Mr Norval is a former South African amateur golf champion who in his “spare time” is a global investor with fine-art collections. One of his aims is to have them assembled for viewing in one place, hence the gallery and sculpture park.
The gallery would host exhibitions by local and international artists and would also house the large Norval Foundation private collection of contemporary art. The light, airy restaurant is named after South African artist and teacher Cecil Skotnes.
The restaurant opens onto a terrace and indigenous garden. A boardwalk winds around the building through the wetland and past sculpture installations, a children’s playground, vineyards and vistas of Silvermine and Constantiaberg.
There’s an outdoor amphitheatre that can seat about 110 people, and Ms Cronje said the gallery might be a venue for picnics and jazz concerts in future.
There are several exhibition spaces of different sizes but the most spectacular is to the north – a double floor of glazed window with views of Devil’s Peak and the back of Table Mountain.
Curator Karl Nel said two 6.7m sculptures of the Edoardo Villa Estate Collection, each weighing about seven tons, were installed on Friday April 13.
“It will be the first time they will be seen in public since the 1960s. Very few museums can take these artworks because of the weight.”
Behind the sculptures are photographs, by Egon Gunther, which are equal to them in size and part of the same collection.
The Norval Foundation is also the custodian of the Gerard Sekoto Foundation and the Alexis Preller Archive.
