Initiate 

Walter Battiss created "Initiate" with oil paint on canvas, using the directness of bold brushstrokes. The paint’s opacity allows for the creation of flat planes of striking color. The canvas offers a smooth, consistent surface, ideal for this style. Battiss embraced a deliberately naive style, evoking the directness and simplicity often associated with indigenous art forms. "Initiate" reflects his fascination with ancient cultures and mythologies, especially the rock art of Southern Africa. This interest wasn’t purely aesthetic, but engaged with the social context of these images, and their connection to ritual and communal expression. By using industrial materials to imitate the appearance of archaic methods, Battiss challenged the hierarchies often imposed between fine art and craft. His seemingly simple technique is actually steeped in a desire to connect with deeper, more authentic forms of expression, and to resist the alienation of modern life. So, consider how the methods and materials of art-making can carry profound cultural and social significance.