Clarke, Peter (1929 – )
Peter Clarke was born in 1929 in Simonstown, Cape Town. Clarke studied from 1947 – 1948 at the District
Six Art Group under John Coplans. In 1961 he studied for three months at Michaelis School under Katrine
Harries. From 1962 – 1963, Clarke studied at the Rijks Academy in Amsterdam and from 1978 – 1979, he
studied at Atelier Nord, a graphic workshop, in Oslo, Norway.
Although Peter Clarke has had paintings exhibitions and is represented in galleries and museums, it is as a
graphic artist that he has become familiar, particularly to viewers in the Cape. His style is descriptive, for in
his earlier works the subjects were primitively drawn and formalized in treatment as where his later graphics
display more assured draughtsmanship.
Peter Clarke has a keen, self-deprecating sense of humour, which is also reflected in his graphic works.
The content of his expression, visual and verbal, is drawn from his experiences as a coloured man in South-
Africa. This is not political commentary but rather an observant, witty and compassionate response to the
ordinary people and situations which provide the texture of the daily scene around him.