GEORGE PEMBA UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS
George Pemba South African 1912–2001
I Epolojice My Warship 1947
oil on canvas signed and dated along the left edge 41 x 35 cm
ZAR400 000 – 600 000 USD27 467 – 41 201 GBP19 725 – 29 587 EUR22 755 – 34 133 *exchange rates at 18 February 2021
AUCTION IN CAPE TOWN 4 March 2021
Modern & Contemporary Art ENQUIRIES & SALE CONTACT RUARC PEFFERS Senior Specialist | Managing Director +27 84 444 8004 | ruarc@aspireart.net
www.aspireart.net
George Pemba I Epolojice My Warship George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba occupies a unique place in South African art. His depictions of people are marked by insight and empathy for his fellow human beings. Painted in 1947, I Epolojice My Warship is a legacy piece that introduces Pemba’s social realism. Pemba completed this painting while he was preparing for his first solo exhibition in East London in 1948. The work was originally acquired directly from the artist and has remained in the same private collection for over six decades. An accomplished portrait in oil paint, this rare early painting stands among the finest works by Pemba ever to come to auction. As a painting it can be appreciated on multiple levels. The apparent humour of the title (inscribed on the reverse of the canvas) resides in the artist’s deliberate use of pidgin English which the court—at that time— might have expected of a black man. Pemba, one of the first black artists to benefit from tertiary education, provides clear indicators of his intent in the title in which the phrase ‘your worship’ is transposed into My Warship—each the very antithesis of the other. The sitter’s quizzical expression alerts the viewer to the significance of the work. Pemba’s expertly painted portrait conveys the humanity of the subject caught in a double bind—while understanding the consequences of a harsh judgment from the court, he must nevertheless perform submissively without undermining his own sense of self-worth. With his subject consciously role playing the obsequiousness required in the relations between subaltern and coloniser, Pemba provides a critique of the colonial order of authority. Hayden Proud, Senior Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at the Iziko South African National Gallery and author of the Pemba monograph, commends “Pemba’s respect for the value of good drawing, inventive composition, accomplished handling of paint and an overarching sense of vision”1 which are all evident in this early painting.
Proud. H. and Feinberg, B. (1996). George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba - Retrospective Exhibition. Cape Town: Mayibuye Centre and Iziko South African National Gallery, p.16. 2 Huddleston, S. (1996). George Pemba: Against All Odds. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers, p.101. 1
I am Sorry Madam, 1945 (collection of the Johannesburg Art Gallery) “An image which, together with it’s title, speaks volumes about domestic power relations in the suburban South Africa home. Exquisitely attired in red and black, this woman maintains her pride and dignity in the face of an unseen and presumably authoritarian presence”2.
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Comparative works
George Pemba’s depictions of people, when viewed within the trajectory of South African figurative painting, are marked by insight and empathy for his fellow human beings. This painting provides an incisive commentary on social, judicial and political power from the point of view of the colonised. The title makes it clear that the subject knowingly performs the obsequiousness required by the organs of state authority, in this case the judge. As with Stephen (Malusi) Mzamane, the protagonist in Marguerite Poland’s celebrated A Sin of Omission, Pemba would have known that the conflict between loyalty to the colonial order or to one’s people could have devastating consequences. There are few works in the history of South African art that so powerfully articulate the fraught relations between authority and black citizens. Comparable works that ‘speak truth to power’ before South Africa’s transition to democracy include Dumile Feni’s Children Under Apartheid selling for an astonishing R1,250,480 in July 2017 and David Goldblatt’s The farmer’s son with his nursemaid, the farm Heimweeberg, near Nietverdiend which sold for R318,640 in September 2019.
Dumile Feni (South African 1942-1991) Children Under Apartheid 1987
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David Goldblatt (South African 1930–2018) The farmer’s son with his nursemaid, the farm Heimweeberg, near Nietverdiend in the Marco Bushveld. Transvaal (North-West Province), 1964
Brief biography
George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba was born on 2 April 1912 at Hill’s Kraal, in Korsten Village, Port Elizabeth. As a youngster he loved watching films at the ‘bioscope’ and found that he could earn the price of an admission ticket by drawing portraits of favourite film stars for his friends.1 At the age of sixteen, Pemba won the first prize in an art competition at a local agricultural show with two portrait drawings based on photographs he had seen in the Eastern Province Herald.2 In 1942 Pemba met Gerard Sekoto who was then painting in District Six. It was Sekoto who advised him to switch to oils. Thereafter Pemba went from strength to strength, exhibiting regularly and selling well. Pemba was a great portraitist, able to capture the likeness of the sitter as well as providing insights into character. According to Govan Mbeki, then Deputy President of the Senate Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, painting was Pemba’s life; he devoted time to it consistently and produced amongst his best paintings, portraits of Krune Mqhayi, Imbongi ya Sizwe (National Poet) and Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, both of which are in the Fort Hare Collection.3 The University of Fort Hare recognised his achievements by conferring an honorary Masters degree on Pemba in 1979. Other universities followed but it was only in 1990, with the defeat of apartheid, that Pemba gained the wider recognition he deserved. Emma Bedford
Feinberg, B. ‘Biographical sketch’. In Proud. H. and Feinberg, B. (1996). George Milwa Mnyaluza Pemba - Retrospective Exhibition. Cape Town: Mayibuye Centre and Iziko South African National Gallery, p.21. 2 Ibid. p.20. 3 Ibid. p.17. 1
George Pemba aged 18
George Pemba aged about 27
Self Portrait 1987
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George Pemba Xhosa Traditional Dancers I
George Pemba South African 1912–2001
Xhosa Traditional Dancers I 1981
oil on canvas signed and dated top left 38.5 x 49.5 cm
ZAR250 000 – 350 000 USD17 189 – 24 065 GBP12 335 – 17 269 EUR14 245 – 19 944 *exchange rates at 18 February 2021
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Whilst Pemba prided himself on his Christian faith, his Xhosa customs and traditions remained of utmost importance to him. Proud of his heritage, Pemba used his art as a means to keep these traditions alive. In the late 60s, he turned playwright and produced two plays, The Xhosa Prophet Ntsikana and The Story of Nongqawuse, both based on the Xhosa history and mythology which he so loved. Later, Pemba began to more frequently depict scenes of sangomas as well as Xhosa weddings and funerals in his paintings. Xhosa Traditional Dancers I is indicative of the artist’s particular decision to contextualise these more traditional scenes in urban surroundings. Significantly, Pemba is one of few black modernist painters to have come from the Eastern Cape province, and certainly the best-known. In fact, he is the only artist from the region to have been represented in the Revisions collection—rendering his insight into daily life and traditions there particularly unique. Lisa Truter
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GEORGE PEMBA IN THE MARKET Dumas has a steadily growing reputation and performance in the auction market. The following graphs demonstrate exactly how her work has performed at auction over the last decade.
CHANGE IN TOTAL SALES, NUMBER OF LOTS OFFERED AND SOLD Tracks the change in total value of sales as well as the total number of lots offered and sold annually. The chart shows whether the artist’s total sales are going up, and if so, whether this is because more works by the artist have been offered and sold or, because more high value artworks have been purchased.
R450K
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R0 2012
Lots Sold
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Realised Auction Prices
1. Change in total sales, number of lots offered and sold A highly regarded pioneer of Black Modernism in South African art, George Pemba’s work enjoys a great deal of collectors’ interest both locally and abroad. The seminal exhibitions Tributaries, curated by Ricky Burnett in 1985, and The Neglected Tradition: Towards a New History of South African Art, curated by Steven Sack at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 1988, firmly established a new and important collecting category in the art market, which was followed by a steady trajectory of the number of works by the artist being offered and sold (and prices realised) at auction. Pemba’s reputation at auction was cemented in 2007 with the record price of $151,516 achieved for Garden of Eden (1949) in London, almost a decade after his 1996 retrospective exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town. 2014 was Pemba’s best performing year in terms of the number of works coming to the market with a sell-through rate of 80%, realising a total of $401,260 in global auction turnover. The 2020 market is stable and on par with 2019, 2017 and 2014 in terms of sales generated - although there is a slight decline in median auction prices. However, it is important to take into consideration the date of creation, subject matter and size of Pemba’s paintings as important components of value.
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SOLD LOT PERFORMANCE AGAINST ESTIMATE Tracks the performance of lots against their estimate, indicating how many sold within, above or below this range, or remained unsold. This chart shows how the artist’s market performed compared to pre-sale expectations.
100% 75% 50% 25% 0% 2012
Not Sold
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2. Sold lot performance against estimate Auction prices and the investment value of Pemba’s work remain steadfast throughout. On average, 25% - 50% of works sell within the pre-sale estimate, with a consistently low percentage (5% - 10%) of works selling below. An impressive 30% of works offered annually sell above the high-estimate. Works by the artist showed a remarkable strong performance at auction in 2019 and 2020. Both years delivered a sell-through rate of just above 70%, with 25% of the works achieving prices well above the high-estimate - indicative of a stable, yet progressively rising market. The 2020 record price realised for a painting by George Pemba is R796,600 for Flight to Basutoland (1960), which sold in Cape Town against pre-sale estimates of R250,000 – R350,000.
Data sourced from MutualArt: www.mutualart.com
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