Moses Kottler

Moses Kottler (1896–1977) was a South African painter and sculptor. He is widely regarded, along with Anton van Wouw and Lippy Lipshitz, as one of the most important South African sculptors. This triumvirate had the distinction of also having excelled at using pictorial media; Lipshitz with monotypes and Van Wouw in painting and drawing. Kottler's work in oils earned him additional consideration as a painter.

Discrimination against Jews, compulsory military service and the twin booms of the Witwatersrand Gold Rush (1886), and Second Ostrich Boom (1860–1914) sparked emigration of Jewish families to South Africa. By 1909, only Joseph, Zirla and their three youngest children were left of the Kottler family in Russia. The rest had left for South Africa. Moses was sent to the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, to study under Boris Schatz.

The outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 forced Kottler back to South Africa, settling in Oudtshoorn, where his extensive family now had farms and businesses. He occupied himself with his art on the farms Oude Muragie and Middelplaats, modelling and painting the rural population; producing 12 paintings and nine sculptures in the period 1915 to 1916. At least three sculptures and two paintings were shown at the exhibition of the South African Society of Artists in Cape Town on 10 April 1916, meeting with favourable responses from W. J. Makin, writing for the Cape Argus, and Louis Herrman, writing for The Cape. The South African Society of Artists was the most influential organisation at the time. It was founded on 26 September 1902 and held its first exhibition at the Drill Hall, Cape Town at the end of that year. The membership count in 1917 was 121, including Hendrik Pierneef, Anton van Wouw, Nita Spilhaus, Ruth Prowse, Florence Zerffi and Moses Kottler, who had joined that year.

Art critic Bernard Lewis procured a commission for Kottler to paint the portrait of Jakob Elisa de Villiers (Oom Japie Helpmekaar), a wealthy farmer of Paarl, which was completed by 25 December 1917. On 9 April 1921, Kottler finished the bust of General Christiaan de Wet, for which he had travelled to Klipfontein, the General's farm in the Orange Free State. The undertaking, with the General in ill health, had consumed twelve days but left a lasting impression on Kottler of the character of the guerrilla leader.

On his return to South Africa in 1932, Kottler settled in Johannesburg. He joined the New Group, served on the advisory committee of the Johannesburg Art Gallery between 1956 and 1965, was awarded Medal for Sculpture (1962) by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns and, in 1974/5 was honoured with a Prestige Retrospective Exhibition by the Pretoria Art Museum, South African National Gallery and Johannesburg Art Gallery.

Public collections South African National Gallery, Cape Town National Portrait Gallery, London Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg MuseuMAfricA, Johannesburg