27th Mar, 2017 15:00
Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art
171
Douglas Portway (South Africa 1922-1993)
Composition No. 19
oil on canvas
Artwork date: 1965
Signature details: signed; dated and inscribed ‘No. 19’ on the reverse
Exhibited: Salon des Reality, Nouvelles, Paris, 1965.
Sold for R90,944
Estimated at R150,000 - R250,000
oil on canvas
Artwork date: 1965
Signature details: signed; dated and inscribed ‘No. 19’ on the reverse
Exhibited: Salon des Reality, Nouvelles, Paris, 1965.
(1)
130 x 180 cm
Drian Galleries, London.
Notes:
The celebrated historian of South African art, Esme Berman, describes Douglas Portway as an antidote to the pervasive conservatism of mid-century local painting. When canonical genres like landscape and portraiture still reigned supreme, Portway shrugged off academic expectations and chose to pursue a loosely expressionist style that was also wholly his own. As a consequence he “vitalised and modernised the domestic scene” with every painting, drifting into evocative abstraction through an ongoing process of experimentation (Berman, 1970).The artist was honoured with the first international travel grant awarded to a South African painter, later representing his homeland at the 1956 Venice Biennale. Having secured his status locally, Portway relocated to Europe in the late 1950s to grow his burgeoning reputation abroad. As his style matured he exhibited prolifically across Euro-America, earning the renowned Europaprijs voor schilderkunst (Europe Prize for Painting) in Ostend, Belgium, in 1971.Painted at the apex of his career, this abstract composition depicts large ovoid forms jostling up against one another in inky darkness. Although the nuanced tonal modelling appears to suggest dimension, the surrounding space is hard to read. It could be a void or flat plane; the dome of a sky or the inside of a body. It is exactly this ambiguity that came to characterise Portway’s strongest work, which relies on subtle spatial relationships to create tension. Portway textures space – the space of the canvas and the imagined space of the image – by building up washes of soft colour. In so doing he fashions a surface that is as descriptive, and as vigorous, as any figurative scene.
Anna Stielau
Sources:
Berman, E., 1970. Art and artists of South Africa: an illustrated biographical dictionary and historical survey of painters & graphic artists since 1875. Cape Town: AA Balkema.
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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
HIGHLIGHTS
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