1934 - 2011
batik work
Short CV - Solo Shows - Group Shows
Works sold on auction - Other references and links
Louis STEYN, master batik artist, in 1967
Louis STEYN was born in Pretoria 1934, he grew up in the Kruger National Park where his father was a game warden; he was educated in Pretoria and studied at the Pretoria Art School under Robert Hodgins and Esias Bosch.
His close association with wild life gave him an intimate knowledge of the subject matter of his work, of insects, plants, fish, animals and abstract patterns of nature.
Louis Steyn worked at Marble Hall at first, later in Pretoria.
He held his first one-man exhibition at Gallery 101, Johannesburg, in 1961. By 1967, he had held 10 one-man exhibitions of batik tapestries in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town, by 1975 he had held 31 one-man exhibitions throughout South Africa and one in New York.
Public commissions include:
Standard Bank of SA Ltd., Durban - 7m x 3m
Provincial Administration Building, Pretoria - 6 panels each 3m x 1.5 m
National Zoo and Aquarium, Pretoria
Transvaal Museum, Pretoria
South African National War Memorial, Delville Wood
Other works are in private collections in the U.S.A., Europe, Japan, South Africa and Canada, including a panel commissioned by the Californian writer Mrs Thomas Raeburn White.
Museum tours
38 of his batik works toured Canada under the sponsorship of The Art Gallery, Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, during 1967/1968. Another similar exhibition toured Canadian museums again in 1969.
Museum Collections
Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein
SA Association of Arts, Cape Town - July, 1962
Gallery 101, Johannesburg - 11th May + 30th November, 1964
Walter Schwitter Gallery, Pretoria - 1st June, 1966
Gallery 101, Johannesburg - 25th November, 1967
Canadian touring exhibition through museums - November 1967/June 1968
Gallery 101, Johannesburg - 4th November, 1968
SA Association of Arts, Pretoria - 4th September, 1973
Gallery 101, Johannesburg - 15th October, 1975
Hoffer Art Gallery, Pretoria - 29th August, 1978
Gallery 21 Fox St Johannesburg - 27th March, 1979
Nedbank gallery Fox St Johannesburg - 18th February, 1983
"Art and Religion" The Gallery 101 - U.A.T. 1962 Scholarship Competition (awarded Honorary Mention)
ill. on invitation - SA Association of Arts, Pretoria, 4th September, 1973
ill. on invitation - Hoffer Art Gallery, Pretoria, 29th August, 1978
Louis Steyn "Africa" - batik (ill. in ARTLOOK 13, Dec. 1967)
Sotheby's Online Houston TX - November 2001 (Rex Grey Family Collection), cat. 38YTB
"Art and Religion" The Gallery 101 - U.A.T. 1962 Scholarship Competition, cat. 67+68 ill.
South African Artists 1900-1962 (Jeppe) (Afrikaanse Pers-Boekhandel), 1963, p. 154, ill.
South African Scope, SA Embassy, Ottawa - October 1967, article + ill. on cover + p. 6+7
>>>> South African Panorama, Pretoria - July 1968 ill. cover and pp. 8+9 <<<
Louis Steyn illustrated the publication "Fishes of the Transvaal", published by the SA Breweries Institute, Johannesburg, in 1968, co-authored with Pieter le Roux
"The South African Art Market 1971/72" (Berman) (Art Institute), 1972, listed p.84
"South African Art" (JA Brown) (Macdonald SA), 1978, listed p. 18
"Creative Hands - Hornbill" (L Steyn) (Dan Retief, 1982, Pretoria - ISBN 0868 14579 3
"Art & Artists of South Africa" (Berman) (Balkema), 1983, ill. p. 505
See also images of Louis STEYN making a batik
Newspaper reviews:
Vaderland, Johannesburg - 26th April, 1961 - review
Die Burger, Cape Town - 6th July, 1962 - review with ill.
Die Vaderland, Johannesburg - 5th December, 1963, review with ill.
unknown Afrikaans newspaper - 6th December, 1963, announcement
Die Transvaler, Johannesburg - 5th May, 1964 - review with ill.
Ster, Pretoria (?) - 25th September, 1964 - long article with var. ill.
Rand Daily Mail - 2nd December, 1964 - ill. of artist and opener
Dagbreek en Sondagnuus, Pretoria - 13th December, 1964 - review
Die Transvaler, Johannesburg - 2nd June, 1966 - review with ill.
The Star, Johannesburg - 28th November, 1966 - review
ARTLOOK 2, Johannesburg - December, 1966, p. 14, ill.
ARTLOOK 3, Johannesburg - January, 1967, p. 3, ill.
The Star, Johannesburg (?) - 10th February, 1967 - article
ARTLOOK 6, Johannesburg - April, 1967, p. 21, ill.
The Star, Johannesburg - 24th November, 1967 - article with ill.
ARTLOOK 13, Johannesburg - December, 1967 - article with ill.
Farmer's Weekly, Bloemfontein - 17th July, 1968 - article with var. ill.
The Star, Johannesburg - 31st October, 1968, review with ill.
ARTLOOK 24, Johannesburg - November 1968 - comment with ill.
ARTLOOK 30, Johannesburg - May 1969, p. 15 - comment with ill.
The Star, Johannesburg - 24th November, 1969, announcement with ill.
Die Transvaler, Johannesburg - 25th November, 1969, review with ill.
The Star, Johannesburg - 4th December, 1969, review
Rand Daily Mail, Johannesburg - 5th December, 1969, review
ARTLOOK 37, Johannesburg - December, 1969 - article with ill.
Die Transvaler, Johannesburg - 16th April, 1971 - review
SA Association of Arts, Pretoria - Arts Calendar Sept. 1973 - ill.
The Star, Johannesburg - 24th April, 1975 - ill. of "Birds"
The Star, Johannesburg - 14th October, 1975 - article with col. ill.
Beeld, Johannesburg - 20th October, 1975 - image of artist's mother
The Star, Johannesburg - 24th October, 1975 - review
Die Vaderland, Johannesburg - 24th October, 1975 - article with many ill.
South African Financial Gazette, Johannesburg - 24th October, 1975 - review
ARTLOOK, Johannesburg, July 1976 - announcing Canadian tour
The Star, Johannesburg - 24th November, 1976 - review
The Citizen, Johannesburg - 19th April, 1979, review
There are many more undated cuttings and illustrations on Louis STEYN in our archives!
Louis Steyn in 1982
Additional Links and Information
http://www.za-ch-art-kunst.ch/ARTLinks/PrivateCollection/STEYN_Louis.htm
http://www.pelmama.org/Johannesburg_artscene_Gallery101_galleryimages.htm#C
www.pelmama.org - do an internal search for "Louis Steyn"!
If you have additional information or images on Louis STEYN, please let us know so that we can update this page!
Last update of this page - 26th April, 2017