Walter Battiss was a South African painter, who was considered to be one of South Africa’s first and most important abstract painters and known as the creator of the quirky "Fook Island" concept.
Background
Walter Battiss was born on January 6, 1906 in Karoo, Somerset East, South Africa, into an English Methodist family. He first became interested in archaeology and tribal art as a young boy after moving to Koffiefontein in 1917. In 1919 the Battiss family settled in Fauresmith, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Education
Battiss completed his education in Fauresmith, South Africa, matriculating in 1923. His formal art studies (drawing and painting) started in 1929 at the Witwatersrand Technical College, now Technikon Witwatersrand, followed by the Johannesburg Training College (a Teacher’s Diploma) and etching lessons. Battiss continued his studies while working as a magistrate's clerk, and finally obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of South Africa at the age of 35.
In 1973 he was awarded a Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) from the University of South Africa.
Career
Walter Battiss became a clerk in the Magistrates Court in Rustenburg in 1924.
In 1938 he visited Europe for the first time. The following year, he published his first book "The Amazing Bushman".
Walter Battiss's long career as an artist was devoted to the study of man in his environment; first in the context of Africa and rock art, then, later, in the interpretation of this concept in its broadest sense. His versatility and influence as an innovator and the incentive he provided for many aspiring artists secured him a special place among leading South African artists.
Besides, he visited Greece in 1966-1968 and the Seychelles in 1972, which inspired his make-believe Fook Island.
During his career, Battiss published nine books and wrote many articles.
He taught art at Pretoria Boys High School from 1936 for most of the next 30 years and at the Pretoria Art Centre, of which was the principal from 1953-1958. He also taught at University of South Africa where he became Professor of Fine Art in 1964 and retired in 1971.
In 1981 Battiss donated all his work to the newly opened "Walter Battiss Museum" in his birthplace of Somerset East.
He died of a heart attack on August 20, 1982 in Port Shepstone, South Africa.
Views
Walter Battiss created the quirky "Fook Island" concept. This "island of the imagination" was a materialization of Battiss' philosophy for which he created a map, imaginary people, plants, animals, a history as well as a set of postage stamps, currency, passports and driver's licenses. He created a Fookian language with a full alphabet as well. This utopian "island" was a composite of the many islands he visited - which included Zanzibar, the Seychelles, Madagascar, Fiji, Hawaii, Samoa, the Greek Isles and the Comores - blended together in his customary imaginative fashion.
Fook was a result of his fertile imagination as well as his opposition to the Conceptualist Art movement of the 1960s and 70s, in Europe and America. The movement espoused that the construction of art was confined to the 'moment' in which it was created. He believed to the contrary that all art exists in the now and this he argued to represent with Fook Island, which was always in the now and always an essential part of reality.
Many prominent South Africans, including actress Janet Suzman and writer Esmé Berman, embraced the philosophy of Fook Island.
Battiss's Fookian Driver's License was accepted in America and the colourful pages of his Fookian Passport has official stamps from Australia, Britain and Germany. A Fookian banknote was also exchanged at a Rome airport for $10.
Quotations:
"It is something that does not exist. I thought that I would take an island - the island that is inside all of us. I would turn this island into a real thing... I would give it a name."
Membership
Battiss was a founding member of the New Group, a group of young South African artists.