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The three-wheel cart is a compact mobile food-preparation kitchen used exclusively for Pieter Lategan Eats & Treats.
The unit measures 3.8 m x 1.2 m x 2.3 m and is equipped with its own engine for mobility. It is not a gas-powered unit and contains no gas systems of any kind.
Inside the cart is a small, clean, low-power kitchen setup where pancakes, desserts, and light food items are prepared. The equipment includes a mixer, mini-fridge, basic lighting, and small electric cooking tools. All appliances are low-consumption and designed for safe operation.
To function properly, the cart requires access to a standard electrical plug point. This is necessary to run the fridge, lighting, and preparation equipment. No heavy machinery or high-power systems are used.
The cart operates quietly, produces no fumes, and is not open to customers on-site. It serves purely as a dedicated food-preparation workspace for the Eats & Treats menu.
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Video by Pieter Lategan - 24 November 2025 10:17 AM
South Africa Demands "Equal" Treatment From Trump After G20 Exclusion | Firstpost Africa | N18G (5 December 2026)
'PRETORIA' - LIANIE MAY (van die CD VERGEET MY NIE) 29 April 2020
Moedersbond Maternity Hospital. Where I was delivered by my Mother, Elsabe Lategan (Latsky) 24.01.1970 View from east Photographer: Nicholas Clarke - 2014
SA fashion designer Gert Johan Coetzee unveiled his latest spring-summer 2025 collection featuring TikTok dance act A-Squad at a campaign photo shoot at the iconic Union Building. PIC: Luke Tannous photography (Luke Tannous) Photo: www.https://www.sowetan.co.za/
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The world often rushes past the things that matter most.
Take Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Chinese Girl — the famous “Green Lady.” For decades she was dismissed as “kitsch,” “low art,” “popular décor.” Yet today, this same painting hangs in one of the world’s great private collections, purchased by Mr. Laurence Graff for nearly £1 million
“Mid-century modern framed Chinese Girl painting by Vladimir Tretchikoff.”
Delaire Graff Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa — hotel review by OutThere
That price is not just a number — it is a reminder of how easily people underestimate the emotional and cultural power of art that speaks to millions.
If my own net worth were US$3.6 billion, then a work of this magnitude would be valued, in my eyes, around R11 million — not because of status or luxury, but because of its ability to touch history, identity, memory, and imagination all at once.
My intention is simple: to show how deeply I value the artworks that shape how we see the world.
While others debate whether something is “high” or “low,” I look at what art does — how it moves people, how it lives in homes, how it becomes part of culture. Sometimes the pieces dismissed as “kitsch” end up defining an entire era.
People often miss the most important things in life because they chase the wrong symbols of importance.
Art teaches the opposite: value is not dictated by fashion — it is discovered by attention.
And that is what I offer: attention.
Respect.
And a belief that art deserves to be lifted forward, not boxed into categories that keep creativity small.
"...the pieces that speak to the human soul will outlive every trend, every critic, every label — and every algorithm." - Pieter Lategan 2025.
Ludovico Einaudi - Experience (Live At Fabric, London/2013)
Artist: Pieter Lategan Title: Chinese Girl 1.0 (Pieter’s Replica of Vladimir Tretchikoff's Kitch and call it Pieter’s Trash.) - 2018
— Pieter Lategan, Pretoria, 19 November 2025
I’ll tell this simply — the way it happened to me.
I had just moved back from Johannesburg to my apartment in Pretoria. It was a very hot day — those Pretoria summers that make everything slow and sticky. I was looking for ideas. I sat with a coffee, flicking through pictures and books, trying to find something that would start a new painting. Then I saw Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Chinese Girl (often called “The Green Lady”), and I laughed out loud.
I laughed because I thought: how can one painting — done by a Russian-born artist who later lived in South Africa in the 1950s — become so famous? How could a face painted in a strange blue-green tone hang in so many homes and be printed so widely? That curiosity was the spark. Tretchikoff’s Chinese Girl is usually dated to 1952–53, and its mass-produced prints were among the best-selling art prints of the twentieth century1.
At first I worried: people will call this kitsch. They’ll say I’m copying trash. But then I thought: attention is not a bad thing — maybe people will look, and then learn something, and maybe they’ll ask questions. I didn’t know which audience I would speak to, or where that attention would take me. I only knew I wanted to try.
I started to study Tretchikoff slowly. I chose to work from the art of someone who is dead — not because I wanted to disrespect him, but because it felt freer. When the artist is alive, you never know if they’ll like what you do with their work; that can make things awkward. With a deceased artist I felt I could explore more boldly. Tretchikoff was famous in his day and was often described as enormously wealthy for a painter — once even described as the richest artist in the world after Picasso by some commentators2.
My mother was a journalist and she loved writing. I got that love from her — for telling stories, for putting feelings into words. This blog is part of that: a place where I put down how I feel about my work — as an artist, a fashion designer, and a small businessman trying to keep going in hard times. I don’t know where the blog will go. I only know it helps me understand what I’m doing and who I am trying to speak to.
Painting, Memory, and Inspiration
It was memories like these, and a lifetime in Pretoria, that later drew me to Tretchikoff’s work. The Chinese Girl became more than a painting; it became a doorway into thinking about history, culture, and memory. My first attempt at the painting, oil on canvas, roughly 54 × 60 cm, I called Pieter’s Replica of Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Kitch, or Pieter’s Trash. I painted it in 2018, and wrote about it later click here to go to my page on my blog https://pieterlateganart.blogspot.com/2019/.
Photo taken by Pieter Lategan 20.11.2025 (Selfie)
Here is what I wrote then:
“Tonight I studied low culture, or you can even call it trash art. It is plain trash. It doesn’t fit into mainstream art… I feel it is funny, and I remember I sat late at night just looking at Vladimir Tretchikoff’s paintings. I must say I like it. Actually, I think it is very good. It is South African; it is ours. We own it… She is currently living in my house or apartment. And every day I start seeing meaning in it. But not a deep meaning. I think people need to trash sometimes. People get tired of all the real and mainstream stuff.”
That night in February 2018, the painting was just a canvas. Now, writing this on 19 November 2025, I see how history, memory, and art can merge — from my childhood fears in Silverton, to a Russian-born painter in South Africa in 1953, to how I express myself today as an artist, fashion designer, and citizen of Pretoria.
Photo Google Maps: Silverton Primary School, Pretoria, South Africa June 2017
Childhood, Fear, and the Silverton Siege
Some memories of Pretoria shaped me as much as any painting. I was on the 24th January 1980 a day before the Siege, in my classroom at Silverton Primary School, when I experienced something terrifying. Around 12:00–1:15 PM, my teacher told us to lie down on the floor. I was confused, worried, and didn’t fully understand what was happening.
Through the fear, I thought about Landman, a girl in my class, whose mother worked as a teller at the Volkskas Bank across the street. At first, I imagined a robbery. Later, as we were moved to the school sports ground, I realised the truth: there were people inside the bank — armed cadres — and this was not just a robbery.
We walked in rows, hundreds of pupils — around 800 of us — along Jasmyn Avenue, carefully moving away from the school grounds. At the corner near the bottom of the school grounds, I saw the bank building and many police cars. Sirens wailed, and the tension was heavy.
That evening, from my home on Isaac Stegeman Street, near the NG Church in Blom Street, I could still hear the sounds of the siege. Around 7:05 PM, there were hard, sharp gunshots from Pretoria Road, where the Volkskas Bank was. The sirens, the noise, and the chaos left me shaken. I went to bed around 8:30 PM, scared and upset, feeling a fear I had never known before — the first time I experienced murder and violence, and a sense that something terribly wrong had happened.
What I didn’t understand then, but know now, is that this was the Silverton Siege, a six-hour hostage situation that became a defining moment in Pretoria’s history. On that day, three MK cadres — Stephen Mafoko, Humphrey Makhubo, and Wilfred Madela — took 25 civilians hostage inside the bank, making demands including the release of Nelson Mandela, cash, and a plane to Maputo3. Negotiations with the police continued for hours until all three cadres were killed, and tragically, two hostages also lost their lives, with many more injured3.
For a nine-year-old, the event was terrifying and incomprehensible. Seeing the police cars, hearing sirens and gunfire, walking in lines with hundreds of classmates — it was the first real encounter I had with the fragility of life, and the sense that the world could be unfair and violent. That night, lying in bed, the weight of fear and the memory of death stayed with me.
The following day, South Africans woke up to shocking and heartbreaking images printed in the newspapers. The media published graphic photos of the blood-soaked banking hall, showing the chaos and the lives lost during the attack.
One of the most unforgettable pictures was of Mrs. Landman, the mother of one of the victims, sitting upright with steel fragments still lodged in her arm, showing exactly where she had been shot. This photograph became one of the most powerful and painful reminders of what had happened inside the bank that day.
Following Up on the Silverton Siege: My Public Query to AfriForum
Update posted: 23 November 2025 — 3:53 AM
After reading AfriForum’s article dated 12 October 2025 about their formal submission to the Khampepe Commission, I decided that I could no longer ignore the unanswered questions around the Silverton Siege of 25 January 1980 — an event that I personally lived through as a child at Silverton Primary School.
AfriForum requested that the Khampepe Commission look into why certain cases identified by the TRC were never prosecuted and whether political interference prevented accountability. Their report highlights how several families, including the Van der Merwe and Van Eck families, are still waiting for answers decades later.
Reading this article moved me deeply.
I realised that the Silverton Siege — something that shaped my earliest memories — might also fall into this category of unresolved cases, especially if any part of the follow-up investigation was delayed or blocked.
Because of this, on 23 November 2025 at 3:53, I posted a public question to AfriForum’s Facebook page.
In my message, I asked:
whether the Silverton Siege investigation or prosecution was ever properly concluded,
whether it may have been unfairly stopped or delayed,
and whether the Khampepe Commission or another official body can look into the case today.
I also shared that I was a learner at Silverton Primary School on the day of the siege, that our classroom was closest to the bank, and that I clearly remember the fear and confusion among hundreds of children.
For readers who want to follow the context, here is AfriForum’s article that prompted my inquiry.
It explains their call for equal justice, especially where political interference may have prevented proper prosecution.
👉 Source: AfriForum website — Article dated 12 October 2025.
I will keep all my readers updated on any replies, developments, or new information I receive from AfriForum or any other body involved.
This is not only part of my personal history — it is part of our shared South African story.
Thank you for following this journey with me. More updates will follow.
Photo: https://www.netflix.com/
Living History Interview / Historical Reenactment Interview
By Pieter Lategan - 21 November 2025 Time: 18:53
About the Painting “The Chinese Girl” and Whether It Predicted the Future of South Africa
Questions for Vladimir Tretchikoff
Interviewer: “Mr Tretchikoff, thank you for being with us tonight.”
Vladimir Tretchikoff:He nods politely. “Of course.”
Interviewer:
“Many people today wonder something very unusual. When you painted The Chinese Girl, also known as The Green Lady, did you—intentionally or unintentionally—predict the future of South Africa?”
There is a pause. Vladimir looks down at his hands.
Mr Vladimir Tretchikoff:
“No… I did not paint it as a prediction. I never meant it to be political or prophetic. When I painted her, it was about colour, emotion, and beauty. I met a young Chinese girl in a dry cleaner in Cape Town. That was all. I did not stand there thinking, ‘Ah, yes, this will predict a nation’s future.’ No. That was not the purpose.” Interviewer:
“But strangely, Mr. Tretchikoff, people today look at the painting and say it feels like the future was hidden in it. What do you think about that?”
Mr Vladimir Tretchikoff:
He folds his arms, thinking.
“Sometimes art becomes something more than the artist intended. I painted a girl. But the world gave her a second life. Maybe even a third one.”
Interviewer:
“Let me ask you this directly: Why did the painting become such a symbol in South Africa? I mean, it hung in Afrikaans homes, English homes, coloured homes, black homes, salons, shops — everywhere.”
Mr Vladimir Tretchikoff:
He smiles faintly.
“Yes… that is true. I think the painting crossed boundaries. During Apartheid, that was very rare. Something that all kinds of people liked… That was unusual.”
Interviewer:
“So the painting ended up doing something that the politics of the time could not do?”
Mr Vladimir Tretchikoff:
“I suppose so. The funny thing is, people called it ‘kitsch.’ They laughed at it. But it entered every house, every heart, every family. It travelled where politicians could not go. Art works in strange ways.”
Interviewer:
“And today we see strong Chinese influence in Africa… did you ever imagine that?”
Vladimir Tretchikoff:
“Not at all. When I painted the girl, China had nothing to do with Africa. But now — look — China is everywhere in business, trade, and construction. So people say the painting looks like a prophecy. But it wasn’t. It’s just that the world changed around the painting.”
Interviewer:
“Some people even say the painting predicted multicultural South Africa.”
Vladimir Tretchikoff:
He chuckles softly.
“I did not predict anything. But I can see why people feel that way. A Chinese face becoming the most loved face in South Africa — perhaps that tells you more about the country than about me.”
Interviewer:
"Sir?" I said: “What about the meaning of kitsch? Your work was mocked for decades, but now it is celebrated. Is that also symbolic?”
Mr Vladimir Tretchikoff:
“Yes. Kitsch is like people. For years they overlook you, laugh at you, mock you. Then one day they suddenly see value. My whole life is like that painting — rejected and then embraced. Maybe that is why South Africans understand it so well.”
Interviewer:
“So to answer the original question: Did you predict the future?”
Mr Vladimir Tretchikoff:
“No. But sometimes the future finds itself in the work long after the artist is gone.”
Interviewer:
I look at him and smile.
“Mr Tretchikoff, thank you for this remarkable insight. Your painting keeps asking questions long after the brush has dried. Perhaps that is its real prophecy.”
Mr Vladimir Tretchikoff:
He nods deeply.
“Thank you.”
Interviewer:
“I want to leave the audience with this thought:
Where will The Chinese Girl be in another 20, 40, or even 50 years?
Will she still follow us into the future?
Or will the future catch up to her again?”
Photoshoot of My Painting — “Chinese Girl 1.0” by Pieter Lategan (25 November 2025)
Pieter Lategan – “Chinese Girl 1.0” Video Shoot 26 November 2025 – Pretoria, South Africa
#graff #pieterlategan
Today I captured the behind-the-scenes video shoot of Chinese Girl 1.0, my own artistic reproduction of the world-famous “Chinese Girl” (also known as “The Green Lady”) by the Russian-born South African artist Vladimir Tretchikoff.
Originally painted in the early 1950s, Tretchikoff’s iconic portrait became one of the most reproduced artworks of the 20th century. The original now forms part of the private collection of Mr Laurence Graff, a globally respected collector and founder of Graff Diamonds.
My reproduction, Chinese Girl 1.0, is both a tribute and a reinterpretation—honouring Tretchikoff’s South African legacy while presenting the work through my own creative vision as a local Pretoria artist and fashion designer.
The video shoot focused on capturing the mood, colour, and emotional tone of the artwork:
the distinctive cool-blue skin tones,
the deep cultural symbolism,
and the timeless elegance that made the original painting world-famous.
This project celebrates South African artistry, history, and the continued influence of Tretchikoff on contemporary creators like myself.
More visuals and final edits will be released soon.
— Pieter Lategan
#graff #pieterlategan
Low Art. - Pieter Lategan 22.11.2025
Low art.
High truth.
A girl in green.
Skin like porcelain.
Eyes like future warnings.
She doesn’t speak.
She reflects.
A country is shifting.
Old power cracking.
New voices rising.
Work changing hands.
Labour realigning.
White hands.
Black hands.
Low-income hands.
All building what comes next.
South Africa moves.
Slow.
Fast.
Chaotic.
Beautiful.
Uncomfortable.
Necessary.
The painting?
It says: Value lives in the overlooked.
Beauty hides in the cheap.
Power grows from the ground up.
Kitsch becomes truth.
Low becomes loud.
Art becomes a mirror.
We become the story.
Lae Kuns- Pieter Lategan 22.11.2025
Lae kuns.
Hoë waarheid.
’n Meisie in groen.
Porseleinvel.
Oë vol toekoms.
Sy praat nie.
Sy wys.
’n Land wat skuif.
Ou mag breek.
Nuwe stemme styg.
Werk verander hande.
Arbeid skuif plek.
Wit hande.
Swart hande.
Lae-inkomste hande.
Bou saam aan môre.
Suid-Afrika beweeg.
Stadig.
Vinnig.
Rof.
Mooi.
Onrustig.
Nodig.
Die skildery?
Dit sê: Waarde leef in wat mense miskyk.
Skoonheid sit in die goedkoop.
Krag groei van onder af.
Kitsj word waarheid.
Laag word hard.
Kuns word ’n spieël.
Ons word die storie.
Reflections in Today’s World
Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Just like the Silverton Siege was tied to history and politics, today I think about the world as I write this. On 19 November 2025, just before the first-ever G20 Summit in Africa, former President Donald Trump announced he would not attend the summit in Johannesburg, citing issues with land policies and treatment of white Afrikaners5. It reminds me that politics, history, and culture are always intertwined — and even art, like Tretchikoff’s or mine, exists inside that context.
Silverton Siege | The World of Silverton Siege “Inspired by True Events” | Netflix - 2022
Tretchikoff" is an original artwork created by Pieter Lategan.
No part of this artwork may be copied, reproduced, distributed, or used in any form without the express written permission of the copyright holder.
For licensing, reproduction requests, or commercial use inquiries, please contact: Email: pieterlate@icloud.com Website: https://pieterlateganart.blogspot.com/
If you are interested in purchasing the artwork, please visit www.https://www.southafricanartists.com
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This is Pieter Lategan, a contemporary South African artist and designer.
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