GIANT FRIEZE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20172, 26 February 1931, Page 4

GIANT FRIEZE.

120 FEET PAINTING. . v • JOHANNESBURG RAILWAY STATION. Mr Anton van Wouw, at tile request of the official architects, has started on a remarkable piece of sculpture for the new railway station which, on completion,-is likely to become one of the popular sights of Johannesburg, says the "Sunday Times." For rfinety feet' on both sides of the huge entrance archway facing Elolf street there will run a frieze, modelled in relief and showing the development of African transport. Dozens of figures, natives, and Europeans, will appear, half life-size, on the sculpture, of which a preliminary model is in preparation. Commencing with a group of black hunters trekking through the African bush, the majestic symbolical procession continues with a typical safari, carriers, with loads "upon their heads walking in single file, and thereafter the somewhat more advanced "maohilla" or hammock system of conveying goods. Sledges drawn by oxen show the next stage of traffic progress, tlien the white man's waggon makesits [ appearance, the mail coach, the first railway engine (modelled from the still extant original), Culminating in modern transport methods, such as electric trains, motor-cars, and, possibly, aeroplanes. Cement with Stone Finish. Spaced among the ever-advancing caravan are typical African trees and animals. Though the making of the preliminary plaster casts remains in the hands of Mr Van Wouw himself, tlie final casting is to be done by the railway . authorities.. On account /f the cost, cement with a stone finish is being substituted for the more appropriate bronze. Mr Erich Mayer, the artist, is engaged on another monster task: a wall painting 120 feet long. This ■ will adorn the dining room of the new Normal College Hostel now under construction on the Br&amfontein Ridge. Running right round the hall the artist has, during recent weeks, been sketching out one of the most unmistakably South African friezes that hay® ever been produced. Th® basic subject is the springbok. The animals are seen op an immense stretch of vsld, "pronlting" in the air, grazing # m clusters, on the look out for enemies, guarding their young, sniffing for water. . Done in waterproof paint, and only interrupted at a large bay -window by som® studies of kraal life, Mr,Mayer f. * "magnum, onus", (in th'e literal, sense of the word) "is a cheerilv realistic panoramy<of th® witds v chiefly -the ,characteristicibrow# the On "the Jfewer part of -th® wallpanels tbe*r^; i 'ttj!}<r oifiiameMW.of n&tiv'fe ■ : Other; ( Workß. :Z ' .Other important wdrka gress or pending. About half a artists and craftsmen, have, commit* sions- in connexion -with, tpa burg station. "At Pretoria a series of frescoes - will go "into tH«" new "Vobrtrekker )Gedenzaal,'V or Memorial "Hall of the Dutch churches in connexion, with which the name of a painter,well known at the Capital has been mentioned. .' ' ' ' A remarkably , interesting scheme t fathered by a group of highly ..infiuen-, i tial 'Afrikanders, can' now be made ' public by the "Sunday 'Times.*', 'juis ■ is the erection of a bronsse equestrian I statue' of President Andries Pretoriua, hero of the' Battle of Blood River, and leader of the Voortrekkers after Piet Retiefs murder, Mr Anton' Ton' Wouw • - has been asked to undertake th® work,, and . researches are "being made to dis*, j <iover likgnesss of the famous-pioneer.. ' Only one reKabJe portrait is known; itis in possession of a kinsiuai) 1 of rre£ toriousNo site has yet been picked, but is, known that th® statue will'go to Pretoria, where so much of Mr Van Wouw's work is' to be found. The artist still feels highly dissatisfied with the present appearance of his masterpiece, th« Kyuger Memorial outside the railway station. "Tell the 4 'Sunday Times' readers," he remarked, in an interview,/ "that the pedestal with' the Boersis' not according to my ideas. -It is' utterly wrong, and I will -go on trying to have the mistake of the authorities rectified," He indicated that as the artistic creator of thd statue his judgment ought to count. j i . , . , t