Career
Battiss was a founding member of the New Group a loose friendship of recognised contemporary European and American artists. He was unique among them, in the sense that he was from what were then regarded as the colonies, and also in that he had not studied in either Europe or North America. In fact in 1938 he visited Europe for the first time. The following year in 1939 he published his first book, The Amazing Bushman. His interest in primitive rock art had a very profound impact on his ideas, regarding San painting as an important art form. He was also influenced by African cultural Ndebele beadwork and generally by pre-Islamic cultures and calligraphy.
In 1949 he befriended Picasso who would have an influence on his already quirky style.
He visited Greece in 1966-1968 and the Seychelles in 1972, which inspired his make-believe Fook Island.
Battiss published nine books, wrote many articles and founded the periodical "De Arte". He taught art at Pretoria Boys High School from 1936 for most of the next 30 years and at the Pretoria Art Centre, of which was the principal from 1953-58. He also taught at UNISA where he became Professor of Fine Art in 1964 and retired in 1971. In 1973 he was awarded a D.Litt et Phil. (honoris causa) from UNISA.
In 1981 he donated all his work to the newly opened "Walter Battiss Museum" in his birthplace of Somerset East.
Walter Battiss died in Port Shepstone, KwaZulu-Natal of a heart attack on 20 August 1982.
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