SA Art Times June 2019

JUNE 2019 WWW.ARTTIMES.CO.ZA

SPRING AUCTION Cape Town, 1 September 2019

Modern & Contemporary Art VENUE Avenue, V&A Waterfront 40 Dock Road, Cape Town

SELL WITH US. CONSIGN NOW. ENQUIRIES & ART VALUATIONS CAPE TOWN +27 21 418 0765 | +27 83 283 7427 | ct@aspireart.net JOHANNESBURG +27 11 243 5243 | +27 71 675 2991 | enquiries@aspireart.net

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Gerard Sekoto, Lady in Red

Andrew Kayser A Moderate Bliss 27 June – 30 August

Opening 27 June, 2019 18h00

THK GALLERY 52 Waterkant Street Cape Town t: +27 (0) 87 470 0178 e: office@thkgallery.com

CONTENTS

Art Times June Edition 2019 14) WILLIAM KENTRIDGE The Largest Kentridge Exhibition in Africa 20) ‘KAT’ EMNYAMA’

by Tony Gum 28) KWAAI VOL.2 ‘Wat van ons?’

36) EUBEN BEUKES Hyper Realistic 42) BEN COUTOUVIDIS Celebrate strong ties with the Karoo 48) OLIEWENHUIS Winter Exhibition highlights 60) THE CLAY PROJECT Solo Studios, Arts Town Riebeek Valley 66) A MEETING OF MINDS RMB TAF 2019 70) RETHINKING ART AUCTIONS 74) PRESERVING THE VALUE OF ART COLLECTIONS 78 HISTORICAL ARTISTS PROVE THEIR STAYING POWER 86) THE ART OF SELLING ..ANYTHING! 90) ARTGO 104) NEW BLOOD FOR A NEW WORLD 118) A GOOD READ JUNE 2019 COVER

Cover: Tony Gum, Sweet Saboteur, c-type fuji crystal archival print, dibond mounted, 153 x 107 cm, edition of 10

Left: Louis Maqhubela; Composition with Cockerel, Dog, Figure and Fish, TAF 2019

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Letter from the editor SOUTH AFRICA’S LEADING VISUAL ARTS PUBLICATION

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e are really in for a treat this cool season - it used to be called Winter - but given the abundance of art shows and treats, its going to be anything but quiet and slow.

To kick off, we have the absolute pleasure of looking forward to Blockbuster Kentridge shows, both at Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation in Cape Town. Kentridge hasn’t forgotten his roots and will indulge the most sleepy Capetonian with his creative genius, in two of our beautiful local cathedrals to art.

Helen Sabidi will be taking centre stage at Oliewenhuis and will dazzle us with her colourful works of art so beautifully painted with a feather.

In addition to this blaze of colour, be sure not to miss the Solo Studios in Riebeek Kasteel, one of the finest art festivals around.

Art literally takes over the town in a well managed and clean crisp country environment. As beautiful, if not more real than a Country Life Magazine cover. One feels that one is going back to the old Grahamstown Festival days where the air was electrifying with art, beauty, creativity and the locals very hospitable and friendly.

In the artist town of Prince Albert, be sure to catch Ben Coutouvidis showing at the famous Prince Albert Gallery. The town, like Riebeek Kasteel, is more dry, quiet and clean like a Savanna Cider, that has the ability of clearing ones mind of any city blues. Ben’s work is both beautiful, playful, sensitive and quirky.

In moving ahead in this cool season, be sure not to miss the Hermanus FynArts Festival as well as well as the Turbine Art Fair that has moved upmarket to Illovo, Johannesburg.

Lastly, I would like to thank all who have submitted their incredible artwork to Newblood from all sections of SA school art departments. The kids have raw and real talent. Sometimes I wish I had as much to say and was as talented when I was their age.

Please be sure to go to our Newblood section on our very popular website www.arttimes.co.za/newblood Speaking of where to go artwise, be sure to follow our daily updated ARTGO – the most substantial SA art and gallery listings in the world www.artgo.co.za I could go on about the incredible things happening in the local art world, but given the shortage of space I would like to refer you to visiting us at www.arttimes.co.za and enjoy a universe of colour energy… and red hot chilly coolness!

Editor, Gabriel Clark-Brown

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CONTACT ART TIMES Tel: 021 424 7733 P.O Box 428 Rondebosch 7701 EDITOR Gabriel Clark-Brown editor@arttimes.co.za ON THE KEYS Brendan Body ADVERTISING & MARKETING Eugene Fisher sales@arttimes.co.za SEND AD MATERIAL sales@arttimes.co.za DIGITAL MEDIA & EVENT LISTINGS Jan Croft subs@arttimes.co.za ARTGO CONTENT info@artgo.co.za RIGHTS: THE ART TIMES MAGAZINE RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REJECT ANY MATERIAL THAT COULD BE FOUND OFFENSIVE BY ITS READERS. OPINIONS AND VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THE SA ART TIMES DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT THE OFFICIAL VIEWPOINT OF THE EDITOR, STAFF OR PUBLISHER, WHILE INCLUSION OF ADVERTISING FEATURES DOES NOT IMPLY THE NEWSPAPER’S ENDORSEMENT OF ANY BUSINESS, PRODUCT OR SERVICE. COPYRIGHT OF THE ENCLOSED MATERIAL IN THIS PUBLICATION IS RESERVED.

@ARTTIMES.CO.ZA

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Gerard Sekoto | PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN | R 600 000 - R 900 000

Auction | Cape Town | 1 & 2 July 2019 The Old Mutual Conference Centre | Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens | Rhodes Drive | Newlands

Preview | 28, 29 & 30 June 2019 | 10am - 5pm Walkabout conducted by Anton Welz, Saturday 29 June, 11am www.swelco.co.za | 021 794 6461 | ct@swelco.co.za

Downlo ad t he fre e Ste p han We lz & Co. ap p

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WILLIAM KENTRIDGE

Two of South Africa’s leading art institutions to host largest William Kentridge exhibition in Africa

Photos William Kentridge Studio

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ape Town, 20 May 2019: The largest exhibition to be held in Africa in over a decade by internationally acclaimed artist William Kentridge is set to open in Cape Town in August. The major exhibition of his work will be hosted simultaneously in two parts by the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) and Norval Foundation, opening 24 August and running through to March 2020.

Local art enthusiasts and international visitors to Cape Town – a fast-growing cultural capital – will gain access to many different works, executed over decades, by William Kentridge in two of the city’s leading art institutions at the same time, with the artist’s Why Should I Hesitate? Putting Drawings To Work on display at Zeitz MOCAA and Why Should I Hesitate?

Sculpture on view at Norval Foundation.

Why Should I Hesitate? Putting Drawings To Work, will be staged at Zeitz MOCAA and will offer a wide survey of Kentridge’s work, including early works, as well as newer pieces on view for the first time in South Africa. It will cover over 40 years of artistic production (1976 - 2019) in drawing, stop-frame animation, video, prints, sculpture, tapestry, and large-scale installation. The title references Kentridge’s primary practice of drawing, and how this core activity informs and enables his studio practice. It also references the impact of individual action on history and the reverse – how history shapes the contemporary and the future – and works as a commentary on various shifting hegemonies of power politics, economies, language and the authority to narrate history.

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“This large scale survey exhibition prompts us to consider how various artistic media, initiated from two-dimensional works on paper, can be seeds through which Kentridge has developed his concerns for history, particularly in relation to his home continent, Africa, and its historical ties further afield. By mapping these histories we consider the artist’s relationship to the world and ideas of self-actualisation, and the illusions of power and progress through a violent history.

Kentridge’s work, while ambiguous, does not hide from its inherent traumatic history. It is an honour for me to work with one of the living masters of our time,” says Azu Nwagbogu, curator of the exhibition at Zeitz MOCAA.

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“As I begin my tenure, it is an intense joy to host an unprecedented survey show of one of the great masters of contemporary visual political poetry,” says Koyo Kouoh, Executive Director and Chief Curator at Zeitz MOCAA. Why Should I Hesitate? Sculpture, will be on view at Norval Foundation, and will present three-dimensional work of William Kentridge from the past 19 years. This will be the first exhibition internationally to address Kentridge’s output as a sculptor. Covering several bodies of work, and testifying to his longstanding and spontaneous improvisation when handling three-dimensional form, Why

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evolved towards the massive, and the monumental. Simultaneously, and in tension to the monumental aspects of his practice, he is revealed to be a choreographer as much as a sculptor,” says Karel Nel, Senior Advising Curator at Norval Foundation.

“Norval Foundation is proud to be hosting Why Should I Hesitate? Sculpture. A key aspect of the Foundation is our commitment to exhibiting the sculptural and installation based practices of a variety of artists, which is facilitated by our purpose-designed building. In particular, we invite artists and curators to respond to gallery eight, our largest gallery, with William Kentridge’s exhibition exemplifying this. The gallery has reinforced floors to support works that weigh as much as eight tons, and reach as high as nine metres. The monumental size of this gallery sits in an ideal contrast to the anti-monumental, spontaneous and theatrical sculptures that form part of this exhibition,” says Elana Brundyn, CEO, Norval Foundation.

Both exhibitions will include major works from Kentridge’s extensive oeuvre, and will be accompanied by two new publications, conceived in collaboration between Zeitz MOCAA, Norval Foundation and the artist. The exhibitions will be accompanied by a series of talks and performances with the artist, and leading voices in the cultural sector.

OPENING EVENTS A series of member events and public programmes will be held across both venues over the opening weekend, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 August 2019.

Should I Hesitate? Sculpture sees the origins of these works in props from his operas and images from his animations stepping off the stage and out of the screen, confronting us directly at ground level. Why Should I Hesitate? Sculpture will also premiere new works commissioned for the occasion of this special exhibition.

“Norval Foundation is presenting, for the first time, an exhibition focused solely on William Kentridge’s sculptural practice, working in conjunction with the artist and his studio. Kentridge’s sculptures embrace a spontaneous approach and have recently

Exhibition title: Why Should I Hesitate?

Putting Drawings To Work Venue: Level 3 Galleries and throughout, Zeitz MOCAA; Silo District, V&A Waterfront Run dates: 25 August 2019 – 23 March 2020 Exhibition curators: Azu Nwagbogu, assisted by Tammy Langtry Exhibition title: Why Should I Hesitate?

Sculpture Venue: Atrium and Galleries 2-8, Norval Foundation, 4 Steenberg Road, Tokai Run dates: 24 August 2019 – 23 March 2020 Exhibition curators: Karel Nel, Owen Martin, Talia Naicker, Vicky Lekone

‘KAT’EMNYAMA’ BY TONY GUM christophermollerart.co.za

Memoir (noun) [Unlike an autobiography, which spans one’s entire life, a memoir focuses on one particular moment or series of moments around a theme. Readers walk away knowing you, and that one experience, on a much deeper level].

Some say that in our vulnerability lies strength and that, on the other side of fear is love.

Cliché and profound phrases like these are largely the preserve of extraordinary but often, transformative experiences. Belonging to what we know in South Africa as the ‘born free’ generation, those born into a postdemocracy South Africa.

In 2019, South Africa turns 25 years old, arriving at a significant ‘turning of age’ of its very own. In ‘human terms’, twenty-five signals maturity, adequate early life experience, informing future choices, decision-making and outcomes. At 25 years young, South Africa has arrived at a defining moment in time to reflect on its choice and decisions to date, coloured by immense darkness, pain, trauma and uncertainty, following the apartheid years. Whilst I was not yet born during the years of oppressive apartheid rule, like most of my peers, I relate to what life might have been like pre-democracy. Not only because they still experience remnants of the system today but also because, like a young adult coming to terms with the process of maturity, transformation and healing takes time. It is the fine art of self-mastery, the process of addressing hard and often-brutal truths.

As a ‘born-free’, I can say with conviction, the first two decades of life come with a myriad of complex, intense, contrasting, yet sometimes thrilling encounters that stretch us beyond our comfort zone. I am beginning to appreciate that expansion is integral to life’s tapestry. By going through the refinement process and not necessarily around it, we connect with our unique life’s purpose and reason for being (raison d’être). For artists, creativity offers a unique, perhaps less regimented framework and language with which to articulate and express those nuances unique to each individual’s journey. Creative expression is the tool most aligned to my sense of being ultimately, manifesting as the conversation I wish to have in the world.

As within so without, art, like the eyes, pose as a window to the soul. Through the creative lens, we access intimate ideas; concepts and lessons derived, whether we are in the spotlight, in focus and when we are out of the ‘spotlight’. The more comfortable I am with myself, and my creative language, the more fluent and fluid I become. The more freedom experienced, the deeper I can go, contributing to broader narratives including, culture, identity, gender, and colonisation. These are among important subjects I have explored via mixed-media genres, digital, scenography and painting in my previous bodies of work, for instance; ‘The Land of Milk and Honey’, ‘Ode to She’ and ‘Free Da Gum’. More recently, however, I extended my range and creative repertoire to include sculpture through a series entitled; ‘Rock Cause Analysis’, which examines the importance of recognising the

“As a ‘born-free’, I can say with conviction, the first two decades of life come with a myriad of complex, intense, contrasting, yet sometimes thrilling encounters that stretch us beyond our comfort zone.”

Left: Tony Gum, You are Me & I am You II, c-type fuji crystal archival print, dibond mounted, 153 x 107 cm, edition of 10

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Crossing of Cultivation, 200cm X 100cm, Photography, resin, Found objects, Paint, Layers

contribution made by women to the evolution of our culture and society by placing them on plinths, particularly Xhosa women, being a Xhosa woman myself.

A prerequisite to continued growth and evolution, not only as an artist but, as a whole person, means delving deeper into the moment to achieve our greatest potential.

Being open to the wisdom that often, what challenges us stretches and expands towards our true potential.

This body of work is, therefore, a personal manifesto. It is resilience made manifest. It is symbolic of what it means to be ‘open’, vulnerable, bold and fearless. The things that true authenticity requires of each of us.

The willingness to go beyond one’s comfort zone, whilst immersed in the unknown where uncertainty and feelings of alienation often reside. It is learning to hold one’s center when all seems unbearable, could crumble at the blink of an eye, it is finding it within ourselves to hold onto the intangible (faith) sources of strength and wisdom - what we come to know as our ‘life experience’.

A personal self-reflective series, this new body of work is inspired by my most recent experiences which have come with a spectrum of emotions - pain, fear, rage, loss, darkness and the unknown, eventually reconnecting with, love, hope, light and joy.

Accounting for the process of transformation as an artist is fundamentally also about being honest and deliberate. Whilst being an artist is in many respects, liberating and healing, a pre-requisite to this sense of freedom includes the responsibility to create from a place of integrity and truth.

Symmetry or duality, monochromatic themes, anthropomorphism and scenography, are some of the modalities I employ to capture states of inner turmoil, rebellion and my healing journey unfolding. This project evokes several primal yet catalytic states I have wrestled with; on one hand, ‘creation’, giving life to something or the nurturing of life which conjures absolute connection, love and belonging, whilst, loss, purging and abandonment bear emotional and spiritual detachment.

Riding The Putsch, c-type fuji crystal archival print, dibond mounted, 153 x 107 cm, edition of 10.

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Above: You Are Me & I Am You I, c-type fuji crystal archival print, dibond mounted, 153 x 107 cm, edition of 10 Right: November 14th, c-type fuji crystal archival print, dibond mounted, 153 x 107 cm, edition of 10.

I have found solace and serenity in simple yet strong palettes, red possibly the strongest, most indicative; culturally and spiritually symbolic like these and representative of the journey – red carries life force, oxygenated blood, and fertility in women, red denotes fire, intensity and passion. White and black occupy their distinctive realms; yin/yang, light and dark are symbiotic in many ways relative to culture and reference points. One gives form and shape to the other – black holds space for light to shine, white gives depth and form to the dark. More simplistically, however, black symbolises death and white, purity and light. This series is a journey with myself, accompanied by new friends, lovers, both human and of the animal kingdom, like my black cat, Diesel. Animals in many ways reflect the true essence of our souls and emotions.

Kat’emnyama ‘Kat’ in Xhosa, Tony Gum’s mother tongue means cat in English. Black cats in most African cultures are synonymous with ‘bad luck’ or evil spirits. In this series, the artist in a deliberate, quasi-rebellious fashion places a double-headed black cat above her

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head, also reflected in duality. The black cat, Kat’emnyama, rests across both her heads and body upheld by a body adorned in black suite, and a head adorned in a white raincoat Gum captures her state of dissonance, internal turmoil, darkness, however, emphasizing that both light and dark make for ‘a whole’ picture. We cannot embrace one side or aspect of ourselves without coming to terms with the other, no matter how scary, dark or broken. Boldly challenging cultural constructs for what eKat’emnayma represents among African people. Palms together, centered prayer position offer the definitive signifier, we are each predisposed to both enabling and experiences that manifest, when all seems overwhelmingly dark (double-headed black cat), when we want to believe the answers and solutions are outside of ourselves, they are always within, the moment we align to this eternal wisdom.

During the period of significant loss, Tony Gum adopted a black cat (she named Diesel) ‘Kat’emnayama became proxy for her anticipated role as nurturer. This relationship formed with Diesel Kat’emnyama, allowed her to self-reflect given very little was familiar

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Get Better Soon, c-type fuji crystal archival print, dibond mounted, 153 x 107 cm, edition of 10

anymore; in body, mind and spirit. Diesel held the mirror up to Tony’s spirit and soul – this red series, explores with intensity and dexterity, the inner-self, internal states brought to life in the external through Gum’s creative lens – photography, symmetry, monochromatic wash colour palette and her signature selfportraiture style.

Self Well aware of what is going on, but still is reckless. Became a person that was unrecognisable to self in relationships.

Those closest to me bore the brunt of my emotional state of flux. Sometimes we have to experience a certain thing (even painful) in order to be closer to the ultimate self.

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Reminiscent of another young South African photographer, Phumzile Khanyile’s Plastic Crowns series, 2016 Phumzile Khanyile, born 1991 in Soweto, South Africa, through selfportraiture, explores what she identifies as, ‘the tragic boundaries of what my grandmother would consider a ‘good woman’, probing stereotypical ideas of gender, sexual preference and related stigmas and their relevance in contemporary society’. Challenging socio-cultural constructs, placing their narratives in focus, Gum and Khanyile make bold yet ethereal statements unequivocal about taking their ‘seat at the table’ of discourse on contestation, ‘self awareness’ and transformation. – Lungi Morrison.

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Christopher Moller Gallery 7 Kloofnek Road, Cape Town; www.christophermollerart.co.za; @christophermoller_gallery

KWAAI VOL.2 Eclectica Collection

www.eclecticacontemporary.co.za

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espite the negative connotations that the words ‘coloured identity’ conjure, the artists exhibiting at Eclectica have chosen to celebrate this culture with the hope of creating a positive awareness of its diversity. This exhibition hopes to contribute and reinforce positivity towards change in our coloured community.

We wish to highlight the rich contributions of coloured people, both culturally and politically.

The contributions to culture have been diverse and unique across language, music, theatre, literature, the arts and food! Politically, and especially in the Western and Eastern Cape, the legacy is long and impactful with many heroes, luminaries, leaders and movements.

‘Coloureds’ have and continue to make, an enormous contribution to South Africa.

Even though the aim of this exhibition is to celebrate ‘coloured’ identity we should not forget the systematic way in which ‘coloured’ people in South Africa, especially in Cape Town and its outskirts, remain marginalized.

Their shared sentiment seems to be a feeling of imprisonment in a cycle of invisibility and exclusion. A concern often expressed is, “Wat van ons?” - which talks about exclusion from opportunities, be it economic, social or political.

The outcry amongst ‘coloured’ people in the townships is that they have been forgotten.

Above: Faatimah Mohamed-Luke, Pink Threesome, 2018, 2963 plastic blocks mounted to aluminium, 60 x 86 cm. Left: Dion Cupido, Demockery, 2018, Mixed media, 120 X 120 cm

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Above: Boeta Phyf, Twee Gevriet, 2015 Mixed media, 95.5 x 113 cm Right: Chelsea Robin Ingham, We lam it uit, 2017 Silkscreen print on fabriano paper, limited edition 1of1. 70,5cm x 50cm

Do we want to be defined? How important is this definition in a South African context?

Opening a dialogue can act as a catalyst in understanding our identity and can simultaneously provide a means of healing.

We need to openly speak about the impact of our slave history, our imposed identity, our struggle founded within the cruel and oppressive Apartheid state and the consequences of social and economic injustices our current democratic state has inherited. Understanding the past, how it links to the present, and lived experiences, should create deeper insight into the community and identity of ‘coloureds’ and deeper insight into their fears, hopes and dreams.

Embracing the ‘coloured’ identity is not easy.

‘Coloured’ people have been stereotyped as uneducated, lacking in heritage; as drunks,

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gangsters and “tik koppe”. As a result of an oppressive system, we are met with social ultimatums that require us to either accept or reject an oppressive consciousness in order to attain some socio-economic benefits and/or higher social status. Our choices throughout recent and colonial South African history, has been either to align ourselves with the dominant white race, assimilate into it, or fight against it.

Many in our ‘coloured’ community lack a sense of origin. This can be destabilizing because it creates a deep unsettling emotion of not belonging, of not being part of anything, of having “no culture or heritage”. It is often aggravated by our lack of knowledge of where we come from. Most of our elders refuse to talk about the past, either simply because they don’t know, or they were embarrassed or traumatized by their slave history.

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Farai Engelbrecht, 2019, Mixed media on glass, 114 x 113 cm

Instead, European ancestry is celebrated.

Additionally so are other more place-able heritages, whether from India or elsewhere in the East. Ironically, racism and orientalism manifested in ‘coloured’ communities, using the same hierarchy that promotes whiteness, white culture and the West as superior.

When we look back on history that extends outside of race and class, it is evident that there needs to be a disruption in the oppressive cycles for further liberation to occur. The stories told, the songs sang need

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to be brought to the forefront. It is within the creativity of our ‘coloured’ communities that many of them have found refuge and have managed to create aspirations for a better future. Many eras have passed, each of them imposing their own context onto an entire nation. Yet, we have reached a time, where there is necessity in not only celebrating who we are and our diversity, but to speak up against new forms of oppression and systematic control.

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Opening : 06 June 2019

+27214224145 | 69 Burg Street. info@eclecticacontemporary.co.za www.eclecticacontemporary.co.za

Vol.2

COLLECTIVE DELUSION group exhibition

Opening 06 June 2019

+27214224145 | 69 Burg Street,Cape Town info@eclecticacontemporary.co.za | www.eclecticacontemporary.co.za

NEW BREED ART COMPETITION

Winning artists mentored for Winners Group Exhibition in August Photos: Eye Poetry Photography www.newbreedart.co.za

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kululeko Nkebe is an artist so multitalented that he won the 2018 New Breed Art Competition by entering what he considered to be his “back-up plan”.

Nkululeko won this one-of-its-kind Free State art competition, presented by Phatshoane Henney Attorneys in association with Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein, last year with a compelling pen sketch, titled Youth ‘Slaves’ To Education, commenting on the struggles of youth and education and the fine line that exists between finding work or slipping into a life of crime and poverty driven by economic necessity.

A panel of four independent judges* agreed that with the exceptional use of pen on paper, and through outstanding composition and execution, Nkululeko had visually and movingly invoked the viewer to consider the frail economic position of today’s youth in relation to the demand for education.

At the awards evening where he received his R50 000 in prize money, Nkululeko however bashfully revealed that he had initially intended to enter a bronze sculpture. Yet due to the bronze not arriving on time to be poured in its awaiting mould, his art lecturer at the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein advised that he should focus on his pen sketch instead.

“Since winning this competition, I’ve been hugely motivated to develop my sketching ability,” he remarks. In fact, at this moment he is fully immersing himself in creating a number of intricate pen sketches that are to be showcased

as part of the competition’s New Breed Winners Group Exhibition to be held in August 2019.

This exhibition forms part of the winners’ prize offering of the annual New Breed Art Competition, which – now in its fourth year – is aimed at discovering and showcasing the careers of a new and emerging breed of artists from the Free State.

Nkululeko will be exhibiting his new works along with Katlego Mogoera, 2018 runner-up and Public Choice Award winner, Petra Schutte, Merit Award Winner, and Xola Sello, Merit Award Winner.

With a significant focus on artistic development in the run-up to the exhibition, all four artists are receiving close mentorship, preparation and curation support from renowned artist, Pauline Gutter, as well as Karen Brusch, founder of the Free State Art Collective and former Director of Gallery MOMO Johannesburg.

Following the exhibition, entries for the 2019 New Breed Art Competition will take place from 16-22 September at Oliewenhuis Art Museum.

More information about the 2019 round of the competition as well as the official entry form can be found at www.newbreedart.co.za. *The 2018 judges were Dr Same Mdluli, Manager of the Standard Bank Art Gallery in Johannesburg, Lawrence Lemaoana, renowned Johannesburg artist, along with Brusch and Gutter.

The New Breed Winners Group Exhibition opens on 7 August 2019 at the head office of Phatshoane Henney Attorneys in Bloemfontein.

“New Breed Art Competition, which – now in its fourth year – is aimed at discovering and showcasing the careers of a new and emerging breed of artists from the Free State.”

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Nkululeko Nkebe with his winning pen sketch, Youth ‘Slaves’ To Education

Petra Schutte with her work, Expiration of my environment

Katlego Mogoera, Nkululeko Nkebe, Petra Schutte and Xola Sello at the awards evening last year.

Xola Sello with his entry, My economy

Katlego Mogoera with her work, Girl balancing cigarette on lips

EBEN

Art@Africa Gallery 6 June 2019

Written by Briony Haynes Curated by Nadine Froneman

The Provider, 2018, Charcoal pencil, PITT oil based pencil.

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ben is one of South Africa’s new and upcoming artists. At the age of 21 Eben is drawing at a level beyond his years.

Having never attended art school and only starting his first hyper realistic drawing in 2018 Eben is already becoming the artists to watch. His raw talent for capturing light and texture in his charcoal drawings allows him to produce thought provoking works addressing the impact the environment has on mankind and the impact mankind has on the environment.

Eben will be exhibiting his first series entitled Generations which is strongly focused on the appearance of hands in art. An interesting choice of subject matter that could be deemed as one of the first appearances of art in history.

By looking back to the early prehistoric ages, some of the first recorded cave paintings depict hands of the individuals who inhabited there. In analyzing this representation of hands alongside Eben’s drawings, it can be argued that he is directly juxtaposing the way in which prehistoric individuals imparted themselves into nature by depicting the way nature has imparted itself onto the individual. He does this by drawing attention to minute scars, cuts and blemishes taking the attention away from the

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Previous Page: Time, 2018, Charcoal pencil, PITT oil based pencil.

Above: Precious, 2018 Charcoal pencil, PITT oil based pencil.

hands themselves and towards the questions of from where have these wounds have appeared. Eben can be seen in this way to be linking the idea of individuals and nature by interlacing the two. However, in the way Eben presents the hands in a sturdy, stable position despite natures weathering, he is suggesting strength and solidarity in the individual against the harsh realities of the world.

On his work, ‘The Provider’, the image shows a drawing of Eben’s grandfather’s hands.

They are weathered and scarred from once building roads as a living making the link between humans and the physical marks they leave upon each other. Eben additionally draws our attention to the small details on the hands to place importance on autobiographical narratives and past memories whereby the marks are a result of experiences which mold identity. Through focusing on his grandfather he is once again linking the idea of inheriting identities from prior generations.

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Eben’s series has evolved to hold particular significance to the interplay of the themes of tradition, power and nature. His later works have incorporated aspects of physical natural elements to suggest how we must always return to our roots in a world that is so preoccupied with technology. His work leads to discussions of what mankind has done to the world and provokes thoughts as to how we can return to this more natural and organic way of life. This is similarly suggested in the ways he uses his families hands in his works to highlight the idea of tradition and origines.

Event title: Generations Time: 6:30pm till 10pm Opening date: 6 June 2019 Location: Art@Africa Gallery , Clocktower Centre- V&A Waterfront Visit Art@Africa’s blog on Eben at: artatafrica.art/insights/human-art-eben-beukes/

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BEN COUTOUVIDIS Solo exhibition at Prince Albert Gallery, 5 July 2019 www.princealbertgallery.co.za

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en Coutouvidis will celebrate his strong ties with the Karoo in a new show at the Prince Albert Gallery from July 5.

Since graduating with distinction from Rhodes University in 1993, Ben has exhibited widely, and this exhibition brings him back to his family’s heartland.

‘Great Karoo’ was his first solo exhibition in Cape Town at the Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery in 2004, followed by ‘Kalk Bay to Karibib’ the next year.

Over the next decade in Cape Town his work was shown in exhibitions titled: Encounters, Play-scape, Still, Big Sky, African Landscapes, Spectra, and Seeing Things.

In 2015 he showed his work in the East/West Exhibition with Lisa Strachan at Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town; and The Crossing – a multimedia installation, was next. In 2018, Ben’s solo show, at Eclectica Contemporary, was titled ‘Limb’. His evocative titles allude to perception and the process of painting.

In 2005 Ben said that he would classify himself as a ‘free-range painter’. “I use a wide range of painters, past and present, to guide me - as touchstones”.

Currently he is re-imagining landscapes painted by others. He explains, “I am on an interesting pursuit, crisscrossing Walter Meyer’s path. And there’s David Schenker, who, over many years has produced and catalogued photographs of southern Namibia.

He’s photographed places Walter Meyer painted and in turn Meyer has used some of his photographs”.

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“I take on and further another’s presentation of the landscape.

I ask myself; to what extent can one lay claim to it?”

“In a catalogue of Meyer’s I saw his painting of Burgersdorp. I subsequently used another image of the town taken from a high vantage point and discovered that the point of view is different from Walter’s: I have never been to Burgersdorp but I recognized the image because of Walter’s painting. And I was able to represent a place that “I know - but also don’t know specifically.”

“I have made a painting of David Goldblatt photographing the horizon line of Johannesburg. He was recording his experience and at the same time he was editing how the landscape is represented.

Herman Niebuhr has painted a similar view of the skyline from his studio: he knows this view.

And I know it - it’s the same thing.”

“I take on and further another’s presentation of the landscape. I ask myself; to what extent can one lay claim to it?’ It is like walking a labyrinth repeatedly. There are so many ways of being in the landscape.”

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While adding a layer to another’s artwork Ben asks questions about the experience of looking and seeing recorded by the artist.

And as the viewer we experience the tactile quality of paint layered on paint. Coutouvidis’ asserts the painting as a material, almost sculptural relief.

In this exhibition, Ben groups smaller paintings close to seemingly everyday scenes, or open landscape views. The larger paintings refer to natural or constructed environments in which people’s lives play out. The smaller paintings capture activity, “… things that happen in these places. I hang them together as they set up associated memories or stories. They change and can be shifted every time you group them together.”

Coutouvidis invites each of us to find our place within the landscape. Artworks featured are currently untitled. A comprehensive catalogue will be available soon at princealbertgallery.co.za

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ENTRIES • 16 – 22 September

COMPETITION

newbreedart.co.za

OLIEWENHUIS ART MUSEUM WINTER HIGHLIGHTS www.nasmus.co.za

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liewenhuis Art Museum is a satellite of the National Museum in Bloemfontein, an agency of the Department of Arts and Culture, South Africa. The Art Museum houses between 12 and 15 temporary exhibitions per annum. Every attempt is made to provide excellent exhibition space for artists to exhibit their work and to enrich the public’s knowledge, understanding and appreciation of our cultural heritage and to reflect the full diversity of South African art. During this month, the following exceptional exhibitions can be viewed: Current Exhibitions include; Basotho Blankets Exhibition until 23 June 2019 The anthropology collection of the National Museum, Bloemfontein houses a large collection of Basotho blankets. Most are part of the Robertson collection, on loan from Neil Robertson’s family. Neil Robertson was a thirdgeneration tradesman in Basotho blankets, the grandson of Charles Hendry Robertson.

What makes this collection of blankets unique is the time span over which it was collected.

The collection includes a Sandringham mountain rug or Mohodu dating back to 1934, a Badges of the brave blanket honouring those who fought during World War II (19391945) as well as a Batho ba Roma blanket made to commemorate Pope John Paul’s visit to Lesotho in 1988. But certainly the most prestigious blanket in the collection is the Victoria England / Seanamarena or ‘chief’s blanket’. All of the above-mentioned blankets form part of the exhibition on display in the Annex gallery of the Art Museum.

Basotho Blankets, Oliewenhuis

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Above: Metaron’s cube, Laser Engraving on Supawood, granit and gold dust.

Right: Exhibition in the Reservoir, Oliewenhuis Art Museum.

Harmonia: Sacred Geometry, the pattern of existence by Gordon Froud until 23 June 2019 Gordon Froud, well-known curator, sculptor and Senior Lecturer in sculpture at University of Johannesburg presents a new body of work that investigates various aspects of sacred geometry in the world around us. His cone virus sculptures (pointed polyhedra) on rooftops, in parks and on the streets, have become iconic in the cities and towns of Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Stellenbosch and most recently in Richmond in the Eastern Cape. Having featured steel mesh geometric sculptures at Nirox Sculpture Park, Hermanus

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Fyn Arts festivals, Boschendal and Almenkerk wine estates, Froud has constructed a show that brings his research into focus for a monumental mid-career exhibition that was shown at the prestigious Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg. This show has since travelled to Cavalli Equestrian Estate Gallery in Somerset West, KKNK festival, Oudtshoorn and is now on show in the Reservoir at Oliewenhuis Art Museum until 23 June 2019.

This extensive body of work (over 100 pieces) ranges from small-scale resin works to a monumental 6.5m high polyhedron made from 18 giant road cones – manufactured and sponsored by Sinvac Plastics in Pretoria.

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TIMELESS – Between Matter & Spirit, a solo exhibition by artist Dr Esther Mahlangu until 23 June 2019 Africa’s diverse cultural heritage and dignity is uniquely celebrated by the work and life-long commitment of artist and global Ndebele cultural icon, Dr Esther Mahlangu.

Beathur Mgoza Baker reflects on how: “Her life defies chronology and her talent, defies the conventions of the Western art as a truly African articulation of our collective cultural heritage”. In South Africa we embrace her as a national treasure, a wise elder and passionate, committed ambassador who has captivated the interest and imagination of the world with her gift, and her beautiful understanding of how art is central to our cultural identity as human beings. Even at the age of eighty three the iconic artist still continues producing work and creative interpretations of the sacred geometry and practices of Ndebele and African culture.

A selection of her artworks and heavily beaded blankets in celebration of the artist and Africa month is on show in the Main Building of the Art Museum. (Art Africa 2019)

Esther Mahlangu, Photos Clint Strydom.

Reneé le Roux, Abstract, Water colour on paper, 16 x 35 cm

Exploring the origins of the Oliewenhuis Art Museum and its founder collections The Permanent Collection, which is frequently rearranged, is housed on the first floor and is devoted exclusively to works produced by South African artists.

An important aspect of the formation of Oliewenhuis Art Museum’s Permanent Collection is the fact that the collection was built without any private or government funding.

The founding collection was comprised of donations by the Bloemfontein Group and A.C White, together with artworks bought with funds generated by the Social Committee of the Friends of Oliewenhuis, under the guidance of Dora Scott. This is an indication that the collection was built from the initiative of devoted art enthusiasts and therefore, that the origins of Oliewenhuis Art Museum’s Permanent Collection are unique and reflects a cultural identity specific to the Free State.

A variety of artworks selected from the Bloemfontein Group and the A.C White donations are on display in the Permanent Collection to narrate this important historical artistic time frame in the Free State.

Reshada Crouse, Mrs D. Scott, 1988, Oil on Canvas, 71 x 51cm

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Eben van der Merwe, Autumn landscape, Oil on board, 78 x 61.5cm

Helen Sebidi, It’s far in between, Etching on paper, 1990

#5WomenArtists A small exhibition of outstanding female artists’ work from the Art Museum’s Permanent Collection to participate in the powerful campaign, #5WomenArtists powered by the National Museum of Women in the Arts, New York can also be viewed on the first floor.

The following pioneering female artists, Nandipha Mntambo, Nomusa Makhubu, Diane Victor, Mmakgabo Mmapula Helen Sebidi and Penny Siopis were selected to represent Oliewenhuis Art Museum in this campaign.

They were selected in terms of extraordinary achievements in their careers regardless of age, race or background. They speak up and address contemporary debates, relating not only to South Africa, but also current issues globally.

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An article written by the Art Museum’s Education Officer, Yolanda de Kock which profiles these artists can be read online at www.nationalmuseumpublications.co.za/ category/fine-arts/.

Oliewenhuis Art Museum is located at 16 Harry Smith Street, Bloemfontein and is open to the public from Monday to Friday between 08:00 and 17:00, and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays between 09:00 and 16:00. Entrance to the Art Museum is free of charge and safe parking is available. For more information please contact Oliewenhuis Art Museum on 051 011 0525 (ext 200) or oliewen@nasmus.co.za.

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Barney Bernardo

Eben David Griessel

Cara Schoeman Ollie de Wit

Gregg Price

Mark Chapman

Lauren Redman

Maureen Quin

Ndabuko Ntuli

Kobus Walker

www.artatafrica.art dirk@artatafrica.art +27 82 774 1078 Clocktower, V&A Waterfront

Talita Steyn

CLAY PROJECT @ SOLO STUDIOS Arts Town Riebeek Valley 08-11 Aug 2019 www.solostudios.co.za

Andries Dirks grew up in an impoverished environment in Riebeek Kasteel, and discovered his love of sculpting as a child whilst forming figures and shapes from mud while playing along the river banks of the Riebeek Valley.

It was only many years later however, when he was incarcerated in the Riebeek West Correctional Facility that his deft and artistic talent was noted during skills development programs offered by the prison staff. Upon his release he was encouraged to pursue a career in ceramic sculpture and pottery, and managed to secure a number of commissions for his creative works.

Intermittent periods of incarceration, combined with attempting to hold down various part time jobs, have prevented Andries from making a full time living from his exceptional skill.

Above: Andries Dirks and sons Right: Leila Fanner’s Texture Pods

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Above: Clay pulverized and prepared for testing Left: Li Nepgen’s, Mr. Cat

Li Nepgen obtained her National Diploma in Fine Art in 1996 from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (then Port Elizabeth Technikon), and in 2007 opened her Love Art Studio in Riebeek Kasteel, from where she practices her art and conducts classes. She has held numerous solo exhibitions around the country and has won various awards for her ceramic works.

Andries and Li first crossed paths in 2010 when Andries was sponsored by the Goedgedacht Trust to undergo ceramic classes with Li. He brought Li a sculpture which was produced from clay he had sourced from the local river banks.

Now, in August 2019, the two sculptors will collaborate again in an exhibition titled Clay, part of a bespoke event Solo Studios – Intimate Art Encounters, held in the Riebeek Valley and currently in its 4th year of existence.

It was whilst enjoying some fine Swartland wine with friends that Li came up with the concept of sourcing local clay for a group exhibition, when local farmer Willie le Roux claimed that he had a good source on his nearby farm Konstansia. Their farmhouse had apparently been built over a hundred years ago from clay, and it was still in impeccable condition.

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Ade Kipades’ Reclining Nude

The proposal was made by Li to have a group collaboration of local artists all being given a bucket of clay sourced from the valley, producing works for a group exhibition during the Solo Studios event. A number of the resident artists enthusiastically embraced the initiative, although some of them had never worked with clay in their distinguished careers, let alone understand how the product would react in the intended traditional method of pit firing!

The result will be that Andries Dirks would share a platform at Solo Studios with acclaimed artists which could include Anton Momberg, Riaan van Zyl, Jenny Parsons, Leila Fanner, Gordon Williams, Ade Kipades and Li Nepgen!

The visitors to the exhibition, as has become the norm at Solo Studios, will include esteemed art collectors, aficionados and

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interior decorators. An opportunity perhaps, for Andries Dirks to finally realize his ambition of becoming a full time artist…?

Solo Studios – Intimate Art Encounters takes place in “ARTS TOWN” Riebeek Valley (Riebeek Kasteel, Riebeek West and surrounds) from 8-11 August 2019.

Access is limited and pre-booking is essential; passes range from a Premier Weekend Pass @ R395.00 to day passes @ R195.00 each.

Follow the link to Webtickets from the website www.solostudios.co.za Being a long weekend, including Women’s Day Friday 9 August, accommodation should also be booked early. Book online at www.roomsinriebeek.co.za

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Ndikhumbule Ngqwinambe, (1977 - ), Walk of Numbers, 2010, oil on canvas.

A Century of South African Art from the Sanlam Art Collection 1918 – 2018 An exhibition of exceptional works from the Sanlam Art Collection tracing South Africa’s transformation in art over a century

Polokwane Art Museum

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum

16 May – 12 June 2019

26 June 2019 – 30 August 2019

c/o Grobler & Hans van Rensburg Streets, Polokwane Viewing Times: Mon – Fri 09:00 – 16:00 Sat 09:00 – 12:00 Tel: 015 290 2578 Email: sanlamart@sanlam.co.za

1 Park Drive, Central, Port Elizabeth Viewing Times: Mon, Wed - Fri 09:00 – 16:30 Tues 12:00 – 16:30 2nd Sat & last Sun of the month 09:00 – 12:30 Tel: 041 506 2000

www.sanlam.co.za/about/artcollection

RMB TURBINE ART FAIR 2019

A Meeting of Minds: Louis Khehla Maqhubela and Douglas Portway to be showcased at RMB Turbine Art Fair 2019.

Strauss & Co is proud to present the third in a series of museum-quality exhibitions (2017: JH Pierneef; 2018: Irma Stern) at the RMB Turbine Art Fair (TAF), focusing this year on two prominent South African artists whose work has a great synergy: Louis Khehla Maqhubela and Douglas Portway met for the first time in St Ives, Cornwell, in 1967, after Maqhubela won the prestigious Artist of Fame and Promise award at the Adler Fielding Gallery in Johannesburg, which included the prize of a trip to Europe. It was a meeting of great minds: they were artistic kindred spirits in the true sense of the term. Both were already highly successful artists in their own rights, albeit having had very different entry points to their careers. The meeting impacted both artists’ thinking and the manner in which they painted subsequently. The aim of this exhibition is to examine the intersection of the work of these two artists, looking at their art training and early influences, and how their styles developed after they met.

RMB Turbine Art Fair (RMB TAF) has been moved to a new and bigger venue for the 7th edition of the Fair. 10 Fricker Rd, Illovo. The event will be held from 12 – 14 July with a preview evening on 11 July.

Above: Douglas Portway, London 62.

Right: Douglas Portway; Abstract with Green, Blue and Red

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Proudly partnered for a second year by RMB, TAF is a unique South African art collaboration that brings together galleries and artists from around the country to present and sell works.

RMB TAF is an all-encompassing cultural experience for visitors, with artisanal food and beverages, vibrant entertainment and an interactive public programme.

It differentiates itself from other South African art fairs through its accessible pricing strategy.

The selling price of artworks generally falls between R1000 and R50 000, which presents opportunities to savvy investors and new buyers to extend their collections easily, and for new artists to thrive off this talent platform.

Dates: 12- 14 July 2019 Venue: 10 Fricker Rd Illovo, JHB Tickets: R120 via Webtickets or R150 at door Weekend pass: R250 via webtickets or R300 at door Children R100: 4 years & older Includes access to children’s arts area and children’s walkabout on a first come first serve basis Students & Pensioners: R100 at door and R80 via Webtickets (Friday only) VIP opening night (11th July): R800 via Webtickets only For more info: www.turbineartfair.co.za

Above: Left: Louis Maqhubela; Composition with Cockerel, Dog, Figure and Fish Left: Louis Maqhubela; Figure and Bird

Business Art News

RETHINKING ART AUCTIONS www.aspireart.net

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he South African art world has many misconceptions about art auctions and the so-called ‘secondary market’ in which auction houses operate. Perhaps the most important thing to realise is that auction prices are completely transparent and are set by precedent – that is, a work of art is priced against previous prices for similar works by the same or comparable artists, of a corresponding size, subject, medium and quality. This means that it is entirely possible, even likely – if done with the right knowledge or consultation and advice – to pick up an affordably priced work of art that will appreciate in value for its owner; something that is often overlooked when much of the focus is on the record-breaking prices achieved for works of art around the world.

More than this, auction houses in the South African market are more and more stepping into the gap left by the lack of resources available to our public museums and art institutions – most importantly in the areas of art education, research, publishing and promotion. The continuing lack of government funding for public art institutions means that private collectors and collections have increasingly become responsible for maintaining a place for fine art in our national cultural identity.

The newest of the South African fine art auction houses is Aspire Art Auctions, and in its almost three years of existence it has defined itself by a commitment to exactly those principals and functions in the art world.

Auction houses are first and foremost businesses, and are motivated to do research, educate their markets and publish sales catalogues for business reasons. But Aspire has become known for the quality of the work that it does in these areas, with its catalogues in particular becoming highly respected and prized, and the knowledge and insight which they contain making them highly sought-after – from collectors to academics to art-industry professionals. Expertise in the art world is a market prerequisite. Serious collectors

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William Kentridge, Drawing from Stereoscope (Soho in two rooms), 1999, sold for R6,600,400.

The contemporary segment allows the company to demonstrate its strategic positioning more clearly.

Aspire has established a reputation for achieving high prices for contemporary work, and has led the industry in the introduction, growth and development of this significant market at auction. A world auction record for a drawing by South Africa’s international star William Kentridge is a major feather in Aspire’s contemporary cap. Drawing from Stereoscope (Soho in two rooms) sold for R6,600,400 in November last year. Says Aspire Director and Senior Art Specialist Emma Bedford, “A balance of work by traditionally strong signatures and work in emerging segments is crucial to any art auction house, and we have such deep expertise in-house. Our approach to developing value in the contemporary segment benefits greatly from our commitment to excellence in our research, writing, cataloguing and presentation processes.”

Above: Gerard Sekoto, Lady in Red, c.1940 Right: Dumile Feni, Head, c.1980

welcome guidance and as much information and interpretation as possible about prospective acquisitions. The auction house needs to play such a role, and increasingly dismantle the barriers to entry and perceived inaccessibility of the hallowed white-cube museum, auction room or gallery environment.

Says Aspire MD Ruarc Peffers, “Our strategy is to concentrate on quality rather than quantity precisely so that we can provide thought leadership and properly consultative guidance to collectors. While our sales are focused on top-quality offerings, and the rejection of large volumes of artworks in our sales, we are better positioned to ensure that the works we handle are well-researched and presented in their best light. It also provides our collectors with the confidence and security of knowing that the works we offer have been specifically selected for their quality and significance, from a large pool of possibilities, to ensure that only the best are presented in our auctions. We’ve learned that honing in on specific segments of the market and providing really in-depth knowledge in that area helps greatly to develop value for our clients”.

Every auction house competes for the bestquality works by the major signatures in the art market. While a unique positioning for such highprofile works is more challenging, Aspire does seek constantly to add to knowledge and analysis of works by traditional powerhouse artists from the Modern era like Irma Stern, Alexis Preller and J.H. Pierneef.

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The commitment to innovation in different parts of the market has led to a particularly important aspect of the company’s value development. This is its burgeoning track record in selling the work of previously under-represented black artists. The representation of black modern and contemporary artists has become much more of a hot topic in the country in recent times, with the magisterial exhibition A Black Aesthetic at Johannesburg’s Standard Bank Gallery. Aspire’s most recent auction in Johannesburg contained the largest and highest quality complement of black modernist and contemporary work on sale of any South African auction house to date, including seminal paintings by the two most important early black modernists, Gerard Sekoto and George Pemba, and a rare sculpture by another central figure in under-represented twentieth century black art, Dumile Feni. Aspire’s commitment to researching, writing-on and presenting this work in its best light and in the most conducive environments to present - and platforms to promote - the quality, beauty and historical significance of this important art, contributes to redress how this art is seen and understood in the media and among collectors. Major successes to date in the segment include world auction records for work by Peter Clarke, Dumile Feni and influential sculptor Sydney Kumalo.

Comments Peffers, “Our commitment to developing value in this segment is not only a business decision, it resonates with our value system too. It’s part of our wish to give back to the art industry in the country, which is also the reason why we’re still the only auction house in the country to pay royalties to South African artists whose work sells with us”.

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Business Art News

PRESERVING THE VALUE OF ART COLLECTIONS

Porto Venere

www.portovenereart.com

“A collector has one of three motives for collecting: a genuine love of art, the investment possibilities, or its social promise. I have never known a collector who was not stimulated by all three. For the full joy and reward, the dominant motivation must be the love of art but I would question the integrity of any collector who denies an interest in the valuation the market puts on his pictures.

The social aspect is another neverending regard.” - Emily Hall Tremaine, assembler of one of the most outstanding American collections of 20th-century art Irrespective of what drives you as collector to consummate your next purchase, there is an underlying belief of value in the acquisition. Documenting and managing such information is essential to protecting that value. The number of collectors who don’t have a grasp on the full scope of what they own is astonishing, especially considering the significant value of these collections and consequences in event of disaster.

Collections tend to grow organically, and information relating to works of art gets processed in a piecemeal manner. Without a systematic approach, this tends to degrade into unstructured chaos which even the owner finds difficult to decode – if available.

Very few things destroy a collection’s value faster than the loss of the collector. So much of the value of a work of art is determined by the information connected to it and it’s near impossible for successors to piece together where detailed records do not exist. Given the importance that the art market places in provenance and supporting documentation to reinforce the value of works of art, not doing this properly is a sure recipe to erase value.

Fortunately, we live in wonderful times, with digital collection management systems (CMS) readily available to collectors. A CMS is like

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Above: Header record of an artwork in a collection management system. Right Stephen Pan, Ballerinas

a specialized asset management system for collectors. It provides significant benefits over desktop tools such as spreadsheets by recording artwork details, photographs, transaction history and scans of supporting documentation, provenance, condition assessments, restoration records, appraisals, as well as loans and consignments – all in one place. Most CMSs have reporting tools that make it easy to draw reports for tax and insurance purposes and when a collection needs to be liquidated in bulk.

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Analyzing your portfolio

CMS analysis tools are also extremely useful when treating your collection as an investment portfolio by providing insights into portfolio values, holding costs of your portfolio and investment growth segmented by artist, style, medium or several other classifications. All considered, a tough act to follow using Excel.

However, even with a CMS in place, a parallel paper filing system must be maintained to preserve original documentation. All this documentation should, of course, be scanned with electronic copies stored in your CMS, with cross-references to your paper filing system There’s no objective measure as to when a

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collection is large enough to necessitate the use of a CMS. A lot depends on the collector and the value and number of collectibles. Earlier is obviously better than later – once information has been lost or forgotten; it is gone.

As art advisor Mary Rozell puts it: “Works are transferred to storage or gifted, documents disappear, files are erased, hardware is replaced, and memory starts to fade. In the case of older collections, even the most meticulous record keeping can be difficult to decipher by subsequent generations or owners.”

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Business Art News

STRAUSS & CO Historical artists prove their staying power at auction www.straussart.co.za

Two pioneering artists, Irma Stern and Anton van Wouw, both dominant figures in South Africa’s robust auction market for many decades, shone at Strauss & Co’s R58 million grossing autumn sale in Johannesburg. The bustling sale drew many visitors to see a world first – five Van Wouw castings from five different international foundries – and also saw consolidation in the contemporary art segment.

The top-selling lot was Irma Stern’s Still Life with Fruit and Dahlias, which sold to a bidder in the room for R16.16 million, a new world record for a still life by this artist. Painted a year after Stern’s second visit to Zanzibar, the work portrays an exuberant bouquet of dahlias in a Chinese jar and is presented in a coveted Zanzibari frame.

Five telephone bidders resolutely chased after Utrecht-born Anton van Wouw’s only known bronze maquette of statesman Paul Kruger, which was cast by the Roman foundry of Giovanni Nisini. When auctioneer Alastair Meredith eventually knocked down on the work, the selling price of R10.47 million established a new world record for this muchadmired sculptor. The sale price more than doubled the previous world record for Van Wouw, also held by Strauss & Co. Frank Kilbourn, Strauss & Co’s chairperson, commented after the sale: “Van Wouw’s performance was not a flash in the pan.

Many forget that in 1981 his work portraying a mineworker with a hand-drill sold for R80 000, then a record price for a South African artwork sold at auction. It is very encouraging to see Stern and Van Wouw continue to perform solidly at market. Their work is the foundation on which our vibrant post-war and contemporary art categories are built.”

Alexis Preller, South African, 1911-1975, Profile Head, R 600 000 - 800 000, Sold R 1 138 000

Susie Goodman, an executive director at Strauss & Co, said: “Van Wouw’s artistic bronze of Paul Kruger is one of the most important historical works to have passed through Strauss & Co’s hands in recent years. The work drew considerable interest during our preview. There was interest among audiences to learn more about our country’s history through our art, and this powerful artwork certainly provided that.”

The remarkable Van Wouw consignment included one of the rarest of all the sculptor’s earliest masterpieces, an endearing study of a bearded elder titled Leemans the Postman.

Cast by Nisini, it drew enthusiastic bidding and sold for R1.6 million. A stirring bust of a mineworker, The Accused, cast by Massa, sold for R1 million.

This once-in-a-lifetime sculptural offering was informed by cutting-edge new research.

Gerhard de Kamper, chief curator of collections at the University of Pretoria, has recently uncovered details that Van Wouw worked with five Italian foundries, not three as was long thought.

Above: Athi-Patra Ruga, Ilulwane... he’s not one of youz, thread on tapestry canvas 86 by 136cm, SOLD R478 000 (WORLD RECORD FOR A TAPESTRY BY ATHI-PATRA RUGA) Right: Irma Stern, South African, 1894-1966, Still Life with Fruit and Dahlias, R 12 000 000 - 15 000 000, Sold R 16 159 600 (WORLD RECORD FOR A STILL LIFE BY IRMA STERN)

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Dr. Alastair Meredith, who heads up the art department in Johannesburg, says: “Research proves that Van Wouw was a worldly artist whose social realist sculptures responded to the history and economy of early Johannesburg. His technically exquisite sculptures catered to his patrons’ demands and reflect the heady period of industrial enterprise and social issues of the times.

More than this, Van Wouw formed part of an amazing artistic energy on the Highveld at the start of the twentieth century.”

Other artists from this early South African avant-garde represented on the Strauss & Co sale were Erich Mayer and J.H. Pierneef, who was Van Wouw’s godson and artistic apprentice. The sale included 14 lots from the estate of Erich Mayer, all of which found buyers. The top-selling lot was a pair of extensive charcoal drawings measuring over two metres in length, Boere Piekniek, which sold for R85 350, double its estimate. Bidders vied for an early Pierneef pastel and charcoal drawing from 1914 depicting a fig tree, Rustenberg, which sold for R512 100, well above the estimate.

On a sale that foregrounded education and artistic lineages, it was gratifying to see Preller expert Karel Nel perform well in his own right as an artist. Nel’s enigmatic 2014 drawing of an interior, Presence: Leaf Shrine, North Island, Seychelles, sold for R500 720.

The top-selling contemporary lot was William Kentridge’s important triptych from 1988, Art in a State of Grace, Hope and Siege; rarely offered as a complete set, the work sold for R1.14 million.

Younger contemporary artists Jake Aikman and Athi-Patra Ruga confirmed their status as artists to watch. Jake Aikman’s haunting 2017 seascape titled South Atlantic sold for R500 720, surpassing a previous world record set in June 2018 by Strauss & Co. The Johannesburg sale also established a new world record for Ruga’s tapestries when a 2010 work about Xhosa initiation, Ilulwane ... he’s not one of youz, sold for R477 960, well above estimate.

Strauss & Co’s sale’s catalogue featured a broad selection of artists representing the vibrant post-war and contemporary art segments. First emerging as a painter in the 1950s, Peter Clarke has in recent years commanded solid prices for his paintings at auction. Sandy Bay, a 1969 canvas depicting four bathers, fetched R1 365 600, the price continuing the upward trajectory of this socially engaged artist.

Two lots by Alexis Preller, a defining painter of the post-war period, reliably placed in the top-ten individual lots sold at Strauss & Co’s Johannesburg sale. Profile Head, a late work

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from 1969 portraying a masculine subject, achieved R1.14 million; an earlier, mythicallythemed painting from 1950, Boy on a Horse, sold for R910 400.

Founded in 2009, Strauss & Co is the world’s leading auction house for South African art. Its next live auction on 8 June in Johannesburg is Saturday Live, a new limited-lot sale focusing on mid-range artworks by established artists, and will be held in conjunction with Strauss & Co’s inaugural Fine Wine Auction. These dynamic new initiatives are part of the company’s strategic plan to diversify its sale’s programme and will be held at Strauss & Co’s new expanded Houghton address.

Anton van Wouw, South African, 1862-1945, Paul Kruger, R 2 200 000 - 3 200 000, Sold R 10 469 600 (WORLD RECORD FOR VAN WOUW)

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STEPHAN WELZ & CO

Cape Town | Fine Art & Design Auction 1 & 2 July 2019 / The Old Mutual Conference Centre Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Rhodes Drive

Preview - 28, 29 & 30 June 2019, Walkabout conducted by Anton Welz, Saturday 29 June, 11am.

Jewellery, Watches and Silverware viewing will close at 16h30 each viewing day. stephanwelzandco.co.za

Stephan Welz and Co’s winter sale has a number of highlights and the variety on the auction is sure to appeal to a broad spectrum of collectors. Four of the highlights are listed below, but be sure to watch our website for the full catalogue as soon as it is available.

Gerard Sekoto (South African 1913 – 1993) Head Of An African Woman, signed and dated 68; label inscribed with the title and Maximum Fund Trust adhered to the reverse, oil on canvas laid down on board 59 by 48cm R 600,000 – R 900,000 (Illustrated opposite) Gerard Sekoto painted Head of an African Woman in 1968 during his stay in Paris.

Around 1963 he began producing paintings of blue busts, where the composition was cropped closely to the head of the subject.

In comparison to the harsh highlights and contrasting colours of previous blue busts, in Head of an African Woman Sekoto has chosen to subdue his colour palette, emphasising a regal quality in the sitter that other blue busts do not possess. The eyes of the subject meet the viewer’s directly.

Anton van Wouw (South African 1862 –1945) Shangaan, signed, dated 1907 and inscribed with ‘S.A. Joh-Burg’; inscribed with Foundry-G Massa-Roma, bronze Massa casting, circa 1936 - 1938, height: 31cm R 600,000 – R900,000

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Anton van Wouw’s Shangaan is an example of the excellence produced by one of the most celebrated artists in South African art history. It was sculpted in 1907 and cast between 1936 and 1938 by the Massa Foundry in Rome. The Nissini Foundry which had cast for van Wouw in Rome closed in 1930. Sometime during 1930 and 1936 Galileo Massa started his foundry in the same premises and continued to cast for van Wouw. Shangaan illustrates van Wouw’s observational skill, both in the posture of this small work as well as the attention to detail, seen in the subject’s frown, right thumb and the band around his wrist.

Irma Stern (South African 1894 – 1966) Arab Dhows, signed and dated 1939, gouache on card, 49 by 61,5cm R 700,000 – R 900,000 Irma Stern’s Arab Dhows was originally exhibited at her Zanzibar exhibition in 1940.

It was bought for 12 Guineas and paid off in instalments at £4 a month. Evidence of the sale of the work can be found in Irma Stern’s logbooks, as she was known for her fastidious note taking. Stern was very much an artist who was inspired by her travels and Arab Dhows was painted during a visit to Zanzibar.

A Ceramic Tile, Esias Bosch (1923-2010) A Vase Of Flowers in a Landscape 124 by 124cm R 450 000 – R 550 000 The artistic and technical mastery of Esias Bosch comes to focus most brilliantly in the large ceramic tiles he turned his prodigious talent to producing in the late 1980s. These works continue to be highly sought-after by discerning collectors, confirming Esias Bosch’s place as the doyen of South African creative ceramics.

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Business Art News

THE ART OF SELLING…..ANYTHING! Old Johannesburg Warehouse Auctioneers www.oldjwauctioneers.com

William Kentridge, Dancing Woman & Make Figure Reading, Charcoal on paper Sold for R138 144

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ot in his wildest dreams, could Christiaan Scholtz have known whilst he was standing on the rugby field as a Springbok player in the 90s, that 25 years on, he would be such a success in the auctioneering industry.

Always buying and selling, his love for antiques started at a young age which resulted in the very successful antiques business, Die Ossewa in Melville. When Scholtz decided to venture into auctioneering with the Schreiner family auction in 2014, he did not fathom the rate at which his new found company, Old Johannesburg Warehouse Auctioneers would grow.

‘We started the company 5 years ago with 5 staff members. We have grown into a colossal auctioning machine – 3000sqm warehouse space in Selby, 20 staff members, an auction

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every month with offsite auctions scattered in between, full colour catalogues with images of every lot on auction. Everything from intake, cataloguing, research, photography, display, marketing and more, is done onsite by one of our dedicated specialists. Our two day weekend auctions are conducted by 2 master auctioneers and we make it an event that buyers flock to.’

Scholtz has learnt that there are no set rules when it comes to this industry. ‘It is definitely dictated by trends and taste. Where furniture and ceramics were selling at the top of the game 20 years ago, it was surpassed by art in the early 2000s. But people collect almost anything …. Every auction there is something that we have never seen! We have sold antique furniture, postage stamps, militaria, old oil cans, fine art, collectables, oriental porcelain, first edition books, silk carpets,

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Above: David Crichton Rait tea set, Edinburgh 1857 Sold for R22 824. Right: DH Chiparus, Fancy Dress, 1929 Patinated Bronze figure Sold for 468 400. Below: 1925 O&K Steam Locomotive, Narrow Gauge Sold for R206 275

vintage toys, glittering jewellery, collectable cars and motorbikes, tea sets, silverware, industrial furniture, retro items, vintage tools, automobilia, signage, coins, clocks, farm implements, tractors…the list goes on! We have even sold a train! And next month we are selling an entire small town in the Freestate… in this industry nothing is impossible!’

Consignment is open at Old Johannesburg Warehouse Auctioneers right throughout the year – call 011 863 1650 or email info@ oldjwauctioneers.com to find out if you have any items of value sitting in your home/garage/ store room/office/garden/attic….

For more info on the company or to join the mailing list visit www.oldjwauctioneers.com

ALICEARTGALLERY FOR THE ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE IN ART

SINCE 1990

ECCLS 2:24-25

There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and assure him self that there is good in his labour. Even this, I have seen, is from the hand of God. For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?

Harry Erasmus is one of those individuals that deliberately made a life decision to live life to the fullest. He actively endeavours to make human contact through social activities.

Harry is deeply interested

and invested in the lives of the people around him and builds relationships that last through time.

This life attitude is visibly in all his work. He romanticises events in everyday life showing the viewer that small intimate moments can bring

www.aliceart.co.za | 54 dryf road, ruimsig, roodepoort 011 958 1392 | 083 377 1470 | info@aliceart.co.za

great joy.

At a glance his work is described as whimsical and light-hearted. Harry feels strongly that a person is responsible for his own happiness and often this is achieved through strong social relationships.

JOHAN SMITH, EASTERN FREE STATE, A37059, SIZE 950 x 400mm, R 41,500

EXHIBITIONS & GALLERY GUIDE: JUNE 2019 Ongoing Shows: June 2019 Opening Exhibitions: June 2019

Gordon Froud, Geometric solid 1, Mixed media on brown paper,1580 x 850mm, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, 23/06/2019

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ONGOING SHOWS: JUNE - DEC 2019

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UNTIL 05/06/2019

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SMAC CT TANGLED HIERARCHIES PETER EASTMAN UNTIL 15/06/2019

OLIEWENHUIS ART MUSEUM BASOTHO BLANKETS EXHIBITION UNTIL 23/06/2019

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PRETORIA ART MUSEUM JACK LUGG RETROSPECTIVE UNTIL 23/06/2019 WWW.JACKLUGGARTGALLERY.CO.ZA UNTIL 23/06/2019 92

EVERARD READ JHB PHILLEMON HLUNGWANI NTSAKO WA XIBELANI UNTIL 15/06/2019

POLOKWANE ART MUSEUM CENTENNIAL: A CENTURY OF SOUTH AFRICAN ART FROM THE SANLAM ART COLLECTION 1918 - 2018 UNTIL 12/06/2019

WWW.NASMUS.CO.ZA UNTIL 16/06/2019

UNTIL 23/06/2019

OLIEWENHUIS ART MUSEUM

HARMONIA: SACRED GEOMETRY, THE PATTERN OF EXISTENCE

BY GORDON FROUD UNTIL 23/06/2019

WWW.NASMUS.CO.ZA UNTIL 23/06/2019

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UNTIL 29/06/2019

OLD JOHANNESBURG WAREHOUSE

Antiques Art & Collectables Auctioneers

29 Village Road, Selby, Johannesburg oldjwauctioneers.com info@oldjwauctioneers.com Tel: 011 836 1650 - Cell: 066 307 5444

Japanese Carved Amber Netsuke Sold for R13 214

Elenore Esmond-White “Ladies Harvesting” Sold for R336 350

OLD URG JOHANNESB E WAREHOUS Antiques Art

& Collectables

Auctioneers

5,582ct Round 2008 Shelby Mustang Japanese Shibayama Brilliant Cut Diamond Supersnake RHD Display Cabinet Sold for R444 980 Sold for R1 338 000 Sold for R78 081

Art, antiques, objects, furniture and jewellery wanted for forthcoming auctions

William Kentridge, Zeno Machine, charcoal and India ink on paper SOLD R700,000 View previous auction results at www.rkauctioneers.co.za 011 789 7422 • 011 326 3515 • 083 675 8468 • 12 Allan Road, Bordeaux, Johannesburg

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ONGOING SHOWS: JUNE-DEC 2019

ART@39LONG

CHRISTOPHER MOLLER GALLERY TONY GUM UNTIL 29/06/2019

ART & CRAFT, BOUTIQUE GALLERY ON THE GARDEN ROUTE. 39 LANGSTRAAT, GREAT BRAKRIVER , 6525 UNTIL 29/06/2019 WWW.39LONG.GALLERY/GALLERY/

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UJ ARTS AND CULTURE

POST PRESENT FUTURE EXHIBITION:

BY FARIEDA NAZIER, HOSTED BY APARTHEID MUSEUM, JHB UNTIL 29/06/2019

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STEVENSON CT IAN GROSE INVENTION, CURE UNTIL 29/06/2019 WWW.STEVENSON.INFO UNTIL 29/06/2019 94

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ZEITZ MOCCA STILL HERE TOMORROW TO HIGH FIVE YOU YESTERDAY… GROUP EXHIBITION UNTIL 30/06/2019 WWW.ZEITZMOCAA.MUSEUM

UNTIL 30/06/2019

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UNTIL 14/07/2019

GOODMAN GALLERY JHB MIKHAEL SUBOTZKY MASSIVE NERVE CORPUS /2019 UNTIL 06/07/2019

STEVENSON JHB PORTIA ZVAVAHERA TALITHA CUMI UNTIL 12/07/2019

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STANDARD BANK ART GALLERY 40 YEARS OF COLLECTING CNR SIMMONDS AND FREDERICK STREET, JHB TEL: 011 631 4467 UNTIL 06/07/2019

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UNTIL 06/07/2019

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ART@AFRICA POST PARIS | MAUREEN QUIN UNTIL 31/07/2019

IZIKO SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL GALLERY FILLING IN THE GAPS UNTIL 31/10/2019

ART@AFRICA WATER WARS UNTIL 18/12/2019

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UNTIL 31/07/2019

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RED! THE GALLERY GALLERY & ART CAFE STEENBERG VILLAGE & BREE ST UNTIL 30/06/2019

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OPENING EXHIBITIONS JUNE 2019 WEEKS 1-4

Artwork: Karen Wykerd, Uncharted Territory, State Of the Art Gallery Opens 12/06/2019

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ART@AFRICA EBEN BEUKES 06/06/2019 UNTIL 03/07/2019

ECLECTICA CONTEMPORARY COLLECTIVE DELUSION 06/06/2019

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06/06/2019 UNTIL 03/07/2019 WEEK 1 JUNE

06/06/2019 UNTIL 27/07/2019 WEEK 1 JUNE

OPENS 06/06/2019 WEEK 1 JUNE

H E R M A N U S

7 - 17 June 2019 Celebrate South African Arts A Fusion of Arts Festival and Winter School Eleven days of diverse and inspiring activity include

ECLECTICA COLLECTION KWAAI VOL.2 06/06/2019

exhibitions, music, theatre, film, talks, presentations, demonstrations, workshops, tastings and pairings, children’s events and lots more …

Festival Artist 2019 - Phillemon Hlungwani

Sign up for our newsletter and check our website and social media to keep updated.

RUST-EN-VREDE GALLERY KATE ARTHUR 11/06/2019 UNTIL 17/07/2019

hermanusfynarts.co.za

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Tickets available at Hermanus Tourism and on-line at webtickets.co.za or call 060 957 5371

OPENS 06/06/2019 WEEK 1 JUNE

07/06/2019 UNTIL 17/06/2019 WEEK 1 JUNE

11/06/2019 UNTIL 17/07/2019 WEEK 2 JUNE

RUST-EN-VREDE GALLERY NOT A PORTRAIT GROUP EXHIBITION 11/06/2019 UNTIL 17/07/2019

RUST-EN-VREDE GALLERY ROBYN PRETORIUS 11/06/2019 UNTIL 17/07/2019

SALON NINETY ONE REGARDING WINTER GROUP EXHIBITION 12/06/2019 UNTIL 13/07/2019

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11/06/2019 UNTIL 17/07/2019 WEEK 2 JUNE

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12/06/2019 UNTIL 13/07/2019 WEEK 2 JUNE

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WWW.RUST-EN-VREDE.COM

5th Avenue Fine Art Auctioneers 1985 est

We are now inviting entries for this auction.

Next Auction 14th July 2019

Irma Stern, Oil ~ R2.5m - R3.5m For full result of previous auctions visit www.5thaveauctions.co.za

Enquiries: stuart@5aa.co.za ~ 011 781 2040

T 011 559 2556/2099

GALLERY HOURS M O N D AY – F R I D AY 09:00 – 16:00 CLOSED ON WEEKENDS + P U B L I C H O L I D AY S

K I N G S WAY C A M P U S CNR UNIVERSIT Y ROAD + K I N G S WAY AV E N U E AU C K L A N D PA R K

Andre Van Vuuren , The Gallery Riebeek Kasteel

www.themelrosegallery.com themelrosegallery

craig@themelrosegallery.com

themelrose_gallerysa

10 High Street, Melrose Arch

WWW.ARTGO.CO.ZA OPENING EXHIBITIONS: JUNE 2019 WEEKS 1-4

SMITH GROUP SHOW 11/06/2019 UNTIL 06/07/2019 WWW.SMITHSTUDIO.CO.ZA

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11/06/2019 UNTIL 06/07/2019 WEEK 2 JUNE

OPENS 12/06/2019 WEEK 2 JUNE

22/06/2019 UNTIL 20/07/2019 WEEK 3 JUNE

STEVENSON CT JO RACTLIFFE SIGNS OF LIFE UNTIL 29/06/2019

THE GALLERY RIEBEEK KASTEEL ANDRE VAN VUUREN

RMB TURBINE ART FAIR 11/07/2019 UNTIL 14/07/2019

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UNTIL 29/06/2019 WEEK 4 JUNE

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11/07/2019 UNTIL 14/07/2019 WEEK 2 JULY

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will be at

11 - 14 JULY

Raymond Fuyana - A Dream of Life - 2019 (detail)

Turbine Art Fair 2019 10 Fricker Road Illovo Sandton Johannesburg, South Africa gallery@artistproofstudio.co.za ArtistProofJHB

Artist Proof Studio

+27 11 492 1278

|

www.artistproofstudio.co.za

Art Times Presents

NEW BLOOD FOR A NEW WORLD

www.arttimes.co.za/newblood JUNE NEWBLOOD WINNER Jess Holing, Springfield Convent, Grade 12, Untitled (Detail)

Well Done Jess, your portrait is really beautiful, you have captured you subject so well, as well as your brushstrokes and positioning of your subject and light are so strong and fresh.

Well Done, Gabriel CB, Editor SA Art Times

E-MAIL YOUR ARTWORK TO NEWBLOOD AND STAND A CHANCE TO WIN R 1000 E-mail: newblood@arttimes.co.za Please include your name, age, grade and school and stand a chance to win R1000 and have your artwork uploaded onto the Newblood website.

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Sarah-Paige Wilkinson, Fairmont High School Durbanville, grade 12, A child’s Gang, acrylic on canvas

Jade Acton, Grade 12, Springfield Convent, Through the Looking Glass

Allison de Lange, Grade 11, Danville Park Girls HS

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Maariyah Sadack Grade 11 Danville Park Girls HS, Visions Beyond

Amber Daniel. Grade 10 mixed media. Water Theme, Penryn College

Luc Van Houten, Grade 12, Oil on tracing paper, Rondebosch Boys’ HS

W W W. A R T T I M E S . C O . Z A Hanna Bowes Grade 11, Springfield Convent, Night’s Creatures

Patric McKeown, Grade 12, Oil on canvas, Rondebosch Boys’ HS

Angelina Williams, baggage and burden 113

India Hardie, Grade 12 Herschel Girls School, Eye

India Hardie, Grade 12, Herschel Girls School 114

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Kimberley Saul

Nicole Smith, Grade 11, Danville Park Girls’s HS, A slice of Life

MARITZ MUSEUM 5 Nemesia Street DARLING SOUTH AFRICA

Paintings, Prints & Sculpture By appointment: 078 419 7093 https://sites.google.com/view/nicolaasmaritzgallery

A Good Read

SOMETIMES YOU FIND GEMS IN THE ODDEST PLACES.

From the Rembrandt in The Rec Room to a Degas on a Bus, these 10 priceless artworks were found in the unlikeliest places Published at www.artnet.com Katie White

Rufino Tamayo, Tres Personajes (1970). Courtesy of Christie’s Auction House.

W

ho doesn’t dream of learning that some family tchotchke is in fact a priceless treasure? Or of finding a diamond in the rough at some outof-the-way yard sale? The rags-toriches stories of artworks discovered in shadowy corners are not as common as we’d like. But for a lucky few, the dream can become a reality when a rummage through the attic ends up a historical windfall.

For all the true believers out there with their fingers crossed, here are 10 of our favorite stories of artwork found in unexpected places.

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1. One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Tamayo Rufino Tamayo is among the great masters of Mexican Modernism, but his artwork, it turns out, is not for everyone. While out on a morning stroll through Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 2003, a woman by the name of Elizabeth Gibson spotted a brightly colored abstract painting set out on the sidewalk with the trash. Though no expert on art, Gibson was taken by the unusual canvas and plucked from its impending garbage-truck demise.

Four years later, Gibson learned that the work she had salvaged was actually Tamayo’s Tres Personajes, painted in 1970. The work had been stolen from a Houston collector and his wife in 1987, and Gibson dutifully returned the

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work to its rightful owner. But her good deed did not go unnoticed; she received a $15,000 award, and a share of the profits when it sold at auction at Sotheby’s for $1,049,000 in October 2007. In 2015, Tres Personajes sold again at Christie’s for $1,325,000.

2. A Controversial Caravaggio Found in a French Attic Many experts were incredulous, when in 2014, a long-lost second version of Judith Beheading Holofernes by the Baroque master Caravaggio was supposedly discovered in a Toulouse attic.

Caravaggio, Judith Beheading Holofernes (circa 1607).

Courtesy of Cabinet Turquin.

One depiction of the dramatic scene of vengeance is a highlight at the National Gallery of Ancient Art at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, but the whereabouts of the second version, painted in Naples, had been unknown since the early 1600s. The attribution sent shock waves through scholarly circles; an art historian even resigned from Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera when the work was shown with an asterisked attribution in 2016. The tumultuous scene is now coming to the market and will be offered at Toulouse auction house Cabinet Turquin on June 27 with a pre-sale high estimate of $171 million.

3. The Divorce That Put a Rockwell Behind a Wall Maybe it’s time to start knocking on walls and pulling on wall sconces. In the spring of 2005, Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting Breaking Home Ties was discovered behind a false wall in an Arlington, Vermont, home.

The heartwarming work is one of the artist’s most beloved, showing a fresh-faced, collegebound boy seated beside his hardscrabble father and loyal dog. The bitter-sweet image graced the front of The Saturday Evening Post on September 25, 1954, becoming one of its most popular covers.

Norman Rockwell’s Breaking Home Ties sits behind the fake wall where it was found by the owners’ children.

Courtesy of Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

Owned by cartoonist Don Trachte, Jr., the work was stumbled upon after his death by his two sons after they found a strange gap in wood paneling in his home. When pushed, the panel opened to reveal the hidden painting. It is believed that Trachte had stowed the work away in an attempt to hide it from his ex-wife during an acrimonious divorce. When Breaking Home Ties was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2006 it achieved $15.4 million—then a new high for Rockwell at auction.

The Golden Buddha at Wat Traimit, Bangkok, Thailand.

Courtesy of Isa Foltin/Getty Images.

4. It’s What’s On The Inside That Counts (Especially When It’s Solid Gold) Nicknamed “The Golden Buddha,” Phra Phuttha Maha Suwan Patimakon is the world’s largest solid gold statue, measuring 10 feet tall, 12 feet wide, and weighing in at 5.5 tons. Though now counted among Thailand’s wonders, for many years the colossal statue was largely forgotten, and its precious metal composition was entirely obscured. Over its lifetime (the statue was likely cast in the Sukhothai period, sometime between the 1230s and 1430s), the sculpture had been

covered in plaster mixed with glass, likely in an attempt to deter thieves during the Burmese– Siamese War of the 1760s.

sold most of her belongings in a yard sale, but fortuitously decided to hang on to the painting, storing it under a basement ping-pong table.

Over the ensuing centuries, as political, economic, and religious tides fluctuated, the disguised Buddha was moved from its home in Ayutthaya north of Bangkok to the capital, and then to various temples throughout the city, at one point being stored under a tin roof.

In May 1955, the statue was once again being relocated when workers dropped the Buddha.

What might have been a tragedy turned out to be a blessing, as a little glimmer of gold shone through the sculpture’s crack. The exterior was carefully removed to reveal the sculpture’s solid Midas core. Now enshrined at Bangkok’s temple of Wat Traimit, many Buddhists believe the statue to be miraculous.

In 2015, the Landaus brought the painting to local auctioneer Nye & Company, where they set an opening bid of $250 for the work, believing it to be a 19th-century painting. When the auction opened and bidders from around the world called in exceedingly exorbitant prices, the brothers realized something was amiss. The unsettling painting, it turned out, was one of five works by Rembrandt in a series on the senses. Many scholars had been on the hunt for the work for their lifetimes, and the work sold to a French bidder for just shy of a million dollars. So how did it wind up in a New Jersey dining room? The brothers believe their grandfather unwittingly purchased it after the Great Depression.

The Unconscious Patient (An Allegory of the Sense of Smell), about 1624, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669) Oil on Panel. Image Courtesy of the Leiden Collection, New York.

5. Mom’s Creepy Painting Is a Rembrandt The old adage “mother knows best” certainly proved true for three New Jersey brothers.

Ned, Roger, and Steven Landau had long joked about an unusual, even creepy painting that hung in their mother’s dining room.

Handed down from their grandmother, the dark painting showed two men passing salts beneath the nose of an unconscious woman.

When the Landaus’ mother passed away, they

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The green box of the “Mexican Suitcase”© International Center of Photography “The Mexican Suitcase”International Center of Photography.

6. The “Mexican Suitcase” Trove of Photographic Treasures Imagine this: a curator comes to work one day to find boxes of never-before-seen film by some of the 20th-century’s greatest photographers right at her museum’s doorstep. That’s exactly what happened in December 2007 when 4,500 35mm negatives taken by three of the great Modern war photographers— Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and Chim (David Seymour)—arrived at the International Center of Photography in New York.

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The negatives of the Spanish Civil War had been missing since 1939, when they had vanished after Capa, fleeing the Nazi invasion of France, passed them haphazardly to his darkroom manager. They somehow passed into the hands of the Mexican ambassador to Vichy, France, who brought them to Mexico City where the film lay undiscovered until his nephew realized the significance of the material. The film includes images of antiFranco protests and scenes of the devastation of war, but also previously unknown photographs of Federico Garcia Lorca and Ernest Hemingway.

7. The Hungarian Masterpiece Spotted on the Set of Stuart Little An art historian never rests. During the Christmas holidays in 2009, Gergely Barki, a researcher at the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest, and his young daughter settled in to watch Stuart Little (1999), the classic children’s tale of a mouse adopted into a wealthy family.

William James Webbe, The White Owl, ‘Alone and warming his five wits, The white owl in the belfry sits’(1856). Courtesy of Christie’s Auction House.

A still from Stuart Little (1999) with Rуbert Berйny’s Sleeping Lady with Black Vase in the background.

Barki never could have expected his surprise when, hanging over a mantelpiece in one scene, he spotted a painting was sure he recognized: Sleeping Lady with Black Vase, a work by Hungarian artist Robert Bereny that had last been seen in public in 1928.

Inspired and curious, Barki set off on a factfinding mission, writing letters to Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures. Nearly two years later, he received a response from the film’s set designer. She had picked up the painting from a Pasadena antiques store for $500, and now had it hanging in her living room. Though no one knows how its across-the-world journey came to pass, Sleeping Lady with Black Vase was authenticated and eventually repatriated to Hungary.

8. What a Pretty Bird!

You never know when a burst pipe might be a blessing in disguise. In the 2000s, Jane Cordery, a school teacher in Hampshire, England, was clearing a space in her attic for a plumber when she spotted a small painting of a white owl. Struck by the delicate, refined brushstrokes, Cordery emailed a photograph of the work to Christie’s auction house on a whim. Nineteenth-century specialists soon realized they had something special on their hands.

The painting was The White Owl, a work

by Pre-Raphaelite William James Webbe, which had once drawn the attention of the illustrious art historian John Ruskin. When the painting hit the auction block at Christie’s in 2012, the ornate work far out-stripped its pre-sale estimate of Ј70,000, selling for the exorbitant price of Ј589,250. But from whence did it appear? Cordery’s partner believes he received the work as a gift from his mother.

Edgar Degas, The Chorus Singer (1877). Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

9. A Degas Cruising Around on a Paris Bus Better start checking for more than gum on your bus seat. In 2018, customs officers discovered a Degas pastel in the luggage compartment on a bus just outside of Paris during a routine search. The painting, The Chorus Singers (1877), was taken under mysterious circumstances from a museum in Marseille in 2009. With no signs of a breakin, the painting had simply been removed from the wall.

No leads materialized during an investigation of the work’s whereabouts, and the festive scene of singers on stage was believed to be lost. It is now part of the collection of the Musee d’Orsay.

10. The 17th-Century Painting Behind a Particle Board Wall Construction surprises are rarely pleasant.

Earlier this year, when fashion house Oscar de la Renta was just weeks from opening the expansion of their Paris boutique, Alex Bolen, the chief executive, received a call that there had been a “discovery.” Expecting the worst, Bolen headed for Paris. When he arrived, what he saw took his breath away. Glued to a wall was a 10-by-20-foot oil painting of ornately bedizened courtiers in a parade to Jerusalem.

Workmen had discovered the painting while

Benoit Janson, restaurateur-conservateur, allиgeant le vernis oxydй, The restoration in progress. Image courtesy Benoоt Janson / Nouvelle Tendance.

taking down a particle-board wall in what had previously been an insurance brokerage office. Construction immediately halted and experts were brought in.

The painting, researchers soon learned, was a 1674 work by Arnould de Vuez, a Versailles Court painter and peer of Charles Le Brun.

A book from 1900 identified the painting as a depiction of Charles-Marie-Franзois Olier, an ambassador of Louis XIV. How it got onto the wall of the 18th-century building no one knows, but it was agreed that removing the work would be too risky. For now, it is being restored on site, and will become the centerpiece of the new store.

“For a lucky few, the dream can become a reality when a rummage through the attic ends up a historical windfall.”

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H E R M A N U S

7 - 17 June 2019 Celebrate South African Arts A Fusion of Arts Festival and Winter School Eleven days of diverse and inspiring activity include exhibitions, music, theatre, film, talks, presentations, demonstrations, workshops, tastings and pairings, children’s events and lots more ‌ Festival Artist 2019 - Phillemon Hlungwani

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A Good Read

FORGET MILLENNIALS

The art market should be looking at Gen Z Published on www.theartnewspaper.com MELANIE GERLIS 20th May 2019 10:43 BST Justin Lee/Flickr

alternatives. Especially alternatives with a socially conscious bent. But not if you tell them so. They’ll find that out for themselves, thank you very much.

What could this mean for the art market of the future? In theory it could bring power to the smaller galleries currently struggling for attention in a big-brand world. And I am sure there are people out there already peddling woke vloggers and nano-influencers that can help promote art to the latest breed.

W

hile the art market has been fretting over how to attract millennials, a new generation has risen up and looks to be much more challenging. Gen Z— defined as those now aged between seven and 22—account for 32% of the population (and 40% of consumers), according to data from Bloomberg, nudging them ahead of the relatively senile 22 to 37-yearold millennials. Combining Gen Z’s purchasing power with the influence they have over the spending habits of their parents leads the analysis to conclude an indirect potential spend of $3bn.

What does Gen Z want? Today’s youngsters are easier to define by what they don’t want— brands, labels and anything associated with big business. They are social media native (rather than just digitally native like their predecessors), but don’t trust most of what they read there. Unlike the rest of us, they have not been taken by surprise by the marketing power and potential intrusion of social media.

Gen Z knows how to spot branded posts and targeted selling and will actively seek

Such generational twists and turns may seem maddening, but there is one thread that seems to be consistent throughout: a demand for transparency. The latest Hiscox Online Art Trade Report finds that 87% of 706 art buyers cite clear pricing and access to past and current prices as the most important factors when buying art.

All the same, it’s tempting to ignore all this broad-brush generational group rather than trying to get down with the kids at every turn.

Realistically, by the time the seven-year-olds, or even the 22-year-olds, become meaningful buyers of art, a new set of likes, dislikes and technological advances will be in vogue.

What is important, says Bonhams’ new (Gen X) marketing guru Marc Sands, is keeping on top of how information is received. “The next generation may never return to the media that the older generation used, and that is both of interest and concern. I strain every sinew of my body not to resist trying new ways,” he says. Sounds uncomfortable, but like good advice to me.

“It could bring power to the smaller galleries currently struggling for attention in a big-brand world.”

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60 Church Street Cape Town 021 423 5309 web@capegallery.co.za Saturday 10am - 2pm weekdays 9.30am - 5pm

THE CAPE GALLERY

RETURNING THE GAZE A selection of portraits by local artists will be on view 6 - 28 June

Above the lights, etching, Gabriel Clark-Brown

Anton Kannemeyer, Swartberg Pass III Lithograph

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Walter Battiss, Abstract with Figure and Fruit (recto); Calligraphic Forms (verso) (detail)

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