27th Mar, 2017 15:00
Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art
154
William Kentridge (South Africa 1955-)
Room Service
A significant early example, rarely seen on the market these days.
Artwork date: 1986
Signature details: signed, dated and inscribed with the title
Sold for R2,046,240
Estimated at R1,500,000 - R1,800,000
A significant early example, rarely seen on the market these days.
Artwork date: 1986
Signature details: signed, dated and inscribed with the title
(1)
90 x 63 cm
signed, dated and inscribed with the title
Notes:
Public and private worlds collide in this impassioned charcoal drawing by William Kentridge, which captures the mood of social turbulence that ran through life in 1980s South Africa. Chaotic dissolution of the apartheid state and escalated resistance to it had reached a climax, which bled into all aspects of human affairs. No corner or intersection was unaffected by the mood of defiance that had taken hold.This drawing was made two years after the release of Czech-born novelist Milan Kundera’s Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), and similarly explores love, sex and the intimate complexities of societies in radical transition. Here, a couple is captured in flagrante delicto – in a naked embrace, but there are no walls to their hotel room, there is no privacy to shield their nakedness. As if in an erotic nightmare, their naked bodies are surrounded by cars. It is as if their love making is taking place in rush-hour traffic. The foregrounded glass and coffee pot, objects from an intimate milieu, feel starkly out of place, highlighting the overriding sense of a stolen moment, a time outside of time. Boldness and intensity of line add to the tenor of haste and passion.Recalling the all-seeing eyes of Dr TJ Eckleburg on the old advertising billboard in F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925), a pair of eyes gaze back on the scene from a displaced rear-view mirror. It is as if the male figure in the scene is observing himself from above, like an omniscient narrator or a future version of himself. Meanwhile, the vague face of a sleeping man in the top left corner of the drawing is a foil to the urgency of the scene, introducing an auratic, cinematic element to the work. Like the eyes that gaze back on the lovers, it is as if this figure might be a haunting from the past or a projection into the future.
Alexandra Dodd
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Auction: Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art, 27th Mar, 2017
The Inaugural Cape Auction offed a diverse range of top-quality historic, modern and contemporary works. With a focus on critically engaged art and a curated approach, seasoned and new collectors competed to acquire significant works.
Aspire’s commitment to the growth of the art market saw international records broken in recognition of exiled South African artists. Louis Maqhubela’s Exiled King, a definitive, politically motivated work, sold for R341,040 - three times his previous record, and Albert Adams’ Untitled (Four Figures with Pitchforks), his first appearance at auction, sold for R136,416. Top prices were also achieved for established artists including J.H Pierneef, William Kentridge, and Edoardo Villa, and contemporary artwork fared exceptionally with record prices for David Brown, Steven Cohen, Mohau Modisakeng, Moshekwa Langa, and Mikhael Subotzky.
Viewing
Friday 24 March 2017 | 10 am – 7 pm
Saturday 25 March 2017 | 10 am – 5 pm
Sunday 26 March 2017 | 10 am – 4 pm
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