SA artist Helen Martins is born

Updated: 4 Dec 2019

Helen Elizabeth Martins, artist known for her queer sculptures at the Owl House in the Karoo village of Nieu Bethesda, was born in Nieu Bethesda in the Eastern Cape. She was born in the same house in which she committed suicide, the house she named "The Owl House". At the age of fifty, when her husband died, she stopped going to church. She began to create a series of extraordinary eccentric creatures of wire, cement, and cut glass. It included owls, camels, wise men, women, and children walking on the road to Mecca. Her artwork, once an object of derision and embarrassment, has become the single most important asset of the village of Nieu Bethesda.

How we know this

01Verwey, E.J. (ed)(1995). New Dictionary of South African Biography, v.1 , Pretoria: HSRC.
02Neurodiversity, (2006), Helen Martins, Artist, from Neurodiversity, 21 February [online], Available at www.neurodiversity.com [Accessed: 27 November 2013]
03https://www.owlhouse.co.za/index.html (image source; site not yet live)

Last updated · 4 Dec 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2011, March 16). SA artist Helen Martins is born. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011177

South African History Online (2011) 'SA artist Helen Martins is born', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011177 (Accessed: 27 October 2026).

South African History Online, SA artist Helen Martins is born [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011177, (accessed 27 October 2026).

"SA artist Helen Martins is born." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011177. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "SA artist Helen Martins is born." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011177.