The City of Cape Town is a major sponsor of an exhibition of the works of famed artist and resident of Cape Town, Vladimir Tretchikoff, which will run from 26 May to 25 September 2011 at the Iziko South African National Gallery in central Cape Town.

The exhibition, entitled ‘The People’s Painter’, contains a wealth of unpublished material as well as reproductions of many of the artist’s most popular paintings. Tretchnikoff’s book of the same name will serve as an accompanying text to the exhibition.

From the 1940s to 1970s Tretchikoff received unprecedented coverage in the media and his exhibitions still hold international records for attendance. Despite this, he received hostile criticism from many in the established art community who saw his popular art as ‘pedestrian’ and even ‘kitsch’.

Since that time, many younger generations of artists and critics have championed Tretchikoff as a 'people's painter' who was ahead of his time in many aspects of his art and its marketing. This exhibition will re-examine Tretchikoff’s work and bring his originals to new audiences. It is significant that the show is taking place in the Iziko South African National Gallery, which is arguably the most important art institution in the country and a place that has never, up till this year, acquired a single work of the artist.

“We want to finally acknowledge Tretchikoff as a prominent artist in the country’s history and to acknowledge the millions who loved his work,” says the Director of Art Collections at the Iziko Museum, Riason Naidoo.

Vladimir Tretchikoff was born on 13 December 1913 in Petropavlovsk, Russia. In 1932 he moved to Shanghai where he worked as a cartoonist for the Shanghai Times, while also secretly working for the British Ministry of Information.

He married in 1935 and had a in 1938. When the Japanese invaded Singapore, his wife and child were evacuated. While fleeing Singapore, Tretchikoff’s ship was torpedoed and he was forced to sail across the Java Sea in a small boat. He arrived in Java to discover that the Japanese had captured the island. Although he was imprisoned, his captors allowed him to work as an artist.

In 1944 he was introduced to Leonora Maltema (Lenka) – his muse. Lenka took him to a séance and it was there that he was told that his wife and child were alive in South Africa. He then moved to South Africa to be reunited with his family.

He began producing prints of his paintings for display in department stores rather than in art galleries although he continued to exhibit, with 252 exhibitions around the world attended by over two million people. His American exhibitions rivalled those of Picasso and over one million people saw his paintings in that country alone.

In 1961 he exhibited at Harrods but, finding the gallery too small, was allowed to use the ground floor as an exhibition space. 205 000 people attended the exhibition.

He died in Cape Town on 24 August 2006, having lived in South Africa for over 60 years. The original ‘Fruits of Bali’ was sold by Sotheby’s last year for R1.74 million.

“In many ways, Tretchikoff is a major figure in the history of South African and world art and ignoring him will not make him go away. It’s about time that we gave him a critical look and reassessed his rightful place in our art history,” says the exhibition’s curator, Andrew Lamprecht.