11th Sep, 2024 19:00

20th Century & Contemporary Art

 
Lot 55
 
Lot 55 - David Goldblatt (South Africa 1930-2018)

55

David Goldblatt (South Africa 1930-2018)
Nelson Mandela, Houghton, Johannesburg, April 1994

vintage silver gelatin print on fibre-based paper

Artwork date: 1994
Signature details: signed and inscribed with the date on the reverse
Exhibited: Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, ‘David Goldblatt: Portraits’, 29 October to 10 December 2011, an example of the photograph exhibited.

Sold for R346,575
Estimated at R300,000 - R400,000


 

vintage silver gelatin print on fibre-based paper

Artwork date: 1994
Signature details: signed and inscribed with the date on the reverse
Exhibited: Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, ‘David Goldblatt: Portraits’, 29 October to 10 December 2011, an example of the photograph exhibited.

(1)

sheet size: 40 x 30.5 cm; image size: 31.5 x 22 cm; framed size: 49 x 38 x 4.5 cm

Provenance:

The collection of the late Paul Alberts.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

David Goldblatt, in a presentation at the 2014 Design Indaba Conference, took the audience through twenty photos, some taken on commission, such as portraits of former president PW Botha and Nelson Mandela, as well as his personal work taken over almost 60 years. Here he shares the back-story of his experience capturing this iconic image of Nelson Mandela.

This was a photograph taken not long before he became the first president of the new democratic Republic of South Africa. I was with two journalists and we went to his home in Houghton, Johannesburg at 5 o’clock in the morning. He was doing his exercises. His press secretary Carl Niehaus showed me around and said, “perhaps you want to do Mr Mandela in that chair” and I saw what I call a gommagomma chair, it’s one of those deep armchairs into which you sink and if you want to destroy a politician that’s one of the best ways of doing it because he becomes all knees and I said, “No I don’t want to do Mr Mandela in that chair, I want a straight back kitchen chair please” and he said, “you cannot possibly photograph Mr Mandela in a straight back kitchen chair” and I said “well I’ve come to photograph Mr Mandela and not the furniture and I want a straight back kitchen chair” and, most unwillingly, he eventually got me exactly what I wanted and I got the photograph that I had hoped to get and he eventually apologised to me.

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

An example of the photograph forms part of the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum Collection, London.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; University of South Africa, Pretoria; Constitutional Court, Johannesburg; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Photographers' Gallery, London and Museum of Modern Art, New York.

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IMPORTANT NOTICE:


 

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