2nd Jun, 2019 9:00
Modern & Contemporary Art
29
Diane Victor (South Africa 1964-)
Stadium (from the Disasters of Peace series)
charcoal on paper
Artwork date: 2007
Signature details: signed bottom right
Sold for R204,840
Estimated at R150,000 - R250,000
charcoal on paper
Artwork date: 2007
Signature details: signed bottom right
(1)
140 x 194 cm
Notes:
Diane Victor is renowned for the technical quality of her drawing: intricate, intense, detailed and nuanced, she is able to convey drama, emotion and complex narrative structure simply through her incredible technique.Her subject matter is rarely unchallenging. She tackles difficult topics without fear, often taking a strong stance on socio-political and gender issues in artwork that is confrontational yet subtle and beautifully realised. Her work in the series Disasters of Peace, commenced in 2001, is a brilliant case in point.The title of the series is a clear allusion to Goya’s Disasters of War series of prints from the early nineteenth century. The Spanish court artist expressed his revulsion for the trauma and debasement caused by the regional wars with France in explicit political works that weren’t publically displayed until after his death. In a similarly agitprop vein, Victor takes aim in her own group of drawings at the iniquities of contemporary South Africa. The Disasters of Peace series is notable for its monumentalism; Victor eschews her usual meticulously observed and penetrating character studies in favour of depictions of edifices and large-scale architecture which reveal something about the dark heart of South African public life. The drawing on auction depicts the 2001 Ellis Park stadium disaster, where 43 football fans were crushed to death at a Soweto derby football match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates – the worst such disaster in South African football history. Victor imagines the scene as an apocalyptic collapse of the stadium itself, making this a companion piece for a drawing in the same series depicting the collapse of the bleakly iconic Voortrekker Monument. The dark subject matter is overshadowed, however, by the artist’s immense talent. The drama of the collapsing building, seen from an aerial vantage point that takes in a familiar Johannesburg skyline and the area surrounding the world-famous stadium, is meticulously and seductively rendered at a scale perhaps only Diane Victor, of all South African artists, could convincingly achieve.
James Sey
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: Modern & Contemporary Art, 2nd Jun, 2019
Aspire Art Auctions presented a focused and insightfully compiled selection of top-quality modern and contemporary art in their latest sale in Johannesburg.
The company’s commitment to innovation led to a bold and signature move in this sale, which featured a special section dedicated to photography. The medium has been traditionally strong among South African artists but has been without a proper focus in the local auction market. The ground-breaking segment featured a wide range of the most important South African photographers, including Pieter Hugo, David Goldblatt, Guy Tillim, and Zanele Muholi. In addition, the sale starred a number of the market’s big signatures – Alexis Preller J.H. Pierneef, Gerard Sekoto, and Maggie Laubser and top contemporary artists including, Diane Victor, and Wim Botha.
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.