30th Nov, 2022 18:00
20th Century & Contemporary Art
41
Dumile Feni (South Africa 1939-1991)
Mother and child
bronze
Artwork date: 1966
Signature details: signed and numbered 4/5 on the underside
Exhibited: Adler Fielding Galleries, Johannesburg, 'Sculpture SA 1900-1967', 12 September 1967 another example from the edition exhibited.
Literature: Feni, D. & Dube, P. M. (2010). 'Dumile Feni: The Story of a Great Artist'. Johannesburg: Motloatse Arts Heritage Trust, illustrated on p.225; Dube, P. M. (2006). 'Dumile Feni Retrospective'. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, the terracotta mould illustrated on p.28.
Sold for R341,400
Estimated at R300,000 - R500,000
bronze
Artwork date: 1966
Signature details: signed and numbered 4/5 on the underside
Exhibited: Adler Fielding Galleries, Johannesburg, 'Sculpture SA 1900-1967', 12 September 1967 another example from the edition exhibited.
Literature: Feni, D. & Dube, P. M. (2010). 'Dumile Feni: The Story of a Great Artist'. Johannesburg: Motloatse Arts Heritage Trust, illustrated on p.225; Dube, P. M. (2006). 'Dumile Feni Retrospective'. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, the terracotta mould illustrated on p.28.
(1)
27 x 19 x 21 cm excluding base
Provenance:
Private collection, Cape Town.
Notes:
The theme of mother and child has both personal and political significance in the oeuvre of Dumile Feni. In its typical (art) historical convention, mother and child conveys fecundity, beauty, and idealized motherhood. This idolization of the mother as bearer of and embodied life was an expressive motif of the filial values and lived experience of a given, convivial social life.
However, in Dumile’s iconography such a visual motif acquires a new materialist valance and interpretation. It asks us to contend with denied filiality. At the level of the personal, it gestures to the loss and mourning of the artist’s mother who died when he was still very young. It can also become a eulogizing and appreciatory device that recognizes the maternal figures in and around his life.
Here the severance of the black family is a natural outgrowth of the political lived experience under conditions of racial subjection. Thus, the recurrence of this theme throughout his art, might be indicative of the presence and inseparability of the personal from political or even the aesthetic from the moral.
The sculpture depicts an intense frontal figuration of dejection and torment not only in how it portrays the subject’s faces, but also in how their bodily forms are distorted. The mother’s arms are wrapped around her child’s body, as she kneels, staring at the viewer with a look of desperation. We can’t escape her despondent eyes. However, the sheer muscular comportment of the mother indicates her latent potential to raise herself from the dirt. She has the power!
Athi Mongezeleli Joja
The work was cast by the Renzo Vignali Foundry as confirmed by the Foundry and by Salome le Roux from the ART-Group and Gerard de Kamper from the University of Pretoria Museums.
Collections:
The artist is represented in numerous local collections, notably, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Johannesburg Art Gallery; De Beers Centenary Art Gallery, Alice and the University of Fort Hare, Alice.
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: 20th Century & Contemporary Art, 30th Nov, 2022
The focused sale brings to market 84 highly collectable lots, with the diverse collection showcasing highlights by modern masters including magnificent still-life compositions and a Zanzibari boat scene by Irma Stern, an Alexis Preller abstract and an early JH Pierneef landscape. Also included is a significant collection of celebrated contemporary artists: Mustafa Maluka, David Koloane, Walter Oltmann, Norman Catherine, Willem Boshoff, a rare self-portrait oil by Robert Hodgins as well as a large bronze sculpture by Zanele Muholi, the first of this new body of work to be offered on auction.
The sale features a special selection of artworks by William Kentridge. One of the most celebrated and influential living artists today, his major retrospective exhibition is currently on show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. This is one of the most unique and high-quality Kentridge collections to come to market. Spanning his career and showcasing the many mediums in which he works, the sale features signature charcoal drawings alongside collages, tapestry, prints and sculptures.
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.