Welcome

Welcome to matics.za.net - celebrating the art of Marietta Matics, a Hungarian born ceramic artist and painter.  Marietta lived and exhibited her art in Pretoria and Cape Town, South Africa.  Her artworks are held in private collections worldwide.

Marietta was born in 1930 in Hungary and attended a convent and then art classes at Budapest University.  She married Oszkar Mohacsy, an architect, and they left Budapest in the political uprising of 1956.  She worked as a commercial artist in South Africa, England and Switzerland, where they lived until just before the birth of her daughter, Melinda, in 1967 in Windhoek, Namibia.  

The family moved to Pretoria, South Africa a few years later and Marietta began work as a self-taught ceramicist.  All her ceramics are hand built, decorative and each piece is completely unique.  Diverse subject matter takes form in clay base-reliefs,  murals, sculptures and vessels. 

After her divorce Marietta sold her art and gave pottery lessons to support herself and daughter financially.   Marietta participated in numerous exhibitions in her professional career from 1974 to 1988.  Aside from group exhibitions and having her work displayed at the Pretoria Art Museum she had many one-man shows at her home in Waterkloof, Pretoria. 

Her art proved to be very popular amongst art critics, visiting diplomats and the local cultural set in Pretoria.  Marietta continued creating art after her second marriage (and subsequent divorce from) Aubrey McDermid, deputy GM of the South African Reserve Bank.

 Influences in Marietta's artwork include Hungarian folk art, religious icons and historical, dramatic and mythological figures.  She also drew inspiration from nature and her work ranges from stylised to intricately detailed pieces.  Her use of jewel-like glaze colours and innovative structural hand-built clay work was highly praised by the critics.

Marietta's body of work ranged from commissions like the decoration of a Nedbank building to bespoke panels of wildlife for private Game Farms as well as smaller pieces (like popular vases, birds and choirboys) and major works such as the beautiful sculptures and murals which she created during the final phase of her career.

Marietta and her daughter moved to Cape Town at the end of 1985.  Marietta became a member of the Ceramic Society of California and travelled to the USA to market her art.  She continued researching and planning art throughout her life.  She completed her final painting to share with her beloved grandchildren Kate and Robert shortly before she passed away in Cape Town in 2007.

A retrospective exhibition of Matics Art to be held in Cape Town, South Africa is being planned.
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Original artworks and prints of Matics artworks are available for sale.

Please comment below or contact art@matics.za.net for more information.