Anton Kannemeyer

Anton Kannemeyer is something of a missionary. He is tall, balding and wears spectacles in the tradition of all good missionaries, he even sometimes has a beard, albeit it a snappy, carefully contoured one. The zeal of preaching a new doctrine, complete with its own style, codes and insider jokes comes through in all of his work. Kannemeyer's religion is the comic. Kannemeyers' language is satire.

Anton Kannemeyer is a co-founder of Bitterkomix and is where "Joe Dog", Kannemeyer's pseudonym was first used.When pronounced in Afrikaans means it means "You Dog". Aided and abetted by Conrad Botes (Konradski), he has displayed a Duchamp-like ability to manipulate the media by generating controversy, in a full frontal assault on the Afrikaner cultural mainstream. For Kannemeyer it has been a concerted campaign of revenge against the hated authority figures of his boyhood - his father, 'Barries' who caned him, and all the headmasters, priests, policemen and rugger buggers who in one way or another attempted to indoctrinate, punish and belittle him. His intensely personal response to the humiliations of his boyhood has since radiated out into a broader psychosexual, socio-historical critique of Afrikaner culture and South African society in general. (Extract taken from Andy Mason, The Big Bad Bitterkomix handbook, published by Jacana, 2006)

In the first prints that Anton Kannemeyer did at The Artists' Press he focussed on images from his Alphabet of Democracy series. The first were done in 2005 " J is for Jack Russell" and "D is for dancing ministers". The initial reference is to childhood primers and illustrated alphabets, Letterland gets political...The text on the prints reflects his obsession with hand typography and the style of the prints recalls his earlier silk-screens with the backgrounds of flat colour. The appealing primer like text is deceptive, on closer inspection the one image is of a blood spattered blanket covering a murdered farmer with his, still living, Jack Russell curled up asleep on top of him. A documentary image from Zimbabwe given a dagger like twist by the artist.The Alphabet of Democracy is an ongoing project and is one set of alphabets that are not going to make it to the Foundation Phase classrooms of the Department of Education.

In 2008 Anton Kannemeyer added the following lithographs to the Alphabet of Democracy. G is for goodhealth, B is for black, W is for white, N is for nightmare and F is for footwashing.These prints refer to local, South African events and definitions from dictionaries used in schools; but their meaning extends way beyond South African borders and picks up on prejudices and social issues across the globe. "N is for nightmare" and the "B is for black" and "W is for white" would resonate as quickly in the USA and Europe as they do here on the southern tip of Africa.

In " Birth, The first and direst of all disasters" and "Say, if you speak English we must be getting near civilization", Kannemeyer combines historical references to seeemingly mundane photographic records with just a slight manipulation of the imagery and addition of bitingly funny text.

In the 2011 prints Kannemeyer continues to investigate racism in Africa. Ironically he is frequently accused of being a racist by people who take a superficial look at his work. It is the continued existence of racism and double standards in Africa that Kannemeyer is looking at. With his confrontational images and humour he brings to attention prejudices that can then be dealt with and hopefully be done away with. His "Papa in Afrika" work was recently exhibited in Kinshasa, a city that he reports has a vibrant art scene.

New Editions

Artists A - L

Artists M - X

Anton Kannemeyer reviewed in The New York Times

Lithographs 2011

Lithographs 2005-2008