Kiss in suits

Clare Menck

Clare Menck is a South African artist of German descent who lives near Cape Town. She is internationally renowned for her paintings of self-portraits, nudes, and swimmers floating effortlessly in water, a visual metaphor for a sense of freedom, being at peace with one's body and in tune with one's natural environment. Her other passion is to explore the vintage queer experience via Victorian and retro (sometimes erotic) subjects of the previous century, weaving subtle visual narratives around queer, and especially lesbian, identity. Her series of 15 mixed media works on panel made especially for KAH, focuses on vintage queer kisses and embraces. Clare Menck's book "Hidden life/Verborge Lewe: Twenty Years of Painting (1990-2010)" published by Sanlam, cronicles her life through her autobiographic painter's eye. Representing a major mid-career retrospective, it travelled nationwide in South Africa over 2 years. 5 of Clare's works were selected for an international all-female nudes exhibition in Bremen, Germany, entitled "Sie/Selbst/Nackt" ("She/Herself/Naked") - with a book of the same title available. Notable favourite internationally reknowned colleagues represented alongside Menck's works were Gwen John, Marina Abramović, Louise Bourgeois, Judy Chigaco, Imogen Cunningham, Yoko Ono, Jenny Saville, Suzanne Valadon, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Francesca Woodman, Marianne Breslauer, Anita Rée & Hannah Wilke (2013/2014).