1897-1976 · Nieu-Bethesda, South Africa
In a tiny Karoo village, a retiring schoolteacher crushed thousands of bottles and turned her house into a glittering shrine of owls, camels and pilgrims, all marching east.
The life
Martins returned to remote Nieu-Bethesda to nurse her elderly parents, and after their deaths, alone in her forties, decided her world was dull and grey and would be remade. From the late 1940s she transformed the family house into the Owl House, grinding coloured glass to coat every wall and ceiling, and filling the yard with concrete figures built with her assistant Koos Malgas. The village thought her mad and shunned her. Her eyesight failing, she took her own life in 1976.
The work
The Camel Yard’s procession of wise men, mermaids, sun faces and owls, more than three hundred cement and glass figures oriented toward an imagined Mecca, and interiors that turn lamplight into constellations. Athol Fugard’s play The Road to Mecca made her story famous, and the Owl House is now a protected museum.
Why we love them
She is the answer to every “why bother” a small town has ever muttered at an artist.
Go deeper
- Where to see outsider art, our full list of museums and collections.
- The glossary, if any of the terms here are new.
Kindred spirits
Nek Chand1924-2015, Chandigarh, India
Simon Rodia1879-1965, Los Angeles, USA
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