3rd Sep, 2020 20:00
Modern & Contemporary Art
125
George Pemba (South Africa 1912–2001)
Congregation
oil on canvas
Artwork date: 1975
Signature details: signed and dated bottom left
Sold for R182,080
Estimated at R150,000 - R200,000
oil on canvas
Artwork date: 1975
Signature details: signed and dated bottom left
(1)
41 x 56 cm
Notes:
George Pemba is considered to be one of the most important social realist artists in South African art. Throughout his career, Pemba drew inspiration from his own surroundings. Although he denied any explicit interest in politics, Pemba took a passive stance through his art. As a compassionate and concerned observer, Pemba became a visual chronicler of the joys and sorrows of township life, at a time when it was being forever changed.In 1937, Pemba won first prize in the May Esther Bedford Competition, with Gerard Sekoto as the runner-up. Although the two contemporaries had not yet met, in 1942 Pemba visited Sekoto in the Cape where it is alleged that Sekoto encouraged Pemba to move away from watercolour painting and turn instead to oil, suggesting that watercolours were too soft for South African subjects.By the 1950s Pemba had mastered oils, and by the 70s he made the decision to step away from his family’s business – a spaza shop called Gabby’s Store in New Brighton, Eastern Cape – to paint more prolifically. What followed was a great maturation of the artist’s technique, leading him to find his own distinctive style for which he is recognised today.Both The wedding (1973) and Congregation (1975) are exemplary of Pemba’s unique ability to empathetically capture the emotions of his subjects at a critical turning point in his career. Painted predominantly in bold hues of blue and yellow, with masterful attention to tonality, the artist depicts a wedding band with feet lifted off the ground as they perform and dance in celebration of the newly-weds’ unity and singers in a church congregation with mouths agape, singing passionately.
Lisa Truter
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Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 3rd Sep, 2020
This Spring, Aspire Art Auctions broke new ground with a fresh, yet considered selection of artworks that is demographically more representative and reflects the spirit of current times. With a strong focus on South Africa, the sale also proudly represented artists from 10 African countries (Benin, DRC, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sudan, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe) and international artists from Europe, the UK and USA.
A great highlight was Edoardo Villa’s monumental steel sculpture titled Traverse from 1957 which achieved R4,893,400 – an auction record for the artist. Other exceptional offerings included works by Gerard Sekoto, George Pemba, Peter Clarke and Nicholas Hlobo.
HIGHLIGHTS
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