17th Jul, 2017 17:00
Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art
110
Jean Welz, Still life with lemons
Still life with lemons
oil on board
Artwork date: 1943
Signature details: signed and dated
Condition Report
Minor surface dirt, paint slightly dry, would benefit from cleaning.
Please note, we are not qualified conservators and these reports give our opinion as to the general condition of the works. We advise that bidders view the lots in person to satisfy themselves with the condition of prospective purchases.
oil on board
Artwork date: 1943
Signature details: signed and dated
(1)
37.5 x 39 cm
Notes:
In a letter, reprinted in the catalogue for an exhibition at his brother’s Galerie Welz in Salzburg in 1965, Jean Welz referred to his paintings as “painterly poems”, a notion picked up in Berman’s (1983:492) characterisation of Welz. She refers to him as “at once a poet and a scientist”, with his paintings “projecting the alternating emphasis of intellect and intuition, of reason and emotion”. In his numerous studies of various forms of fruit, these forms were as significant as apples had been to Cézanne, she argues: “they were primarily the material embodiment of the geometrical perfection of the sphere”. Still Life with Lemons might be proof of this argument.However, as ‘poet’, Welz introduces in this particular painting, apart from the material embodiment of fruit, also elements of imperfection: the bowl or basket contains a collection of summery yellow lemons, rendered in shades of white and blue green – lemons in various stages of decay. That is, in essence, the nature of the still life (nature morte in French) as genre. The moment you have picked the flowers or fruit for the composition to be painted, decay – and eventually death – will be setting in gradually. In this still life, portraying mortality and impermanence, Welz introduces to the right of the lemons a rag or a painter’s apron, with red and blue blotches, as if only a life in art, in the form of painterly poems, would be able to offer a form of permanence.Welz painted Still Life with Lemons early on in his professional career. Although his interest in art was cultivated from a young age, he was a self-taught artist. Miles (1997:32) quotes Welz on painting in the early 1940s: “But, when all of a sudden I became a painter, I had the advantage of the intellectual maturity of a man of forty. I then had to begin, alone, in the stillness of the Karoo, without a teacher, without an art school and without books, to find a justification for each of my brushstrokes.”
Johan Myburg
Sources:
Berman, E. (1983). Art & Artists of South Africa. Cape Town & Rotterdam: Balkema.
Miles, E. (1997). The World of Jean Welz. Vlaeberg: Fernwood Press.
You can place an absentee bid through our website - please sign in to your account on our website to proceed.
In the My Account tab you can also enter telephone bids, or email bids@aspireart.net to log telephone/absentee bids.
Join us on the day of the auction to follow and bid in real-time.
The auction will be live-streamed with an audio-visual feed.
Auction: Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art, 17th Jul, 2017
Aspire Art Auctions’ second Johannesburg sale offered a selection of some of the best works produced by local and international artists available on the local market. Offerings included Cameroonian-born, Belgium-based, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Chilean, Eugenio Dittborn, and South Africans, William Kentridge, Kendell Geers, Louis Maqhubela, Cecil Skotnes, Maggie Laubser, Irma Stern, and Mohau Modisakeng, amongst others.
The sale was led by an international auction record of R1 200 320 achieved for a drawing, Children under Apartheid, by exiled South African artist Dumile Feni, as well as the successful sale of top international lot Golden Mask by renowned performance artist Marina Abramović.
Viewing
Friday 14 July 2017 | 10 am – 7 pm
Saturday 15 July 2017 | 10 am – 5 pm
Sunday 16 July 2017 | 10 am – 4 pm
HIGHLIGHTS
Currency conversions are based on the exchange rate at the auction's start time and date. Bidders should verify the current exchange rate on the day of the sale. All invoices and payments must be made in South African Rands.
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
Logistics
While we endeavour to assist our Clients as much as possible, we require artwork(s) to be delivered and/or collected from our premises by the Client. In instances where a Client is unable to deliver or collect artwork(s), Aspire staff is available to assist in this process by outsourcing the services to one of our preferred Service Providers. The cost for this will be for the Client’s account, with an additional Handling Fee of 15% charged on top of the Service Provider’s invoice.
Aspire Art provides inter-company transfer services for its Clients between Johannesburg and Cape Town branches. These are based on the size of the artwork(s), and charged as follows:
Small (≤60x90x10 cm): R480
Medium (≤90x120x15 cm): R960
Large (≤120x150x20 cm): R1,440
Over-size: Special quote
Should artwork(s) be collected or delivered to/from Clients by Aspire Art directly, the following charges will apply:
Collection/delivery ≤20km: R400
Collection/delivery 20km>R800≤50km
Collection/delivery >50km: Special quote
Packaging
A flat fee of R100 will be added to the invoice for packaging of unframed works on paper.
International Collectors Shipping Package
For collectors based outside South Africa who purchase regularly from Aspire Art’s auctions in South Africa, it does not make sense to ship artworks individually or per auction and pay shipping every time you buy another work. Consequently, we have developed a special collectors’ shipping package to assist in reducing shipping costs and the constant demands of logistics arrangements.
For buyers from outside South Africa, we will keep the artworks you have purchased in storage during the year and then ship all the works you have acquired during the year together, so the shipping costs are reduced. At the end of the annual period, we will source various quotes to get you the best price, and ship all your artworks to your desired address at once.
Aspire Art will arrange suitable storage during, and cost-effective shipping at the end, of the annual period.
Collections
Collections are by appointment, with 24-hours’ notice
Clients are requested to contact the relevant office and inform Aspire Art of which artwork(s) they would like to collect, and allow a 24-hour window for Aspire Art’s logistics department to retrieve the artwork(s) and prepare them for collection.
Handling Fee
Aspire Art charges a 15% Handling Fee on all Logistics, Framing, Restoration and Conservation arranged by Aspire.