Fred Page (SA 1908 - 1984) is regarded as South Africa’s foremost Surrealist painter. Born in Utrecht, Natal and reared in an orphanage his early career was a patchwork of restless activities and odd jobs; in his time he was a shepherd, gold-miner, barman and soldier serving in the Second World War. He studied art via correspondence, had one year of formal study and was largely self taught. Reclusive by nature he spent most of his life living and working near Port Elizabeth’s harbour. 

In 1967 Fred Page met Cape Town’s most prolific art dealer - Joseph Wolpe, through a mutual friend. This was both a turning point in Page’s career as an artist and the birth of a stimulating relationship and ‘an ever growing friendship’ (Wolpe, Joe 1975). 

Joe held numerous exhibitions of Page’s work and introduced various clients to his evocative paintings and the two had a close kinship for many years, until Page’s death in 1984. Fred Page even painted the Wolpe Gallery, located in Strand Street, Cape Town. 

The broody percolating stillness which consistently shows up in all of Page’s work is fully transporting. Guiding the viewer to strange, dreamlike portals accessed via the upside-down world of his native Port Elizabeth, the inner rooms of Fred Page silently meander through eerie scenes laced with a provocative dystopia and a visceral loneliness. 

The visual impact of his style is made possible by the discipline of his palette which consistently delivers a severe austerity derived not by assumed poverty, but by free will.

‘The sharp definition of his images and the dramatic contrast of flat areas of inky darkness with passages of flaring, pristine white establish a moonlight ambience which is quite at variance with ordinary daytime reality.’ (Berman, Esmé 1983)

Page is not concerned with his palette because it’s been diagnosed already. Indeed, the bondage of his palette and it’s fifty shades of grey gives him both the freedom and the opportunity to play at being a story teller. 

The minimalism of black, white and in later periods umber and micro-doses of cadmium red hold fort for the absurd, their castles being pictorial constructions in which figures are shown as floating entities separated by the moat of individuated isolation.

The people that are very rarely shown in Page’s works seem to exist in a vacuum of nothingness. Dispersed and groundless they meander through life’s waiting rooms; their singular accomplishments are their featured appearances in the strange matrices of the other side. 

The entrance to their dwellings are oftentimes the traditional, zinc roofed houses of the older quarters of Port Elizabeth but, they exist in a realm beyond the ordinary. 

In Fred Page’s own words: “I am blowed if I know what had inspired me over the years. The loneliness of man is a theme through my work. I have enough sketches and photos, many very old, and would often use a picture of a building that does not exist any more and put other elements into the scene. 

Surrealism is a way of thought. You express yourself and that is what it turns out. People label it surrealism. 

Even as a child I felt I was on the other side of the border, if you know what I mean.” (Fred Page, 1982)

The works of Fred Page exude a timelessness that is partly predominant due to the fact that the figures are quite ghostlike and therefore not emblematic of a period. This non-linear timeline combined with an austere, limited, minimal palette catapults them straight into a twenty first century colour crush. 

The compositional elements suggest a dystopian, futuristic framework dominated by the hands of a possible artificial intelligence suggestive of an otherworldly domain - a flip side of reality that is just beyond the gates.

That said, there is always a balance in the force even if it is weighted towards shadow play. Many of Page’s works are laced with dark wit and humour is often used to heighten pathos. 

The resonant isolation of Fred Page the person was doubly influenced by South Africa’s political isolation of the 60’s and 70’s. Within this milieu there are connections to the international Surrealist movement. 

‘The atmosphere of suspended action and expectant silence relates them - though distantly - to the Surrealist fantasies of the Belgian artist Paul Delvaux as well as to the ascetic pictorial ‘Enigma’s’ of de Chirico.’ (Berman, Esmé 1983)

We are thrilled to introduce these two Fred Page drawings titled ‘Archangel’ and ‘Three Wise Men’. Highly prized by collectors and with auction results consistently on the up for years they are a great investment buy and a welcome addition to anyone’s burgeoning South African and international art collection.