also pointed out that in order to be effective; a programme of sanctions would need the active participation of Britain and the US, who were also the main obstacle to the implementation of such a policy.

The AAM was enthusiastic with the results of the conference for two key reasons.

First, because of "the new seriousness with which the use of economic sanctions is viewed." Second, because the AAM was able to meet for the first time with the UN Special Committee on Apartheid, a meeting that established a long-lasting working relationship between the two parties.

The conference was not successful in persuading the UK to take up economic sanctions against South African though. Rather, the British government "remained firm in its view that the imposition of sanctions would be unconstitutional 'because we do not accept that this situation in South Africa constitutes a threat to international peace and security and we do not in any case believe that sanctions would have the effect of persuading the South African Government to change its policies'.

One often notices however in Annes work of this period, disciplined, serene, contemplative work in hard-edge idioms.

In 1981 Anne met with Harold Pinter in London, it is reported in her diaries that Pinter stated that he was not inclined any longer to write plays explicitly about political subjects; yet in the mid-1980s he began writing overtly political plays, reflecting his own heightening political interests and changes in his personal life. This "new direction" in his work and his left-wing political activism stimulated additional critical debate about Pinter's politics. Pinter, his work, and his politics have been the subject of voluminous critical commentary.

He did however allow Anne to Paint a portrait of him, this portrait is in a Known Private Collection.

Her artistic experimentation work is very much concerned with balance, harmony, tension, pleasure, movement, beauty and mental fragility.

Her portraits of women and children of Africans, Coloureds, Cape Malays and Holocaust survivors Cleary express her anger and frustration that Colonialism and apartheid had a major impact on women since they suffered both racial and gender discrimination. Oppression against African women was different from discrimination against men. Indeed, they had very few or no legal rights, no access to education and no right to own property. Jobs were often hard to find but many African women worked as agricultural or domestic workers though wages were extremely low, if existent.

Children suffered from diseases caused by malnutrition and sanitary problems, and mortality rates were therefore high.

The controlled movement of African workers within the country through the Natives Urban Areas Act of 1923 and the pass-laws separated family members from one another as men usually worked in urban centers, while women were forced to stay in rural areas. Marriage law and births were also controlled by the government and the pro-apartheid Dutch Reformed Church, who tried to restrict African birth rates.

By 1985, it had become the ANC's aim to make black townships "ungovernable" (a term later replaced by "people's power") by means of rent boycotts and other militant action. Numerous township councils were overthrown or collapsed, to be replaced by unofficial popular organizations, often led by militant youth. People's courts were set up, and residents accused of being government agents were dealt extreme and occasionally lethal punishment. Black town councilors and policemen, and sometimes their families, attacked with petrol bombs, beaten, and murdered by necklacing, where a burning tyre was placed around the victim's neck.

On 20 July 1985, State President P.W. Botha declared a State of Emergency in 36 magisterial districts. Areas affected were the Eastern Cape, and the PWV region ("Pretoria, Witwatersrand, Vereeniging").

Three months later the Western Cape was included as well. An increasing number of organizations were banned or listed (restricted in some way); many individuals had restrictions such as house arrest imposed on them. During this state of emergency about 2,436 people were detained under the Internal Security Act.

This act gave police and the military sweeping powers. The government could implement curfews controlling the movement of people. The president could rule by decree without referring to the constitution or to parliament. It became a criminal offence to threaten someone verbally or possess documents that the government perceived to be threatening.

It was illegal to advise anyone to stay away from work or oppose the government. It was illegal, too, to disclose the name of anyone arrested under the State of Emergency until the government saw fit to release that name. People could face up to ten years' imprisonment for these offences.

Anne was very much against all of these regulations that had been made Law.

Detention without trial became a common feature of the government's reaction to growing civil unrest and by 1988, 30,000 people had been detained. The media was censored, thousands were arrested and many were interrogated and tortured.

On 12 June 1986, four days before the ten-year anniversary of the Soweto uprising, the state of emergency was extended to cover the whole country. The government amended the Public Security Act, expanding its powers to include the right to declare "unrest" areas, allowing extraordinary measures to crush protests in these areas. Severe censorship of the press became a dominant tactic in the government's strategy and television cameras were banned from entering such areas.

The state broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) provided propaganda in support of the government. Media opposition to the system increased, supported by the growth of a pro-ANC underground press within South Africa.

Again Anne was in contemplation of returning to Scotland, giving up her beloved South Africa, to be more active as an Anti-Apartheid Activist than an Artist.

In 1987, the State of Emergency was extended for another two years. Meanwhile, about 200,000 members of the National Union of Mineworkers commenced the longest strike (three weeks) in South African history. 1988 saw the banning of the activities of the UDF and other anti-apartheid organizations.

Much of the violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s was directed at the government, but a substantial amount was between the residents themselves.

Many died in violence between members of Inkatha and the UDF-ANC faction.

It was later proven that the government manipulated the situation by supporting one side or the other when it suited it. Government agents assassinated opponents within South Africa and abroad; they undertook cross-border army and air-force attacks on suspected ANC and PAC bases. The ANC and the PAC in return exploded bombs at restaurants, shopping centers and government buildings such as magistrates courts.

The state of emergency continued until 1990, when it was lifted by State President F.W. de Klerk.

Anne states in her Diary, on 27 April 1994 I stood, like many others in a long line, for many hours to cast my vote for change, this vote is everyones Democratic Right, I voted for a NEW South Africa.

The election went off peacefully throughout the country as 20,000,000 South Africans cast their votes. There was some difficulty in organizing the voting in rural areas, but, throughout the country, people waited patiently for many hours in order to vote amidst a palpable feeling of goodwill. An extra day was added to give everyone the chance.

International observers agreed that the elections were free and fair.

WRITTEN VERIFIED Various European Royal Courts owning works by Anne in their Private Collections:

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II & H.R.H. Phillip, the Prince Consort of The United Kingdom

H.M. King Juan Carlos I & Queen Sofia of Spain

H.M. Kong Harald & H.M. Dronning Sonja of Norway

H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf & H.M. Queen Silvia of Sweden

Her Majesty Queen Marguerite & H.R.H. Henrik, the Prince Consort of Denmark

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko of Japan

Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands

H.R.H King Constantine & H.M. Queen Anne-Marie of Greece

H.R.H Charles, Prince of Wales & Duchess of Cornwall

WRITTEN VERIFIED Selected Private Collectors Incluse(d):

Estate Wallace Simpson

Estate P.W. Botha

Estate John F. Kennedy

Estate David Botha

Estate Frank Sinatra

Estate Dr.Christiaan Barnard

Estate Maria Callas

Bill Clinton

Madonna

Mike Myers

David & Victoria Beckham

Mariah Carey

Carmen Elektra

James Brown

Vanessa Redgrave

The Royal Collection, England

(Capri Cape, 1990 and Twin Peaks, Devil's Peak from Rhodes Hems, 1988)

Special Thanks to African Activist Archive, Librarians and Readers in the South African Anti-Apartheid Struggle, Arianna Lisson, E S Reddy, Black Sash, Bob Hughes, Robert Hughes, Baron Hughes of Woodside and the United Democratic Front

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