Norman Catherine

Norman Catherine (b. 1949, East London, South Africa) is a seminal South African artist whose career has spanned more than five decades. After completing an art matric at East London Technical College (1967–1968), Catherine remained largely self-taught, developing a distinct and uncompromising visual language. Since 1975, he has lived and worked at Hartbeespoort Dam, though his practice has also been shaped by time spent in Los Angeles and New York during the 1980s.

Working across painting, sculpture, mixed media, bronze, printmaking, and wall hangings, Catherine has influenced generations of younger artists through his prolific and inventive output. Since his first solo exhibition in Johannesburg in 1969, his work has been exhibited extensively in South Africa and internationally, and is represented in most major South African art museums and corporate collections, as well as in international institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Brooklyn Museum, New York.

Catherine’s art embodies a dystopian yet often playful vision of the socio-political landscape. His imagery, rooted in history, conflict, politics, pathologies, and the psychological, oscillates between the macabre and the comic, between moments of confrontation and satire. Through this interplay of darkness and humour, Catherine offers both cynical critique and surreal reflection on South Africa’s turbulent past and present. His refusal to conform to rigid categories or dogma has cemented his place as one of the most distinctive and influential voices in South African contemporary art.

Within the Constitutional Court Art Collection (CCAC), Catherine is represented by a number of works that capture his signature visual vocabulary of biting satire and dark wit. His brightly coloured yet unsettling figures and creatures, often drawn from hybridised human-animal forms, offer allegories of violence, corruption, and absurdity under apartheid and beyond. By combining cartoon-like aesthetics with political critique, these works speak powerfully to the CCAC’s ethos of memory, justice, and freedom of expression. Positioned within the Court, Catherine’s works challenge viewers to confront the grotesque undercurrents of power and oppression while affirming the importance of humour and irreverence in the pursuit of democracy and human rights.

References

• Catherine, N. Official Website. https://normancatherine.com

• Constitutional Court of South Africa. Constitutional Court Art Collection: Artists and Works. Johannesburg: CCAC Archives.

• Iziko South African National Gallery. Permanent Collection Catalogue. Cape Town: Iziko Museums.

• Brooklyn Museum. Collection Highlights. New York: Brooklyn Museum Archives.

• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Collection Database. New York: MoMA Archives.