Keith Joubert
South African, 1948-2013
Linyanti
Oil on canvas
Inscribed en verso

In Northern Botswana the Linyanti River forms a natural border between Namibia and Botswana. The river follows a fault line representing the extreme southwestern extension of East Africa's Great Rift Valley. Where the northwestern corner of Chobe National Park meets the Linyanti River, conditions like those of the Okavango Delta form the Linyanti Swamp. It was in this area that artist Keith Joubert pitched a tent for his studio and began co-existing with and painting the surrounding wildlife. The area, notable for having a great diversity of game, is most famous for its herds of elephants migrating to the banks of the Linyanti River for the winter months and then back inland when the rains arrive. This naturally occurring pattern of movement is exactly what inspires Joubert's provocative work, which demonstrates an advanced interest in not only Africa's larger animals but the subterranean interrelationships that are as essential as the animals themselves. Indigenous human cultures descending from the late Stone Age still co-existing with this natural environment also have a strong impact upon the artist's work, seen especially in this piece. The Tswana people and their belief that everything is part of the same great web of nature and that all of it shares an equal right to exist, inspires the strong sense of balance perceived in Joubert's work.

36 x 48 in