‘Candy Man’ embodies Derek Drake‘s lifelong quest for a more equitable society; accepting of cultural diversity, humane and peaceful. Figures contained within the matrix of his large canvasses are, in a sense, cyphers. Much as in Mondrian’s ‘Broadway Boogie-Woogie’, the well-known abstract painting looking down, as it were, at the traffic of a Manhattan street scene, syncopated by the traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, Derek’s figures too are entwined in a dance of life.
Having lived for a time in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and the (then) Belgian Congo, Derek has remarkable respect for the melting pot of cultures and social circumstances offered by the African continent. The vision that emerged at the end of the Apartheid era of South Africa as a rainbow nation and a dancing nation continues to have great significance in Derek’s work.
At times the rhythm is robotic, repetitive, controlled by a puppet master - inhumane one might say. The attractive, bright hues of ‘Candy Man’ lure the eye and subvert the senses, entrapping them within the closed persistent rhythm of the composition. There are joyous connections too – ghetto blasters and marimbas set the tone of more liberated collective movements and celebrations in ‘Rainbow Jazz III’ and ‘Rainbow Jazz IV’.
Born in London in 1933, Derek studied at Hornsey School of Arts & Crafts, the Central School of Art and the London School of Printing and Graphic Design before moving to Africa and working in the advertising industry for a number of years. He has exhibited at the Baxter Theatre, Santam Gallery, the Lindbergh Foundation and The Cape Gallery in Cape Town. His works are held in collections in Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, USA and South Africa.
