Egon Guenther

Egon Guenther (1921–2015) was a South African gallery owner, art teacher, print-maker, art photographer and collector. He had an influence on the development of South African art, notably the artists Giuseppe Cattaneo, Peter Haden, Hannes Harrs, Sydney Kumalo, Ezrom Legae, Cecil Skotnes, and Edoardo Villa. Guenther died on 30 January 2015 at the age of 94.

Early life Egon Ferdinand Guenther (originally Günther) was born on 24 January 1921 in Mannheim, Germany. He started out as a goldsmith, following his jeweler parents Jakob Nikolaus Günther (1889–1949) and Hermine Sommer (1881–1928).

In the late 1940s he opened an art gallery, Galerie Egon Günther, in Mannheim. This was the first German gallery to be listed after World War II in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, the leading French bulletin of arts, published in Paris. The gallery specialized in African art, and abstract and surrealist German art.

German exhibitions The first exhibition opened on 1 February 1947 and was a showcase of paintings by German artists renowned at the time; it included: Max Ackerman (1887–1975) Willi Baumeister (1889–1955) Rudi Baerwind (1910–1982) Karl Kunz (1905–1971) Otto Ritschl (1885–1976).

In 1948 he staged an exhibition of German, Austrian and Swiss expressionists:

In 1963, Guenther brought together a group of South African artists: Guiseppe Cattaneo, Sydney Kumalo, Cecily Sash, Cecil Skotnes and Edoardo Villa. They adopted the name 'Amadlozi' translated as 'spirit of our ancestors'. The Amadlozi Group toured Italy in 1963 and 1964 and disbanded in 1965.

He moved his gallery in August 1965 to his house in Krans Street, Linksfield, Johannesburg. This new gallery formed part of his home that he designed with the Johannesburg architect Donald Turgel (1922–1999). The Rooinek, by Herman Charles Bosman, one woodcut and 14 wood engravings by Cecil Skotnes, 1981.

Photographer

Guenther was also an art photographer (a skill learnt as a young man in Germany), and he was hand-picked by Edoardo Villa to photograph his sculptures for inclusion in books, magazines, and exhibition catalogs.