Writer: Chepape Makgato | Artwork: Peter E. Clarke
THE UNISA ART GALLERY IN COLLABORATION WITH WILLIAM HUMPHREY’S ART
GALLERY OPEN THE “FOR SOME, THE PATHWAY TO EDUCATION LIES BETWEEN
THORNS” EXHIBITION ON THE 14th OF MARCH 2026.
CURATED BY CHEPAPE MAKGATO AT THE UNISA ART GALLERY.
For Some, the Pathway to Education Lies Between Thorns is a travelling solo exhibition of works by the late South African artist, writer, and poet Peter E. Clarke, drawn from the collection of the William Humphreys Art Gallery (WHAG) and the UNISA Art Collection. Bringing together linocuts, woodcuts, paintings, and watercolours produced over several decades, with personal letters, the exhibition reflects on education not as an abstract right or policy objective, but as a lived experience shaped by geography, history, class, and enduring social inequalities. Clarke’s work invites viewers to consider education as a journey, often long, uneven, and physically demanding – particularly for those situated at the margins of society.
The exhibition was first presented at WHAG in August 2023, marking the first curatorial project following his appointment as Chief Curator earlier that year. It later travelled to Springs Art Gallery from November 2023 to February 2024, before returning to WHAG and proceeding to its third institutional presentation at the UNISA Art Gallery in 2026. The exhibition’s movement across institutions mirrors the thematic concerns at its core: circulation, access, and the importance of sustained public engagement. Clarke’s work does not belong to a single place or moment; rather, it continues to resonate across contexts, publics, and generations.
Education, Space, and Lived Experience
At the heart of this exhibition is Clarke’s long-standing preoccupation with space, not only physical space, but social and psychological space. Throughout his career, Clarke was attentive to the distances people are required to travel, the boundaries that separate communities, and the often-invisible structures that determine who moves freely and who does not. Education, in this context, becomes inseparable from space. To go to school is to traverse terrain: roads, paths, hills, borders, and exclusions.
The title of the exhibition is drawn from Clarke’s 2008 artwork For Some, the Pathway to Education Lies Between Thorns. Although produced later in his career, the work is rooted in observations Clarke made decades earlier while visiting rural communities, where children routinely walked long distances to attend school. Reflecting on these experiences, Clarke once noted that his interest lay not only in the physical act of walking, but in the conditions that made such journeys necessary. For many, education was never guaranteed; it was something pursued through effort, resilience, and daily negotiation with hardship.
This insight remains profoundly relevant today. Despite political transformation, many South Africans, particularly those in rural and under-served communities, continue to face significant barriers to education. Long travel distances, inadequate infrastructure, limited access to basic services, and poorly resourced schools persist. Clarke’s work does not depict these realities as exceptional; instead, it treats them as part of the everyday fabric of life, deserving of attention and ethical representation.
Peter E. Clarke: Life, Context, and Commitment
Born in Simon’s Town in 1929, Peter E. Clarke grew up in a society structured by racial segregation and later formalised apartheid. His early life was shaped by both opportunity and constraint: exposure to artistic and literary traditions alongside systemic exclusion from institutions that might have supported his development. In 1972, he was forcibly relocated to Ocean View under the Group Areas Act, an experience that further sharpened his awareness of displacement, spatial injustice, and the fragility of belonging.
Denied equitable access to formal education himself, Clarke nonetheless became a tireless advocate for learning in all its forms. His artistic practice was inseparable from reading, writing, observation, and conversation. He understood education as something that extended beyond classrooms and degrees, an ongoing process of inquiry and exchange. This belief informed not only what he represented in his work, but how he lived as an artist within society.
Clarke’s career was marked by national and international recognition. In 2005, he was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga (Silver) for excellence in the fields of arts and literature, and in 2010 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award, among many other honours. Yet accolades were never the measure by which Clarke assessed artistic success. For him, the true value of art lay in its ability to communicate, to circulate, and to contribute meaningfully to public life.
Mentorship and Intergenerational Knowledge
One of the most enduring aspects of Peter E. Clarke’s legacy is his commitment to mentorship and intergenerational knowledge-sharing. Over several decades, he mentored generations of artists: formally and informally, always making time to engage with younger practitioners, attend exhibitions, offer thoughtful critique, and encourage sustained practice. He approached mentorship not as a position of authority, but as a relationship grounded in curiosity, generosity, and mutual respect.
The curator count himself among those shaped by Clarke’s mentorship. Like many artists and curators of his generation, Chepape encountered him not only through his work, but through his presence: at exhibition openings, workshops, community centres, and conversations that extended far beyond the technicalities of art-making. Clarke had an extraordinary capacity to listen. He took younger artists seriously, attending carefully to their questions and uncertainties, and responding with insight drawn from lived experience rather than prescription.
His commitment to arts education was particularly evident in under-served communities, where access to artistic resources and training was limited. Clarke regularly conducted workshops, opened exhibitions, and shared his skills with emerging artists who might otherwise have been excluded from institutional spaces. These engagements were not episodic acts of outreach; they were part of a sustained ethical practice rooted in the belief that knowledge must circulate if it is to remain alive.
The Peter Clarke Art Centre
This commitment is perhaps most tangibly embodied in the Peter Clarke Art Centre in Cape Town, named in recognition of his lifelong contribution to arts education. Clarke served as an artist-in-residence at the Centre on more than one occasion and opened numerous school exhibitions there over the years. Within its printmaking studios, he taught learners not only the technical processes of linocut and woodcut, but also the discipline, patience, and attentiveness required by printmaking as a practice.
For many learners at the Centre, Clarke represented a living archive: someone who carried histories of struggle, creativity, and perseverance, and who was willing to share those histories openly. His teaching extended beyond technique to encompass broader reflections on art and life, but on responsibility, integrity, and the importance of sustained inquiry. In this sense, Clarke’s legacy is not confined to the works he produced, but lives on in the countless artists, educators, and cultural workers he influenced.
Printmaking as Ethics and Access
Clarke’s enduring commitment to printmaking is central to understanding both his artistic and educational ethos. Printmaking, by its nature, resists singularity. It allows for repetition, circulation, and accessibility. For Clarke, this was not merely a technical preference but an ethical one. Printmaking enabled his work to reach audiences beyond elite galleries and collectors, aligning with his belief that art should be encountered in everyday contexts.
Within this exhibition, Clarke’s prints sit alongside paintings and watercolours, yet they retain a particular resonance. Their formal restraint, clarity of line, and attention to composition reflect a practice honed through years of observation and refinement. More importantly, they embody a commitment to communication. Clarke’s images do not obscure meaning; they invite engagement, encouraging viewers to linger, reflect, and recognise themselves within the scenes depicted.
Contemporary Resonance
Presented within the current educational climate, marked by debates around access, funding, and inequality: For Some, the Pathway to Education Lies Between Thorns invites viewers to reflect on continuity as much as change. Student protests, struggles over financial aid, and uneven institutional resources remind us that the questions Clarke raised remain unresolved. Who has access to education? At what cost? And under what conditions?
Clarke’s work does not offer solutions or policy prescriptions. Instead, it insists on visibility and recognition. By foregrounding the everyday realities of those who must work harder, travel further, and endure more in pursuit of education, his work challenges viewers to confront the ethical dimensions of inequality. It asks us to consider not only individual resilience, but collective responsibility.
Curatorial Positioning and Institutional Reflection
This exhibition holds particular significance for me as a curator. First presented at WHAG in August 2023 as my inaugural curatorial project, it marked both a professional milestone and a personal moment of reflection on mentorship, lineage, and institutional responsibility. To curate Clarke’s work at this juncture was to acknowledge the role he played in shaping my own thinking, while also situating his legacy within a national institutional framework.
The exhibition’s continued movement across institutions reflects Clarke’s belief in access and circulation. It affirms the role of public galleries and universities as spaces of learning, dialogue, and ethical engagement. In bringing this exhibition to UNISA, a distance-learning institution with a long history of widening access to education, the themes of the exhibition find renewed relevance and resonance.
Conclusion
For Some, the Pathway to Education Lies Between Thorns positions Peter E. Clarke not only as a master artist, but as a teacher, mentor, and ethical presence within South African cultural life. His work reminds us that education is never neutral; it is shaped by histories of exclusion and struggle, as well as by acts of care, mentorship, and resilience. Clarke’s legacy endures in the images he created, the knowledge he shared, and the generations he influenced.
In returning to his work today, we are invited to reflect not only on how far we have come, but on how far we still have to go in ensuring that the pathway to education is no longer marked by thorns, but by equity, dignity, and shared responsibility.
Exhibition Dates: 14 March 2026 – 09 April 2026 | 11:30
Venue: UNISA Art Gallery, Kgorong Building, Muckleneuck Campus, Pretoria
