Kebble 'contributed to arts'
2005-09-28 11:01
Johannesburg - Slain mining magnate and art lover Brett Kebble made a significant contribution to South Africa and had brought the value of arts to wider public attention, Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan said on Wednesday.
"Through the Brett Kebble Awards he set an example of how corporate sector support can give impetus to the development and collection of indigenous fine arts, craft and sculpture."
Jordan said the awards were the highest monetary endowment provided to artists in South Africa.
"They have had a great impact in both the rural and mainstream art world. We are shocked at his death," Jordan said.
One of the winners of last year's Brett Kebble Art Awards told Sapa that she was "absolutely devastated" by the news of his murder.
"I am just incredibly shocked," Tanya Katherine Poole said.
Poole and Giyani artist Phillip Rikhotso were declared joint winners after the judges decided that both deserved the title.
"I liked him. He had a fantastic sense of humour and I enjoyed his company when we met," she said from her home in Grahamstown.
She said the awards were the biggest the country had ever seen and were the most progressive.
"What he has given this country in those terms is an enormous thing."
Rikhotso's agent Kathy Coates said that she had just spoken to the artist's daughter who said that her father was shocked by the news.
Kebble was shot dead in Melrose, Johannesburg, around 21:00 on Tuesday on his way to a dinner engagement.
According the awards website, the Springs-born entrepreneur bought his first art work, an Irma Stern, with his first pay check.
His personal collection includes work by Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern, Maude Sumner, Maggie Laubser, Vladimir Tretchikoff and Alexis Preller.
- SAPA