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03 January 2023
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Story Lacea Loader
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Photo Evert Kleynhans
Dr Dolf van Niekerk.
The University of the Free State (UFS) would like to express its condolences to the family and friends of South African author, Dr Dolf van Niekerk, on his passing.
Dr Van Niekerk, the recipient of an
honorary doctorate from the UFS, passed away on 31 December 2022. The UFS awarded a Doctor of Letters to Dr Dolf van Niekerk during its April 2021 graduation ceremony.
Dr Van Niekerk was a celebrated author who also achieved fame as a dramatist and radio presenter. An alumnus of the UFS, he received a BA degree from the university cum laude in 1949. He also played a role in academia and was an emeritus professor at the University of Pretoria until his retirement in 1994. His work includes 27 books in philosophy, poetry, fiction, drama, and memoirs, for which he has received numerous awards. These include the
Eugene Marais Prize, the MER Prize, and the Scheepers Award for Youth Literature.
“Dr van Niekerk is a Kovsie alumnus with a deep connection to the Free State. He played a significant role in the country’s literary history, and it was an honour for the university to award him with an honorary degree. A wordsmith of note, Dr van Niekerk’s contributions to South African literature, radio, and stage will live on," says
Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor.
Ancient methods used for new sculpture
2012-05-11
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Angus Taylor sculpture “Van Hier tot Daar”
Photo: Supplied
10 May 2012
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An Angus Taylor sculpture “Van Hier tot Daar” was installed at the Agricultural Building on the Bloemfontein Campus. The sculpture is a three-metre head (14 times larger than life-size) made out of stacked Marico slate. It weighs approximately 15 tons and took two weeks, after months of preparation, to be built on site. The portrait is generic as Taylor has used various people from his studio as reference.
Ms Angela de Jesus, Curator of the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery on campus, says the process of stacking stone refers to one of the first methods used by humans to create an object or mark a place of significance in three dimensions. The sculpture speaks not only of man’s evolutionary development, but also of how humans are physically and psychologically connected and interdependent on the land. The sculpture that emerges from the ground, although monumental in scale, becomes somewhat of an anti-monument as it is non-representative and it is without a plinth.
The sculpture is the 16th artwork to be installed on the Bloemfontein Campus by the Lotto Sculpture-on-Campus Project funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.