17th Jul, 2017 17:00
Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art
132
Cecil Skotnes (South Africa1926-2009)
Shaka
carved, inscised and painted wood panel
Sold for R454,720
Estimated at R300,000 - R500,000
carved, inscised and painted wood panel
(1)
152 x 120 cm
Notes:
One of the most influential figures in South African art through the middle decades of the 20th century, Skotnes is rightly renowned for his work in carved woodblocks and prints, though he started his career as a painter.He is also, of course, regarded as one of the most influential art teachers in the country, as well as an artist, primarily through his foundational work at the Polly Street Art Centre in the 1950s. It was here that many 20th century black South African artists, denied access to education or materials by the apartheid government, found an outlet and resources for their talents. As an artist, despite his prolific output and work in different media, perhaps his greatest single thematic work is the series of carvings depicting stories and legends from the life and death of Shaka, the almost mythical Zulu king, whose history was at the time actively suppressed by the apartheid Nationalists.The visual influence of Expressionism is still evident in this titular work, one of the most important panels from the series originally exhibited in the 1970s. Skotnes admired the German Expressionists in particular, and much of the stylised energy of his Shaka in this panel draws on that tradition – as does his insertion of the king into a mythological and allegorical narrative depicted through the medium of the delicately incised and painted wood. That narrative took deliberately epic form, since Skotnes elaborated on the series of panels with counterparts in the form of woodblock prints, this piece being one of them. Augmented in its original exhibition context with poetry about the legendary king by well-known Johannesburg poet Stephen Gray, the series of panels is central to the canon of one of South Africa’s most influential 20th century artists.
James Sey
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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
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