BUSINESS ART DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010 | E-mail: subs@arttimes.co.za | Member of the Global Art Information Group
THE LAST WORD EDITION DECEMBER 2009
The 2009 auction year in review By Michael Coulson
slightly less, at about R48.5m.
Just how big is the SA art auction market? Well, the only thing you can be sure of is that any published figures -- including those in this article -- will be wrong. Some reasons for this are unavoidable: on the one side, it’s not uncommon for works not sold on the night to be sold afterwards by public treaty; on the other, buyers caught away by the excitement of the night may subsequently renege (as apparently happened in large numbers at the Paris sale of the collection of the late Yves St Laurent). Neither of these events can be captured in the price lists auction houses put out immediately after the sale, which are what media reports and the houses’ own PR releases are based on. Nor are they generally publicised later, the failed “Tretchikoff” at Graham Britz’s sale of the Brett Kebble collection being a rare exception. The first event means that reports are understated, the second that they are overstated. Then, allowance must be made for publicity-related hype. In November, consultancy Artvault estimated Stephan Welz & Co (Swelco)’s art sales to that date at R40m. Swelco told the Financial Mail that they were in fact R55m, with another R15m expected in the November sale.
Rosewitz, incidentally, tells me that Swelco’s total turnover (all departments) in 2008 was R180m, so it certainly took a big knock from Strauss. He admits Swelco had to cut its dividends but says it’s still profitable and well capitalised, flatly denying market rumours a couple of months ago that he and chairman Mark Kretschmer had had to put in more capital. Turnover is back to where it was in 2006 when they took over, which was 50% up on the previous year. By my count, there were nine sales by the three major auctioneers in 2009, summarised in the table below:
When I asked Swelco deputy chairman Jack Rosewitz what Swelco’s total 2009 turnover was, and how much of it was art, he put the total at R100m, of which about R80m was art. By both Artvault’s and my calculations, this is a substantial overstatement. Artvault’s figure would gross up to about R52m for the year, while I make it
The Kebble sale was unique,
Guy Tillim: Piazza dei Cinquecento to be seen at Michael Stevenson’s Summer 2009/10: Projects until 16 January 2010. For more see: www.michaelstevenson.com
part of the market in SA art but arguably not part of the SA art market.
Month
House
Venue
Sold by Sold by number# value*
March April May May Aug Sep Oct Oct Nov
Strauss Swelco Britz Swelco Swelco Strauss Strauss Swelco Swelco
Jhb Jhb Jhb CT Jhb Jhb CT CT Jhb
87 83 92.5 79.5 71 73.5 83 70 77
Total
123 70 101 76 75,5 102 75.5 93 107
Gross revenue+ 37.0 6.0 50.6^ 7.6 7.8 23.5 33.5 14.8 12.3
ZAR 193.1 M
Notes: # % of lots on offer; *% of total low estimates; ^Excl’s “Tretchikoff”
This compares with a grossedup figure from Artvault of about R235m, though they work on hammer prices while, in line with international practice, my prices include buyer’s premium. On a comparable basis, the Artvault figure would probably be somewhere above R260m. Artvault also includes some (but not all) of the minor houses, like Pretoria’s Bernardi Bros, as well as sales in London, which it puts at R45m and are no doubt
The South African
Art Information Directory 2010
a Stern still life, R5.57m for Stern’s portrait Carla, a world record both for the artist and an SA sculpture of R946 900 for Van Wouw’s Noitjie van die Onderveld and a record R1.225m for Jean Welz’s Still Life Cezannesque.
Errors and omissions excepted, these figures are remarkably symmetrical. They show that in its first year Strauss & Co captured as near as dammit 50% of the art auction market with the balance split equally by Britz and Swelco . Remarkably, too, some 45% came in two of the first three sales of the year, Strauss’s inaugural sale and the Kebble sale. These were for different reasons one-offs.
and there can be no doubt Strauss’s Stephan Welz pulled out all the stops and used his unequalled contacts to ensure an unprecedented event. But for this, some of the lots may have been held back from 2008, others may have appeared later in the year and others may not even have come on to market at all. Still, after Kebble, Strauss’s sales were the year’s three biggest, indicating the impact this newcomer had. However, even it may not be immune from hype: Strauss claims its sales topped R100m. By my count, it grossed just R91.5m from art, with another R4.8m from its first furniture and silver sales, at its Cape sale. In a review of its year, Strauss chairman Elisabeth Bradley cites some of the artists for whom the house achieved record prices: Anton van Wouw, Irma Stern, Jean Welz (father, of course, of Stephan), Wolf Kibel, Frans Oerder, Freida Lock, Dorothy Kay, May Hillhouse and Edoardo Villa. As highlights, she mentions R7.24m, a world record for
She also trumpets the defection of “the key staff” from Swelco’s Cap office, though both Rosewitz and Swelco chairman Mark Kretschmer have separately asserted to me that they didn’t rate the trio that highly. A touch of exaggeration on the one hand, and deprecation on the other, perhaps. One of Swelco’s most remarkable results came in its final sale, when it reached a world record for William Kentridge: R1.456m for a drawing, against an estimate of only R400 000R600 000. Among its other triumphs was a record-equalling R3.136m for a Pierneef Baobab. A lesser record was R291 000 for Bettie Cilliers-Barnard, amazing because the estimate was a mere R14 000-R18 000. In his single sale, Britz claimed 26 world records, notably R3.85m for Preller’s Christ Head and R660 000 for a Volschenk Riverside landscape. Of course, one can’t ignore London, where there were three main sales including SA art. Bonham’s sale of African Contemporary Art in London on April 8 was a disaster. Overall, 50 of 95 lots sold, or 53%, but £352 000 gross fell under half the low estimate of £731 000. Of 35 works by SA artists, 35 sold. But because the two highest estimates didn’t sell, the £105 000 gross was only 27% of the low £391 500 estimate.
Bonham’s October sale of SA art grossed £2.36m by my count (the house claimed £2.5m), against a low estimate of £2.49m, and was about 55% sold by number. These figures compare with £7.1m for a single, world record, sale of SA art in September 2008, suggesting that the market for SA art held up better at home and hardly bearing out Bonham’s repeated claim that the centre of the SA art market is now in London. Still, Bonham’s is persisting in this market. Next March it holds both an SA sale in London and a sale titled Africa Now in, interestingly, New York. The third London sale, in September was Sotheby’s Art for Africa charity sale, for which it waived buyer’s premium. A gross £457 000 was in the upper range of the £358 500-£507 000 estimate, with only two of 38 lots unsold. And the disaster of the year? Unquestionably, the cancellation of a R3.1m “Tretchikoff” Lost Orchid at the Kebble sale, which Britz insisted was kosher long after the Tretchikoff family and most art historians had questioned it, if not rejected it outright. How the reputational damage of this will affect Britz’s planned annual sales of SA art remains to be seen. But there will surely be changes in market share in 2010. Neither Britz nor Strauss are likely to be able to repeat their best results of 2009. On the other hand, Strauss plans to broaden its non-art coverage. But on balance, Swelco could well recover market share at the expense of both its competitors, though the total size of the market could fall.
AVAILABLE NOW
R 189, 00
The South African Art Information Directory 2010 The most complete listing of South African art resources, infrastruture, financial and promotional opportunities for visual artists
PROMOTIONAL SPECIAL: Purchase your copy before 30 January 2010 and get your Directory for just R 189,00 (Includes postage and packaging) The most complete listing of South African art resources, infrastructure, financial and promotional opportunities for visual artists.
To purchase your copy go to: www.artdirect.co.za | Tel 021 424 7733 | E-mail: subs@arttimes.co.za
Published monthly by Global Art Information Editor: Gabriel Clark-Brown editor@arttimes.co.za PO Box 15881 Vlaeberg, 8018 Advertising: Eugene Fisher sales@arttimes.co.za Tel. 021 424 7733 Fax. 021 424 7732 Subscriptions: Bastienne Klein subs@arttimes.co.za
News: news@arttimes.co.za Shows: show@arttimes.co.za Artwork: art@arttimes.co.za
Newspaper rights: The newspaper reserves the right to reject any material that could be found offensive by its readers. Opinions and views expressed in the SA Art Times do not necessarily represent the offi cial viewpoint of the editor, staff or publisher, while inclusion of advertising features does not imply the newspaper’s endorsement of any business, product or service. Copyright of the enclosed material in this publication is reserved.
PAGE 02
Public and Private: Collecting and Exhibiting in an Environment of Cultural Indifference
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
Paper presented at the First Conference on Management of Cultural Organizations in times of economic crisis, Cape Town, 3-4 Dec. 2009 By Stefan Hundt Curator: Sanlam Art Collection I have taken some liberties in presenting a paper at this conference. First of all I must describe the context I am coming from and why I am making this presentation. Let it be known from the outset that I stand here not behalf of anyone or organisation and therefore the opinions that express here are entirely my own and I make not pretensions to scientific rigor. My background is in the visual arts as a student of painting and the history of art. My foray into the world of museum began with a four-year stint as curator of the Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein and then as curator for the Sanlam Art Collection for the past thirteen years. What I wish to share is personal account of my experiences in the public art museum and corporate art collection worlds over the last 17 years and my intention is to sketch out the landscape that these collections inhabit. Beginning with the private sector I will discuss briefly the nature of the corporate art collection, collectors dealers speculators and the rapid growth in the art market in South Africa. Over the last two decades publicly funded art museums have because of the enormous growth in the South African art market seen their ability to fulfil their core function of collecting entirely eroded. Government and public indifference to their plight has further contributed towards these institutions becoming progressively incapable of participating meaningfully in the South African artworld.
Art Collecting in the Private Sector Let me begin with what is closer to home for me presently, the world of the corporate art collection. The corporation collects works under the direction of the company’s board. Often though this is usually the result of the initiative of a powerful chairman or chief executive officer. In some instances in South Africa it is common practice in some corporations to hand over the task of selecting the artworks to be acquired to the chairman’s wife. For these companies the primary purpose of acquiring art is for office decoration and the acquisition of such “assets” is purely utilitarian and of a temporary nature - the value of which is reflected in them being depreciated on the same basis as office furniture. Although this may have been common practice some forty years ago it is rarely the case now and one cannot generalise. There are of course model examples of corporate
collections such as the Chase Manhattan Bank Collection ( now JP Morgan Chase Collection) where the explicit motivation for the collection was more than decoration; in that the art symbolically reflected the company’s commitment to idea of creativity and the recognition of the cultural diversity of its work force and clients. The acquisition of these artworks was dealt with, with the same fiduciary prudence that the acquisition of any asset was. Rarely have corporations seen their acquisitions of art works as investments although they may appear to have become such now. The founding of the Sanlam Art Collection in 1965 was based on similar principles and as a result the collection today boasts some of the finest examples of works by South African artists. Sanlam also understood its art collection to have an “educational” function and a selection of the collection was shown in smaller towns throughout South Africa, the then Rhodesia and South West Africa. There is no doubt that an element of shrewd marketing was involved here too. After all developing an art collection is not the core business of the company. The Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation or ‘Rembrandt Art Collection’ as it was more popularly known pursued similar altruistic motives and extensive tours of works drawn from its international holdings in the Stuyvesant Foundation continued to be enjoyed by the South African public on a regular basis up until 2008. There are a number of other notable Corporate Collections in South Africa that have significant histories. I would like to mention a few as examples: Standard Bank Collection (+/1500 items), ABSA Collection has by far the largest collection of works number over 22 000 and Sasol Collection with about 1800 items. Although the notion of a corporate collection was not foreign in the South African art world it was not until the mid 1990s that concept of the art collection as an effective corporate symbol reached maturity. From 1994 until about 2001 corporate collections in South Africa became a growth industry. By acquiring an art collection, a corporation was able to demonstrate its commitment to the new political dispensation in South Africa in a cost effective way. Starting this trend was the founding of the Gencor Collection in 1995. The motivation behind establishing the collection was “ … a visual expression of the new unbundled Gencor, its dynamism, its globalisation strategy and its embrace of the new democratic South Africa” New “collections” rapidly followed: MTN Collection,
Vodacom Collection, Telkom Collection, SABC Collection, Didata Collection to name a few. “Corporate Collection” became the buzzword in the South African artworld as critics, art historians, chief executives, art consultants and artists discussed the relative merits of the various collections in comparison to each other. One can in some sense speak of a “golden age”. Perhaps this may now be over. None of the collections listed above pursue active acquisitions programmes any longer. More recently Sasol announced its discontinuation of its art collecting programme and has curtailed its visual arts sponsorships. The reasons given: that the company strategy and that of the collection no longer correlated. There is little doubt that the economic crisis has had some effect on corporate art collections as budget cuts become have become the order of the day. However the “demise” of these collections already began before this crisis hit South Africa. Could it be that owning an art collection had lost its relevance? The word relevant has its history in the visual arts in South Africa as a term used to distinguish between art that could be considered worthy of recognition because it contributed to “Struggle” as opposed to art produced in the pursuit of aesthetic propositions. Needless to say amongst many artists and curators today the word has attained equivalence to the worst explicative imaginable. However relevance to the core business has become the critical criterion today. The art collection if it doesn’t contribute to the bottom line needs to be slotted in somewhere in the business hierarchy. As the desperate pursuit of profits becomes ever more competitive, non-profit generating expenditure requires significant justification. Unable to justify the continuation of the collection within a profit driven business model as marketing expense, companies are inclined to slot the art collection into their Public Affairs department or Corporate Social Investment department. However as art is an acquired taste and historically enjoyed by the privileged and wealthy few, the possibility that the acquisitions of artworks could be recognised as contributing to Black Economic Empowerment Balanced Score Cards, which require that 75% of the recipients of the spend be black, the role of the art collection within the CSI programme of any corporation, is difficult to justify. Does this mean that the role of the corporation in supporting the visual arts through collecting is threatened? Under present circumstances in South Africa this may be the
case. Clearly the honeymoon between art collecting and the corporation is over and the future significance that these collections will hold, will depend on other participants in the artworld namely the private collector, the state and museums.
The Private Collector The private collector is motivated significantly differently to the corporate or the museum. I would like to distinguish clearly between the collector that acquires artworks as part of inner necessity and interest in the object where the value of the work is more of symbolic than financial significance as opposed to a collector whose motivation is the maximisation of return on their investment, who is essentially a speculator. For the speculator price is hard and necessary fact, the pursuit of its maximisation is the ultimate goal and symbolism is irrelevant. Although this difference may be simple enough to describe in words to identify such in reality proves much more difficult. Dealers often present themselves in both guises. In the gallery he or she hangs the commercial bread and butter stock of the trade while in the stock room are kept the works reserved for specific clients / collectors and museums. Their speech emulates that of the museum curator, emphasising the cultural and heritage significance of the artwork and the desirability that it should become part of the public domain. Both genuine collectors and dealer-collectors have become significant participants in the make-up the art economy in South African. Both have vested interests in the way art museums operate in this economy. There is a third category of art market operator – the agent. Most commercial galleries in the contemporary art market in South Africa are little more than agents. Some more established than others. As the art market has grown, so has the number of agents. Agents may hold but don’t usualy own stock and their investment in the art market is limited and often purely speculative with relatively short-term objectives. The relative high transaction costs associated with acquiring art works militates against the holding of stock over an extended period of time. Consequently, of all the participants in the art markets, rapidly increasing prices irrespective of the long-term sustainability of such, are crucial to their success or failure. A cursory look at the South African art market over the last five years reveals an enormous growth. The auction market provides a good barometer to
gauge what has been happening. ( see below graph)
demand. Only time will tell to what extent these prices will
Auctions Houses selling South African Art Auction House Location Stephan Welz & Co Strauss & Co Ashbeys Galleries Bernardi Auctioneers Westgat Walding Auctioneers Graham’s Gallery Russel Kaplan Auctioneers Christies Bonhams
Johannesburg& Cape Town Johannesburg& Cape Town Cape Town Pretoria Johannesburg Johannesburg Johannesburg London London
A little less than ten years ago the market was dominated by a single auction house Stephan Welz & Co in association with Sotheby’s. Over the last three years this has change dramatically with 9 companies trading South African art works as distinct categories in their offering. Two of which trade out of London – Bonhams and Christies. There is a huge gap between the turn-overs of Stephan Welz & Co and Strauss & Co and the other smaller companies. Yet what this indicates is an enormous growth in the supply of both purchasers as well as sellers. Some fifteen years ago when the total sales of art works at an auction crept over the R 1 000 000 mark this was celebrated as significant record. Results exceeding R 15 000 000 pers sale event is now common expectation. Given these figure one can hardly speak of economic crisis in the market for tradition art.
Stephan Welz & Co selected sale 07 - 08 20 April 2007 1 June 2007 7 August 2007 28 April 2008 29 May 2008 22 Nov 2008
R 36 M R 23 M R 28 M R 39 M R 27 M R 43 M
Strauss & Co
selected Sales 2009 March 2009 June 2009 October 2009
Approx. Sales per Annum
R 38 M R 24 M R 38 M
By far the biggest spenders on these auctions have been individuals, who have forked out considerable sums for established “modernist” or in more popular parlance “old masters”. Some of these buyers are genuine collectors building up significant collections that now begin to rival the holdings of established public art collections. There are also a considerable number of speculators / agents and collector-dealers in the market that have the ability to significantly influence prices. It is my opinion that there is a component of manipulation at work in the market and that the rapid price increase we have seen over the last five years are not purely the results of supply and
6 2 4 4 3-4 1 3-4 1 2
remain sustainable and a clear indication of stress in the future will be to see how many of these agents survive over the next three years. The Public Institutions – Museums What is the position of the art museum in all of this? From a museuological perspective Art Museums are of particular species. Natural history collections, which are largely amassed as a result of scientific research, are to some extent the by-product of the pursuit of knowledge. Art collections are constituted of objects, which are an end in themselves. Today, they rarely found / discovered but made for the specific purpose of ending up in a collection such as a museum. Although there is a market for natural history specimens it is insignificant in comparison to the art market. Rarely does the natural history museum have to price its individual holdings and actively seek for what is supplied. The art museum as a participant in this market is exposed to its vicissitudes and the influence of other participants. Its ability to tolerate these, is largely forged by the status with which the participants regard the museum and its resources to compete on the open market for prize works. Public Art museums in South Africa are in an unenviable position. Some of them have suffered considerable decline in the past decade. Given the current market conditions none of these museums command sufficient funds to compete in the market for quality works. In fact most of these public institutions do not have acquisitions budgets of any kind and their funds for operational expenditure barely cover the costs of staff and maintenance. In the instance of Iziko Museums which received R 44 639 000 from the Department of Arts Culture, in 2008-2009 Annual Report, 87% of this was paid out in the form of remuneration (13.77% to the senior management team of 11 members).
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010 Fortunately fiscal prudence on the part of the museum and further income from sponsorships, cash donations, interest received, admission fees and rental and other unspecified income brought the museums revenue to R 61 846 561.00. However the CEO remarks under capacity constraints in the report that: “Due to insufficient funding Iziko is not able to grow its human capital to its full potential and is unable to employ the necessary staff required to fulfil its core function activities to the maximum potential”. Nothing in the annual report of 2008 - 2009 makes mention of the incapacity of the South African National Gallery to acquire representative examples of significant contemporary and historical South African art. It should be born in mind though that the government does not prescribe the manner in which the subsidy provided to the museum is allocated by the museum. The executive management team of the museum determines the amount set aside for acquisitions. The museum council later approves this. Given the legacy of under funding final responsibility lies with the government of the day.
figures stated on the wall of the gallery that made the most trenchant statement were: “R30,000 was allocated to the Gallery for acquisitions that year (1980)from the national cultural budget of R16.5 million. This was for “the preservation, development, fostering and extension of the culture of the white population of the Republic”. Other aspects of this budget are worth noting. R107,000 was spent on “the erection and maintenance of camping sites”, while another R62,000 was given to campers under the heading of “land service and other youth work”. In those days, R30,000 could buy one tenth of a painting by the French Impressionist Claude Monet at Sotheby’s in London.” And following: “R 52 Billion for the Arms Deal R 13.3 Billion in 2007 for 2010 Soccer World Cup R 90 million for our State President’s new security fence In 2006 only R 141 000.00 for the Iziko South African Nation al Gallery to purchase works of art plus zero tax incentives for donors to our museum and
In the instance of Iziko Museums which received R 44 639 000 from the Department of Arts Culture, in 2008-2009 Annual Report, 87% of this was paid out in the form of remuneration (13.77% to the senior management team of 11 members). In 1980 the South African National Gallery’s purchasing budget was a mere R 30 000 which led the then director Dr Raymund van Niekerk to comment in a Sunday paper as follows: “I have reached the stage that when overseas visitors ask me what our purchasing grant is, I reply ‘nothing’. This has, I believe, a bleak dignity which would be destroyed if I told them what the amount really was”. Funding from the state over the past two decades has been at a level that no funds were set aside for purchases from 1997 – 2001. This state of affairs has not improved with the purchasing budget of the museum for 2005 – 2006 being a mere R 141 000.00. Seen against the backdrop of prices for artworks currently this figure looks rather negligible especially in comparison to other two much smaller state funded art museums in the country over the same period. William Humphreys Art Gallery R 776 966.00 and the Oliewenhuis Art Museum R 200 000.00. To show up this dismal state of affairs in stark contrast the National Gallery, Hayden Proud compiled an exhibition in 2007 titled “Why Collect?” focussing on the continuous failure of the past and present gvernments to provide adequate funding to the institution to pursue its core functions. The
galleries” Although the exhibition was covered in the press under a headline in the Weekender newspaper of ”National Gallery’s pleas for funds fall on deaf ears”, this elicited no public response from the state and very little from the general public. Amongst peers in the museum environment the exhibition was favourably received yet few were vocal in their support because of a fear of the recriminations that may follow. The exhibition presented an ideal opportunity for the issue of the legacy of inadequate funding of these institutions to be debated publicly and to solicit support. Unfortunately this opportunity for public participation in the current and future development of the museum was missed. Indifference describes adequately what the reaction to this exhibition and the highlighted state affairs of the museum had been. Indifference perhaps as the result of years of neglect and lack of growth which had made the part played by the museum in the South African art world less than relevant. The present and future outlook is no better when one considers government policy on culture. Drawing from the latest annual report, strategic plan and recent statements by the minister of Arts and Culture published by the Department and Arts and
Page 03 Culture it is clearly evident that the state sees art as a therapeutic tool to aid healing and promote nation building. The minister had made it quite clear: “ In partnership with other departments, the Department of Arts and Culture will continue to support cultural projects, which promote positive values. Art can greatly help even in the rehabilitation of offenders. Art can help those who are in pain to express themselves. Art can help our nation to heal its wounds that come from so deep in our past. Art can provide a space for national contemplation and strengthen dialogue and allow us to see different ways of thinking in order for us to bring it all together. In our determination to build a People’s Culture, we are putting more resources into programmes that will be held in community art centres, in rural areas and in all areas devoid of the cultural infrastructure necessary for our people to live productive cultural lives.” (Opening remarks by the Minister of Arts and Culture, Ms Lulu Xingwana MP at the Moral Regeneration Conference Gala Dinner Birchwood Hotel 26 November 2009.) There is little hope that the state will see the inability of the South National Gallery to acquire significant works of art as a priority. Its indifference is further illustrated by its continuing refusal to support a South Africa presence at the Venice Biennale and its prescription that additional funds will only be made available for acquisitions that support established government determined focus areas such as “Youth Development” and “Aids Awareness”. Within the artworld the Museum has always provided a stable point of reference for its participants. Acceptance into the collection of the art museum is for most artists a significant stamp of approval and for collectors, dealers, collector-dealers agents and critics an indication that artist has considerable potential. In this respect the art museum holds incredible power. It makes judgements about the worthiness and quality of the artwork and anoints it with a new status through acquisition or the acceptance of a donation. It can however only exercise that power effectively if it has the resources to do so – meaning the ability to acquire important works of historical and aesthetic value that reflect the diversity of the best quality works produced in country. Without these resources the institution’s independence may become exposed to pressures from the other participants in the artworld and its role as aesthetic arbiter compromised. A recent example of this form of compromise is the exhibition of Damien Hirst paintings at the Wallace collection in London. Where the artist paid the gallery the amount of BPS 230 000.00 to host his exhibition. The critical fall out from this exhibition has been extensive.
Furthermore, an art museum that is no longer able to fulfil its core function in terms of collecting lose its relevance in the art world. Over time the collection will no longer be representative of South African art history and for contemporary audiences it will be symbolic of a vision of the past. Within the current context of a dynamic artworld the South African National Gallery is progressively losing its status as the pre-eminent art collecting institution in South Africa. This all seems such a contradiction in an art market flush with money. Clearly there is money around and persons with deep pockets are willing to spend considerable amounts of money on art works for their private collections. Why are public art museums not able to benefit in some way from this? One perspective on this matter may be that art, which was previously not considered seriously in South Africa as an investment commodity, has become a viable alternative investment that can purportedly be a hedge against stock market vagaries. Evidence of this is seen the world over with establishment of numerous art funds in Europe, the United States and many in India. The success of these art funds still needs to be proven. Judging by the literature that the purveyors of his funds publish, much is stated about potential returns and very few actual figures presented. There are also a number of art funds that have begun with incredible fanfare but because they couldn’t raise the projected capital envisaged, never got off the ground. More recently auction houses and dealers in South Africa have begun to brazenly declare their wares to be investments and urge potential buyers and sellers to consider entering the
market. Like any market timing is crucial. The art market boom for historically important works, still seems to be holding out, but for contemporary works with the exception of top class examples we have already begun to witness a serious pressure on sales and prices. For the dealer, collector, artist and speculator the art museum as adjudicator of quality and value has become secondary in importance to the results achieved by auctioneer. Previously collectors were well inclined to donate to an institution such as the South African National Gallery, as the public recognition and gratitude was of sufficient symbolic value to appease the ego and compensate for the loss of the potential financial windfall. However because the gallery is no longer perceived as a pre-eminent in its role and the fact that there is so little public recognition given to such donations many collectors are now more inclined to place the work on the auction market where the price achieved and attendant publicity, brings in more recognition for the collector’s vision and acumen than what would be obtained from such a donation to a public institution. In addition the fact the Receiver of Revenue has persisted in not considering donations to these institution as tax deductible has made donating unattractive, specially in the case where the value of the art contents of a deceased estate may now attract substantial death duties. What do public art museum such as the South African National Gallery stand to do to stem its slow progression toward irrelevance? The government’s indifference towards culture and the visual arts in general needs to be contested vigorously and pub licly. Friends have to be found
and groomed in the corporate sector and amongst collectors and these incorporated as stakeholders. Art Museums in the United States have been expert at this for some time by incorporating such stakeholders in the development of museum infrastructure and collections. To be included in the Museum of Modern Art or Metropolitan Museum of Art directors circle for example requires a substantial donation. Equivalent symbolic recognition is provided in return. Tax incentives for donations to public museums and galleries need to be lobbied for and implemented to make donating to a museum not only a public good but also an attractive fiscal consideration. Art Museums need to collabo rate more intimately not only in terms of exhibitions but also in terms of acquisitions. Perhaps its feasible that the acquisition priorities of nationally funded art museums should be set jointly, funds pooled and the resulting growing collections actively shared and exchanged. There is little doubt in my mind that if present circumstances of under funding and government and public indifference persist public art museums in South Africa will be rapidly approaching a crisis of confidence and credibility. Ruskin encapsulated eloquently the importance of art to nation when he wrote: Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last. John Ruskin (1819-1900) What will future generations be left with, without their book of their art?
Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.
John Ruskin (1819-1900)
16 year old mother and child: Transkaroo train journey 1981. by Jenny Altschuler. Part of her MFA body of work (Michaelis) entitled: Platform 4 : Between Forever and Never
PAGE 04
SHOW LISTINGS IN FREE STATE, GAUTENG AND MPUMALANGA
Free State
by Sanel Aggenbach. 44 Stanley Ave., Braamfontein Werf (Milpark), T. 011 726 2234 www.artonpaper.co.za
Bloemfontein Oliewenhuis Art Museum 20 Oct-10 Jan 2010, David Goldblatt: Some Afrikaners Revisited (Main Building). 28 Jan-14 March 2010, works by Walter Meyer (Main Building). 26 Nov-7 Dec, Planet Pixl (in the Reservoir). 16 Harry Smith Str., Bloemfontein T. 051 447 9609 Johan Smith Art Gallery A fine selection of paintings, ceramics, glass, bronze and other works of art. Windmill Centre Main Street Clarens T. 058 256 1620 www.johansmith.co.za
Artspace-JHB 11 Nov-2 Dec, Frugi Bonae (‘to or for the good fruit’), mixed media works by Kim Gurney that explores relations between humankind and the environment. 5 Dec-19 Dec, Oppitafel IX- Babette’s Feast, a group exhibition of functional, decorative and fine art. Chester Court, 142 Jan Smuts Ave., Parkwood, Johannesburg T. 011 880 8802 www.artspace-jhb.co.za Brodie/Stevenson 12 Nov-15 Dec, a variety of original drawings and editioned prints by Anton Kannemeyer. 14 Jan-13 Feb, works by Daniel Naudé. 373 Jan Smuts Ave., Johannesburg T. 011 326 0034, www.artextra.co.za www.brodiestevenson.com
Blou Donki Art Gallery Contemporary Art, Steel Sculptures, Functional Art, Photography, Ceramics. Windmill Centre Main Street Clarens T. 058 256 1757 www.bloudonki.co.za
Gauteng Johannesburg Afronova 27 Nov-19 Dec, The Summer Show. Safe Parking- Cnr of Miriam Makeba and Gwigwi Mrwebi Str., Newton C. 083 726 5906 www.afronova.com
CIRCA on Jellicoe From 7 Nov-Mid Jan 2010, Penelope and the Cosmos, works by Willem Boshoff and Karel Nel. 2 Jellicoe Ave. T. 011 788 4805 Email: gallery@circaonjellicoe.co.za
6 Jellicoe Ave., Rosebank, Johannesburg T. 011 788 4805 www.everard-read.co.za Gallery MOMO 3-31 Dec, group exhibition. 14 Jan-8 Feb, group exhibition. 52 7th Avenue, Parktown North, Johannesburg T. 011 327 3247 www.gallerymomo.com Gallery on the Square 2-5 Dec, Transformation, works by Charles Morwape Shop 32 Nelson Mandela Square, Cnr. 5th & Maude Str., Sandton Central, Johannesburg. T. 011 784 2847 www.galleryonthesquare.co.za Goodman Gallery 25 Nov-18 Dec, works by Moshekwa Langa. 163 Jan Smuts Ave., Parkwood, Johannesburg T. 011 788 1113 www.goodman-gallery.com Graham Fine Art Gallery 5 Nov-15 Dec, A Journey Untold: Personal Evocations of the South African Landscape, works by Scats Esterhuyse. Shop 31, Broadacres Lifestyle Centre, Cnr. Valley & Cedar Rd.’s Fourways, Johannesburg T.011 465 9192 www.grahamsgallery.co.za
Artist’s Proof Studio 1-11 Dec, an Artist Proof Studio Collaboration of large prints and embroideries. Inside the Bus Factory, 3 President Street, Newton T. 011 492 1278 Email: aspgallery@mweb.co.za www.artistproofstudio.org.za
David Krut Projects 28 Nov-25 Jan 2010, Journey, an exhibition of paintings, drawings and artist’s books by Gail Behrmann. 140 Jan Smuts Ave., Parkwood, Johannesburg T. 011 447 0627 www.davidkrutpublishing.com
Johannesburg Art Gallery 15 Nov-Feb 2010, Remembering the Black Consciousness Movement: A Selection of Works from the JAG Collection, including artists such as Charles Nkosi and John Muafangejo. Also exhibiting is ‘Contours: 6 Stories/6 Hours/6 Artists’, a condensed presentation of documentation done by artists from six different countries: Donna Kukama (RSA), Lucy Azubuike (Nigeria), Nicolas Simo (Cameroon), Jimmy Ogonga (Kenya), Marian Kunonga (Zimbabwe/ Malawi) and Sonia Sultuane Mozambique). This project forms part of a larger project, dubbed Multipistes (www.multipistes.org). King George Str., Joubert Park, Johannesburg T. 011 725 3130 Email: khwezig@joburg.org.za www.joburg.org.za
Art on Paper 21 Nov-10 Dec, mixed media
Everard Read Gallery JHB 10 Dec- Jan 2010, works by Phillemon Hlungwani.
Manor Gallery 6 Nov-7 Dec, annual sale. 22-30 Jan 2010, New Dawns,
Alliance Francaise of Johannesburg Gallery Gerard Sekoto 24 Nov-5 Dec, Messages from Hillbrow, works by Boitumelo Project. 17 Lower Park Drive, cnr of Kerry Rd., Parkview- opp. Zoo Lake T.011 646 1169 culture.jhb@alliance.org.za
CO-OP 26 Nov-15 Jan 2010, X Store, a selection of products by local and international designers. T 68 Juta Str., Braamfontein T. 011 023 0336 www.co-opjoburg.com David Brown Fine Art 12 Nov-11 Dec, Back from Brussels, works by Suzy Davidson. 39 Keyes Ave., off Jellicoe, Rosebank, Johannesburg T. 011 788 4435 www.davidbrownfineart.co.za
SUBSCRIBE TO
SA ART TIMES And get SA BUSINESS ART and SA ARTLIFE To your door For R 360 per 11 editions Go to www.artdirect.co.za | E-mail: subs@arttimes.co.za or call us at 021 424 7733
a mixed media exhibition. Artworks featured will be sourced from three top Watercolour Society artists Zanne Bezuidenhoudt, Leonora de Lange and Susan Orpen and their pupils. Norscot Manor Centre, Penguin Drive T. 011 465 7934 Email: gallery@wssa.org.za www.wssa.org.za Market to Workshop Until 4 Dec, Short Change, the Market to Workshop’s 20th Anniversary exhibition with works by various tographers interrogating the subtle and often complex shifts that have emerged in post-apartheid South Africa. From 9 Dec, Portfolio 09, tographic exhibition by twelve students. www.markettoworkshop.co.za Museum Africa 25 May-24 Dec 2010, l’Afrique: A Tribute to Maria Stein-Lessing and Leopold Spiegel; co-curated by Nessa Leibhammer and Natalie Knight. 121 Bree Str., Newtown, Johannesburg T. 011 833 5624 www.knightgalleries.net Rabbi Cyril Harris Community Centre RCHCC 22 Nov-13 Dec, works by Jeff Kodesh. Cnr of Glenhove Rd. & 4th Street, Houghton, East of the M1 T. 011 728 8088/8378 or T. 011 728 8378, Email: hazelc@greatpark. co.za/renes@greatpark.co.za Resolution Gallery Until Feb 2010, Fifteen years after, works by Sam Nhlengethwa. 142 Jan Smuts Ave., Parkwood, Johannesburg T. 011 880 4054 www.resolutiongallery.com Rooke Gallery 17 Sep-1 Dec, The Unseen Works, a rare collection of unseen works by two respective iconic artists, Mark Kannemeyer: The Berlin paintings, and Roger Ballen: The vintage tographs By Appointment, The Newtown, 37 Quinn Str., Newtown, Johannesburg T. 072 658 0762 www.rookegallery.co.za Sally Thompson Gallery 8 Nov-15 Dec, Unveiling Soul
Masks, photography by Bob Cnoops. Opening address by Judith Mason. 78 Third Ave., Melville, T. 011 482 9719 www.thompsongallery.co.za Seippel Gallery Until 12 Dec, Enter Exit, photography exhibition by Pierre Crocquet. 1 Oct-12 Dec, Revision, photography by Cedric Nunn (in the Bailey Seippel Gallery). Cnr of Fox and Berea, Johannesburg T. 011 401 1421 www.seippel-gallery.com Standard Bank Gallery 14 Oct-5 Dec, Africa, the Sun and Shadows, paintings by Alexis Preller. Cnr of Simmonds & Frederick Str.’s, Johannesburg, 2001 T. 011 631 1889 www.standardbankgallery.co.za University of Johannesburg Art Gallery 11 Nov-4 Dec, Ontwortel/ Uprooted, multimedia works in found material, rusted material, bitumen, wood, paper and charcoal by Jan van der Merwe. University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park Kingsway campus cnr. Kingsway and Universiteits Rd., Auckland Park T. 011 559 2099/2556 www.uj.ac.za/artsacademy Upstairs@Bamboo 28 Nov-6 Dec, Ceramics by Caroline Schulz Vieira Upstairs@Bamboo, cnr of 9th Str. & Rustenburg Rd., Melville, Johannesburg T. 082 401 4213
Pretoria
Alette Wessels Kunskamer Exhibition of Old Masters and selected leading contemporary artists. Maroelana Centre, Maroelana. GPS : S25º 46.748 EO28º 15.615 T. 012 346 0728 C. 084 589 0711 www.artwessels.co.za Cameo Framers and Trent Gallery 25 Nov-22 Dec, Wearable Art/ Pret-a-Porter, a fun exhibition of wearable art. 198 Long Str., Pretoria T. 012 460 5497
Platform on 18th 26 Nov-5 Dec, ‘Einde van die wêreld’, works by Robert van den Berg, Willem Snyman and Fabian Oliver Wargau. 232 18th Str., Rietondale, Pretoria T. 084 764 4258 www.platformon18th.co.za Pretoria Art Museum 12 Oct-28 Feb 2010, the Pelmama Permanent Art Collection. Until 1 Dec, A selection of artworks tells a brief story of South African art from the time of the first San artists, includes early 20th century painters, Resistance artists and artists of the 21st century. Also on show until Dec, the Corobrik Collection, showcasing the development of ceramics in South Africa in the past thirty years. T.012 344 1807/8 /www.pretoriaartmuseum.co.za
St. Lorient Art Gallery 15 Nov-30 Dec, Untitled, a group exhibition, including works by Tay Dall, Isabel Le Roux, John Coumbias, AnneLynne Marais, Thelma van Rensburg, Mike Hyam, Sielja Voss, Elmarie van Niekerk, Amanda Nell, Martin de Kock, Jimmy Moore, Petra Stigling, Anton Gericke and Maryna Joubert. 492 Fehrsen Str., Brooklyn Circle, Brooklyn, Pretoria T. 021 460 0284 www.stlorient.co.za UNISA Art Gallery 28 Nov-22 Jan 2010, an exhibition by final year visual arts students. Theo van Wijk Building, Goldfields entrance, 5th floor. Unisa Campus, Pretoria T.012 429 6823 E-mail: hattif@unisa.ac.za www.unisa.ac.za/gallery
Mpumalanga The Loop Art Foundry & Sculpture Gallery Casterbridge Complex Corner R40 and Numbi Roads White River T. 013 751 2435 www.tlafoundry.co.za
ADVERTISE WITH US
ART LIFE Advertise your Artwork, Gallery Stock In this size space space with 1 image and 30 word caption for just R 460,- (R 524 with Vat) Printed in ful colour on gloss Circulation 6500 per month, ABC Certificate of circlation Reaches a large readership and potential buyers.
Call Eugene on 021 424 7732 or 021 424 7733
SOUTH AFRICAN PRINT GALLERY MANAGER SOUGHT We are looking for an experienced gallery manager. Please see our website: www.printgallery.co.za for details.
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
Page 05
ALEX DODD COLUMN | ART LEADER
- ART LEADER -
Elfriede Dreyer academic, gallerist and artist By Michael Coulson When I used to write regular reviews of Gauteng art shows, I spent an inordinate amount of time driving along Pretoria’s interminable Charles St, visiting an assortment of galleries whose shortlivedness (if there is such a word) may have been related to the fact that they all seemed to specialise in purple mountains and orange skies. Then, amazingly, in 2005 it all changed: a new venue appeared, in an expensively but tastefully remodelled house, that showed genuinely challenging and original modern art.
Alex Dodd I am delighted to sing out through my own imaginary vuvuzela (which sounds more like distant whalesong than amplified bullfrogs on heat) that my year of art loving (and, okay, some loathing) has ended with a sublime burst of inner fireworks rather than a damp fizzle. I had Brett Murray to thank for dispelling the dark spell of imminent despair cast over the art world by the black plague of banking at the shaky outset of 2009. It was his wildly satirical, immaculately executed Goodman Gallery solo, Crocodile Tears, in February this year, that signalled the start of this ballsy, steadfast year of the ox. It was a year in which some key stars in our local constellation, around which many of us had grown used to gently orbiting, tumbled out of our known galaxy, leaving us feeling somewhat like the crew of Star Trek, navigating our way through an increasingly unknowable future fogged up with interstellar clouds. First it was Warren Siebrits Modern and Contemporary, then it was Bell-Roberts, then it was the quarterly arts publication, Business Day Art that ignited into fiery exhalation… But as known bodies imploded into the stratosphere, bold new structures took shape, with Arts on Main proving to be a gravitational system beyond our boldest predictions and Circa touching down on the corner of Jellicoe and Jan Smuts like some elegant spaceship from the beyond. But back on planet earth, I have Sanell Aggenbach to thank for a suitably charged closure to this most strangely nebulous of years. Her Graceland show, currently on at Art on Paper, is one of those exhibitions you just want to roll up and take home with you. For it’s not one work or the other that makes the logic of the show hum through you; it’s the sublimely sensuous intertextuality that runs through the works rendering them part of a strange new mythology, that you half know and half don’t. The mythology
of this show, has to do with being Afrikaans, of lost tribes and fading ideologies, prohibited, poisoned nostalgia, badass tattoos, Gert Vlok Nel lyrics, archaic books retrieved from church sales, brandy & Coke, Elvis, Rian Malan’s treacherous heart, the mute ghosts of ex-prime-ministers, cultural ectoplasm and painted snapshots of the tragically turbulent Ingrid Jonker… On entering Art on Paper gallery, you encounter a small, gold-framed snapshot of the artist in the arms of an Elvis impersonator. The photograph, I am told, was taken on Saint Marks Square in New York, during Aggenbach and Murray’s recent Ampersand Foundation visit. And the idea of Elvis, of Graceland – an imaginary hyper-reality conjured by the machines of pop culture – is one that ghosts the subtext of this show. Next up is a marble headstone engraved with the words: ‘Ons is Gracelandloos Koos, Geen Memphis Tennessee vir ons nie’. [We’re bereft of a Graceland, Koos. There’s no Memphis Tennessee for us.] This note of deathly black humour is a paradoxically generative entrée to a show spiked with the awkward paradoxes of a culture in demise and post-modern reinvention all at once. It’s hard to know which work to go to first, because they are all crying out for attention at once. So I will follow my senses to the voluptuous naked breasts painted in pale creamy oil paint. These are the breasts you want to lay your head down on for the dreamiest of bedtime stories, the breasts that offer up the yearning world’s wet dream of mother’s milk. The breasts men dream of coming home to… Painted in curvy cursive on the left breast is the word, Grace, and on the right, the word, land. The work is aptly titled ‘Haven’. Say no more. The sensuousness of the female form is taken up again in a work, entitled Atlantis, which ingeniously conjures both the
lost world beneath the sea (another play on Arcadian worlds beyond our grasp), and the township in the (un)fair Cape, the same (un)fair Cape originally plundered by maritime merchants of the Dutch East India Company, the world’s first mega-corporation. Tatooed across the naked body of a woman in Delft-like blue are an assembly of words and images: ‘bokkie’, ‘my traitor’s heart’, ‘don’t be cruel’, ships in full sail, skull and crossbones, swallows in flight, sailor’s rope… Interestingly, Delft ceramics were styled on the imported Chinese porcelain of the 17th century and the Dutch port had an early start in this medium because it was a home port of the Dutch East India Company. So the Delft tattoos on this body speak about a history of colonialism as it plays out in present tense Cape Town. But it was the books that really stole my heart. Lined up on wooden shelf is a selection of old fabric covered and gold embossed books of the kind you would find in a second hand store. Unfurling from each book is a strand of fuschia-coloured satin ribbon tumbling to the floor in a spaghetti-like tangle (another motif that runs through the show). Each strand of ribbon marks a page in each book that has been altered and adorned by the artist using ink, gold leafed paper, watercolour, ballpoint pen… And each book’s adornment tells a story of its own, with the artist, in a sense, writing back to the author. Take for example a book entitled Old Ivory and Roses… The ribbon marks a page featuring tographs of Jan Smuts, JBM Hertzog and Louis Botha. ‘Three members of the Pretoria Club, all great leaders of the Boer forces in the South African War, became prime ministers of South Africa,’ reads the caption. On the facing page, Aggenbach has drawn a simple pen-and-ink portrait of Jacob Zuma, and in the corner of the page, she has written: ‘Hello Boys!’ (Post Polokwane). And that’s the gem I uncovered in just one of about
forty books that make up this single artwork. The spaghetti repeats in the form of a kind of ectoplasm spewing forth from the mouth of the tapestry portrait of what looks like a university beauty queen. Of course, in arch pop style, the ectoplasm is pure pop-star gold. Just about every work on this show made my head rush – from the portraits of three former prime ministers with a simple fold in the page muting them in a manner that perfectly conjures the violence of silence, to the Esquire magazine cover embellished with an image of a youthful Rian Malan. It’s a show that seems to be charged with zeitgeist timing, running at the same time as the recent release of Rian Malan’s new book, Resident Alien, and on the heels of Antjie Krog’s recent heartrending speech as part of the Goethe-Institut’s Cracking Walls conference, where she made a plea for Afrikaners to be allowed the cultural space to deal with their own complex psyches, to honour their own ancestors. Arguing that the Bok van Blerk song, De La Rey, had been grossly misread by the popular media, which had jumped on a predictably reactive bandwagon whipping up a misguided storm of controversy around the idea that the song was a rallying cry for rightwing revivalism. I thought she made a beautiful point, but many in the audience seemed to be strangely ‘wounded’ and ‘disheartened’ by her words, failing in my eyes to grasp the subtlety and power of her argument. Her new book, Begging to be Black, is another I’ll be packing in my old kit bag as I skip this town for the summer solstice. But before I do, I’ll be returning to Art on Paper to soak up Sanell Aggenbach’s Graceland, which manages to be deeply sensuous and a quietly imploding bomb of cultural complexity all at once. Who could ask for more? Image: Sanell Aggenbach: Graceland, To be seen at AOP Gallery, Jhb
If you haven’t already guessed, it was the Fried Gallery, run by the formidable Elfriede Dreyer. And it still exists, even if the downturn in the art market and the other demands on Dreyer’s time have forced a rethink of how it operates. Dreyer also often ponders on how the gallery would have done had it been sited in Jo’burg or Cape Town, which may have been more receptive to her approach, but says she hasn’t come to any conclusion. It can’t be ideal to run a gallery by remote control, so Dreyer has decided to cut back the days Fried opens to Friday to Sunday. And while she wants to maintain the strong educational focus the gallery has developed, and continue to encourage school visits, courses will also be restricted to Saturdays only. Dreyer admits that she considered closing down, but describes this restructuring as a compromise that will keep the gallery going, but free up more time for herself. Exhibition policy poses a dilemma. She says that in recent shows, it’s been the established artists, not the most affordable, who’ve sold best. So while she still wants to showcase emerging artists, they’ll have to be the best of breed. As she says, there’s no point in being cutting-edge or avant garde if you don’t sell. A gallery’s priority may not be commercial, but you have to sell to survive. The first show under the new policy, opening in February, will be a group of female artists, under the title Bodies in Transition. Other elements of the new policy include a longer run – five weeks instead of three – and she plans to produce digital catalogues. Dreyer was a force in the art world long before she opened Fried, as one of SA’s leading art historians, despite being, in the art context, a slow developer. She first studied language and philosophy at Pretoria, only completing her first degree in art through Unisa at the age of 35. By this stage contemporaries like Penny Siopis were established artists, and though she regrets that they had a head start, she feels that
the interdisciplinary approach developed by her study path had its compensations. Her first academic appointment, at Unisa, was in the theory of fine art, and though she’s interested in creating art and best known as an art historian, she considers herself primarily as a theoretician – a field she says many academics don’t want to teach – concerned also with how art overlaps into other areas, like media studies and technology. She took a course in multimedia at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, encouraged by Unisa, which was developing an undergraduate course in multimedia studied. This has been so successful that Unisa now has roughly the same number of undergraduates in multimedia and fine art. In 1997, after negotiations with outside candidates collapsed, she unexpectedly and somewhat reluctantly found herself asked to take over as head of the department of visual arts & art history at Unisa, for a four-year spell. “I almost disappeared from the art scene and became an administrator.” That expired in 2001, and then in 2003 she moved to the University of Pretoria as a full-time associate professor. The house in Charles St was bought as an investment, and what was originally intended to be a relatively small exhibition space specialising in contemporary art like Topsy just grew and grew. Given that academia, which was itself steadily becoming more demanding, has always been her priority, the gallery was simply becoming all-devouring. Of course, the fact that the art market had, in her own word, “imploded”, while increasingly buyers are going direct to artists, were also factors. If the hoped-for more time for self materialises, one thing she wants to get back to is creating her own art. She exhibited quite widely as a student, and later in a Jo’burg Biennale and one of the Kebbles, as well as participating in three or four group shows a year until that crucial year 1997. She produced mixed-media paintings, collages, and used found objects. Since then, academic and commercial pressures have left little time to create, though she admits to feeling “quite chuffed” that she sold a few works in Fried’s latest group show. Multiple roles are not uncommon in the art world, especially in a relatively small community like SA. But few have made such a broad impact as Dreyer, and if her career right now is in a sense at a crossroads, you can bet that however it develops, she will remain a force to be reckoned with.
PAGE 06
SHOW LISTINGS FOR EASTERN CAPE, NORTHERN CAPE AND WESTERN CAPE
Eastern Cape
Atlantic Art Gallery A permanent display showcasing leading contemporary South African artists. 25 Wale Street Cape Town, T. 021 423 5775
East London Ann Bryant Art Gallery 26 Nov-12 Dec, East London Fine Art Society Annual Exhibition (Main Gallery). 19 Nov-5 Dec, solo exhibition with oil on canvas by Chanelle Staude (Coach House Café). 9 St Marks Rd., Southernwood, East London T. 043 722 4044 annbryant@intekom.co.za www.annbryant.co.za
Port Elizabeth Alliance Française 24 Nov-10 Dec, ‘LANDSCAPES-COEGA’, paintings by landscape artist Lez Dor. 17 Mackay Str., Richmond Hill T. 041 585 7889 Email: assistantafpe@telkomsa.net. Montage Gallery 26 Nov-23 Dec, new works by Donvé Branch and Anthony Harris. 59 Main Rd., Walmer, Nelson Mandela Bay T. 041 581 2893 www.montagegallery.co.za Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum 4 Dec-24 Jan 2010, the annual ‘Who’s who and what’s new’ exhibition. 1 Park Drive, Port Elizabeth T. 041 506 2000 www.artmuseum.co.za
Northern Cape Kimberley William Humphreys Art Gallery From Nov 1, a number of exhibitions from the permanent collection will be on display. These include a selection of new acquisitions of contemporary SA Artists. Civic Centre, Cullinan Crescent, Kimberley T. 053 831 1724 www.museumsnc.co.za
Western Cape
Cape Town
34 Long 15 Dec-16 Jan 2010, WATER, a solo exhibition by Willie Bester. 34 Long Str., Cape Town T. 021 426 4594 www.34long.com Alliance Française 16 Nov-8 Dec, ‘Difference’ mixed media by Veronica Wilkinson exploring power, humanity and art. 155 Loop Str., Cape Town. T. 021 4235699 www.alliance.org.za Association for Visual Arts (AVA) 30 Nov-07 Jan 2010, Resolution- the power of innuendo, a group tographic exhibition that focuses on the suggestion, as opposed to the spectacle of violence. Includes works by Lien Botha, Zanele Muholi, Guy Tillim, Jo Ratcliffe, Jürgen Schadeberg, and many more. 35 Church Str., Cape Town T. 021 424 7436 www.ava.co.za
Blank Projects 11 Dec-8 Jan 2010, Babel Series, by Candice Breitz consists of seven constantly stuttering DVD loops. 113-115 Sir Lowry Rd., Woodstock T.072 1989 221 www.blankprojects.com Cape Gallery 1 Nov-5 Dec, Work in Progress, oil paintings by Lesley Charnock. 29 Nov-5 Dec, sculptures by Caroline van der Merwe. 6 Dec-2 Jan 2010, works by David Kuijers and glass beads by Ingrid de Haast. 60 Church Str., Cape Town T. 021 423 5309 www.capegallery.co.za Cape Town School of Photography From 3 Dec, Student exhibition. photography by beginner and intermediate students. 4th Flr., 62 Roeland Str. T. 021 465 2152 Email: info@ctsp.co.za www.ctsp.co.za Carmel Art Dealers in Fine art, exclusive distributers of Pieter van der Westhuizen etchings. 66 Vineyard Rd., corner Cavendish Str., Claremont T.021 671 6601 Constantia Village Shopping Centre, Main Rd., Constantia T. 021 794 6262 Christopher MǾller Art Dealers in South African contemporary art and South African masters. 82 Church Str., Cape Town T. 021 439 3517 www.christophermollerart.co.za David Porter Antiques Buyers and sellers of South African art T. 021 6830580/083 452 5862 david@davidporterantiques. com Erdmann Contemporary / Photographers Gallery 31 Oct-5 Dec, While you were sleeping, includes large paintings, original works on paper, monotypes and lithographs by Karlien de Villiers. 5 Dec-30 Jan 2010, Fifty, Sixty, Seventy, Eighty, Ninety, R.I.P, a group exhibition with works by Mark Hipper, Norman Catharine, Jan Neethling, Peter Clarke, Robert Hodgins and Walter Battiss. 30 Jan 2010-27 Feb, photography exhibition by Erik Chevalier. 63 Shortmarket Str., Cape Town T. 021 422 2762 www.erdmanncontemporary.co.za Everard Read Gallery Cape Town From 1 Dec, Summer at Everard Read, works by various artists. 3 Portswood Rd., V&A Waterfront T. 021 418 4527 www.everard-read-capetown. co.za Focus Contemporary, Fine Young Art 28 Nov-15 Jan 2010, African origami, works by Karin Miller. 2 Long Str., Cape Town T. 021 419 8888, www.focuscontemporary.co.za
G2 Art G2 provides a diverse range of original contemporary art by South African artists to discerning buyers. The work includes painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography and mixed media. Exhibitions are held during the year and information is available on the website or the Facebook Group. 61 Shortmarket Str. between Loop Str. and Bree Str. T. 021 424 7169 Email: di@g2art.co.za www.g2art.co.za Gallery F Contemporary and archival South African Art. 221 Long Str., Cape Town T. 021 422 5246 www.galleryf.co.za Gill Allderman Gallery From 8 Dec, Exhibition # 25, works by Gill Cowen, Sue Greeff, Donna McKellar, Trudi McPherson, Marcelle Sprong and Sam Sterley. 278 Main Rd, Kenilworth T. 083 556 2540 Email: gallery@new.co.za Goodman Gallery, Cape 12 Nov-12 Dec, Morbid Appetites, works by Frances Goodman. This exhibition is an objective study in sound, text and sculpture of what happens to the human condition when a psychological line is crossed. 19 Dec-16 Jan 2010, The Mirror Stage, a solo exhibition of installations and sculptures by internationally acclaimed British artist Gavin Turk. 3rd Floor, Fairweather House, 176 Sir Lowry Rd., Woodstock, Cape Town T. 021 462 7573/4, www.goodmangallerycape.com Greatmore Art Studios 3-17 Dec, African Time, a curated exhibition that portrays a creative interpretation of time, travelling exchange and interconnection between artists. Participating artists include Tim Chalk, Khusi Seremane, Vaun Cornell, Noncedo Gxekwa, and many more. 47-49 Greatmore Str., Woodstock, Cape Town T. 021 447 9699 Email: info@greatmore.org www.greatmoreart.org Infin Art Gallery A gallery of work by local artists. Wolfe Street Chelsea Wynberg T. 021 761 2816 and Buitengracht Str. Cape Town T. 021 423 2090 www.infinart.co.za iArt Gallery 11-Nov-9 Dec, Tactility: denial and desire, bronze sculptures by Cobus Haupt. 11 Nov-9 Dec, ‘Cocks, asses, &…’ mixed media works by Wilma Cruise. 1-12 Dec, Official Art Poster Edition 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa TM. 15 Dec-15 Jan 2010, Summer in the City. 71 Loop Str. T. 021 424 5150 www.iart.co.za iArt Gallery Wembley 2 Dec-13 Jan 2010, new work by Walter Meyer. Wembley Square, Gardens, Cape Town T. 021 424 5150 www.iart.co.za Irma Stern Museum 10 Nov-5 Dec, Tshungulo Wuy-
isiwa e Mahlweni (The Healing Process), an exhibition of new works by Phillemon Hlungwani. 12 Dec-16 Jan 2010, Notions of Being/Moments of Being, works by Jill Trappler. 18 Dec-7 Jan 2010, video installation by Helen Benigson. Cecil Rd, Rosebank, Cape Town T. 021 685 5686 www.irmastern.co.za Iziko South African National Gallery 12 Dec-28 Feb 2010, Dada South?, South African artworks from the 1960’s to the present are exhibited alongside a collection of artworks and publications by historical Dada artists. 26 Nov-28 Feb 2010, ‘Strengths and Convictions: The Life and Times of the South African Nobel Peace Prize Laureates’, films, tographs and contemporary works of art by South African and international artists. Government Ave., Company’s Garden T. 021 467 4660, www.iziko.org.za Iziko Museums of Cape Town 9 Dec-13 March 2010, Wildlife tographer of the Year 2009, an international showcase for the very best photography featuring natural subjects. 9 Nov-10 Jan 2010, Not Alone- an international project of ‘make art/stop AIDS’ (at the Castle of Good Hope). South African artists include Clive van den Berg, William Kentridge, Churchill Madikida, Langa Magwa, Penelope Siopis, Gideon Mendel and others. For further info contact Esther Esmyol T. 021 464 1262 Email: eesmyol@iziko.org.za João Ferreira Gallery 4 Nov-12 Dec, REGISTRATION, works by Brett Murray, Georgina Gatrix, Hentie van der Merwe, Justin Fiske, Liza Grobler, Michael Taylor, Ruan Hoffmann, Sanell Aggenbach and Tom Cullberg. 70 Loop Str., Cape Town, T. 021 423 5403 www.joaoferreiragallery.com Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery 28 Nov-16 Jan 2010, ‘The Pigs Are Coming’, an exhibition of bronze sculptures by Warrick Kemp. In-Fin-Art Building, Upper Buitengracht Str., Cape Town, T. 021 423 6075/082 5664631 www.johansborman.co.za Jossi Mendle 19 Nov-10 Dec, Sculpture Exhibition by Jossi Mendle. 3rd Floor, The Spearhead Building (next to Investec Bldg.) 42 Hans Strijdom Ave., Foreshore, Cape Town. www.mendle.co.za Kalk Bay Modern From 11 Nov-6 Dec, works by Peter Clarke. 1st Floor, Olympia Buildings, 136 Main Rd, Kalk Bay. T.021 788 6571 Email: kbmodern@iafrica.com www.kalkbaymodern.com Kunst House 2 Dec-9 Jan 2010, paintings and sculptures by Grant Preston. 62 Kloof Str., Gardens T. 021 422 1255 www.kunsthouse.co.za
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010 Lindy van Niekerk Art Gallery Exhibition of SA’s leading artists. 31 Kommandeur Rd, Welgemoed, Belville T. 021 913 7204/5 www.artpro.co.za Michael Stevenson Contemporary 26 Nov-16 Jan 2010, Summer 2009/10: Projects, with works by Jane Alexander, Retha Erasmus, Sabelo Mlangeni, Tom Cullberg, Guy Tillim, Berni Searle, Willen Boshoff, Dineo Seshee Bopape, Tracy Payne, Andrew Putter and Zanele Muholi. 21 Jan-6 March 2010, mixed media works by Steven Cohen and paintings by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Also on exhibition is Black & White Hemisphere, an installation by Thomas Hirschhorn as part of the FOREX series. Ground Floor, Buchanan Building, 160 Sir Lowry Rd, Cape Town T. 021 462 1500 www.michaelstevenson.com Raw Vision Gallery 26 Nov-21 Dec, Out the Rabbit Hole, an exhibition of mixed media paintings, etchings, monotypes and multiple prints by Toni Ann Ballenden. In this exhibition one explores how the tapestries of Ballenden’s life are multilayered and filled with metars and symbolism. 89 Sir Lowry Rd, Woodstock, info@rawvisiongallery.com www.rawvisiongallery.com Rose Korber Powerful new charcoal and pastel drawings by Richard Smith, as well as recent works on paper by William Kentridge, Deborah Bell and Ryan Arenson. 48 Sedgemoor Rd, Camps Bay, Cape Town T. 021 438 9152 Email: roskorb@icon.co.za www.rosekorberart.com Rust-en-Vrede Gallery 15 Nov-12 Dec, Ceramics SA Regional 2009, an exhibition of ceramic works by various ceramicists. 10 Wellington Rd, Durbanville T. 021 976 4691 www.rust-en-vrede.com Salon91 Contemporary 1 Dec-14 Jan 2010, Sirens, new paintings and video work by Jake Aikman (in association with SMAC gallery).20 Jan-20 Feb 2010, Spookasem, a group exhibition of works by female artists from a range of creative backgrounds, across various media (fine art, street art, illustration). 91 Kloof Str., Gardens, Cape Town 021 424 6930 www.salon91art.co.za South African Museum 25 Jul-Mar 2010, Subtle Thresholds, the representational taxonomies of disease, a mixed media show curated by Fritha Langerman. 25 Queen Victoria Str., Cape Town T. 021 481 3800 http://www.iziko.org.za/sam/index.html South Gallery Showcasing creativity from Kwazulu-Natal including Ardmore Ceramic Art. Fairweather House, 176 Sir Lowry Rd, Woodstock, Ground Floor. T. 021 465 4672 Email:
info@southgallery.co.za The South African Print Gallery Sat 12 Dec-10 Jan 2010, Miles Away: from Baardskerdersbos and back, new woodblocks by Joshua Miles. 107 Sir Lowry Rd, Woodstock, Cape Town, T. 021 462 6851 www.printgallery.co.za These Four Walls Fine Art Galley 15-30 Jan 2010, works by Angela Briggs. 169 Lower Main Rd, Observatory T. 021 447 7393 www.thesefourwalls.co.za Urban Contemporary Art 18 Nov-12 Dec, no | thing, works by Bronwyn Lace, Greg Streak, Ricky Burnett, Righard Kapp and Trasi Henen. 16 Dec30 Jan 2010, Summer Salon. 46 Lower Main Rd, Observatory, Cape Town T. 021 447 4132, www.urbancontemporaryart.co.za What if the World… 1 Dec-23 Jan 2010, Holiday, a group exhibition including works by emerging South African artists Cameron Platter, Georgina Gratix, Athi Patra Ruga, Julia Clark, Dan Halter, Stuart Bird and Zander Blom. First floor, 208 Albert Rd, Woodstock T. 021 448 1438 www.whatiftheworld.com Worldart 10 Dec-8 Jan 2010, works by Richard Scott, Marlise Keith and more. Worldart will be showing how contemporary artists pay tribute to their forerunners by revisiting both the fairground and the Pop Art genre in a series of exciting new works 54 Church Street Cape Town CBD T. 021 423 3075 www.worldart.co.za
Franschhoek
Galerie L’ Art A permanent exhibition of old masters. Shop no 3, The Ivy, Kruger Str., Franschhoek T. 021 876 2497 www.galart.co.za Gallery Grande Provence 15 Nov-13 Jan 2010, Angels IV, annual group exhibition of paintings, sculpture, ceramics, glass and jewellery by selected SA artists. Main Rd, Franschhoek T. 021 876 8600 www.grandeprovence.co.za
George Strydom Gallery From 21 Nov, GEORGE 41, Strydom Gallery’s 41st summer exhibition of South African art-a cross-section of selected works. The exhibition will be opened by Jan Coetzee, professor of sociology at Rhodes University. 79 Market Str., George T. 044 874 4027 www.artaffair.co.za
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
Paarl Hout Street Gallery Specialists in South African Fine Art. The Gallery also offers a range of ceramics, creative jewellery, glass, crafts and functional art. 270 Main Str., Paarl, zetler@icon.co.za www.houtstreetgallery.co.za Off the Wall Contemporary 18 Nov-31 Jan 2010, Annual Artwork Sale. 171 Main Rd, Paarl T. 021 872 8648 info@offthewallcontemporary. co.za www.offthewallcontemporary.com
Stellenbosch Art on 5 Permanent exhibition of paintings and ceramics by Maryna de Witt, Pera Schillings, and Karen Kieviet. 7b Andringa Str., Stellenbosch T. 021 887 7234 Dorp Straat Galery 28 Nov-31 Dec, Let Them Eat Cake, with works by Gabby Raaff, Sarah Pratt, Tracy Lynch, Conrad Botes, Kurt Pio, Jane Eppel, Frank van Reenen and Tracy Payne. Also until the 31 Dec, the annual Christmas Group Exhibition, with works by Kelly John Gough, Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, Strijdom van der Merwe, Greg Lourens, Alan Gray, Cornelia Stoop, Danelle Janse van Rensburg and Louis Nel. Church Str., Stellenbosch T. 021 887 2256 www.dorpstraatgalery.co.za Glen Carlou Estate From 3 0ct, on exhibition is The Hess Art Collection, including works by Deryck Healey, Ouattara Watts and Andy Goldsworthy. Simondium Rd, Klapmuts T. 021 875 5314 www.glencarlou.co.za Red Black and White 9 Dec-30 Jan 2010, Verneukpan, a collaboration by artists Johann Slee, Strijdom van der Merwe, Rene Slee, Kabous Meiring and Jo-Marie Rabe. 5a Distillery Rd, Bosman’s Crossing, Stellenbosch. T. 021 886 6281 www.redblackandwhite.co.za Rupert Museum From 3 Oct, The Rodin Exhibition, bronze sculptures; permanent collection of 20th Century South African Art. Stellentia Ave., Stellenbosch T. 021 888 3344 www.rupertmuseum.org Sasol Art Museum 4 Nov-30 Jan 2010, Glimpses from the Past, works by Charles Davidson Bell (18131882) and Solomon Caesar Malan (1812-1894). 52 Ryneveld Str., Stellenbosch T. 021 808 3029 SMAC Art Gallery 6 Dec-25 Feb 2010, a retrospective exhibition by Erik Laubscher De Wet Centre, Church Street, Stellenbosch T. 021 887 3607 www.smacgallery.com
MELVYN MINNAAR COLUMN
US Art Gallery 19 Nov-9 Jan 2010, paintings by Pauline Gutter. Cnr. Dorp & Bird Street, Stellenbosch T. 021 808 3524 Email: corliah@sun.ac.za
Knysna Knysna Fine Art 20 Nov-3 Dec, RIFT (Portraits of Ethiopia), black and white photography by Glen Green. 4-21 Dec, No Strings Attached, mixed media works by Hannalie Tauté. 8 Grey Str., Knysna, T.044 382 5107 www.finearts.co.za
Elgin Sculpture Garden and Studio Gallery From 1 Dec, works by Sheena Ridley. Grabouw, Elgin T. 021 859 2595 C. 083 589 2881 www.ridley.co.za
Hermanus Abalone Gallery 1 Dec-31 Jan 2010, a group exhibition by distinguished artists including John Clarke, Christo Coetzee, Bill Davis, Hannes Harrs, Braam Kruger, Elzaby Laubscher, Judith Mason, Fred Schimmel, Cecil and Pippa Skotnes. 2 Harbour Rd, The Courtyard, Hermanus. T. 028 313 2935 www.abalonegallery.co.za The Old Harbour Gallery An exhibition of art and sculpture. No.4 Warrington Place, Harbour Rd, Hermanus T. 028 313 2751 / 0822595515 www.oldharbourgallery.co.za Philip Harper Galleries Specialising in South African old masters and select contemporary artists. Oudehof Mall, 167 Main Rd, Hermanus T. 028 312 4836 www.philipharpergalleries.co.za
Agulhas Red Corridor Gallery Sculpture by Rudi Neuland, paintings by Leszek Skurski and textile objects by Joanna Skurska. 4 Main Rd, L’Agulhas 7287 T. 028 435 7503. info@capeagulhas-arthouse. com www.capeagulhas-arthouse.com www.redcorridorRSA.com
Be sure to E-mail us with your news and events at: News: news@arttimes.co.za Events: show@arttimes.co.za Or call our newsdesk at: 021 424 7733
Page 07
OBITUARY
Thelma Skotnes Melvyn Minnaar The Artful Viewer
Tricky art times One would think that all art is in a predicament. A lot of the blather on arty blogs high and low, serious and silly, seems to be concerned with the idea that fewer parvenu art collector/buyers (due to the capitalist crash) out there means art will go down the drain; as if money is the be-all and end-all. While the Faustian bargain between ‘art’ and ‘investment’ is ever destined to be a tricky, even dangerous one, the good news is that art often needs a bit of a social shake-up to be revitalised. Maybe the fact that a lot of those upstart, status-seeking supporters of expensive art have found their credit cards grounded means real artists can get back to their proper day jobs. And stop playing to that price-tag audience. With the year turning around, it’s a good time to check out whether its happening and who’s doing that, or not. A good place to start is the various art school end-of-year shows around the Cape. With many aspiring artists hoping that the wonderful world out there will welcome them, their talent and inventions, it is always interesting to check out their strategies on site. The last few years have seen quite a few of the top art school performers jumping (or being lured) straight into the professional gallery ambit. Whether this is necessarily good or bad for a youngster who often needs to collect a few battle scars in the art survival challenge is not certain, but, at the same time one has to compliment the local galleries also when they introduce new artists for polishing their professional presentations. To connect (good) art with the public (and not only those with easy money to spent) galleries need to pull out the stops in terms of communication. Thankfully we have seen a great improvement in important tools like catalogues, signage and distribution of information. (Now they just need to engage with the print and other media management to claim coverage.) In this sense, a visit to galleries like Michael Stevenson, Goodman Cape and Whatiftheworld is usually a pleasant, informative affair. (And free, unlike the Iziko crowd who charges entrance fees.)
But even the smaller, newer spaces like Robin Jones’ UCA, Guto Bussab’s Muti and Monique du Preez’s Salon 91 - where the more dynamic, adventurous art is found these days - offer good packages of information and back-up. (It is interesting how vital up-todate websites have become in this business.) The past year, of course, saw the sad demise of the BellRoberts gallery. (It also had the Goodman change hands, and the curious departure from that gallery of expert Emma Bedford.) But 2009 also brought along the new: Blank Projects finally moved to the Woodstock ‘art precinct’, next to where Gabriel ClarkBrown’s nifty print gallery opened. Aptly placed right opposite a certain arty group’s drinking hole, is the YoungBlackman gallery, where the first video installations made a bold public appearance, stunning the bergies on the pavement. Art reaching outside of the gallery is getting a good presence in the Mother city. Although the non-biennale Cape 09 didn’t quite effectively connect with the public, it had a lot going for it in terms of curatorial processes. (Pity about the stranglehold of money.) The Spier festival of Infecting the City also proved to be a wow. (The ‘imported’ artists’ contributions proved to be the dullest bit.) Then there was Richard Mason’s awesome Carbonage installation last month in that godforsaken Barrack street building. Purposely working outside the commercial gallery set-up, Mason managed to activate edgy emotional and cerebral responses from the public who dared a visit. It is this kind of rush of the senses and mind that is all to often absent in the cool-cool world of formal galleries, museums and, heaven help, those hyped-up art auctions with their canapéd previews. On what the year of the football fest (and its plethora of kitsch-for-sale) holds, the lest said the better. After this year of biennales (some dull beyond belief), the next will see the usual art fairs (a somewhat chastened Joburg in March) and museum shows. Of course, 2010 should have been the big year for South African art, but we all know that the officials in charge are useless. (The story about the official invitation to this year’s Venice biennale that got lost, sabotaged, or simply ignored must still be told.)
We at The South African Art Times wish all our readers a blessed Christmas and .. a prosperous New Year !
Thelma, Cecil and Pippa Skotnes Photo Booksa.
As this issue went to press we learnt with great sadness of the passing of Thelma Skotnes, the widow of Cecil Skotnes. Thelma Skotnes (née Carter) married Cecil in 1951 and was intimately involved in all his activities from that time. A biography of Cecil on the Cecil Skotnes blog (http://cecilskotnes.blogspot.com) describes her thus at the time of their marriage: ‘a lovely, vivacious woman, ex-convent girl with a nineteen inch waist who had flair, deep intelligence and incomparable warmth, and was daring enough to marry a man who wanted to be an artist with no sure prospects, and keep the home fires burning.’ In Johannesburg her home became a meeting place and centre for artists and other creative people. Her superb efforts as an archivist were revealed in the 2007/8 exhibition Cecil Skotnes: A Private View. Images from the Archive of Cecil and Thelma Skotnes. A full obituary will appear in the next issue of SA Art Times.
Summer Salons The New Year Baardskeerdersbos Art Route Cape Overberg
9 and 10 January 2010 www.baardskeerdersbosartroute.com
Baardskeerdersbos is a unique settlement, neither farm nor dorp, untidily strewn across a fertile valley south of Stanford. Today the artists may even outnumber the farmers, however with three pubs and a drankwinkel, the mandatory NGKerk for rinsing out the night before, one thing all the locals have in common is knowing how to have a good time. The Baardskeerdersbos Art Route only takes place three times annually in autumn, spring and new year, where
over a dozen artists open their studios, homes, and drafty stoeps to the meandering visitor. Maps are available at galleries or from www.baardskeerdersbosartroute.com Although an easy day trip from the city, a wide range of accommodation options exist in the area, and the Stanford Tourism office may even make the reservation on your behalf: 028-3132596. Local participating artists include Niel Jonker, Joshua Miles, Andree Bonthuys, Claudette Barnes, Daniel Griffin, Hendrik Rabie and others working in media as diverse as painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, and land art. Baardskeerdersbos Art Route. Enquiries: 028-3819636 / 083 444 2613. (Image: Clare Menck)
The Hout Street Gallery in Paarl Summer Salon 34 10 December to 28 February 2010. www.houtstreetgallery.co.za
bronzes, functional art and creative jewellery.
The annual exhibition features more than forty top established and new South African artists and also offers an array of ceramics, sculptures, glass work,
“We are thrilled to be presenting our thirty fourth Summer Salon and have collected a marvelous range of South African works for the show,” says David Zetler, founder and owner of the Gallery. “There are magnificent pieces that reflect our South African landscapes, scenes and people in addition to a selection of abstracts, still lifes and drawings.” (Image: Pretorius, Two figures with Goats)
PAGE 08
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
THE LAST WORD
The South African Art world 2009 In 2009, a year during which South Africa acquired a new president, a bulky new cabinet and raft of new policy documents that may or may not remedy an old set of socio-economic problems, art exhibitions in Johannesburg reflected continuity rather than change. Chris Thurman There was, of course, plenty of work by artists following the injunction to “make it new”; but there was also a curatorial tendency to look backwards, to recuperate or consolidate aspects of the country’s twentieth-century artistic legacy. For this reviewer, certainly, the year began and ended in retrospection.
As with Van Wouw, Villa’s renown as an artist stems largely from his monumental public artworks. But the small sculptures – not maquettes – in Villa’s “Moving Voices” were, according to the late Alan Crump, evidence that “monumentality is by no means a synonym for large”. Instead, they were a reminder-in-miniature of Villa’s fascination with primary colours and basic shapes (which, admittedly, many viewers find somewhat dated).
and of course the self-portraits through which Kruger perpetuated the larger-than-life persona he cultivated in other guises as restaurateur, TV personality and author. Insofar as Kruger remained a ‘marginal’ figure (deliberately so on his part, one feels), another significant retrospective exhibition spotlighted those who have been placed in the ‘centre’ of the national stage as recipients of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award over the last 25 years. It remains a moot point as to whether those selected as winners would have garnered the acclaim they have without the publicity generated by the annual award; nevertheless, it is incontestable that the list of Young Artists since 1984 reads like an extract from a ‘who’s who’ of the South African art world.
Andrew Verster: Bodyworks I Bronze by Anton van Wouw
The Everard Read Gallery started 2009 with an exhibition of small bronzes by Anton van Wouw – a sculptor perhaps best known for his largescale statues situated at the Voortrekker Monument, in Pretoria’s Church Square and elsewhere. The collection on display was an important reminder that there is much more to Van Wouw’s oeuvre, and that art historians would be wrong to write him off as a stooge of nascent Afrikaner nationalism or of the mining barons for whom he produced numerous busts.
Verster’s “Past/Present”, on the other hand, evinced his delight in combining and manipulating complex patterns and rich textures: as opera costume and set designer; as bold explorer of “the male body and queer sexuality” (which Clive van den Berg emphasises in his contribution to the catalogue); as re-interpreter of stylised iconography from India, Japan and ancient Greece and Egypt. Len Sak is not a widely recognised name. Yet Jojo, the affable character created by Sak for Drum magazine in 1959 who subsequently appeared – with his small shock of ‘Afro’ hair on an otherwise bald head, his trademark braces and white shirt bulging over his paunch – in various newspapers and on TV, has endeared himself to generations of South Africans. The exhibition celebrating Jojo’s fiftieth anniversary showed the various roles that he has played in South African public life: comical township observer, social commentator, educator and activist.
Alexis Preller: Still life with Crocodile
The Standard Bank Gallery brought 2009 to a close with a retrospective of Alexis Preller’s work that coincided with the launch of Karel Nel and Esme Berman’s two-volume ‘visual biography’ of the enigmatic artist. The combined exhibition-and-book offers a convincing vindication of Preller’s place in South African art history – locating him alongside, but distinct from, precursors such as J.H. Pierneef or near-contemporaries like Walter Batiss, Irma Stern, Maggie Laubscher and Gerard Sekoto – and affirms the visionary nature of his creative-intellectual project: combining African cultural and aesthetic traditions with those of Europe and of ‘world art’ (before that was a common term). During the course of the year, the same gallery used its upstairs-downstairs space to good effect by hosting simultaneous exhibitions of Edoardo Villa and Andrew Verster, and Len Sak and Lolo Veleko respectively. Of these, the Villa, Verster and Sak selections were also largely ‘backward glances’, containing pieces from early in each artist’s career and extending to more recent work.
Braam Kruger: Winnie
Another retrospective tribute was to be found at the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, where a selection of the late Braam Kruger’s work was on display as part of the Arts Alive Festival in September. Portraiture was predominant: sultry nudes in exotic settings, allegorical figures representing black resistance to apartheid,
Lolo Veleko’s Wonderland
The tographs exploring urban youth identity in Lolo Veleko’s “Wonderland” (exhibited, incongruously but felicitously, with the “Jojo” exhibition) stem from her work as SBYA winner in 2008. In 2009, it was the turn of Nicholas Hlobo, whose “Umtshotsho” met with a mixed reception. Some viewers found the looming figures he stitched together from rubber inner tubing and arranged in dim red lighting to be a haunting and insightful comment on Xhosa identity; others were bemused by the work’s opacity and unimpressed by the gloomy venue Hlobo was allocated in Grahamstown’s 1820 Settlers Monument building. It will be interesting to see what 2010 Young Artist Michael MacGarry produces. His description of the proposed installation is intriguing: it will include a film dealing with “problematised whiteness” and the “brain drain”: “Called LHRJHB (London to Joburg), it will be looped to a voice-over narrative containing extracts from J.M. Coetzee’s Youth.” This continues a ‘literary’ trend in much of MacGarry’s previous work, which invokes Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Camus’s L’Etranger among others. It will also be interesting to see how the Young Artist award, which inevitably forms part of the fine arts ‘establishment’ in South Africa, will inflect MacGarry’s work with his fellow members of Avant Car Guard – a self-consciously antiestablishment collective that, depending on who you ask, is either truly subversive or insubstantial posturing. There is more consensus over the merits of Brett Murray’s satire; the artist’s “Crocodile Tears”, which was shown at the Goodman Gallery in February, confirmed his status as an incisive critic of public figures and ‘Joe Public’ alike. In the exhibition, Murray aimed his barbs at Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma and anyone who had anything to do with the ANC’s Polokwane conference, along with Robert Mugabe, corporate opportunists and white South Africa at large. More flattering portrayals of both private citizens and celebrities were on display in “History Recorded Through Portraiture”, a three-part exhibition curated by Reshada Crouse at Museum Africa in June. Visitors had the chance, firstly, to peruse some of the historical portraits kept – but not usually displayed – in the museum; secondly, to admire Crouse’s technique(s) as a portraitist in
a selection of her work spanning three decades; and thirdly, to see the pieces produced by the students in Crouse’s painting group, aimed at encouraging novices to take up their brushes. There were portraits, profiles and busts of a different sort on display in “Capital: How Heads Talk”, an exhibition forming part of Wits University’s Arts and Literature Experience (WALE) and promoting the cause of the Wits Art Museum – a yet-to-be-completed structure that will house the university’s collection of South African paintings, sculptures and installations, as well as masks, figurines, headdresses and other historical pieces produced by African artists. Among the famous faces depicted in “Capital” were Nelson Mandela, Hendrik Verwoerd, Lucas Radebe, Edwin Cameron, Steve Biko, Charles de Gaulle and W.H. Auden; there were also numerous renditions of unglamorous and unnamed citizens, which the curators used to suggest other paradigms for understanding “how heads talk”: the ways in which heads can signify justice, power, death, memory and our sense(s) of beauty. The Wits exhibition’s punning title resonated unexpectedly with Jeannette Unite’s “Headgear”, which was fused with ‘capital’ in other ways: displayed at AngloGold Ashanti’s headquarters in Newtown before moving to the company’s Gold of Africa Museum in Cape Town, Unite’s drawings of headgear (also known as winding gear, mine heads or shaft heads) tread an awkward line between critiquing the socio-ecological damage caused by mining and aestheticising heavy industry in order to justify and even efface this damage.
Work from Aparna Swarup’s Bioscope
A comparable ambiguity was evident in Aparna Swarup’s “Bioscope”, a series of tographs of the Indian artist’s home town, Allahabad. While many of the people and settings in Swarup’s tographs manifest poverty and pollution, her skilful manipulation of the lens (as well as of the
Aparna Swarup’s Bioscope opening
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
Page 09
NATAL LISTINGS | PETER MACHEN COLUMN
SHOWS IN KWA ZULU NATAL
Durban Andrew Walford 6 Dec (one day only), Shongweni Christmas Exhibition, featuring ceramics by Andrew Walford. B9 Zig Zag Farm, Shongweni, KwaZulu Natal T. 031 769 1363 C. 082 794 7796 Artisan Contemporary 4 Nov-5 Dec, Horses Unleashed. 9 Dec-20 Jan 2010, ‘Collections’, works by contemporary artist Lionel Smit. Also on show, ceramics, jewellery, fabrics and turned wooden vessels by well known South African artists. 344 Florida Rd., Morningside, T. 031 312 4364 sue@artisan.co.za Art Space - DBN 23 Nov-16 Jan 2010, Annual Affordable Art Show ‘09. 3 Millar Rd., Durban. T.031 312 0793 www.artspace-durban.com Crouse Art Gallery KZN Art @ it’s Best, works in watercolours, oils and acrylics, by +- 50 artists from the Water Colour Society, Botanical Society and the Highway Art Group. 254 Lillian Ngoyi/Windermere Rd., Morningside T. 083 385 0654 www.crouseartkzn.co.za Durban Art Gallery 12 Nov-16 Jan 2010,Unit of Measure, a collaborative travel-
Chris Thurman Continued from page 8 developing process) turns them into beautiful and even sacred subjects. Yet this was not an exoticising view of India; rather, it was a kind of intimate love-letter to the city, written by someone who knows its charms. Those who attended both Swarup’s exhibition and “Painted Narratives from India”, curated by Anjana Somany as part of the nationwide programme of events comprising “Shared History: The Indian Experience in South Africa”, could no doubt identify numerous parallels. While neither the medium nor the content were the same, both contained artworks that owe more to myth and legend than they do to social or political realities. Jan van der Merwe’s “Ontwortel/Uprooted” (currently on at the UJ Gallery) does engage with such realities, albeit indirectly. Van der Merwe’s work addresses vague categories of the downtrodden and dispossessed (“ordinary people who become victims”, “women”, “children” – a topical but perhaps trite echo of the “16 Days of Activism” campaign). It is more interesting, however, for the rusting process to which he submits found objects, lending each work metarical potential in “the fight against
ling project by artists Bronwyn Lace and Vaughn Sadie. 2 Dec-18 Jan 2010, Umtshotsho, works by Nicholas Hlobo. Second Floor, City Hall, Anton Lembede Str., Durban T. 031 311 2268 Email:strettonj@durban.gov.za www.durban.gov.za/durban/ discover/museums/dag Durban University Art Gallery 3-17 Dec, A Body of Work, collage by Joanne Hoyer. Steve Biko Campus, Steve Biko Road T. 031 373 2207 Email: artgallery@dut.ac.za Elizabeth Gordon Gallery A variety of new South African artworks, including paintings by Hugh Mbayiwa, Nora Newton and Hussein Salim. 120 Florida Rd., Durban T. 031 303 8133 eqqart@iafrica.com Kizo Art Gallery 20 Nov-10 Dec, “Innovative woman”, various mediums from video, installation, photography, painting and performance art exhibiting works by Nandipha Mntambo, Zanele Muholi, Usha Seejarim, Dineo Bopape, Nontobeko Ntombela, Ernestine White, Ingrid Masondo, Lerato Shadi, Senzeleni Marasela and Bongi Bengu. Gateway Theatre of Shopping, Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal T. 031 566 4324 www.kizo.co.za KZNSA Gallery 6 Dec- 10 Jan 2010, SUSS’T: A Designer Christmas Fair.
time, vulnerability and transience”. On a lighter note: Joburg may empty out over the holiday season, but if you’re in town there’s still artistic festive cheer to enjoy. Following successful exhibitions by Louis Olivier, Senzo Nhlapo and Sinta Spector as part of the Artspace Mentorship Programme, Teresa Lizamore will be curating the ninth instalment of her “Oppitafel” festive series at the gallery’s Rosebank premises and at the Artspace Warehouse in Fairland. Over fifty artists will be contributing to the show, which takes its inspiration from the book and film Babette’s Feast. And in 2010? South Africans
SUSS’T shows the broad wealth of craft and design in South Africa, with a special emphasis on local production. Participants have been selected because of their ability to transform traditional and contemporary materials into unique objects of function and beauty. 166 Bulwer Rd., Glenwood, T. 031 2023686, www.kznsagallery.co.za
Margate Margate Art Museum 1 Dec-21 Jan 2010, The Unexpected Visitor of the African Exodus, mixed media by Nicky Chovuchovu. T. 039 312 8392 C. 072 316 8094 Email: huey@hcm.gov.za
Pietermaritzburg
Tatham Art Gallery 27 Oct-14 March 2010, the Schreiner Gallery New Acquisitions Exhibition, including a linoprint by Vuli Nyoni, and a rolling ball sculpture by Zotha Shange. 9 July-21 Feb 2010, The Heath Family Retrospective Exhibition, mixed media works by the Heath family. 2 Dec-24 Jan 2010, Northern KwaZulu-Natal Craft Exhibition. Cnr of Chief Albert Luthuli (Commercial) Rd. and Church Str. (Opposite City Hall) Pietermaritzburg T. 033 342 1804 www.tatham.org.za
without automatically thinking can hardly read or hear that combination of numbers of the FIFA World Cup – and the country’s artistic life will undoubtedly be influenced by the event and the influx of visitors it will bring. Already there has been some controversy, with prominent art critic Sean O’Toole highlighting the compromising of artistic integrity that might ensue with “artists, curators, entrepreneurs and plain old hucksters ... readying themselves for the first whistle” and “jockeying for position” in the “panicked hunt for a quick buck”. Is this unnecessarily alarmist? We’ll soon find out.
Peter Machen Eyes Wide Open on the Streets of Mumbai So I reneged on my responsibilities in November and headed to India for the first time - Mumbai specifically – and, like so many countless others before me, I fell in love with the place in many unexpected ways. But I’ll hold back on the romance and stick to the things I saw - although it’s difficult, commenting blithely from the perspective of contemporary art on a visual culture that is millenia older than modernity, western or otherwise. But that’s also a reason why it must be such a challenge to take up the mantle of artist in a culture so steeped in visual signifiers and in which the division between decorative and expressive art is drawn in such loosely composed sand. And so my visions of the handful of galleries I visited are a little drowned out by the vast buffet of visual delights available with every walking step. I saw some fascinating work in the galleries of Mumbai, but they competed with the beautifully felt signage on taxis and trucks carrying goods and water and the way that space itself seems to be sacred against such dense population pressure, and even with mass-produced curio art, because mass-produced in India still invariably means made by hand. And so you can buy a painted canvas on a beach in Goa that is technically exquisite and the product of millenia of culture and which will smudge against the plastic bag in which it’s sold. And it was a pleasure to walk through a world so rich with art and design, and so little of it digital. While in much of Africa, signwriting has fallen prey to the convenience of printshops with their plotters and laminates, on the streets of Mumbai it is still largely an analogue world. The famous Jehangir Art Gallery occupies a central role in the Mumbai art scene, a fact that must at least partially be the result of showing new exhibitions every week in its multiples spaces (and also by the fact that it is physically centred in the art district in the Colaba
area). In my two visits to the gallery, I managed to see seven shows, ranging from some impressive debut solo exhibitions to a three-part retrospective of the celebrated - but decidedly kitsch – talents of Indian national treasure Paresh Maity. While such heavy rotation of exhibitions must be exhausting for the gallery staff, I was more impressed by the fact that all of the artists were permanently present at their exhibitions. (In Durban, the only artist I’ve ever seen in permanent residence in a gallery - other than those who have lived in galleries as art event – was the late Aiden Walsh). There are surprisingly few galleries in Mumbai, considering that it is one of the world’s largest cities, but there’s also an almost tangible sense of a contemporary 21st century art scene beginning to invade and I have no doubt that next time I visit the city, the number of galleries will have grown. Like many of the spaces I visited, the Jehangir Gallery is a family funded affair – in India, the patrons are mostly still families and individuals, and corporate sponsorship has yet to attempt it takeover job. And there is still the sense that buying art is an act of patronage, rather than an investment. Although, as an obviously drunk woman at a fancy whiskey tasting at a fancy hotel said, “the problem with the art scene in India is that nobody is yet prepared to spend a crore (10 million rupees, about R1,5 million) on an artwork”. But give them a bit of rope and I’m sure the time will come when the rising consumerist fervour will send the local art market rocketing as it has done in SA. Viewing a selection of work from the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Modern Art, a short walk down the street from the Jehangir, I was a little bewildered to experience a collective idiom that was foreign to me – although still recognisable. It’s probably the same kind of experience that a foreign visitor might have looking at a selection of work from the permanent collection of the DAG or the JAG - but not from the Louvre or the
Tate. The colonised countries’ works remain idiomatically provincial while the colonisers’ work is internationalist, already made famous by (art) history. At the same time, it was interesting to see how very clearly Indian art had influenced the popular art of the 70s in South Africa. Many of the prints that appeared on the living rooms walls of my youth could have been ripped off from work in Mumbai’s National Gallery, although I’d be lying if I said that I recognised the names of any of the artists. The vast majority of the work I saw was two dimensional - paintings and drawings, peppered with sculpture that mostly echoed religious motifs. The only place I visited in which the work was installed rather than hung was the brand spanking new Gallery BMB, which started off with a massive bang of a show called “The Dark Science of Five Continents”, featuring major work from Jon Kessler, Riyas Komu, George Osodi, Wang Qingsong and Jake and Dinos Chapman. It seems likely that the internationalism of this maiden show at BMB will no doubt prove a portent of things to come. And when India’s superrich (the superrich are everywhere; a financial boon for art if a curse for the planet) discover the notion that you could perhaps put a Jake and Dinos sculpture in your living room, just watch the art market fireworks. You can already smell the sulphur. Finally, returning to home turf, I can’t help but shout out loud about the fact that three of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards for 2010 were Durbanites: Mlu Zondi for dance, Claire Angelique for film and, of course, Michael MacGarry for fine art. So while Durban, like Mumbai, might still have a low-hanging financial art ceiling, its role as a nurturer of national talent remains a vital element of South Africa’s fine art scene. And that will always be something to celebrate. Oh, and happy happy joy joy. Relish what’s left of the year and may I be the first to wish you a happy 2010.
Durban Art Gallery / 2nd Floor, City Hall, Anton Lembede St. Durban Open Mondays to Saturdays 08:30 to 16:00 / Sundays 11:00 to 16:00 tel: 031 3112264/9 email: StrettonJ@durban.gov.za
Jan van der Merwe’s “Ontwortel/Uprooted” at University of Johannesburg Gallery
PAGE 10
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
Forgeries make an appearance in SA Art World As the value of South African art increases, more works by local artists are starting to be targeted by forgers and thieves, a fact that investors need to be aware of in order to avoid becoming a victim. Serious collectors also need to insure themselves against buying fake or stolen works of art as reports of these forgeries increase. According to managing director of Artinsure and avid collector Gordon Massie, there have already been a number of cases in South Africa this year where the origin and authenticity of art by local artists has come into question. “In Europe the existence of fraudulent copies of major artworks is a fairly well known and investors there have become cautious. South African investors are now becoming aware that genuine-looking forgeries are starting to appear here as well,” says Massie “In fact it has become a source of humour in art circles that despite having passed away two years ago, Frans Claerhout continues to produce art works! And another high profile local art scandal, although not proven to everyone’s satisfaction, are the serious questions surrounding a few items in Brett Kebble’s collection; questions which are strong enough to cast doubt over the authenticity of some works. “There has been a conscientious move by serious art investors to obtain specialist insurance to protect themselves in cases where they may become a victim of fraud or unwittingly purchase a stolen work,” he says. A ‘great find’ can blind Even Fred Scott, a serious and greatly respected South African collector, admits to being fooled… but only once. He gave a talk to art enthusiasts
at Hollard where he confessed that even with his experience, he purchased a fraudulent work believing it to be genuine. “This was only because I allowed my enthusiasm and excitement for a bargain and a great find to put my normal caution on hold. Although I was very surprised to see this particular artist on sale in South Africa – and warning bells should have been ringing – I bought it and lost financially. “Much later I decided to sell it and Christies told me it was “not by the hand of that artist” – which is their delicate way of saying ‘Sorry. It’s a fake’. It was only then that I started to examine the work without excitement and emotion clouding my judgement and began to see the truth and telltale signs. You need a fair level of expertise to spot them and why it is important to put your trust in experts who have a proven track record of integrity.” According to Scott, once a collector has discovered they have purchased a fraudulent work at a substantial sum, they are faced with a moral dilemma: “Do you sell the painting on and not divulge that it is fraudulent or do you take the financial knock and tell all?” “One option of course is to burn or destroy the work, but it is still a beautiful painting despite all. What I did is I sold the painting declaring it to be ‘in the style of the particular artist’. I still lost a lot of money on that transaction and it is proof positive that if something appears too good to be true it usually is,” said Scott. The defensive moves In the same way that people are aware that fake diamonds and counterfeit money exits – and that there are ways to identify the real thing, Massie appeals to investors in art to call on experts to verify authenticity in order to protect their invest-
ment and themselves.
However, science has long been used to help authenticate works of art. Technicians can date paint from its chemical composition, for example, or x-ray a canvas to reveal what lies below the surface if it suspected that a work has been painted on “old” canvas. In recent years, however, the artwork itself has come under more scientific scrutiny, especially through the analysis of brushstrokes. The idea is to establish an artist’s “handwriting” through brushstrokes to help verify the origin of a painting.
“Investing in good art is becoming an increasingly popular financial practice, surrounded as we are with extreme economic volatility. People who are becoming, or who already are, serious art investors should speak to their broker about obtaining insurance protection from a specialist art insurer in the area of forgeries as well as defective title if a stolen work is unwittingly purchased. Serious investors need to make sure that the right cover is in place to protect their financial assets against these types of unpredictable knocks.”
“So there is a range of significant backup and expertise available to investors, as well as insurance protection by specialists. More guidance is available on www.artinsure. co.za,” Massie says.
Avoiding owning fakes So how do we avoid being the proud owner of a beautiful replica? Massie suggests a few tips to help keep you in the clear: • Always buy through reputable sources who can stand by the authenticity and provenance of a work; • If faced with the bargain of a lifetime by an intermediary without the track record in the industry, chances are the only true bargain will be for the originator and the intermediary; • Take your time to explore the work and the body of work produced by the artist; • Call on experts regarding that artist and pick their brains; • Ask questions and satisfy yourself before committing to an investment.
The famous fraudsters Two of the most famous and productive fraudsters of all time are Han van Meegeren who got into deep water for defrauding Adolf Hitler’s closest aide, Hermann Göring and more recently John Myatt, an American artist who has earned himself the title of the biggest forger of the 20th century. He sold over 200 fake artworks of artists such as Matisse and Marc Chagall before landing behind bars. The police only recovered 60 of these 200 and his works were confidently sold in London, Paris and New York by leading dealers including Christies and Sotheby’s. The whereabouts of the unrecovered 140 high priced fakes remains a mystery. After his release from a short stay in prison, Myatt created a lucrative career by selling acknowledged fakes.
What if you buy a fake? Do you have a right of recourse if you end up with a fake? If you can find the perpetrators you may have a right of action. However, whether they are still in possession of your money is questionable. Also, proving that a work of art is a fake can be a long and expensive process involving a significant number of experts. It is also not a definitive science unless you end up with a confession.
Ripping off the Reich In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, Han van Meegeren, who was an artist and part time art dealer, was arrested for collaboration with the enemy – the German Third Reich. He was charged with acting as an agent in the sale
of a Vermeer painting to one of Adolf Hitler’s closest aides, Hermann Göring, who had amassed a huge art collection and still sought a Vermeer. As the penalty for this form of treason was death, Van Meegeren announced that the painting was a forgery. In fact, he revealed, a huge number of Dutch masters emanating from him were forgeries which he had painted. In view of their extraordinary quality of execution, the experts of the day didn’t believe him. They said if the Vermeer in question ‘was indeed a forgery then the painter must be considered a genius in that particular line”. Determined to prove his claim (and save his life) Van Meegeren called for the tools to recreate the work in question. The fact that he did stunned the Dutch arts establishment. Ironically, today his works command significant prices because of their historical context and his infamy. Theft of Bon Jovi drummer’s art on loan to Spike Lee is a lesson to collectors, says local art insurance specialist Bon Jovi drummer Tico Torres has been exhibiting his art since 1994 and loaned three paintings worth R100 000 to movie director, Spike Lee, to use as props in his latest film “He Got Game”. The paintings were ripped off together with the entire prop truck only days before they were due to go on show at an art exhibition at a gallery in the Hamptons in the US late last year. In keeping with “the show must go on” tradition, the Torres exhibition went on without the three lost paintings however this is a dramatic lesson to collectors, painters and the art world in general that risks to your treasures can be unpredictable and your works can get caught in unexpected cross-fire
situations, says local art insurance expert, Gordon Massie, MD of Artinsure, a Hollard partner. “The loss of this art in these circumstances is a high profile warning to all those who lend their paintings and treasures to exhibitions or to any third party, to make sure that their insurance policy protects them financially in those conditions. “Your works may not even be the target of thieves yet they could get caught in the crossfire of other targeted items – like probably the prop truck in the Torres case – which does not minimize the personal loss to the owner of the art. Normal all risk insurance policies will not cover art, antiques or memorabilia in the kind of circumstances in which this Bon Jovi drummer and artist found himself the victim.” Massie explains further “This type of theft is not usually covered in an insurance policy that does not specialize in art insurance – and investment in art has become very big in South Africa. This is why Artinsure and Hollard had to create special protections for people in the art world to insure art while in transit or while consigned or on loan to third parties. We made this standard because a car could be stolen, for instance, while driving back from an art gallery with new art in the car. However, some benefits need to be tailored to fit specialist risk scenarios.
“My advice to owners of any art treasures is to check your existing policy documents and speak to your broker. Check whether you would have been paid out if you had loaned some paintings to a movie director and the truck was stolen. It has become an important part of money management and investment protection for art collectors to check what types of losses will be paid out,” Massie says.
Subscribe to The SA Art Times, Business Art and Art LIfe for R 360 pa. at www.artdirect.co.za
The South African
Art Information Directory 2010
Purchase your copy of
Directly from the publishers at:
R 189, 00
South African Art Information Directory 2010
www.artdirect.co.za
for R 189, incl. postage and packaging
The most complete listing of South African art resources, infrastructure, financial and promotional opportunities for visual artists.
The South African
PRINT GALLERY Call for proposals for Exhibitions We invite printmakers and inovative artists to submit proposals for shows for 2010
E-mail your short proposal, with images to: Gallery Director: info@printgallery.co.za Deadline: 30 January 2010.
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
Page 11
Editor’s choice
Kingsland Stolen Artwork find shocks New York Art Scene
A treasure trove of all kinds of art work—some of which has subsequently been identified as stolen—was uncovered in a New York City apartment. In an effort to track down the rightful owners, the FBI and the Public Administrator of New York County have posted pictures of the most important pieces here on our website. More than 300 works of art—paintings, sketches, sculptures, and other pieces by such artists as Pablo Picasso, John Singleton Copley, Alberto Giacometti, Giorgio Morandi, eand Eugene Boudin—were discovered after the death of the apartment’s occupant, William M.V. Kingsland. Kingsland was well known in kNew York City’s art circles as an engaging and intelligent connoisseur of art, books, architecture, and genealogy. But when he died, he left no will…and no apparent heirs to claim the floor-to-ceiling stacks of paintings and art works crammed into his one-bedroom apartment. Turns out Kingsland was a pretty secretive guy—despite having many acquaintances, very few people had ever been inside his residence. In condversations with friends, he was often evasive about his early years and his family. And, as reported by the media not long after his death, William Kingsland wasn’t even his given name—he was born Melvyn Kohn and spent his early years in the Bronx before legally changing his name to Kingsland. He thought it had a more literary sound to it and would help him gain acceptance among Manhattan’s upper crust. A surprising discovery. After Kingsland’s death, New York Public Administrator Ethel
And other recent art crimes
Kingsland collection shown here—or if you want to make a claim—please contact Agent Wynne at (718) 286-7302 or by e-mail at James.Wynne@ ic.fbi.gov.
Griffin hired two auction houses—Christie’s and Stair Galleries—to sell the art. But as Christie’s researched the pieces to determine their provenance (history of ownership), it discovered some of them had been reported stolen in the 1960s and 1970s and immediately contacted New York Special Agent Jim Wynne, a member of our Art Crime Team. And after Stair Galleries auctioned off several pieces, one of the buyers—an art gallery owner—discovered the piece he bought had been reported stolen as well, so he too got in touch with Agent Wynne. One bizarre side note: A mover hired by the Public Administrator’s Office to transport the contents of Kingsland’s apartment to a warehouse was charged for stealing two Picasso sketches each valued at approximately $30,000. And, it turns out that was not the first time those two sketches had been stolen…sometime before they ended up in Kingsland’s collection they were stolen from a New York art gallery around 1967! With the cooperation of the Public Administrator’s Office and the two auction houses, we began investigating Kingsland’s collection of art and positively identified several works that had been stolen. And we think there are more. But because of the overwhelming size of the collection and the complex and time-consuming nature of provenance investigations, we decided the best and most expeditious course of action was to publicize the art work to the general public. We need your help. If you have information on the provenance, acquisition, or ownership of any work of art from the
FBI Art Crime Team, whose investigative efforts I applaud. We have now succeeded in removing the fraudulent painting from commerce, which we hope will help protect the
The biggest art theft in American history occurred at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston on March 18, 1990. The stolen paintings, including the one that hung in this frame, Rembrandt’s “Lady and Gentleman in Black,” remain unrecovered.
United States Attorney David C. Weiss and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Supervisory Special Agent Tricia A. Gibbs announced today the recovery of a watercolor painting entitled “Wreck on Doughnut Point,” pictured below, purportedly by iconic American artist Andrew Wyeth. The recovered watercolor painting is a fraud. In 1998, a Connecticut gallery contacted Andrew Wyeth concerning the same watercolor painting, bearing Mr. Wyeth’s signature. Mr. Wyeth examined the painting and determined that it was not his. Nevertheless, the fraudulent painting re-entered the stream of commerce, ultimately being purchased by an art dealer in California in 2000 for approximately $20,000. In late 2008, the art dealer contacted an auction house in Texas to sell the watercolor on consignment. The auction house contacted the Brandywine River Museum. The curator of the museum recognized the watercolor as the fake that Wyeth had inspected in 1998 and contacted the FBI Art Crime Team. Following investigation, the painting was recovered. The actual painting was painted by Andrew Wyeth in 1939. Mr. Wyeth died in January 2009. United States Attorney David C. Weiss said, “This investiga tion demonstrates our commitment to addressing the problem of the illicit sale of fraudulent art, a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise. Recovery of such fraudulent art is a major objective of our law enforcement partner, the
legacy of an important Ameri can cultural figure. I commend the Brandywine River Museum for bringing this matter to the attention of the FBI Art Crime Team. Our office will continue to vigorously investigate and prosecute art crime in the future.” On the morning of 24/09/2009, two men armed with a pistol entered the Magritte Museum in Jette near Brussels, threatened the staff and visitors present, took a high-value painting and left. Description of the painting: René Magritte, oil painting, title “Olympia”, representing a female reclining nude on a beach, dimensions, 60 x 80 cm, signed “Magritte” in the upper right corner.
Art thieves are something of an inscrutable lot. Robert Mang was an Austrian alarm-systems specialist with no criminal history when he was arrested in the theft of a sculpture by Benvenuto Cellini, valued at $60 million, from the Vienna Art History Museum. He kept the sculpture, “Saliera,” under his bed for two years before trying to ransom it.
Description of the robbers: • Male of Asian origin, aged c. 25 years, 170 cm, slim build, spoke English • Male of European or NorthAfrican origin, aged c. 30 years, 180 cm, spoke French with a slight accent. Anyone with information about the theft, the whereabouts of the painting or the presumed offenders is asked to contact INTERPOL National Central Bureau Brussels (ref.: FGP-DJB-ART/21593) and the INTERPOL General Secretariat (ref.: 2009/31 315).
The theft of these paintings, Picasso’s “Portrait of Suzanne Bloch” and Candido Portinari’s “O Lavrador de Cafe,” in Brazil in December was said to be made to order. A Brazilian suspect arrested in the theft told the authorities that the paintings were to be delivered to a collector in Saudi Arabia.
ArtThrob presents top South African artist’s limited prints ArtThrob is South Africa’s longest running visual art publication, started in 1997 by Founding Editor Sue Williamson. Twelve years on it remains an authoritative voice on South African contemporary art. The site currently has a steady monthly readership of over 6000 unique visitors. Beyond regular news and reviews, ArtThrob also features the much-utilized monthly ArtBio, a feature on the work of an artist in the public eye. ArtThrob is funded by sales of original prints, sold through Editions for ArtThrob. Over the years ArtThrob has been privileged to offer prints by artists like Jane Alexander, Robert Hodgins and William Kentridge. Contact Editions Editor Natasha Norman at editions@artthrob.co.za.
PAGE 12
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
The Coat, the Cloth and the Cut: The Case of the South African National Gallery
Joseph Gaylard The current position and fate of public art museums and collections in South Africa is a subject of ongoing and usually morbid consideration and debate within the South African visual arts community. There are traditionally two key measures of the performance of art museums: the size and value of collections and the concomitant quality and depth of exhibitions on the one hand, and visitor numbers on the other. Museum directors have to achieve a balance between the two in planning for and managing their institutions and programming. In both areas, most of our art museums and institutions are generally perceived to be failing. In what follows, the Iziko South African National Gallery (SANG) is considered relative to two international comparators in terms that are both quantitative and cursory - both to provide a different, less value-laden perspective on our perception of our performance in these areas, and as a precursor to some preliminary thoughts about what remedies might be appropriate. The Iziko SANG is chosen as an example both because it occupies an important position as a national visual arts institution in the city, and because it is in a position of relative advantage when compared to the majority of other public art museums and collections in the country – in other words, the difficulties that attach to the SANG can to a significant degree be taken to be endemic to the entire public infrastructure for the visual arts. In the 2008/9 financial year, the Tate Galleries (Tate Modern, Tate St Ives, Tate Liverpool and Tate Britain) reported an income of over £200 million (R2.45 billion) and a staff of around 1300. The Galleries acquired artworks valued at £96.7 million (R1.1 billion) – two thirds of this amount was associated with donated works. The Gallery is in the process of a massive £215 million extension to its gallery spaces (originally designed for only 2 million visitors per annum) in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games. On completion of these extensions, the Tate Modern will have over 50 000 square metres of exhibition space – roughly five times
the exhibition space of all of the major national and metropolitan public art museums and collections in South Africa combined. In the same year, the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, recorded revenue of R415 million, employed 314 staff and acquired works valued at A$10.5 million (R71.4 million). The entire Iziko group (which includes 11 other non-art museums alongside the South African National Gallery) reported income of just over R60 million and employed 245 staff. The South African National Gallery (which together with the SA Museum is the largest of the twelve component collections/museums) acquired works with a value of circa R700 000 in the same period (with assistance from its Friends organisation), of which roughly a third were donated by external parties – 100 times less than Canberra, and a fraction of a fraction of the value of the Tate acquisitions (0.0003%). On the face of it, these comparisons may seem cruel and perhaps inappropriate considering the variance in national economies. However, if one sets these figures against the number of visitors each institution attracts, a more nuanced picture emerges. Dividing the total cost of running each institution in the 2008/9 financial year by the number of visitors, produces the following ‘cost per visitor’ figures (for the sake of argument, I have assumed that the proportion of revenue for the South African National Gallery within the Iziko group roughly correlates to the proportion of visitors received by the SANG vs Iziko as a whole): o The Tate group: 7.5 million visitors = R178 per visitor o The National Gallery of Australia: 501 484 visitors = R829 per visitor o Iziko: 493 559 visitors = R120 per visitor If one considers the total costs of running each institution against the number of exhibitions produced or hosted in 2008/9, the following picture emerges: o The Tate Galleries produced circa 50 exhibitions in 2008/9 at
an ‘institutional cost’ of R26.7 million per exhibition o The National Gallery of Australia produced 11 exhibitions at an ‘institutional cost’ of R32.7 million per exhibition o The South African National Gallery produced or hosted 26 exhibitions at an ‘institutional cost’ of R2.3 million per exhibition (17 of these were staged at the SANG)
by the visual arts community. The traditional function of the public art museum as an arbiter of taste and quality supported by a substantial resource base that can back these judgements up with hard cash, has been largely replaced by the cues sent out through auction houses and the exhibiting and purchasing practices of private dealers, collectors and gallerists.
ary company. Were Iziko/the SANG able to generate a similar proportion of earned income and donations in relation to its national government grant, it would have a total income of R160 million per annum – making it more comparable to the Tate Galleries, assuming again that these figures are adjusted in proportionate relation to the size of the two national economies.
To put these figures into some perspective, it is also important to consider the relative size of each of the national economies implicated in this comparison – based on the principle that one should cut one’s institutional coat according to the cloth provided by the national economy. Based on World Bank calculations of Gross Domestic Product, the UK and Australian economies are roughly ten and four times larger, respectively, than the South African economy ($277 billion in 2008). By contrast, the annual income of the Tate and Australian National Gallery are respectively forty and seven times larger that of Iziko/SANG. If one adjusts the latter figures relative to the size of the national economies under consideration, then Iziko/SANG has a quarter of the operating income of the Tate Galleries and 57% of the operating income of the National Gallery of Australia.
The other obvious conclusion to be drawn is that the institution is substantially under-funded even if one takes into account the scale of the national economy it inhabits. Over time, it is almost certain that the latter two circumstances will progressively erode the capacity of the institution to achieve the level of return on investment implied in the preceding figures, and lead to a further erosion of the position of the institution within the visual arts system in South Africa. In short, it is very difficult to see a positive growth trajectory for the institution within the framework outlined here.
In thinking about the future prospects of Iziko/the SANG ameliorating these comparative disadvantages, some preliminary speculation is offered on the implications of this analysis for national policy on the one hand, and institutional leadership and management on the other.
What does all of this suggest? On the one hand, it is clear that by international standards the SANG/Iziko is making a little go a very, very long way in terms of translating resources into visible exhibition outputs and attracting visitors - in varying degrees outperforming both of the comparator institutions referenced here and – perhaps - challenging popular wisdom regarding its performance.
Some further scrutiny of the two international reference points cited here may be in order in beginning to think about possible solutions to what appears to be a recipe for gradual downward spiral. In the 2008/09 financial year, circa 70% of the operating revenue for the National Gallery of Australia came from the Australian treasury. This is roughly the same proportion as the SANG/Iziko receives from national government, though is less than half as generous in absolute terms if one considers these figures proportionately in relation to the size of each country’s overall economy (and less so if one considers that the SANG is just one component of Iziko).
It is however equally clear that it has dramatically hit the wall in relation to the growth of its core asset (its collection) through new acquisitions and donations. It is also important to note that the SANG is in fact comparatively advantaged in this area relative to other museums and collections in the country - which goes some way to explain the lack of seriousness with which these institutions are often viewed
In contrast to the Australian model, which leans heavily on the national treasury, only 25% of the Tate’s total income came from a government grant through the UK Department of Culture, Media and Sport – the balance of roughly £150 million pounds was largely accounted for through donations and earned income, a significant portion of the latter generated through Tate Enterprises Limited, a wholly owned subsidi-
There may be a case to be made – referencing the Australian funding model – for increased revenue funding from central government. Such a case would however have to address the inherited disadvantages that the SANG enjoys in relation to the public policy priorities and mandate of national government – noting that the institutional history, the collection and the building itself for the most part reflect the arts, culture and heritage of a minority of the population. Unsurprisingly, the significant new heritage expenditure from the national treasury has been channelled towards new infrastructure projects that reflect a much wider political and cultural heritage (exemplified – whatever the detailed merits of the project - by Freedom Park). For the SANG to attract greater levels of investment from national government (in infrastructure development and operational costs) would arguably require a more radical re-imagining of the institution than has been apparent or possible in the post 1994 period. Such re-visioning would have to occur at many levels - at the level of the overall concept of the institution, the collection, the modalities of its presentation and mediation, the built form of the institution, and in terms of the budgetary priority accorded to marketing and education programming. To achieve this will require a meeting of minds, and substantial leadership and vision both from within the institution, and from within national
government.
The likelihood of Iziko/SANG – or any other public art museum or collection in the country - ever generating a proportion of earned income and private donation along the lines of the Tate model is of course remote in the foreseeable future. The Tate is one of the key institutional pillars of one of the pre-eminent centres of the international visual arts economy, at both a symbolic and material level. Currently, less than 12% of the Iziko/SANG income is derived from sponsorship, just over 15% from earned income – figures that are not unimpressive by comparison to other institutions. Nevertheless, there is a strong case to be made for the SANG attracting substantially more investment from the private sector, and gearing itself up for greater levels of earned income. Arguably, this would require precisely the kind of re-visioning of the institution contemplated above – something that is obviously easier said than done. However, should a compact between national government interests, corporate interests and the internal leadership of the institution not be forged, it is difficult to see any of these three parties being able to individually engage with the future of the institution in a serious and sustained way. Joseph Gaylard This discussion piece was informed by findings from work-in-progress on a national study of the visual arts being undertaken by the Human Sciences Research Council for the Department of Arts and Culture. In the context of this study – which includes a survey of over 350 individual artists, businesses and visual arts organisations across the country – a review of art museums and collections was commissioned from Carol Brown and Associates. The colloquium “Management of Cultural Organisations in Times of Economic Crisis” convened by the Department of Accounting at the University of Cape Town and Iziko Museums in December 2009, provided an opportunity to present some preliminary data from these findings for discussion with art museum professionals – the discussions at this small but lively gathering also informed the writing of this article. The piece reflects neither the views of the Human Sciences Research Council, nor those of the Department of Arts and Culture.
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
Page 13
Zeitgeist
Art is the lie that makes us realise truth Pablo Picasso famously said on occasion.
The problem with these types of often quoted one-liners are that they share a little wisdom and leave a lot of frustration.
e
Jo-Marie Rabe
“Art is the lie that makes us realise truth” Pablo Picasso famously said on occasion. The problem with these types of often quoted one-liners are %that they share a little wisdom and leave a lot of frustration. What word or action preceded this thought, what came after, what made him say it and to whom did he speak? Context. That is what is missing. What he actually said is: “We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.” Perhaps the need for some sort of intellectual setting is personal; perhaps most people are happy to have only these few word to work with, to gain einsight from. Out of context it does in fact become something that we can make our own; interpret it regardless of the narrator’s initial intent and take from it what we please. One-liners tend to present themselves in oracular fashion whenever they please. Sometimes the timing makes sense; other times it does not. For instance: a few years ago I walked into an art gallery and was confronted by an image so familiar, yet so unexpected that it literally stopped me in my tracks. A black and white tograph by the artist Jan Verboom showed a signpost on a barren land. “Verneukpan, Kenhardt, rave” it pointed in two directions. The rave was held on Verneukpan. As a child I drove with my family past this desolate evidence of human intervention every time we went to our farm. It represented everything I wanted to escape from (or so I thought). Yet, in
that moment in the gallery I was confronted with the work of an artist who saw the beauty of the desolation, the beauty of the unexpected. With his image he made me realise how precious that familiar world was. No amount of words would ever have convinced me, but a piece of art did. More recently and in a completely different context the quote suddenly came to mind again. I was reading a review of the results of the latest Christie’s and Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art New York autumn sales. “As will happen in the aftermath of any severe crisis in which all certainties are called into question, approaches to art have changed. A trend that began to be perceptible before the autumn of 2008 came out forcefully both at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Expressiveness, color contrast and extreme structural simplicity are the three criteria that now determine success no matter which school or period is considered” Souren Melikian wrote in the New York Times on November 7th.
elicited a response that suggests that we want it black and white, not in shades of grey? Perhaps it is merely part of the cycle of life. In a recent interview journalist Eben Venter asked South African filmmaker Ariane Besson her golden rules for creative success. “A film or painting or book has to appear to have been created without effort, as if you have made it along the way, using your left hand” was her rule number one. Effortless, brilliant and fast – the way Usain Bolt runs.
Frieda Lock : September Kitchen interior with red carpet fetched R1 002 600.
He maintained that the buyers showed “a complete indifference to delicate nuances [...] and subtle mood achieved through atmospheric effects”. Could the art we buy indicate a sort shift or zeitgeist or new “truth” that would be hard to put in words yet, I kept wondering. Looking at the pieces that achieved record prices there seem to be a strong suggestion that we currently want things that are simple, clear and colourful. Are we just a little “subtled” out? Has the harshness of the economic downturn
Erik Laubscher: Still life with manolin, music score and fruit, oil on canvas, 65,5 by 80cm Pre sales estimate R 200 000 - 300 000 | Sold for R 1 120 000
But, as we all know, to make it look as if it is easy to do something takes thousands of hours of practice and hard work. It is always difficult and time consuming to do something well. We just don’t want to know about it right now; we don’t want to see the hard work. What do I mean? Think of Edvard Munch’s The Scream or Brahms’ First Symny. It took Brahms 14 years to complete and one can almost feel that. The whole work is filled with the effort and angst of the creative process. During a rehearsal conductor Michael Blomstedt suggested to the members of the San Fransisco Symny to “think of flowers straining to break through concrete”. Brahms concrete flowering is brilliant, but not what we want right now. Local market Art market insiders have long predicted the rise of a group of artist that has been lagging behind the blue chip Sterns, Pierneefs and Maggie Laubsers. This year it happened. Many artist records were set by what Strauss & Co in their Chairman’s report called the “overshowed artists”. These include people like Frans Oerder, Wolf Kibel, Dorothy Kay, May
Hillhouse and Eduardo Villa. This year also saw huge jumps in prices paid for works of art by artists like Alexis Preller, Maud Sumner, Frieda Lock, Eric Laubscher and Christo Coetzee, to name but a few. Christo Coetzee has been a market stalwart for a long time. His work hardly ever “bombed out”, but it never fetched great prices either. The R20 000 to R30 000 estimates usually acting as spot-on predictions for what the market can bear. Until this year, that is. In May 2009 a work form the mid 1980’s (with a bullish estimate of R 90 000 – R 120 000) fetched R201 600. Just a few months later the work Still life with fruit banjo and a birdcage dating from 1954 sold for ₤64 800 (R794 412,08 at today’s exchange rate).
Another meteoric prices rise was for the work of Frieda Lock. Lock, always admired by her peers and in academic circles, was never a market favourite. Yet, in 2009 she set two artist records on two consecutive Strauss & Co sales. In March on of her paintings achieved R668 400 and in September Kitchen interior with red carpet fetched R1 002 600. One of the other surprises of the year was the record price for a work by Eric Laubscher. In February a work with an estimate of R200 000 to R300 000 fetched R1 120 000, almost four times the pre-sale estimate. So, if nothing else, our market seem to have a mind of its own and South African art seem to be far from flat and flaccid. That’s for sure.
PAGE 14
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
Stephan Welz & Co. overview of 2009
Erik Laubscher Still life with manolin, music score and fruit, oil on canvas, 65,5 by 80cm R 200 000 - 300 000 | Sold for R 1 120 000
Jacob Hendrik Pierneef The Baobab, bushveld, Messina, oil on canvas, 45 by 60,5cm R 2 400 000 - 2 800 000 |Sold for R 3 136 000
Maurice Charles Louis van Essche Carrying the day’s catch oil on canvas, 61 by 76cm R 275 000 - 350 000 | Sold for R 650 000
“We as the Cape Town office have forged our identity as a cohesive and democratic team and weathered a particularly challenging year in the face of increased competition and global recession,” says Shona Robie, Office Manager and Head of Ceramics at Stephan Welz & Co in Cape Town. “The year certainly came full circle,” is the unified consensus from the Paintings specialists in Cape Town. The inaugural auction of the year saw a world record price of R1 120 000 being achieved for Erik Laubscher’s Still Life with Music Score and Fruit . This striking work was repatriated into the country for sale at auction along with Douglas Portway’s The Red and Mauve . The successful sale of these pieces proved that South African paintings are best received in their country of origin. Rounding off the year was the world record price achieved for William Kentridge’s drawing from the Felix in Exile series sold by our Johannesburg office. The price of R1 456 000 far overshot prices achieved for the artist on New York Contemporary sales. Both of these records are for
living artists, thus underpinning the notion that South African art is keeping abreast of the international trends. A recent Sotheby’s Contemporary sale saw a final sale result that netted more than double its presale total estimate. The highlight of the year for South African Painting’s at Stephan Welz & Co. was undoubtedly JH Pierneef’s The Baobab, Bushveld, Messina which equalled the South African record of R3 136 000 established a year ago in the same auction room. This magnificent painting was originally sold by the company in 1987 for a then hefty R38 000. The painting proved the cornerstone of a well rounded South African collection which included, amongst other notables, Pieter Wenning and JEA Volschenk. Ian Hunter, Head of Paintings in Cape Town, says: “In addition to strong showing by the South African Masters, we have great interest, and in many cases set new records for long established Contemporary Artists such as Cilliers-Barnard, Hodgins, Kentridge, Laubscher , Pinker and Stopforth.”
William Joseph Kentridge Drawing from Felix in exile charcoal and pastel on paper, 84 by 150cm R 400 000 - 600 000 | Sold for R 1 456 000
Decorative Arts also saw new records across various departments. South African ceramics have consistently bettered their achievements and a record price of R39 200 was reached for a Nestah Molefe Rorke’s Drift vase. English ceramics have also continued from strength to strength and in November a Wedgewood Fairyland Lustre vase sold for a resounding R56 000. “South African ceramics have once again demonstrated that they are on par with their international contemporaries. Rorke’s Drift and Linnware proved some of the largest draw cards and appealed to the local collectors with a strong sense of heritage,” says Shona Robie. The Silver Department has also gone from strength to strength this year with an average of 93% successful sales achieved at each auction. South African furniture has continued to establish records and consistent high prices. Contemporary furniture proved increasingly popular punctuated with an Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair and Ottoman that sold for R123 200.
Other highlights for the year also include: · A new South African record for Maurice van Essche; Carrying the Day’s Catch sold for R728 000 in February · R672 000 for Stanley Pinker’s Suntan, a new World Record for the artist · A rare gouache by Frederick Timpson I’Ons Grahamstown Road which was knocked down at R87 360 · Cecil Skones’ Three Standing Figures sold for R886 704 · Pieter Wenning’s Geboue Met Bome sold for R784 000 · A solitaire diamond ring sold for R806 400 · A Chinese a celadon nephrite carving of Guanyin sold for R268 800 Specialists in both Cape Town and Johannesburg are looking forward to 2010 and another successful year of auctions in an increasingly competitive market.
Stanley Pinker Suntan oil on canvas, 91,5 by 60,5cm R 300 000 - 400 000 | Sold for R 672 000
BUSINESSART | DECEMBER 2009 - JANUARY 2010
Page 15
Strauss & Co. breaks R 100 M Now South Africa’s leading art auction house
Irma Stern’s , Carla (sold R5 570 000)
Following statistics released recently by Art Vault, Strauss & Co., South Africa’s premier art auction house under Stephan Welz’s (the doyen of South African art) leadership, is at the helm of the South African paintings auction market ahead of the London auction house Bonhams and Welz’s previous company Swelco. The total turnover for the year of mostly high end paintings is R86 617 150 (R100 million inclusive of premium and VAT), nearly double that of its nearest competitor, having handled half the amount of lots. Strauss & Co. held three highly successful auctions with an average of 192 lots each and an average hammer price per lot of R150 000, by far the highest average
Irma Stern’s Magnolias in an Earthenware Pot (sold R7 241 000, a world record for a still life by the artist)
achieved amongst the five top auction houses handling South African Art. Chairman, Elisabeth Bradley is “overwhelmed by the outstanding achievements Strauss & Co. has accomplished in its first year of operation despite being the new kid on the block, the recession and a highly competitive local and international market. In one year, Strauss & Co. has become not only a name that speaks of extraordinary art, as well as unparalleled expertise and service, but, is also by turnover the largest Fine Art Auction House in South Africa”. Strauss & Co. has set numerous new auction records for among others, Anton van Wouw, Irma Stern, Jean Welz, Wolf Kibel,
Frans Oerder and Freida Lock, Cape furniture and Paul Storr silver. Particularly noticeable amongst these were: • the highest price for a painting (Irma Stern’s Magnolias in an Earthenware Pot, sold R7 241 000, a world record for a still life by the artist) • the highest price for a sculpture (Anton van Wouw, Die Noitjie van die Onderveld, sold R946 900, a world record for the artist) • the highest price for a piece of Cape furniture (an 18th Century silver-mounted Coromandel Buffet, sold R 1 058 300 establishing a n ew record.) • the highest price for an item of silver (a pair of George III silver wine coolers and liners by Paul Storr, London 1819,
Frans Claerhout Gordon Vorster
sold R1 559 600 The company’s vision of encouraging connoisseurship and passion at the top end of the local art market, with emphasis very strongly on quality, service and excellence is proving to be a winning formula as indicated in the attached table. In their pursuit of rarity and quality, Strauss & Co. was entrusted with the sale of several important works from private hands that were fresh to the market, either acquired directly from artists or their estates or that had been out of the public domain for years. These included Irma Stern’s Magnolias in an Earthenware Pot (sold R7 241 000, a world record for a still life by the artist), Carla (sold R5 570 000),
Dorothy Moss Kay: Old Oyster Woman (sold R 1 448 200)
Wolf Kibel’s arresting Self Portrait (sold R1 225 400, a world record for the artist) and Jean Welz’s Still Life Cézannesque (sold R1 225 400, a world record for the artist). We handled the most important piece of Cape furniture ever to appear at auction, an 18th century Cape silver-mounted coromandel buffet, establishing a new record and a pair of 18th century wine coolers and liners, by master silversmith Paul Storr which sold for three times its pre sale estimate. The Leslie Milner Collection comprising some 42 South African paintings achieved excellent results due in part to our knowledge of the market and our exceptional marketing skills. Strauss & Co. has done justice
to several artists that have tended to be previously overshadowed achieving record prices for their work. These include amongst others Frans Oerder, Wolf Kibel, Dorothy Kay, May Hillhouse and Edoardo Villa. Although the works offered were exceptional examples of the artists’ work, the fact that they were professionally presented to the market greatly enhanced their final selling price. Important collections have already been secured for the March 2010 auction which will be held in Cape Town at the Vineyard Hotel. These include a collection of some thirty works by William Timlin and the late Edith Dodo’s collection of paintings.
Iris Ampenberger
Marianne Podlashuc
Forthcoming Auction in Cape Town: Monday 15 March 2010
The Icon Project
Important South African Paintings, Furniture, Silver, Ceramics and Jewellery Including a collection of works by William Timlin and The Edith Dodo collection of paintings Basil Humphreys, son of William Humphreys, principal benefactor and after whom the William Humphreys Art Gallery in Kimberley is named, had an abiding interest in Greek and Russian icons which he collected avidly. As they became harder to acquire, particularly in the mid 1960s, he came up with the novel idea of inviting prominent South African artists to paint an ‘icon’ for his collection. Accordingly on 25 October 1966 he wrote
letters to a number of artists making precisely the same offer – he would provide a uniform piece of hardboard , 12 by 10 inches, and would offer a payment of R50 per painting. The artists who responded positively included Gerard Sekoto, Gordon Vorster, Alfred Krenz, May Hillhouse, Alexander and Marianne Podlashuc, Jan Buys, Frank Spears, Frans Claerhout, Iris Ampenberger and Walter Westbrook. Sekoto, in a letter dated 28
April 1967, expresses his pleasure at being included in the list of artists. His monumental Christ-head crowned with thorns, dated 1968, evokes, through dramatic line and mauve tones, Christ’s Passion and by extension, the sufferings of Sekoto’s fellow South Africans. In contrast, Iris Ampenberger draws on medieval iconography while Marianne Podlashuc offers a modern update of the traditional Via Dolorosa theme.
Gordon Vorster was so enthusiastic that he produced six icons. Regrettably not everyone was taken with the idea and there were some rejections from, amongst others, Ephraim Ngatane, Claude Bouscharain, Bettie Cilliers-Barnard, Maud Sumner, Gregoire Boonzaier, Alexis Preller, Eleanor Esmonde-White and Ruth Prowse. Walter Battiss, then Head of the University of South Africa’s Department of History of Art and Fine Art,
replied, “Unfortunately, I am that awkward, embarrassing kind of artist who can never carry out a suggestion made to me by others as my art springs fertilised from within me. I promise you one thing, though: if from within I get to wanting to paint an ICON I’ll let you see it first. Of course I’m certainly not an ICON-oclast!”
This collection of some eighteen icons which has lain undisturbed in a tin trunk for the last 32 years, is to be offered for sale, together with the correspondence from all the above artists, at Strauss & Co’s forthcoming auction of Important Paintings, Furniture, Silver, Ceramics and Jewellery at the Vineyard Hotel, Newlands on 15 March 2010.
The South African
Art Information Directory 2010
R 189, 00
The most complete listing of South African art resources, infrastructure, financial and promotional opportunities for visual artists.
AVALABLE NOW
The South African Art Information Directory 2010 The most complete listing of South African art resources, infrastruture, financial and promotional opportunities for visual artists To purchase your copy go to: www.artdirect.co.za | Tel 021 424 7733 | E-mail: subs@arttimes.co.za PROMOTIONAL SPECIAL: By before 30 January 2010 and get the Art Directory 2010 for just R 189,00 (Includes postage and packaging)