session 3) 541-660 paintings

82 • CONDITION REPORTS FOR WORKS ON PAPER SEE PAGES 231-233 • FULL CONDITION REPORTS AVAILABLE ON WWW.SWELCO.CO.ZA

541Lynn Chadwick(BRITISH 1914-2003)

MINIATURE FIGURE III

inscribed C41S and numbered 2/30, executed in 1986height: 9cm

LITERATUREDennis Farr and Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick Sculptor: With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-1988, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990, illustrated on p 325

ILLUSTRATED

R 40 000 - R 60 000

542Lynn Chadwick(BRITISH 1914-2003)

MAQUETTE VII SITTING WOMANinscribed C39S, numbered 1/9 and dated 1986height: 19,5cm

Sold together with an inscribed copy of Lynn Chadwick Sculptor: With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-1988

LITERATUREDennis Farr and Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick Sculptor: With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-1988, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1990, illustrated on p 325

ILLUSTRATED

R 100 000 - R 150 000

543David Begbie(BRITISH 1956-)

BACK VIEW

signed; inscribed with the artist’s name, title and dated 1988 on a label on the underside of the basemoulded wire mesh on a painted wooden baseheight: 58cm (excluding base)

PROVENANCEThe Salama-Caro Gallery, London

ILLUSTRATED

R 7 000 - R 10 000

BRITISH AND SOUTH AFRICAN SCULPTURE

541 542

543

CAPE TOWN, 5 & 6 OCTOBER 2010 • 83

544Anton van Wouw(SOUTH AFRICAN 1862-1945)

BAD NEWSsigned and dated 1907bronze with brown patinaheight: 32,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 450 000 - R 550 000

544

DETAIL


545After Anton van Wouw(SOUTH AFRICAN 1862-1945)

JAN HOFMEYR

bronze, black patinaheight: 44,5cm

This sculpture was cast by Luigi Gamberini

ILLUSTRATED

R 20 000 - R 30 000


DIE NOITJE VAN DIE ONDERVELD, TRANSVAAL

bears signature, indistinctly inscribed with the title and “Joh-Burg”, dated 1907bronze with brown patinaheight: 42cm (excluding base)

ILLUSTRATED

R 20 000 - R 30 000


THE BUSHMAN HUNTER

signed and indistictly datedbronze on wooden base, dark brown patinaheight: 48cm (excluding base)

ILLUSTRATED

R 20 000 - R 30 000

548Robin Kenneth Lewis(SOUTH AFRICAN 1942-1988)

TWO BIRDS

copper with a green patinationheight: 19cm and 18,5cm (excluding bases) (2)

ILLUSTRATED

R 20 000 - R 30 000

545 546 547

548


549

549Edoardo Villa(SOUTH AFRICAN 1915-)

UNTITLED I

signed and dated 1999painted steel height: 194cm

PROVENANCEEverard Read Gallery, Cape Town

EXHIBITEDEdoardo Villa’s Garden, Johannesburg, 2000

ILLUSTRATED

R 250 000 - R 350 000

“Equally, Villa does not see his works as isolated end products, but rather as phases in the continuous process of the awareness of being. He creates intuitively and many series of works contain the germ of an idea that generates the next series. Sometimes sculptures are stripped, rebuilt or enhanced, reincorporated into the fl ow of his creativity. Thus, for example, he reworked aspects of previous sculptures such as Mapogga Woman…to create a completely new piece.”1

In Untitled I, executed in 1999, Villa revisited the 1964 heraldic form of an erect female fi gure. This act of revisiting previous themes is Villa’s interpretation of ‘continuous becoming’- a 20th century precept of motion and change. In Untitled Villa has translated the solidity of Mapogga Woman into sweeping planes of steel whilst retaining the strong gender references.

P.D.



THRONE

signed and dated 1996painted steelheight: 95cm

PROVENANCEEverard Read Gallery, Johannesburg

ILLUSTRATED

R 180 000 - R 240 000

Executed in 1991 with later alterations, Throne forms part of the series developed by Edoardo Villa inspired by Jackson Hlungwane’s series of the same title. Hlungwane’s work had been exhibited in Johannesburg in the late 80s. Villa’s work however moves sharply away from Hlugwane’s work in that Villa’s thrones are not functional objects but rather low-slung, anti-utilitarian and complex in their design. As the series evolved “the sculptures…became plane and line, slicing into and fl oating in space.”2

Throne rests on pointed supports, not new to Villa’s work as these had fi rst appeared in the 1960s. These delicate points create a contradiction between the solid-yet-organic planes of steel making up the throne. Thus the work appears to resist the pull of gravity.

P.D.

1 Karel Nel (ed), Villa at 90: His Life, Work and Infl uence, Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg, p 502 Karel Nel (ed), Villa at 90: His Life, Work and Infl uence, Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg, p 104

550


552Speelman Mahlangu(SOUTH AFRICAN 1958-2004)

CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

signed and numbered 1/15bronze with brown patinaheight: 40,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 20 000 - R 30 000

553Speelman Mahlangu(SOUTH AFRICAN 1958-2004)

STANDING FIGURE

signed and numbered 3/5bronze, mounted on a wooden baseheight: 35cm (excluding base)

ILLUSTRATED

R 12 000 - R 16 000


RECLINING FIGURE

signed, dated 1967 and numbered 6/6bronze with a green patinaheight: 36cm (excluding base)

ILLUSTRATED

R 80 000 - R 100 000

551

552 553


SOUTH AFRICAN PAINTINGS, WATERCOLOURS, DRAWINGS, PRINTS AND A CARPET

554Norman Catherine(SOUTH AFRICAN 1949-)

UNDER MY SPELL

signed, a sculptured carpet woven in colour by Roger Gailey198 by 282cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 50 000 - R 70 000

554

555

556

555Conrad Botes(SOUTH AFRICAN 1969-)

MURDER AND MAYHEM

signed with the artist’s initialsreverse painted acrylic on glass54,5 by 54,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 35 000 - R 45 000

“To understand the hopelessness of the human condition, and then to embrace that hopelessness, is not the route to nihilism, as it is commonly and mistakenly perceived, but the route to the radically dark-yet-affirming ...This is the greatest lesson that Botes’ art can give us. Botes’ art is not the tedious art of the comic strip but the art of comedy, the art of laughter that has been stripped of conceit, of well being, of crass opportunism, or faked grandeur.”

Ashraf Jamal, The Rat in Art: Conrad Botes, Pop and the Posthuman, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, 2004, p 14-15

EXHIBITEDErdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, 2002

LITERATUREAshraf Jamal, The Rat in Art: Conrad Botes, Pop, and the Posthuman, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, 2004, illustrated in colour p 38

556Zwelethu Mthethwa(SOUTH AFRICAN 1960-)

THE STORYTELLER

signed and dated ‘98pastel on paper68 by 85,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 45 000 - R 55 000


557Zwelethu Mthethwa(SOUTH AFRICAN 1960-)

NO LINES

signed and dated ‘97pastel on paper69 by 98cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 45 000 - R 55 000

558Zwelethu Mthethwa (SOUTH AFRICAN 1960-)

NEW DEVELOPMENT II

signed and dated ‘98pastel on paper63,5 by 48,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 25 000 - R 35 000

559Jabulane Sam Nhlengethwa (SOUTH AFRICAN 1955-) and

Zwelethu Mthethwa(SOUTH AFRICAN 1960-)

BOY IN A BATH

signed by both artistspastel and collage on paper45 by 65cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 50 000 - R 70 000

560Jabulane Sam Nhlengethwa(SOUTH AFRICAN 1955-)

NATALIE COLE SINGS JAZZ

signed and dated ‘94, inscribed with the title on a label on the reverseoil and collage on board28,5 by 39cm

PROVENANCESold: Stephan Welz & Co, Cape Town, 23 May 2006, lot 556

ILLUSTRATED

R 25 000 - R 30 000

557 558

559 560


“All of my work is about Johannesburg in one form or another. My schools: university, art school, all the training I had has been here in Johannesburg - apart from my year in Paris. Thematically I suppose I work with what’s in the air, which is to say a mixture of personal questions and the broader social questions. Questions this year, questions last year, responsibility, retribution, recrimination, before issues of what histories are hidden in the landscape. Often they’re fairly broad questions but generally they arrive through quite a personal or particular starting point.”1

Stereoscope (1999), as well as Kentridge’s previous seven fi lms, was fashioned through Kentridge’s unique process of animation. Using consecutive modifi cations to a single charcoal drawing, adding to and erasing from, he arrives at the stills which are then seamed together to create the fi nal fi lm. In essence, there are a thousand alterations to only a few drawings.2

Soho Eckstein, the fi lm’s protagonist, a pin-striped suited businessman, strongly resembles Kentridge3 himself. Eckstein is a solitary fi gure whose sole companion and sometime source of comfort is a black cat.4 The cat ultimately becomes the “cipher of destruction and ultimate annihilation.”5 The cat later morphs into an electric blue animal that roams feral through the modern cityscapes and fi nally settles into the cannonball that obliterates the landscape. The sole survivors of this holocaust are Eckstein and the cat.

A stereoscope, the photographic device that produces the illusion of a three-dimensional image by combining two pictures of a single subject taken from different points of view, runs visually and thematically throughout the fi lm.

In DRAWING FOR THE FILM STEREOSCOPE the split screen serves to divide Eckstein from himself. Divided by a blue line denoting the two-screens Eckstein stands in a room devoid of homely comforts despite the single bed alongside one wall. He appears strangely shut off from, and impervious, to the blue lines of communication. By splitting the image Kentridge has effectively split Eckstein into his two selves.

The following interview is taken from http://www.ubu.com/fi lm/kentridge_stereoscope.html6

Question 1: Your works appear very labour intensive. How long did it take you to create Stereoscope? Can you talk a little bit about the signifi cance of your laborious process and how you maintain momentum and focus?

W.K. The work is very labour intensive. Stereoscope took 9 months to make - with some breaks for travel and exhibitions during that period. It takes a long time because there is no script or storyboard - the ideas are worked out in the making. In the construction of Stereoscope, most of the fi rst four months work had to be abandoned.

Momentum - because the work is so slow, unless one works fast and intensely, the project would never get fi nished. So one has to begin each day running. Making the fi lm is about fi nding the focus, fi nding what the fi lm is about. If the fi lm had been storyboarded, it would be diffi cult to maintain focus; but because it is thought out as it is done, that becomes part of the subject.

Question 2: The music in Stereoscope is very striking. Was it composed specifi cally for the work? If so, were you involved in that process?

W.K. Music. Philip Miller, a South African composer, wrote the music for the fi lm. He has written music for four of my fi lms. His involvement comes at quite an early stage - after a couple of months, when there are a few minutes of rushes to look at, we sit look at them at an editing table, with different pieces of music - anything from Monteverdi to jazz - and try to understand the musical grammar of the fi lm. From then on we work closely, and the music becomes more and more precise as the fi lm nears completion.

Question 3: Are the recurring elements (like the cat and the blue line, etc.) in your work symbolic of something? They seemed meaningful, but I wasn’t sure of what.

W.K. Re the cat and blue line. I never start with a meaning, so cannot tell you what the

cat symbolises, if anything - I simply knew that I needed a cat at that moment of the fi lm. Blue lines are simply a literal drawing of different lines of communication in the fi lm.

Question 4: Why did you choose to use a split screen in some parts of the video?

W.K. Come on! The fi lm is called Stereoscope, a machine which needs two separate images to make one three-dimensional view. Any more clues needed?

Question 5: Was Stereoscope inspired by specifi c events in South African history?

W.K. No specifi c events in SA history. The section of chaos in the city towards the end of the fi lm contains images from newspapers and TV from the weeks in which I was working on that part - police beating students in Jakarta, Indonesia; riots outside banks in Moscow, Russia; rebels being thrown over a bridge, and then shot at in the river below, Kinshasa, Congo; someone picking up rubble to throw at a building - US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. But of course the images are all of Johannesburg.

This piece, DRAWING FOR THE FILM STEREOSCOPE, acquired at the time of the inaugural exhibition at the Goodman Gallery in Cape Town, was used as the exhibitions frontispiece.

1 http://www.onepeople.com

2 http://artarchives.net/artarchives/liliantone/tonekentridge.html

3 http://www.cmoa.org/international/html/art/kentridge.htm

4 Lynne Cooke, Mundus Invernus, Mundus Perversus: William Kentridge, Michael Sittenveld (ed), Harry N. Abrahams Inc, New York, p 50

5 Lynne Cooke, Mundus Invernus, Mundus Perversus: William Kentridge, Michael Sittenveld (ed), Harry N. Abrahams Inc, New York, p 50

6 http://www.ubu.com/fi lm/kentridge_stereoscope.html

561William Joseph Kentridge(SOUTH AFRICAN 1955-)

DRAWING FOR THE FILM STEREOSCOPE

signedcharcoal and pastel on paper122 by 159,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 1 200 000 - R 1 400 000


562Cecil Edwin Frans Skotnes(SOUTH AFRICAN 1926-2009)

TRIBUTE TO UCCELLO NO. 2

signed and dated 89; inscribed with the title on the reversecarved, incised and painted wood panel121,5 by 122,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 700 000 - R 900 000

565


563Ephraim Mojalefa Ngatane(SOUTH AFRICAN 1938-1971)

THE CONVERSATION

signed and dated 54oil on canvas60,5 by 44,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 140 000 - R 180 000


BACK FLIP

stone lithograph, signed, numbered 10/17 and dated 91 in pencil in the marginsheet size: 38 by 37,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 30 000 - R 40 000


CAMERA HORUS

drypoint, signed and numbered 40/45 in pencil in the marginsheet size: 28,5 by 32,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 25 000 - R 35 000

563

565564



LANDSCAPE

signed and dated ‘04oil on panel59,5 by 60,5cm

PROVENANCESold: Stephan Welz & Co, Johannesburg, 18 October 2004, lot 82

ILLUSTRATED

R 200 000 - R 300 000


THE ASSASINATION OF SHAKA

complete portfolio of forty-three woodcuts by Cecil Skotnes, with captions by Stephen Grey, 1973, printed in colours, edition limited to 225 sets and 25 artist’s proofs, this set numbered 193/225, each woodcut signed and numbered, the title page signed by both the artist and poetsheet size: 50 by 33cm

PART ILLUSTRATED

R 50 000 - R 70 000567 PART LOT

566

"These [landscape] paintings, therefore do not suggest the intention of representing either the physical or metaphysical properties of geography. The pictorial language is evidently self-referential and its meaning should be sought not in any external reality but rather within the framework of the artist’s experience. The manner in which Skotnes’ landscapes have been constructed tends to confi rm the priority of the formal, rather than representational concerns in the works."

Michael Godby, Landscape into Art: A Reading of the Brandberg Wall series and Other Representations of the South African Landscape by Cecil Skotnes, Cape Town, 1996, p 99 and 100


568Erik (Frederick Bester Howard) Laubscher(SOUTH AFRICAN 1927-)

RED FRAGMENT

signed and dated 61; inscribed with the title on the reverseoil on panel42 by 45cm

c.f. A similar work forms part of the permanent collection at the University of the Witwatersrand as illustrated on p 168 of Esmé Berman’s Art and Artists of South Africa.

ILLUSTRATED

R 200 000 - R 300 000

568

569Erik (Frederick Bester Howard) Laubscher(SOUTH AFRICAN 1927-)

WHITE CLIFFS

signed and dated 73oil on canvas51 by 51cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 80 000 - R 100 000

569


“The face had many characteristics and appeared to Skotnes to grow from the inside out. The result was that he started at the nose…despite their drastic distortion and formalisation which almost deny them their humanity, these portraits have a presence which can convince viewers that the likenesses are true.”1

In Icon 15 the sole facial feature of the subject is the nose, the remainder of the face is a composite of abstract forms.

This near-patterning continues throughout the entire form of the being whose head, shoulders and torso are clearly delineated against the plane of the surround or background. The hand-tooled brass areas of the frame lend the fi gure a heraldic and monumental quality fi tting for a modern icon.

P.D.

1 Freida Hamsen, Artist Resolute, Cape Town, 2006, p 58-59


ICON 15

signed; inscribed with the title on the reversecarved, incised and painted wood panel127,5 by 102,5cm (including the carved, incised and painted artist’s frame with brass mounts)

PROVENANCEGoodman Gallery, Johannesburg

ILLUSTRATED

R 700 000 - R 900 000

570



ICON 13

signed and dated 90; inscribed with the title on the reversecarved, incised and painted wood panel99 by 84cm (including the carved, incised and painted artist’s frame with brass mounts)

PROVENANCEGoodman Gallery, Johannesburg

ILLUSTRATED

R 600 000 - R 800 000

571

"I never concocted the idea of the African mask at all…"

In Icon 13, produced in 1990, the head or mask is reduced to a series of textured and coloured planes. The title suggests a history of stylisation and rich visual elements. In this work, the polished plates of brass containing the image, add to the decoration of the image as a whole.

P.D.

Neville Dubow, Landscapes of the Mind, Cape Town, 2006, p 112


572Sidney Goldblatt(SOUTH AFRICAN 1919-1979)

UNTITLED

signedoil on panel60,5 by 60,5cm

EXHIBITEDStellenbosch Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery, Abstract South Africa Art from the Isolation Years: Volume I,Winter 2007, illustrated in colour on p 24

ILLUSTRATED

R 20 000 - R 30 000

573Larry Scully(SOUTH AFRICAN 1922-2002)

VERTICAL ABSTRACT

signedoil on canvas122 by 122cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 25 000 - R 35 000


RED TOTEM

signed and dated ‘73oil on canvas100 by 60cm, unframed

ILLUSTRATED

R 10 000 - R 15 000

575Bettie Cilliers-Barnard(SOUTH AFRICAN 1914-)

BETRAGTING 1signed and dated 1988; inscribed with the title on the reverseoil on canvas60,5 by 80,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 60 000 - R 80 000

574 575

572

573


576Christo Coetzee(SOUTH AFRICAN 1929-2000)

A STILL LIFE WITH FLOWERS AND FRUIT

signedoil on board121 by 121cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 120 000 - R 160 000


HERMANUS SEASCAPE

signed and dated ‘01oil on canvas50 by 200cm, unframed

ILLUSTRATED

R 20 000 - R 30 000

576

577


580

578

579

578Michael Francis Pettit(SOUTH AFRICAN 1950-)

WALL / SKY

signed; inscribed with the artist’s name, title and dated 1992 on the reverseoil on canvas130 by 180cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 40 000 - R 60 000

579Jill Trappler(SOUTH AFRICAN 1957-)

THE POLE THAT TURNS THE COSMOS AROUND

signed, dated 98 and inscribed with the title on the reverseacrylic on canvas149 by 170cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 35 000 - R 40 000

580Gail Catlin(SOUTH AFRICAN 1948-)

ABSTRACT

signed and dated 2004resin, plate glass, pigments and ribbon87 by 78,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 35 000 - R 45 000


581Henry Symonds(SOUTH AFRICAN 1949-)

STILL LIFE WITH A TABLE AND VASE


ILLUSTRATED

R 25 000 - R 35 000

582Henry Symonds(SOUTH AFRICAN 1949-)

THREE INTERIORS, three

each signed and dated ‘92acrylic on canvaseach approximately: 30 by 20,5cm (3)

ILLUSTRATED

R 25 000 - R 35 000

583Robert Griffiths Hodgins(SOUTH AFRICAN 1920-2010)

BLUE JERSEY

signed and inscribed with the title on the reverseoil on canvas61 by 61cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 70 000 - R 90 000

581

582

583


584Gregory John Kerr(SOUTH AFRICAN 1949-)

WOMAN

signedacrylic on canvas67 by 59cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 15 000 - R 20 000

585Andre Naudé(SOUTH AFRICAN 1950-)

FOLIAGE STUDY

signed and dated 1984oil on canvas122 by 122cm, unframed

ILLUSTRATED

R 15 000 - R 20 000

586Karin Synmove Aurora Jaroszynska(SOUTH AFRICAN 1937-)

QUASIMODO

signed and inscribed with the titlemixed media on card101 by 74cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 60 000 - R 70 000

587Glenn Cox(SOUTH AFRICAN 1969-)

EROTIC SCENE 1 and EROTIC SCENE 2, two

signedacrylic and ball point on boardthe largest: 12 by 12cm (2)

PART ILLUSTRATED

R 5 000 - R 7 000

588Andre Naudé(SOUTH AFRICAN 1950-)

FEMALE FIGURE

signed and dated 92mixed media on paper43 by 35cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 10 000 - R 15 000

586

587 PART LOT 588

584 585


589Herman Antoine Julien Henri van Nazareth(SOUTH AFRICAN/BELGIAN 1936-)

ORANGE LANDSCAPE

oil on board21 by 39cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 15 000 - R 20 000


LANDSCAPE

oil on board45 by 60cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 15 000 - R 20 000


GREEN AND RED LANDSCAPE

signed and dated 1968 on the reverseoil on board29 by 40cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 7 000 - R 9 000


BLUE HEAD

signed and dated ‘82 on the reverseoil on board68 by 59cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 14 000 - R 18 000

589

590

591

592


593John Meyer(SOUTH AFRICAN 1942-)

THE MATOPOS

signedacrylic on board36,5 by 59,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 50 000 - R 70 000

594John Meyer(SOUTH AFRICAN 1942-)

FIRST RAIN, SEPTEMBER

signed; inscribed with the artist’s name, the title and dated 1994 on the reverseacrylic on board29 by 57cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 50 000 - R 70 000

593

594


595Keith Alexander(SOUTH AFRICAN 1946-1998)

THE CALLER

signed and dated 92acrylic on canvas106 by 75,5cm

c.f. A similar work titled Agana is illustrated on p 21 of David Robbins book Keith Alexander: The Artist in Retrospect.

PROVENANCEPurchased directly from the artist

ILLUSTRATED

R 300 000 - R 400 000

595

“Isolation, impermanence and the inevitable destruction by hostile environment forces are Alexander’s central subject...in [this] work, there is the odd sense of being able to see the outlines of high drama. One senses that behind the disciplined, remarkably controlled and unfl urried reality, there are those tensions and the kind of anguish that accompanies isolation and loss.”1

The ghost mining town of Namibia provided Keith Alexander with a bounty of vistas upon which to build the body of work for which he fi rst garnered public acclaim in the late 1980s.

In The Caller, executed in 1992, we see the familiar checkerboard fl oor, crumbling in parts, leading to the omnipresent desert. Alexander’s masterful use of dramatic light and shadow effects form an integral part of the powerful composition of this work and the ambiguity of the fi gure-like shadow beyond the doorway leads the viewer to ponder the true nature of this desolate scene.

1 David Robbins, Keith Alexander: The Artist in Retrospect, Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg, 2000, p 20


596John Dronsfield(SOUTH AFRICAN 1900-1951)

AN AERIAL STILL LIFE

signedoil on board50,5 by 40cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 25 000 - R 35 000

596 597

597John Dronsfield(SOUTH AFRICAN 1900-1951)

A SURREAL STAGE DESIGN

oil on a steel plate45,5 by 35cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 20 000 - R 30 000


598Walter Whall Battiss(SOUTH AFRICAN 1906-1982)

ABSTRACT

oil on canvas39 by 50,5cm

PROVENANCEFrom the Estate of the artist, 5th Avenue Auctioneers, Johannesburg, 31 May 2003

ILLUSTRATED

R 80 000 - R 100 000

598


599Walter Whall Battiss(SOUTH AFRICAN 1906-1982)

PRELUDE TO THE DANCE


PROVENANCEPurchased from the Lidchi Gallery

EXHIBITED Sao Paulo Biennale, 1960

ILLUSTRATED

R 600 000 - R 800 000

The formative years of Walter Battiss were lived in small towns surrounded by wilderness. As a child, he had experienced the openness of the Karoo, which left an indelible impression on his perception of experienced and imagined reality. He recalled looking up at the vast desert sky and thinking that the stars existed on one plane, with the darkness as another plane, beyond the stars, and in between was a space that he felt he could inhabit where he “could bargain with the unreal”1. His exposure to the rock engraving of the Bushmen at the age of 11 struck a chord within him and in his twenties he began actively seeking out the paintings and engravings of South Africa’s fi rst people: “[w]hat I had recognised was that in all of us there is still some aspect of primitivism – the vestigial Adam”2. He realised that within this seemingly simplistic art form lay an expression of sophisticated, stylised and schematised vision, one that combined perceived and imagined reality. The harsh light of the Karoo and Highveldt infl uenced his move towards dispensing with his early Impressionistic style of painting and the illusionary rendering of space in preference for “a representation of the spiritual essence of visual reality on a two-dimensional plane.”3

Prelude to a Dance belongs to the period of artworks created between 1955 and 1962, which includes African Rocks and Figures (in the collection of the South African National Gallery), Fishermen Drawing Nets (1955), African Women (1960) and African Paradise (1961). These paintings share the same stylistic devices and subject or themes. They show Battiss looking to Africa for inspiration

and combining scenes from everyday rural village life, rites and rituals, the art of the Bushmen and that of the Ancient Egyptians. In Prelude, Battiss creates his own elusive narrative, much as the explicit meaning of the paintings of the Khoi-San artists now elude us, Battiss invites us into his imagined world to create our own narrative. The stylised fi gures become calligraphic symbols that hold whole phrases of meaning as opposed to a single letter within the Roman alphabet. During this period, Battiss was also examining Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Islamic calligraphy – that a word formed a symbolic picture of meaning.

In terms of the conventions of hierarchical proportioning in Egyptian mural painting, the three female fi gures (centre mid-left) may be read as being of the greatest importance or signifi cance. However, we may also read these as symbolic of contemporaneous reality overlaying the mythical past. These fi gures seem to be conversing with one another; one of the women holds a fruit, perhaps an apple, which then recalls the judgement of the Three Graces by Paris. Aside from the three large female fi gures rendered in black silhouettes and draped in brightly coloured and patterned wraps, all the other fi gures are depicted within the language of Khoi-San fi gurative stylisation. They are rendered in swift, calligraphic line-work, which is then fi lled in with fl at tones of colour. Battiss sought to free colour from symbolic meaning: “To enjoy colour as colour not servile to tone or science dogma, thus beholding polychrome paintings as chords of colours unsullied by superstitious associations – yellow ochre to be enjoyed

for its special yellowness, and white for its special whiteness, and black for its special blackness.”4 The fi gures reside on one plane while the background has been reduced to a fl at one-dimensional decorative surface – a patchwork of colour upon which the fi gures appear in friezes.

While these three central fi gures hold the greatest visual gravitas within the composition we are soon drawn to a fi gure on their right, that of an artist as he holds a palette and paintbrushes. One is tempted to guess that this is the fi gure of Battiss, the shaman or Wiseman-trickster. Beneath the paintbrush of the artist fi gure is a series of orange dots, in the lexicon of Bushman rock-art the most common interpretation of painted patterns and dots is seen to be evidence of the ocular stimulation that occurs in trance states. As a stylistic device within this painting, they lead the eye of the viewer from the artist to three dancing fi gures. These fi gures, their legs bent at the knees direct the eye to the group of fi gures in the top right hand corner. The turquoise fi gure is holding a black object which leads the eye across the top of the canvas to the three fi gures at top centre, who in turn direct our attention to the Khoi-San hunter fi gure on the extreme left. Showering down from him are turquoise dots leading to the large group of ochre and orange fi gures in the bottom right-hand corner. In the bottom centre is a singular non-human fi gure, a white bird. Its form is strongly reminiscent of the national bird of Zimbabwe, based on the soapstone carvings found at the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, of which Battiss would have been familiar with having


599

travelled there. Beside the bird, two white fi gures lead the eye to the last group on the middle right, their up-stretched arms leading us into the top right hand group again. Like Matisse’s La Dance (1909) the arms and legs of the dancing fi gures lead the eyes around and around the swirling motion of the dancing fi gures. Here too Battiss leads the eye through the outstretched limbs from one set of fi gures or dancers to the next.

When questioned as to why he was so drawn to the artwork of the Bushmen he replied: “When thinking over and contemplating these traces of the past, we feel a deep sympathy with the soul of these men, reincarnating something of their thought in ourselves, and so,

resuscitating in our minds part of their secret life.”5 As the artist-shaman he invites us to participate in this dance of life that we too may be lifted out of our reality into a trance – like or elevated state by either participating in the dance or allowing ourselves to be absorbed by the artwork.

C. W. H.

1 Battiss, W. Limpopo. (1965) Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik, p 7.2 From a letter to Murray Schoonraad (1946). Quoted in Schoonraad, M. Battiss and prehistoric rock art, in Skawran, Battiss, p 50.3 Skawran, K.M. Battiss and Africa: Images and Symbols, from the catalogue for Battiss and the Spirit of Place.

4 From a letter to Murray Schoonraad (1946). Quoted in Schoonraad, M. Battiss and prehistoric rock art, in Skawran, Battiss, p 515 Quoted by Schoonraad, M. Battiss and prehistoric rock art’, in Skawran, Battiss, p 47

Berman, E. (1975) The Story of South AfricanPainting, Cape Town: A.A. Balkema. Carman, G. & Isaac, S. (Eds.) Walter Battiss: Gentle Anarchist, A Retrospective Exhibition of the works


600Maurice Charles Louis van Essche(SOUTH AFRICAN 1906-1977)

TWO FIGURES, CONGO


c.f. This work was included in the SAAA SA Art Abroad exhibition of 1948. The exhibition was sponsored by the then government of the Union and was the first official undertaking of the SAAA which had been formed in 1945 to supercede the SAFAA.

ILLUSTRATED

R 200 000 - R 300 000

600

601

601Maurice Charles Louis van Essche(SOUTH AFRICAN 1906-1977)

AFRICAN GIRL

signed and dated 63gouache on cardboard36,5 by 26,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 35 000 - R 45 000


602Eleanor Frances Esmonde-White(SOUTH AFRICAN 1914-2007)

TWO WASHERWOMEN


ILLUSTRATED

R 200 000 - R 300 000

603Eleanor Frances Esmonde-White(SOUTH AFRICAN 1914-2007)

TWO FISHERMEN

signedoil on canvas29,5 by 39,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 80 000 - R 100 000

604Gerard Sekoto(SOUTH AFRICAN 1913-1993)

AFRICAN MOTHERS

signed; inscribed with title on the reversegouache on paper32 by 47cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 90 000 - R 120 000

602

603

604


605Gerard Sekoto(SOUTH AFRICAN 1913-1993)

TOWNSHIP SCENE

signed and dated ‘71oil on canvas board32 by 39cm

c.f. a similar composition appears on p 62 in colour, The Art of Gerard Sekoto by Barbara Lindop

ILLUSTRATED

R 450 000 - R 500 000

606Sidney Goldblatt(SOUTH AFRICAN 1919-1979)

MAPOGGA WOMAN

signed; inscribed with title on the reverseoil on board49 by 39,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 25 000 - R 35 000

605

606


607Alfred Neville Lewis(SOUTH AFRICAN 1895-1972)

A MAN WITH EARRINGS AND BANDANA

signedoil on canvas board40 by 29,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 60 000 - R 80 000

608Alfred Neville Lewis(SOUTH AFRICAN 1895-1972)

PONDO WOMAN GRINDING CORN

signedoil on panel25 by 34,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 50 000 - R 70 000

609George Mnyalaza Milwa Pemba(SOUTH AFRICAN 1912-2001)

GIRL WITH FIREWOOD

signed and dated 57oil on canvas laid down on board 44 by 34cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 200 000 - R 250 000

610George Mnyalaza Milwa Pemba(SOUTH AFRICAN 1912-2001)

REVIVAL

signed and dated 80; inscribed with the title on the reverseoil on board 49 by 67cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 120 000 - R 140 000

607 608

609 610


611Johannes Petrus Meintjes(SOUTH AFRICAN 1923-1980)

DREAMING CHILD

signed and dated 1946oil on panel61,5 by 48,5cm

This painting appears as entry no 121 in Johannes Meintjes dagboek 1

ILLUSTRATED

R 140 000 - R 180 000

612Johannes Petrus Meintjes(SOUTH AFRICAN 1923-1980)

HEAD WITH SEAWEED

signed and dated 1951oil on board40,5 by 27cm

This painting appears as number 326 in Meintjes dagboek 2

ILLUSTRATED

R 50 000 - R 70 000

613Irma Stern(SOUTH AFRICAN 1894-1966)

TOMATO PICKERS

signed and dated 1963felt-tip pen, watercolour and gouache on paper57 by 39cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 150 000 - R 200 000

611

612

613


614Maud Frances Eyston Sumner(SOUTH AFRICAN 1902-1985)

ST LOUIS

signedpen and ink and gouache on paper44 by 29cm

The subject of this painting is King Louis IX of France who was revered for the social reforms he implemented. He died in 1297 on his second Crusade to the Holy Land and was canonised by Pope Boniface VIII. It is probable that this watercolour was inspired by the legend and perhaps copied from a Cathedral window.

ILLUSTRATED

R 40 000 - R 60 000

615William Mitcheson Timlin(SOUTH AFRICAN 1893-1943)

FAIRY JEWELS

signed, dated 1918, inscribed with the title and with the artist’s owl device mark watercolour on artist’s sketching board36 by 53cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 40 000 - R 50 000

616Frans David Oerder(SOUTH AFRICAN 1867-1944)

CHRYSANTHEMUMS IN AN EARTHENWARE POT


PROVENANCESold: Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 6 September 2005, lot 253

ILLUSTRATED

R 60 000 - R 80 000

617Frans David Oerder(SOUTH AFRICAN 1867-1944)

DAISIES IN A GLASS VASE

signedoil on panel66,5 by 74,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 80 000 - R 100 000

614 615

616

617


618Irma Stern(SOUTH AFRICAN 1894-1966)

STILL LIFE WITH POPPIES AND FRUIT

signed and dated 1935gouache on paper63,5 by 50,5cm

PROVENANCEMichael Stevenson Fine Art, Cape Town

EXHIBITEDStandard Bank Gallery, Irma Stern: Expressions of a Journey, 2003, illustrated in colour in the catalogue on p182

ILLUSTRATED

R 900 000 - R 1200 000

Marion Arnold observed that Stern’s still life paintings are among her most sumptuous and sensuous images.1 For Irma Stern, still life was the ideal genre in which to experiment and assert her confi dence in her artistic talent.

Painted in 1935, a year after her divorce from Dr Johannes Prinz, the choice of executing such a fi nished work in the very permanent yet delicate medium of gouache is representative of Irma’s new found freedom. Stern composed the still life paintings in her studio using her favourite objects, many acquired on her travels both within and beyond the borders of South Africa. The impersonal nature of the vase, tray and white cloth in this composition serve to entice the viewer to focus instead on the items which they contain.

“In this fl ower-piece, the delicacy of the gouache medium captures the ethereal quality of the yellow and orange poppies, and the tight composition, with the blooms reaching out to the edge of the picture, refl ects the exuberance of Stern’s best still-lifes.”2

Irma Stern was always a master colourist and in this masterpiece the viewer can imbue many of the colours which she chose with emotive connotations: chartreuse (confi dence, prosperity, travel and growth), tangerine (new ideas, increased vigour) and a full spectrum of blues ranging from sky to ultramarine (intuition, generosity, travel, harmony).

Furthermore the inclusion of yellow Iceland poppies, a naartjie, long associated with prosperity and happiness, and apples emblematic of knowledge, all serve to underscore Stern’s growth exhibited at this time as an artist of merit.

Given the marriage of expressionism and keen observation, this painting demonstrates Stern’s confi dence with the often challenging medium of gouache. The surety of Irma’s hand can be clearly seen in the composition and exuberant use of colour in her middle period. This work was included in the Standard Bank Gallery’s Irma Stern: Expression of a Journey Exhibition in 2003. Inspired by her numerous travels, it is truly a work that cements the visual legacy she left behind.

P. D.

1 Marion Arnold, Irma Stern: A Feast for the Eye, Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation, Cape Town, 1994, p 125

2 Michael Stevenson and Deon Viljoen, South African Paintings 1880-1990, Cape Town, 2000


618


619François Krige(SOUTH AFRICAN 1913-1994)

SPRINGTIME


ILLUSTRATED

R 200 000 - R 250 000

After Francois Krige’s death in 1994, an astonishing number of previously unseen works were discovered in his studio. According to Justin Fox, Krige’s nephew: ‘Still life is the genre in which Krige was to make his most important contribution to South African painting.’1

In this work, Springtime, one sees an abundance of spring flowers contained within the composition by a rough mud wall. This work thereby represents a visual bridging of the genre of still life and landscape painting. This subject matter occupied much of Krige’s productivity after moving to Montagu in 1967. A strong comparison can be made between this work and the body of work produced by Claude Monet in Giverny. Monet‘s time in Giverny was spent planting his garden in colour groupings which he then left to grow wild. Krige on the other hand benefitted from the wild flowers which grow in profusion in this area. Given Krige’s love for the landscape and nostalgia with which these works were rendered, it can be said that Montagu was Krige’s Giverny

P.D.

1 Justin Fox, The Life and Art of François Krige, Fernwood Press, Cape Town, 2000, p 98619

620

620François Krige(SOUTH AFRICAN 1913-1994)

ROSES

authenticated on the reverse by Sylvia Krige (the artist’s widow) and Suzanne Fox (the artist’s sister) on 26th March 2000oil on canvas board35 by 25,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 35 000 - R 45 000


621Irmin Henkel(SOUTH AFRICAN 1921-1977)

REFLECTIONS


ILLUSTRATED

R 100 000 - R 120 000

622Irmin Henkel(SOUTH AFRICAN 1921-1977)

TWO SHELLS


ILLUSTRATED

R 40 000 - R 60 000

623Adriaan Hendrik Boshoff(SOUTH AFRICAN 1935-2007)

STILL LIFE WITH MAGNOLIAS

signedoil on canvas board121 by 89,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 500 000 - R 600 000

621 622

623



A VIEW OF THE ALPS

signedwatercolour on paper46 by 60cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 20 000 - R 30 000


THE THAMES

signedpen and ink and watercolour on paper45 by 48,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 35 000 - R 45 000


SAILING BOATS

signedwatercolour on paper37 by 54cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 40 000 - R 50 000

627John Thomas Baines(SOUTH AFRICAN 1820-1875)

A FRIGATE IN STORMY WATERS, TABLE BAY

signed and dated May 7th 1846 and inscribed with the title on a label on the reverseoil on canvas26,5 by 31,5cm

PROVENANCESold: Bonhams, The South African Sale, London, 23 May 2007, lot 13

ILLUSTRATED

R 80 000 - R 120 000

624

625

626

627


Naudé began his career as an artist focused on becoming a portraitist. His choices of attending the Slade under Alfonse Legros and the Munich Kunst Akademie under Franz von Lenbach showed his intent to master the human fi gure.

His process of becoming an artist began with a mastery of construction drawing under Legros. His mentor’s affi liation was to the Realist movement, embodied by the plein air painters of Fountainbleau, in which everyday scenes including workers at their labours were allotted great credence. Naudé moved to Fountainbleau in 1895 where he could work among the artists of the area. Satyrs in a Forest painted in 1897, refers stylistically and thematically back to his time spent in London and the prevailing Victorian Romantics and their interest in the romantic myths of antiquity.

The Wood Carriers and Two Figures working in the Afternoon Light were painted on his return to South Africa and refl ect the Realist movement and the works of artist such as Gustave Courbet. Naudé found portrait commissions scarce and slowly became more enthused with the landscape. His style developed into a form of Impressionism for which he achieved his critical acclaim of which Wildepad in die Knysna Bos, Breede River Refl ections and Amalfi Coast are all representative examples.

I.H.

Naudé A. Hugo Naudé, Struik Publishers, Cape Town, 1974

628Pieter Hugo Naudé(SOUTH AFRICAN 1868-1941)

WILDEPAD IN DIE KNYSNA BOS

signed; inscribed with the title on the reverseoil on canvas70,5 by 44,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 400 000 - R 500 000

628



SATYRS IN A FOREST


ILLUSTRATED

R 140 000 - R 180 000

629

630


THE WOOD CARRIERS

signed; signed and inscribed with the title on the stretcheroil on canvas58 by 50cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 300 000 - R 400 000



TWO FIGURES WORKING IN THE AFTERNOON LIGHT

signedoil on canvas31 by 41,5cm

PROVENANCEPurchased directly from the artist by Mr A. W. Spilhaus and housed at Hohenort House. Thence by descent to the present owner

ILLUSTRATED

R 140 000 - R 180 000


BREEDE RIVER REFLECTIONS

signedoil on panel29 by 39,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 80 000 - R 100 000


AMALFI COAST

signed; inscribed with the title on the reverseoil on artist’s board26,5 by 20,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 80 000 - R 100 000

631

633

632


634Terence John McCaw(SOUTH AFRICAN 1913-1978)

VIEW FROM THE ARTIST’S GARDEN, HOUT BAY

signed and dated 50oil on canvas66,5 by 90cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 100 000 - R 120 000

634


635Maggie (Maria Magdalena) Laubser(SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1973)

LANDSCAPE WITH HUTS, TREES AND TWO FIGURES

signedoil on panel38 by 48cm

LITERATURELiz Delmont and Dalene Marais, Maggie Laubser: Her Paintings, Drawings and Graphics, Perskor, Johannesburg, 1994, illustrated on p 335

ILLUSTRATED

R 600 000 - R 800 000

635


636Jacob Hendrik Pierneef(SOUTH AFRICAN 1886-1957)

THE DISTANT BLUE MOUNTAINS


ILLUSTRATED

R 700 000 - R 900 000

636

Pierneef visited Namibia initially on the insistence of friends who had travelled or lived there. He did so in 1923 and again in 1924. This new vista was important to the artist’s development on a number of levels; stylistically these works fused his visual languages of Impressionism with naturalistic observation. It was from this time in Namibia that the artist began to employ trees and mountains as compositional devices in the landscape for dramatic effect to express vastness and monumentality.

The colouration and aesthetic of the landscape propagated a new palette of sun-baked hues with crisp-edged shadows. The artist also drew attention to the subtle gradation of earth tones visible in the Namibian sky.

Most of these paintings were done early or late in the day, to avoid the extreme heat and exposure of the Namibian sun. Painting at these times necessitated a rapid technique which gave the work an energised and lively quality, fusing naturalistic observation with Impressionistic application of paint.

After Namibia the artist’s work became more assured, compositionally powerful and fi nely nuanced than before. The following three works date from this period.

Pierneef enjoyed a successful exhibition in July 1923 in Windhoek, where most of the works sold; an indication of the appreciation Namibian buyers had for the artist’s observation, compositions, palette and vision of the area.

I.H.

Roos N. Art in South West Africa, J.P. van der Walt, Pretoria, 1978Nel P.G. JH Pierneef, His Life and Work, Perskor, Cape Town, 1990



MIERSHOPE, SWA

signed and dated 23oil on artist’s board30 by 46cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 400 000 - R 500 000

637

638


THE PINK HOUSE NEAR WILHELMSTAL

signed and dated 23oil on artist’s board30 by 46,5cm

The house has been partially remodelled and is now the Khan River Lodge

PROVENANCECommissioned by the present owner’s family during the artist’s stay in Namibia in 1923

ILLUSTRATED

R 380 000 - R 420 000


640Gregoire Johannes Boonzaier(SOUTH AFRICAN 1909-2005)

VERLATE STRAAT EN DONKIEKAR, WINTER, DISTRIK SES (WILLIAMSSTRAAT)


PROVENANCEFrom the artist’s collection and thence by descent

ILLUSTRATED

R 350 000 - R 450 000

640

639


A PANORAMIC LANDSCAPE

signed and dated 52oil on board18 by 55cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 450 000 - R 550 000


641Gregoire Johannes Boonzaier(SOUTH AFRICAN 1909-2005)

THAMES AT KEW BRIDGE

signed, dated 1935 and inscribed with the titleoil on canvas33,5 by 44cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 80 000 - R 100 000

642Pranas Domsaitis(SOUTH AFRICAN 1880-1965)

KAROO LANDSCAPE 2


ILLUSTRATED

R 60 000 - R 80 000

643Carl Adolph Büchner(SOUTH AFRICAN 1921-2003)

WATERFALL

signedoil on canvas board45 by 60cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 25 000 - R 35 000

644Carl Adolph Büchner(SOUTH AFRICAN 1921-2003)

OFF TO CHURCH

signedoil on paper laid down on card43,5 by 53,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 25 000 - R 35 000

641

642

643

644


645Alfred Frederic Krenz(SOUTH AFRICAN 1899-1980)

WESTERN CAPE LANDSCAPE

signed and dated 1971pastel on paper22 by 31cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 15 000 - R 20 000


LESOTHO LANDSCAPE

signed and dated 58oil on canvas board44 by 59cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 40 000 - R 60 000

PROPERTY OF THE ESTATE LATE MR D A P MORT


FARM BUILDINGS IN A RURAL LANDSCAPE

signed and dated 68oil on canvas board44,5 by 60cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 40 000 - R 60 000

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

648Errol Stephen Boyley(SOUTH AFRICAN 1918-2007)

WOODCUTTER’S COTTAGE, KNYSNA

signed; inscribed with the title on the reverseoil on board59 by 43,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 30 000 - R 40 000

646

645

647

648



HOMESTEAD, KNYSNA


ILLUSTRATED

R 35 000 - R 45 000


FISHERIES, ST HELENA BAY

signed; inscribed with the title on the reverseoil on board50 by 75cm

PROVENANCEGallery 101, Johannesburg

ILLUSTRATED

R 35 000 - R 45 000


AMBLING FIGURES ON A BEACH

signedoil on board50 by 75,5cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 40 000 - R 60 000


FISHING BOATS AT THEIR MOORINGS

signedoil on board49,5 by 75cm

ILLUSTRATED

R 40 000 - R 60 000

653 – 660 NO LOTS

649

650

651

652

session 3) 541-660 paintings

Documents

anton van wouwsouth

complete illustrated

eva chadwick

condition reports available

south african sculpture541

lynn chadwickbritish

edoardo villasouth african

series of works