SA Art Times February 2019

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SOUTH AFRICA’S LEADING VISUAL ARTS PUBLICATION

FEBRUARY 2019 WWW.ARTTIMES.CO.ZA


Modern & Contemporary African Art AUCTION LONDON 2 APRIL

CAPE TOWN VALUATION DAYS 13–15 FEBRUARY 34–35 NEW BOND STREET, LONDON W1A 2AA ENQUIRIES +44 (0)20 7293 5696 HANNAH.OLEARY@SOTHEBYS.COM SOTHEBYS.COM/CONTEMPORARYAFRICAN #SOTHEBYSCTPAFRICAN


HASSAN EL GLAOUI La Sortie du Sultan Estimate £80,000–120,000

CHÉRI SAMBA Picasso au travail Estimate £25,000–30,000

© COPYRIGHT : THE ESTATE OF THE ARTIST

© CHÉRI SAMBA COURTESY GALERIE MAGNIN-A, PARIS

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Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art AUTUMN AUCTION

PUBLIC PREVIEW Thursday 28 February to Sunday 3 March, 10 am – 5 pm

VENUE Avenue, V&A Waterfront, 40 Dock Road, Cape Town

ENQUIRIES & SALE CONTACTS CAPE TOWN +27 21 418 0765 | ct@aspireart.net JOHANNESBURG +27 11 243 5243 | enquiries@aspireart.net

www.aspireart.net

Moshekwa Langa, the cyclone that never abates, 138 x 100 cm, R280 000 - 360 000

Cape Town | 3 March 2019 | 6pm



Modern + Contemporary Art

313 Art Project (Seoul) | Galerie 8+4 – Paris (Paris) | A2Z Art Gallery

(Paris/Hong Kong) | A&R Fleury (Paris) | AD Galerie (Montpellier) | L’Agence à Paris (Paris) | Galería Miquel Alzueta (Barcelona) | Ana Mas Projects (Barcelona) | Galerie Andres Thalmann (Zurich) | Art Agency (Sofia) | Artco Gallery (Aix-la-Chapelle) | Art : Concept (Paris) | Artem-Reich (Basel) | FDP Art et Patrimoine (Sète) | Artisyou (Paris) | Artkelch (Freiburg im Breisgau) | Galerie Arts d’Australie (Paris) | Stéphane Jacob (Paris) | Galerie Cédric Bacqueville (Lille) | La Balsa Arte (Bogotá/Medellín) | Galerie Ange Basso (Paris) | Galerie Belem/Albert Benamou, Barbara Lagié, Véronique Maxé (Paris) | Galerie Claude Bernard (Paris) | Galerie Thomas Bernard – Cortex Athletico (Paris) | Galerie Berthéas (Vichy/Saint-Étienne/Paris) | Galerie BerthetAittouarès (Paris) | Galerie Binome (Paris) | Bogéna Galerie (Saint-Paul-de-Vence) | Bosco Hong (Hong Kong) | Galerie Jean Brolly (Paris) | Galerie C (Neuchâtel) | Pierre-Yves Caër Gallery (Paris) | Galerie Capazza (Nançay) | CCK Itinérant/Institut Français d’Argentine (Buenos Aires) | Ceysson & Bénétière (New York/Luxembourg/ Paris/Saint-Étienne) | Galerie Chauvy (Paris) | Galerie Chevalier (Paris) | Christopher Cutts Gallery (Toronto) | Clémentine de la Féronnière (Paris) | Creative Growth (Oakland) | Galerie Michel Descours (Lyon) | Galerie Anne de Villepoix (Paris) | Dilecta (Paris) | Galería Marc Domènech (Barcelona) | Galerie Dominique Fiat (Paris) | Galerie Patricia Dorfmann (Paris) | Galerie Dutko (Paris) | Galerie Eric Mouchet (Paris) | Espace Meyer Zafra (Paris) | Galeria Ethra (Mexico City) | Galerie Valérie Eymeric (Lyon) | Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire (Paris) | Flatland (Amsterdam) | Francesca Antonini Arte Contemporanea (Rome) | Freijo Gallery (Madrid) | Galerie Pascal Gabert (Paris) | Galerie Claire Gastaud (Clermont-Ferrand/Paris) | Galerie Louis Gendre (Paris/ Chamalières) | Gimpel & Müller (Paris) | Galerie Michel Giraud (Paris/Luxembourg) | Galerie Philippe Gravier (Paris/Saint-Cyr-en-Arthies) | Galerie Bertrand Grimont (Paris) | H Gallery (Paris) | H.A.N. Gallery (Seoul) | Galerie Hengevoss-Dürkop (Hamburg) | Galerie Ernst Hilger (Vienna) | Huberty & Breyne Gallery (Brussels/ Paris) | Galerie Hurtebize (Cannes) | Intervalle (Paris) | Galerie Lacan (Strasbourg) | Galerie La Forest Divonne (Paris/Brussels) | Galerie Lahumière (Paris) | Galerie La Ligne (Zurich) | Galerie Arnaud Lefebvre (Paris) | Galerie Françoise Livinec (Paris/Huelgoat) | LN Edition (Paris) | Galerie Loevenbruck (Paris) | Galerie Loft (Paris) | Loo & Lou Gallery (Paris) | Galerie Daniel Maghen (Paris) | Kálmán Makláry Fine Arts (Budapest) | Galerie MAM (Douala) | Marcel Strouk – Galerie Rive Gauche (Paris) | Mark Hachem Paris Marais (Paris) | Galleria Anna Marra (Rome) | Matèria (Rome) | Maurice Verbaet Gallery (Antwerp/Knokke-Heist) | Galerie Melanie Rio Fluency (Nantes) | Weinstein Gallery/Galerie Minsky (San Francisco/Paris) | Galerie Frédéric Moisan (Paris) | Mo J Gallery (Seoul/Busan) | Galerie Lélia Mordoch (Paris/Miami) | Galerie Mottet (Chambéry) | Galerie Najuma (Fabrice Miliani) (Marseille) | Galerie Nec Nilsson et Chiglien (Paris) | Gallery Nosco (Marseille) | Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Paris/Brussels) | Galerie Oniris – Florent Paumelle (Rennes) | Galerie Paris-Beijing (Paris/Beijing/Brussels) | Galerie Françoise Paviot (Paris) | Galerie Perahia (Paris) | Galerie des Petits Carreaux (Saint-Briac-sur-Mer) | Pigment Gallery (Barcelone) | Podgorny Robinson Gallery (Saint-Paul-de-Vence) | Galerie Jérôme Poggi (Paris) | Praz-Delavallade (Paris/Los Angeles) | Galerie Rabouan Moussion (Paris) | Raibaudi Wang Gallery (Paris) | Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery (Londres) | Galerie Richard (Paris/New York) | Palmas de Gran Canaria) | Galerie Eko Sato (Paris) | Schönfeld Gallery (Brussels/Antwerp) | School Gallery/ Olivier Castaing (Paris) | Galerie Sébastien Adrien (Paris) | Galerie Samantha Sellem (Paris) | Shiras Galería (Valencia) | Galerie Slotine (Paris) | Galerie Véronique Smagghe (Paris) | Caroline Smulders (Paris) | So Art Gallery (Casablanca) | Galería Solo/Eva Albarran & Christian Bourdais (Madrid) | Michel Soskine Inc. (Madrid/ New York) | Galerie Taménaga (Paris/Tokyo/Osaka) | Templon (Paris/Brussels) | Galerie Patrice Trigano (Paris) | Galerie Univer/Colette Colla (Paris) | Un-spaced (Paris) | Galerie Vallois (Paris) | Bernard Vidal – Nathalie Bertoux – art contemporain (Paris) | Galerie Lara Vincy (Paris) | Galerie Wagner (Le Touquet ParisPlage) | Galerie Olivier Waltman (Paris/Miami/London) | Galerie Liusa Wang (Paris) | Galerie Esther Woerdehoff (Paris) | Wooson Gallery (Daegu) | Wunderkammern (Rome/Milan) | Galerie XII (Paris/Los Angeles/Shanghai) | Xin Dong Cheng Gallery (Beijing) | Galerie Younique (Lima)

List of exhibitors of 19/12/2018

J.-P. Ritsch-Fisch Galerie (Strasbourg) | Galleria Rubin (Milan) | Sage Paris (Paris) | Galería Saro León (Las


4th Grand Palais 7th April www.artparis.com 2019 A Gaze at Women Artists in France Southern Stars: An Exploration of Latin American Art


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CONTENTS Art Times February Edition 2019 10 CAPE TOWN ART FAIR IN 2019 30 DR. ESTHER MAHLANGU – “TIMELESS” 34 FEATURED ARTIST – LOYISO MKIZE 38 SAADA – WE’RE MAKING HISTORY 42 A CLEAN HEART AND A CHEERFUL SPIRIT – BY CRAIG CAMERONMACKINTOSH 52 SAYSAY.LOVE – ARTIST CHALLENGES PERCEPTIONS OF BEAUTY 56 HERMANUS FYNARTS FESTIVAL 62 BUSINESS ART NEWS 90 NEW BLOOD FOR A NEW WORLD 102 ARTGO ART GUIDE 112 GOOD READ FEBRUARY COVER ARTWORK blank projects, Billie Zangewa In My Solitude (2018), Silk collage 150cm x 111cm

Left: Frances Goodman, Pool Party, 2018, Hand-stitched Sequins on Canvas, 100 x 152 cm

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SOUTH AFRICA’S LEADING VISUAL ARTS PUBLICATION

CONTACT ART TIMES Tel: 021 424 7733 P.O. Box 428 Rondebosch 7701 EDITOR Gabriel Clark-Brown editor@arttimes.co.za ADVERTISING & MARKETING Eugene Fisher sales@arttimes.co.za SEND AD MATERIAL sales@arttimes.co.za DIGITAL MEDIA & EVENT LISTINGS Jan Croft subs@arttimes.co.za ARTGO CONTENT info@artgo.co.za

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@ARTTIMES.CO.ZA

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All works are sold, framed and shipped both locally and internationally New works available at hennieniemannjnr.com

www.hennieniemannjnr.com - art@hennieniemannjnr.com


CAPE TOWN ART FAIR IN 2019 Friday 15 to Sunday 17 February 2019 www.investeccapetownartfair.co.za

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blank projects – Billie Zangewa, In My Solitude (2018) Silk collage, 150cm x 111cm

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ore than 100 galleries and exhibitors from around Africa and the world will be taking part in the upcoming Investec Cape Town Art Fair, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from 15 to 17 February 2019. The Cape Town art scene, currently one of the fastest-growing in the world, is a compelling destination for the expected 18 000 visitors, collectors, galleries, curators, artists and art journalists from around the globe. Local and international visitors will descend on the mother city to see work that represents the forefront of contemporary art, live performances, attend talks, soak up the sun and create connections at the forefront of the contemporary art world. Now in its seventh edition, organizers of Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2019 have once again pulled out all the stops to ensure that

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visitors view the best of contemporary African, and international art and that the experience doesn’t stop at the CTICC doors. Enter ten must-see experiences centred on the artists’, galleries and exhibitions taking place at Investec Cape Town Art Fair and beyond. TALK TALK Aficionados and neophytes gather for deliberations at Investec Cape Town Art Fair where the Talks Programme turns towards the mid 21st Century, an epoch of schismatic change and undefined perspectives. The panel “Curating in the 21st Century” will feature esteemed scholars and curators from diverse localities to unpack the state of exhibition making today.

Patrick Bongoy, Killing Time (Conversations in limbo), mixed media, recycled rubber on fibreglass cast & found wooden log, 133 x 220 x 80, 2017

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Mafafo Kimathi, Voiceless VII, 2018, 53cmx40cm


Goodman Gallery – Yinka Shonibare


SMAC – Cyrus Kabiru, Mziki (music), 2018, steel and found options, 172 x 169 x 37 cm

Participants include Renaud Proch Director of Independent Curators International, New York City who will be joined by Chief curator Khwezi Gule of Jo’burg Art Gallery. This panel will anchor the series of talks touching on everything new, safe and unchartered in the art world.

TOMORROW’S TALENT TODAY TOMORROWS/TODAY is a curated crosssection of the most exciting emerging and under recognized artists from Africa and around the world selected by Investec Cape Town Art Fair curator Tumelo Mosaka.

Collecting digital arts is another topic that is growing popularity in this information age. Tegan Bristow, Head of Digital media at Wits University, will bring together a host of multimedia adventure seekers from the country’s most exciting online initiatives. Additional talks will wrestle with issues of copyright, creative hubs and, to round off, in depth conversations with renowned international artists whose work will hang at the art fair and around the city.

The local art scene is not short of rising stars, nor is it short of blazing stars. The point is how to get the one to develop into the other. “For Investec Cape Town Art Fair visitors who intend investing in the future, or invest their time in exploring the present, it’s important that the art fair sets the bar while ushering in a new crop of artists, annually,” says Mosaka. “For this reason the fair has established this major platform.”

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Michaela Younge, Nothing there is good, the wine is just flavoured water, and the Sangria had a taste of sardines, 2018, 50 x 69cm

As the title implies, the ongoing theme is one of transformation showcasing the most thought provoking voices. Mosaka will also head up a jury that will award the annual cash prize to the most promising and dynamic booth from the section.

Armand Boua (Ivory Coast) of LKB/Gallery in Hamburg, Germany, Ihosvanny (Angola) of MOVART in Luanda, Angola, Michael Cook (Australia) of THIS IS NO FANTASY in Melbourne, Australia.

Confirmed artists include Zyma Amien (South Africa) of Art First in London, United Kingdom, Medina Dugger (US/Nigeria) of Art Twenty One in Lagos, Nigeria, John Metelerkamp (South Africa) of Candice Berman Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa, Troy Makaza (Zimbabwe) of First Floor Gallery in Harare, Zimbabwe, Chris Soal (South Africa) of Guns & Rain in Johannesburg, South Africa, AimĂŠ Mpane (Democratic Republic of Congo) of NOMAD GALLERY in Brussels, Belgium,

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS The 2019 incarnation of the ongoing SOLO section of Investec Cape Town Art Fair will explore the effects of the digital world on our lived realities. As its name suggests, the extensive exhibition will include solo presentations. But this year it is the mediums that will bear the message as artworks reflective of new and traditional skill sets that will hold a deep conversation with one another.


So get into the unstable relationship between the physical and digital space, the real and hyperreal. By progressing to new traditions it is hoped that emerging practitioners and collectors will begin to think more analytically about how the digital world impacts art. Digital practices may be a powerful force in our everyday lives, yet in our context there has not been enough opportunity in the visual arts allowing practitioners from different strata to exhibit alongside one another. And here it is. Confirmed artists include Kyu Sang Lee (South Korea) of Eclectica Contemporary in Cape Town, South Africa; Ibrahim Mahama (Ghana) of APalazzo Gallery in Brescia, Italy; Sitaara Stodel (South Africa) of Smith Studio in Cape Town, South Africa; Tabita Rezaire (French Guyana/Denmark) of Goodman Gallery in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa; Jake Singer (South Africa) of Matter Gallery in Toronto, Canada. The list displays an eclectic mix of exceptional talents whom, besides being young and audacious, also explore a new aesthetic of commodity and the personal in a globalised world. AFRIKA RISING South Africa’s ebullient gallery circuit is fully represented at Investec Cape Town Art Fair, meaning that a swing down the art fair isles will give visitors a full picture of contemporary South African art. But the range of vision of anyone hoping to critically evaluate, or buy a stake in, a particular artist’s career needs to include an awareness of creation beyond the borders of home. At the upcoming fair galleries of the continent will integrate into the mainstream of South African consciousness, and the abundance of galleries from African centres attests to the desire for dialogue and stimulus on the African art scene. Or perhaps all they want is just to be in Cape Town when the whole art world will be playing together, there, in February.

SMAC Gallery, Kate Gottgens, The Big Rip, 2018, oil on canvas, 150 x 150 cm

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Salon91, Heidi Fourie, As it has been dreamed, 2019 oil on board, 1370 x 910 mm

Either way, the African galleries represented at Investec Cape Town Art Fair include Afriart Gallery of Kampala, Nairobi’s Circle Art Gallery, Espaco Luanda Arte, First Floor Gallery of Harare, Louis Simone Guirandou Gallery of Abidjan, Omenka Gallery of Lagos and This is not a White Cube also from Luanda. These, as well as galleries from Western Centres specializing in African contemporary art, will no doubt pay homage to, and benefit from, the current zeitgeist. WITNESS THE WORLD STAGE While on the world stage, the practitioners of contemporary African art have proved that endurance is a necessary aspect to the mix; and it impacts positively on the form the artwork will take on completion. This year saw William Kentridge celebrated at the Tate Modern for his production The Head & the Load; and Kemang wa Lehulere was celebrated for his first solo exhibition at the Marian Goodman Gallery in London.

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Nil Gallery, Jesus Curia_2

While a select few South Africans arrive in the international spotlight, the race is on to integrate the local scene into the international scene, and vice versa. The international scene can also make an impact on the local art scene by showing itself at prestigious events like Investec Cape Town Art Fair. The list of top international galleries represented at Investec Cape Town Art Fair is looooooooong, proving that the southern tip of Africa is not at the tail end of the wider world’s collective consciousness. Check them out: they come from Melbourne, Paris, London, Rome, Milan, Brussels, Hamburg, Dubai, and the list goes on. TAKE TO THE STREET ART WEEK CAPE TOWN needs no introduction to local denizens of the art world. Now in its seventh year, it is aimed at strengthening and increasing access to Cape Town city’s contemporary art sector. What began in 2012 as a small project driven by the simple idea

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CIRCLE ART – Dickens Otieno, Conjoined with Emerging Reds, 2018, Aluminium on wire mesh, 152 x 246 cm (approx.)

of highlighting local contemporary art the project has grown into an important annual festival, shining a spotlight on wider Cape Town contemporary arts practitioners. The ART WEEK project pulls together galleries, public institutions, curators and artists for one week of open access events and activations. With Investec Cape Town Art Fair acting as the anchor event for the ART WEEK CAPE TOWN programme, local practitioners are afforded the opportunity to take advantage of the large national and international audiences that the Investec Cape Town Art Fair attracts to the city. LARGER THAN LIFE Last year, artists Lungiswa Gqunta, Turiya Magadlela and Sethembile Msezane were commissioned to present installations about the everyday lives of ordinary women, elevating somewhat mundane objects to tools of disruption. This ushered in a new perspective on the Unframed section of Investec Cape Town Art Fair in which the fair itself would

function as a platform for the commissioning of new work, thereby creating impact beyond the confines of the art fair. The Unframed section of the fair is a welcome activation in which highly regarded rising stars are able to commune with their public and allows visitors to experience installation outside of the gallery booth context. CULTURALLY SPEAKING By taking cognizance of the broader context of the fair, Investec Cape Town Art Fair welcomes participation from initiatives that, out of necessity, play a leading role in fomenting change on the subcontinent. The Cultural Platforms section Investec Cape Town Art Fair is dedicated to non-profit art institutions working both locally and in Africa. It aims to highlight the networks and methods of working outside the market. Collectives and arts organizations such as Village Unhu from Zimbabwe and the ZOMA Museum from Ethiopia have in the past, been represented.


Montoro12 – Rashwan Abdelbaki, Love, acrylic on canvas, 140 x 150

As initiatives that integrate the arts, they make a vital contribution to repositioning ideas of change on the continent. SOLO takes new media to new terrain In order to elevate art practices above the expectations of visitors and collectors, this year’s SOLO platform has taken a turn to the left-field. By incorporating new media into its major platform, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair is confirming its commitment to an emerging generation of artists using resources beyond the mediums of the past. As part of its mission, in its sixth edition, the art fair launched its ground breaking, inaugural SOLO exhibition to fully explore the artistic practices of emerging and established artists through curated solo presentations.

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Extending the framework: Talking about making and collecting at Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2019 Art professionals and enthusiasts will gather for stimulating discussions at the upcoming Investec Cape Town Art Fair, from 15 to 17 February 2019. The Investec Cape Town Art Fair Talks Programme brings leading art advisors, curators, collectors, critics and artists into dialogue, giving all Fair ticket-holders access to their expertise. For this edition of the Fair, the programme will cover a number of topics which are of great relevance in understanding the current state of the global and regional contemporary art world. The Talks Programme will take place at Westin Grand Hotel, directly adjacent to the Investec Cape Town Art Fair venue at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

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Erg Circa – Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, Tears of Africa II (diptych), mixed media on canvas, 230 X 299 cm. Image courtesy of Michael Hall

According to Investec Cape Town Art Fair Curator Tumelo Mosaka, discussions between featured artists and galleries will introduce ideas related to building value through art as well as understanding the curatorial role within the cultural field. The mix will balance artistic and academic perspectives along with those from commercial and noncommercial institutions supportive of emerging artists. Panels will feature esteemed academics and curators from diverse localities to unpack various topics including: THE ART OF COLLECTING Friday 15 February: 12h00-13h00 The Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2019 will again provide a safe space for daring collectors to venture into new territories. In The Art of Collecting, moderator Lungi Morrison, art

advisor to ACCRA, will focus on corporate acquisition and private enrichment. Atose Aguele CEO of Avedia Energy in Nigeria and South Africa will be joined here by Tokini Peterside, founder of ArtX Lagos Fair, local art advisor Mica Steirn, and Italy’s art critic and curator Ludovico Pratesi. CURATING IN THE 21st CENTURY Friday 15 February: 14h00-15h00 The panel Curating in the 21st Century will be a meeting point for leading lights of the southern and northern hemispheres. Moderator Renaud Proch, Director Independent Curators International of New York City, and in discussion will be chief curator of Johannesburg Art gallery Khwezi Gule, Head of Content and Curation GSM Projects Dubai, Claudio Cravero and South African independent curator Melissa Goba.


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Stevenson – Zanele Muholi

This panel will be the centrepiece of a series of talks about everything new, scary, or safe in the rapidly evolving art world. CREATIVE HUBS Saturday 16 February: 12h00-13h00 The session titled Creative Hubs moderated by Cape Town-based independent curator Zayd Minty will engage with the difficult question of public space in cities of uneven development and consumption. Lessons learned will be shared by Vilma Jurkute Director of Dubai’s Alserkal Avenue art district, Johannesburg art consultant Stephen Hobbs as well as property developer Brian Green of Victoria Yards in Johannesburg. ART IN THE DIGITAL AGE Saturday 16 February: 16h00-17h00 Producing art in the digital age is the upcoming big theme with the Investec Cape Town Art Fair SOLO platform dedicated to new technologies and new consumption models. Moderator Tegan Bristow, Head of Digital media at Wits University in Johannesburg will bring together a host of multimedia adventure seekers from the country’s most exciting online initiatives.

99 Loop Gallery - Fanie Buys, Krasnodar, 1971 (the ghost of small town retail haunts me always)


SMITH – Banele Khoza, They think I’m sad, 2018

Joining them will be Artsy’s Melanie Edmunds from Los Angeles, Johannesburg TMRW Gallery Director Ann Roberts and Independent journalist, Riccarda Mandrini from Milan. VALUE BEYOND THE CANVAS Sunday 17 February: 14h00-15h00 The rights of artists will be debated in the session Value Beyond the Canvas hosted by the Johannesburg-based Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organization (DALRO). Moderator Milisuthando Bongela, Arts Editor of South Africa’s weekly title the Mail & Guardian, will be joined by Johannesburg consultant Makgati Molebatsi of MAK’Dct Art Advisory & Agency, Cape Town cultural curator Rashid Lombard, South African artist Blessing Ngobeni and Elroy Bell (Theatricals, Visual Arts and General Licensing at DALRO. Keep talking … Furthermore, talks will also wrestle with issues of representation, form and function. Catch curators Azu Nwagbogu and Thembinkosi Goniwe in conversation with artists whose work will hang on the walls of the art fair. Among them will be famous names like legendary South African artist David Koloane and Ghana’s Ibrahim Mahama whose artworks examine the

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Guns & Rain – Nelly Guambe, Indignada II, 2018

lives of ordinary Africans, albeit from vastly different artistic perspectives. Artists in dialogue: Saturday 16 February: 14h00-15h00 Cape Town-based Zeitz MOCAA Chief Curator Azu Nwagbogu in conversation with artists Ibrahim Mahama (Ghana) and Xavier Veilhan (France) about art practice, politics and audience. Artists in dialogue: Sunday 17 February: 16h00-17h00 Johannesburg curator and writer Thembinkosi Goniwe in conversation with Koloane about his work and contribution ahead of his upcoming retrospective exhibition in March 2018. The Talks Programme is included in the price of the Fair ticket. Investec Cape Town Art Fair runs from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 February 2019. For more information, visit www.investeccapetownartfair.co.za

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JHB 65207

Lead sponsor of Investec Cape Town Art Fair Cape Town International Convention Centre | 15 – 17 February 2019 | #ICTAF


A CLEAN HEART AND A CHEERFUL SPIRIT 50 years after they were taken, 25 never-before-seen Billy Monk photographs from his archive will be unveiled.


INVESTEC CAPE TOWN ART FAIR | 15 – 17 FEBRUARY 2019 CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTRE BILLY MONK COLLECTION, BOOTH P1, PAST/MODERN BILLYMONK.COM / @BILLYMONKCOLLECTION


DR. ESTHER MAHLANGU “Timeless�

Celebrating a Life of Art & Commitment to Ndebele Culture that Defies Chronology

Curated by Beathur Mgoza Baker www.themelrosegallery.com

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frica’s diverse cultural heritage and dignity is uniquely celebrated by the work and life-long commitment of artist and global Ndebele cultural icon, Dr Esther Mahlangu. In South Africa we embrace her as a national treasure, a wise elder and passionate, committed ambassador for contemporary art and culture from the continent.

The artist has been painting for over half a century and has captivated the interest and imagination of the world with her talent for reimagining isiNdebele cultural expression, and her beautiful understanding of how art is central to not only our cultural identity but also our humanity. Not only does she still paint and travel, she also teaches at and runs the art school she founded for young people in her region.

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“I have always had the calling to paint, to make art, and to spread the science and significance of Ndebele painting. It is why we paint. You cannot separate art from the language, culture and the people, because that is where it came from. When I am painting my heart is very wide, it reaches out to everything and everyone”. – Esther Mahlangu New Works, Creative Partnership & a Life Celebrated through Art Even at the age of eighty three the iconic contemporary artist still produces work prolifically, reimagining the traditional patterns and ancient sacred geometry of the isiNdebele culture. Nothing makes the artist more happy than painting and continually evolving her practice – that and being able to share her culture with the world. Dr. Esther Mahlangu’s access to global platforms over decades has impacted on the artist positively, and so too her clear understanding of Africa and its place in the international art world. Cape Town and The One&Only In February Dr. Mahlangu will be visiting Cape Town for a series of events celebrating her life and work. She is currently producing new work and will unveil six new paintings she has created for the One&Only Resort to commemorate the official opening of the Melrose Gallery, Cape Town. The unveiling of these distinct new pieces of work by the artist during her visit is the highlight of the official opening event of the

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new gallery. The Melrose Gallery has entered into a partnership with the One&Only Cape Town and the artist’s works will be unveiled and proudly displayed in the main foyer as a symbol of national pride and heritage. The gallery has a long association with Dr. Esther Mahlangu through its representation of her work and enabling her to engage platforms via her art and cultural activism around the world. The Cape Town International Art Fair The artist will also be present for the opening of her solo exhibition with the Melrose Gallery at the Investec Cape Town International Art Fair, CTAF 2019 from 15-17th February. The Melrose Gallery, Dr. Esther Mahlangu’s gallerist, is proud to be showing her new body of work at CTAF. ‘Timeless’ A captivating group exhibition of established and emerging Pan-African Contemporary artists runs from 13 Feb to 30 April 2019 at The Melrose Gallery at the One&Only at the V&A Waterfront as part of the CTIAF VIP programme. Participating artists consist of Esther Mahlangu, Willie Bester, Paul Blomkamp, Christiaan Diedericks, Aza Masongi, Clint Strydom, Restone Maambo, Ronald Muchatuta and Ndabuko Ntuli. See www.themelrosegallery.com or contact craig@themelrosegallery.com for more information

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS !!! Fundamentalist Rationalism Print Competition Submit 1 - 4 images of artworks & 500 word rationale to eclecticaprintcompetition@gmail.com For more details please visit e c l e c t i c a p r i n t a r t g a l l e r y. c o . z a / e x h i b i t i o n s

Winner will receive R 15 000 CASH PRIZE !!! Entry closes 30 April 2019 + 2 7 2 1 4 2 2 41 8 5 - 6 9 B u r g S t r e e t , C a p e T o w n w w w. e c l e c t i c a p r i n t g a l l e r y. c o . z a - a d m i n @ e c l e c t i c a p r i n t g a l l e r y. c o . z a


Featured Artist

LOYISO MKIZE - #EXDS

(Eclectica Contemporary - February 2019) eclecticaontemporary.co.za

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hose who have met Loyiso describe him as charismatic, intelligent and enigmatic. I have had the opportunity to interview him, just before his second solo exhibition at Eclectica Contemporary, with the hope of discovering what makes him one of the most loved South African artists and illustrators – and to glimpse at what drives his inspiration and creative output given his blatant talent. Loyiso’s current exhibition at Eclectica Contemporary has come at a time in the artist’s life when his own mortality has been mirrored and etched by very close personal experiences. This has automatically created a deep impulse to reflect philosophically and spiritually on the nature of reality, and more profoundly, his flux between emotional challenges and his attempt at rationalizing what it may mean. Within Loyiso’s work, there are always layers of interpretation and references, drawing lines between contexts and subjects. This exhibition shows that the artist is not just thinking in binaries or compartmentalized identities, rather he speaks of a “universal exodus”. A process of release, of breathing out and opening. #EXDS serves as a platform where he moves beyond templates and attempts to unravel and unveil reality, to pierce his and our notions of what we perceive as real. Shamiela Tyer in conversation with Loyiso Mkize ST: You are one of our most popular artists, who constantly finds ways to innovate and make waves. Can you tell us a bit about yourself? LM: I first fell in love with comic books and then much later painting. Ironically I find my comic book career colliding with my fine art career. The two have coexisted fairly well throughout the years, perhaps now it’s time to fuse them into a single voice.

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ST: Do you see art as a kind of visual vocabulary? Does it serve a greater purpose than being something that goes on a wall? LM: I’d go even beyond visual vocabulary and describe art as proof that we were here. On the surface it’s advertising for the great human truths, but when looking closer at it, I believe art helps us transcend our senses into a glimpse of the soul and if we are lucky, even God. ST: Why is portraiture such a prominent subject throughout your work? LM: I’m still quite impressed by people. We have a lot more to celebrate than hate about ourselves. Also the human story is the only story we really have, and what an epic story that is. Truly understanding who and what we are still remains the axiomatic preoccupation of us all. Given the times, I hope my portraits serve a higher purpose of real virtues like Beauty, Strength, Truth and Wisdom. The future is still going to need a human face. ST: Has your background in graphic novels contributed to how you approach painting? LM: Absolutely. I’ve always looked at painting on canvas a bit like how one looks at a comic book frame. Every comic book page is made up of a series of frames each portraying the story as it flows. In between these frames is white empty space. This is the space where the

reader has to participate imagining any action in the story that connects the joining frames. I find a greater engagement is experienced when one looks at a painting on a wall with the same guiding principal. Each painting becomes part of a greater story. and beyond the edges of those canvases, in that white negative space, we imagine entire worlds. ST: How do you reconcile your portraiture with your use of the “mask” as an artistic device? LM: My portraiture celebrates the Ego and the mask creates an awareness of this Ego. I’ve decided to use the mask not to hide my identity but to symbolize it. As with the superheroes which form the backbone of my work, my masked alter ego is a character. I’m fascinated by the nobility of letting one’s actions, and by extension one’s art, speak for itself rather than accepting the trappings of narcissism by overexposure of the self and therefore the ego. The world thrives on this via social media, television and books. The partial omission of the face emphasizes the move away from surface value identification towards the true representation of who we are. ST: What will you be exhibiting at Eclectica Contemporary? LM: I’ll be exhibiting both my Ego and my desire to overcome it.

Loyiso will also be creating a mural at the Zeitz during January 2019. His previous work has amassed a great following and together with this show, he is fast developing into an exceptional South African artist.

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SAADA – WE’RE MAKING HISTORY Friday 15 to Sunday 17 February 2019 www.saada.co.za

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his February sees the return of the South African Antique, Art & Design Fair at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. Housed in the “Avenue” Conference and Event Venue, 40 Dock Road – adjacent to the One&Only Hotel, and with picturesque interior windows into the Aquarium tanks – a selection of the top dealers from across South Africa will each be displaying a curated collection of their choice items for the public to view, and perhaps purchase should they wish to. What makes this event different, is that it includes not only contemporary artworks – sculptures from Lydia da Silva’s Palette Fine Art Gallery will feature prominently – but so much more. Says Paul Mrkusic, SAADA CEO and owner of Johannesburg based Bancroft Antiques, an online merchant of fine vintage jewellery, “each exhibitor sees this as the one chance in the year to combine their specific field of specialisation into something that becomes, collectively, truly remarkable in Cape Town. They are each the best in their class, valuing quality over quantity, and many of the items for sale will be unveiled to the public for the first time at this event”. This event will give a radical overall to the word “antique”. There is a strong change in favour towards anything “authentic” and “crafted” in today’s youth culture, and this can be seen in anything from a 19th Century Biedermeier escritoire, to one of Marcel Breuer’s chrome and leather Wassily Chairs, whose Modernist roots now lie surprisingly but firmly in antiquity. “Embracing the full spectrum of the world of antiques – from the finest 18th century Cape furniture from Riaan Bolt Antiques, to the 20th Century Design icons on display at Jeremy Stephen Antiques, and items of all description – this boutique-style event is accessible to people of all ages and every walk of life”, explains Paul. “Since each exhibitor is also the owner of their business, and is passionate

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about their particular field, this allows every visitor the opportunity to fully engage in the items on display. There will be literally thousands of pieces to view, and each one has a tale of its own – the pioneering design for the time in which it was made, the new materials used, the people who owned and treasured the piece over time… it all adds up to an incredible and fascinating story, the story of history”. This interest has led to the introduction of two new “walk-about” guided tours at this year’s Cape fair, already hugely popular at SAADA’s annual Johannesburg fairs. At 11am on Friday the 15th of February, and again at 2pm on Saturday the 16th, Paul will be giving visitors to fair an informal introduction to a handful of the expert exhibitors assembled, who will then each discuss an item of particular interest on their stands. Fun, interactive, and never stuffy, this is not to be missed. So, who can one expect to meet at this affair, and what will one see? Apart from the aforementioned dealers, visitors to the SAADA Antique, Art & Design Fair will see a collection of Cape furniture, Cape copper, Boer War memorabilia, Linn Ware and Kalahari ceramics, Murano Glass, and mid-20th century Danish furniture from Piér and Jo-Marie’s Stellenbosch business, Piér Rabe Antiques. Founded in 1967, City Coins – another exhibitor – has been operating from Cape Town, South Africa for almost 50 years. During this period, City Coins and Natalie Jaffe have established an international reputation in the numismatic trade. While many women work in the numismatic industry, Natalie is the only woman in the world to own and run a ground floor business dealing in all aspects of numismatics. SAADA will also proudly be hosting internationally award-winning exhibitor, Jeremy Astfalck of The Old Corkscrew from Franschhoek. Jeremy is a silversmith with years of experience in the repair and restoration of fine silver.

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He is also one of South Africa’s leading silver dealers and specializes in the more unusual aspects of silver collecting. Silver by the top masters and items of a unique nature are a specialty. Heleen Bossi, collector and owner of Paisleys Antique Jewellery, will be displaying her carefully curated selection of treasures from around the world. Also on display will be collector’s delights Andre Nel of Cowboys and Angels, Andrew and Desiree Ward-Smith of Billymoon Antiques, and Vivien Hilton of Moonstruck Experience,

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who each specialize in quirky items from across the ages. This, and so much more, is what can be expected at this year’s SAADA Antique, Art & Design Cape Town Fair, at the “Avenue” in the V&A Waterfront from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 February, 10am to 6pm daily. Tickets are R60 at the door – for more information visit www.saada.co.za or call 011 880 0815.

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ART EXHIBITION BY THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND ACTIVIST

SKIN DEEP 11 FEBRUARY - 9 MARCH 2019

111 LOOP STREET, CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA


A CLEAN HEART AND A CHEERFUL SPIRIT By Craig Cameron-Mackintosh

www.billymonk.com

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he foreshore of Cape Town, now a smart business precinct with glassclad buildings and coffee shops, was a much seedier address in the 1960s. Sailors and prostitutes mingled in what essentially was the city’s red light district. It was here where Billy Monk worked as a bouncer at dockside nightclubs like the Catacombs. As the name suggests, the club was underground, dark and dingy with black, scuffed walls. Sequestered from the apartheid-lead world above ground, the Catacombs was where the Immorality Act was defied and revellers from all subcultures partied; high society debutantes, prostitutes, transgenders, crooks, sugar daddies, mixed-race couples and Japanese sailors.

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Monk bought a 35 mm Pentax camera from one of those sailors and began snapping candid portraits of the club patrons. He was a better photographer than bouncer and began earning money on the side by selling the photos to his subjects, who after seeing him weekend after weekend, became his friends (and in some cases, lovers). Maybe this is the reason he managed to capture images of such freedom and lack of inhibition. A decade later, with his Pentax long since packed away, his archive of photographs was rediscovered in his old studio by Jac de Villiers. He was immediately drawn to the images and with Monk’s permission, curated a critically acclaimed exhibition held at the Market Gallery in Johannesburg in 1982. Billy Monk never got to see this exhibition. On a pit-stop en route to Johannesburg from Port Nolloth (where he was diving for diamonds at the time), he was involved in an argument and was shot dead. His work lives on though, and continues to enthral and offer a rarely-seen documentary of the underbelly of Cape Town in the 1960s.

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An honest and compassionate portrayal of life through his viewfinder, beyond the protests and struggle for liberation and the imagery we usually see from this period. His photographs have permanent homes in the South African National Gallery and the San Francisco MOMA and now, exactly fifty years since they were taken, a new selection will be unveiled at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair. A Clean Heart and a Cheerful Spirit – a nod to the tongue-in-cheek interpretation of Psalm 51’s Redemptive Prayer, painted across the walls of the grubby club – provides a fitting title to this showcase of 25 never-before-seen images. Billy Monk’s photographs evocatively capture an era. They depict not only the hems and waistlines and the beehives and coifs, but the decadence of a cross-section of society in apartheid South Africa comprising world-weary people who just wanted a place to escape – to drink and dance on tables and pass out. www.billymonk.com

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Unearth the wilderness within.


@ i nve stecc a p etown a r t fa i r

@ I C TA r t Fair

@ I C TA r t Fair


15 - 1 7 F E B 201 9

# I C TA F

CTICC CONT E M PL ATING CO NTE MPORARY ART FR O M AFR ICA AN D THE WORLD

InvestecCapeTownArtFair.co.za


SAYSAY.LOVE Artist challenges perceptions of Beauty ‘Skin Deep’ – Exhibition featuring Say Say.Love & Aniek Nieuwenhuis Gallery One11, 111 Loop Street, Cape Town: February 11th – March 9th

Image of SaySay.Love

Image of Aniek Nieuwenhuisen

he visionary German artist and social activist SaySay.Love once again poses the question, “What is beautiful?” in his upcoming exhibition entitled ‘Skin Deep’ showing from the 11th of February to the 9th of March at Gallery One11, 111 Loop Street, Cape Town.

with things as the artist is exploring the darker side to identity. In that body of work, he uses photographs of mannequins as symbolism of the world we currently live in, emphasising a disconnection from reality.

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The project is an exploration of the uncanny valley separating the visceral experience and the unbridled expression of our innermost fears and desires. Using an AI-assisted painterly approach in combination with digital photography the artist shines light upon the archetypal twins of the psyche, dancing on the edge of the raging chaos while moving gently to the tune of the tamed and civilized mind. Each canvas shatters a dark mirror of restraint and breaks the window wide open into the wilderness of each subject’s soul, bringing it out to the shadow and onto the surface – a selfportrait of the unconscious. ‘Skin Deep’ is a departure from his previous body of work titled Intimate Loneliness: Sex

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The new work aims at stripping yet another layer, to the core which is our distorted image of ourselves. “Looking at these pictures for a moment, they take me on a journey into the deepest darkest parts of my psyche. The place where all the pain, anguish and dark thoughts, has at some point resided, the childhood bullies, the manipulators, the abusers, the people who willfully harmed for their own gain, my own dark desires, which at times are more fearful than living perpetrators. My voice roars, standing tall, upright and strong... As my roar ends, my eyes find the woman, light, pure, full of love and I’m reminded as always, that no matter how far I travel down into the madness, that there is always a chink in the darkness where life shines in; and I know with every fiber of my being, that love always wins, me a human filled with unfathomable love. Equilibrium is restored” – SaySay.Love

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representation in her photographic practice as a therapeutic way of processing childhood trauma. Her work mainly focuses on the psychological challenges that come with being physically different, and she does this through reflecting on her personal experience as a burn survivor. Over the course of her studies she was awarded the Cecil Skotnes Scholarship Prize for her exhibition Through Fire, From Ashes in 2017, as well as the Katrine Harries Print Cabinet Purchase Award and the Simon Gerson Prize for her graduate exhibition The Stories On My Skin in 2018. SaySay has been supporting the MAD Leadership Foundation since 2017 and continues to pledge his support to this worthy cause. Proceeds of the sale of his work at One11 Gallery will go towards the MAD Leadership Foundation.

South African artist Aniek Nieuwenhuis will be exhibiting some of her related work as part of this exciting exhibition. Say Say.Love says that he chose to collaborate with Nieuwenhuis because there is a special synergy between the work that they will be showcasing together. “The images that I have created for this project comes from a raw place. ‘Skin Deep’ digs into psychosomatic and fleshy layers of fear and pain. Aniek`s ability in expressing herself through deep alchemical dreaming, shines through in her art. On some unplanned level, her story, is also felt through the canvas of my creation.” Aniek Nieuwenhuis was born in Pretoria in 1995 and raised in Stellenbosch. In March 2004 her family was caught in a fire accident involving a faulty gas cylinder at their holiday cabin in the Kogelberg Nature Reserve. Aniek was admitted at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital for five months with severe thirddegree burns. She had a twenty percent chance for survival. In 2007 she was awarded a full academic scholarship by the Make a Difference Leadership Foundation (MAD Leadership Foundation), which enabled her to pursue a degree in Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town in 2015. Aniek uses self-

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The MAD Leadership Foundation supports high school learners and tertiary students through their academic and personal journeys, ensuring that they have the necessary tools and opportunities to reach their full potential. They seek to engage in the lives of young people through an investment in education and leadership, as they believe that education empowers individuals to improve their socioeconomic circumstances, and therefore not only their own lives but also that of their families, their communities and South Africa. SaySay.Love is one of the contributing artists at Silapha, an art auction with a purpose, on 9 March at the Lionel Smit Studio in Somerset West. More information about the MAD Leadership Foundation: http://madleadership. org/ GalleryOne11 is situated on 111 Loop St. Cape Town and brings together artworks that elicit engagement in the community and encourages participation toward the better understanding of each other. The gallery provides an intimate space for upcoming artists to expand their repertoire and develop their audience. More information: https://www.galleryone11.com/ Web and Social media links: https://saysay.love/ https://www.facebook.com/saysayphoto/ https://www.instagram.com/saysay.love/ Twitter: @SaySay_Love_Art Media queries: Liny Kruger at LK Mediabook: liny@lkmediabook.co.za or 082 464 1926

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@christophermoller_gallery

Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2019 Cape Town International Convention Centre 15 - 17 Feb Christopher Moller Gallery 7 Kloofnek Road, Cape Town; www.christophermollerart.co.za


HERMANUS FYNARTS FESTIVAL Friday 7 June to Monday 17 June 2019 www.hermanusfynarts.co.za

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ermanus FynArts 2019 will present a full programme of artists, musicians and presenters who will entertain, inspire, delight and challenge their audiences between 7 – 17 June. As in the previous six years, the visual arts have a significant standing at the festival.

This year’s festival artist is Phillemon Hlungwani. An exhibition of his etchings, curated by Trent Read, will be presented at the FynArts Gallery. The title of his exhibition, Nwansati wa matimba a nga heli mongo (A strong woman never gives up), is seminal to understanding Phillemon as a person and as an artist. Raised in a rural African village by a mother widowed young, he grew up watching women work so that they and their families would survive. The unrelenting labour of women is a reality but to Hlungwani it is what nurtured his body and his talents, and he sees in it both love and redemption in their purest sense. His complex etchings take everyday subjects and in some of them he makes delicate use of colouring by hand, thus emphasising the femininity of his subjects. These works have been made with the assistance of master printer Pontsho Sikhosana and her team at the Artist Proof Studio. Abstrakt 2019 is the title of the Sculpture on the Cliffs exhibition, curated by Gordon Froud. The ten artists invited to take part are: Carol Kuhn, Ian Redelinghuys, Izanne Wiid, Kgaogelo Mashilo (also known as Cow Mash), Rodan Kane Hart, Sandile Rade be, Sifiso Mkhabela, Sophia van Wyk, Sybrand Wiechers and Thulani Zondo.

Diana Vandejar, Art of Thread

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Phillemon Hlungwani, Ndzhakaya mañana WuLombe. Etching edition 5 of 10. 78.5cm X 119cm

Ceramics by Hennie Mayer

The tondi art competition is another highlight of the FynArts Festival and is sponsored by Tollman Bouchard Finlayson for the sixth consecutive year. The exhibition of finalists is displayed on the heads of barrels of awardwinning Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in the unique setting in the small cellar of the Bouchard Finlayson Vineyard and Winery. The theme of the 2019 Tollman Bouchard Finlayson Art Award and the title of the exhibition of finalists is Harmony. Last year the competition theme was Vintage. Artworks in a wide variety of materials and mediums were submitted. The winning tondo, Timeless Vintage was created by Juanita Oosthuizen using mixed media on paper. Second prize was awarded to Suné Burger for Saved for a Special Occasion, using oil and

Top: Suné Burger 2nd, Saved for a special occasion Oil and texture paste Middle Left: Corina Lemmer Merit, Prayers to Heal the Land No.3: Boeta wore two-tone, Second-hand clothing, fabric and sewing Middle right: Lize Beekman Merit, Something old, something new, something blue, Ink + Pencil on paper (Hahnemuhle 60% cotton) Foreground, left, lying on barrel: Juanita Oosthuizen 1st, Timeless Vintage, Mixed media, paper

texture paste. Two merits award went to Lize Beekman for Something old, something new, something blue (ink and pencil on 60% cotton paper) and to Corina Lemmer for Prayers to Heal the Land No 3: Boeta wore two-tone (second-hand clothing, fabric and sewing). Once again the series of FynArts group exhibitions include contemporary ceramics, Colours of Clay; art of thread, Shades and Tones. In addition, galleries in town present special exhibitions as do many of the wine farms. To subscribe to the newsletter and for more information: hermanusfynarts.co.za. Ticket sales will be launched early in February.


ALICEARTGALLERY FOR THE ULTIMATE EXPERIENCE IN ART

SINCE 1990

Looking back, towards the future. Last year has been an exceptional year in the art market. Alice Art Gallery does not look at short term trends and our relationships both with artists and clients are based on long term relationships and sound investments. That being said I like to look at both auction and gallery sales at the end of each year. As with any business past trends does influence future trends. When these trends align with our long-term goals it is the start of a great period ahead. To me publications by Frank Kilbourn, Strauss & Co Chairman, are always compact, clear and insightful. Last year again, has had some new world record sales by auction houses and shown significant growth for Southern African artists. At Alice Art Gallery we have had a strong year and

seen some interesting new developments from both artists and clients. Our more traditional and impressionistic art pieces by artists such as Adriaan Boshoff, Frans Claerhout, Errol Boyle, Otto Klar and Hennie Niemann, has truly resonated with the market. We attracted the established clients with more serious and investment work, while creating an anticipation with our growing younger market. It is undeniable that our more modern but established artists has once again been well received by both our established clients and the new younger generation starting with their collections. To highlight a few artists whose work really sold well include: Grace da Costa, Michael Heyns, Wakaba Muteki, Portchie, Derric Van

www.aliceart.co.za | 54 dryf road, ruimsig, roodepoort

Rensburg and Isabel le Roux. At the same time, we cannot wait to see how the new or rather new to our gallery artists will perform this year. We had some exciting sales and met an increasingly new younger client base that are really attracted to these artists. They are impacting the gallery strongly with new influences and ideas The artists we are looking forward to catapulting this year include Phemo, Lee Templeton, Joyce Carreira and Frances Wedepohl. Alice Art gallery is turning 29 this year. We have grown the establishment one day at a time with sound business and ethical principals and as always not a day goes by without thanking God who remains in control – we operate in His grace and favour.


“If you think it, you must say it, if you said it you must do it.” - ALICE PRETORIUS

GRACE DA COSTA, BRONZE, R60,000

@AliceArtGallery | 011 958 1392 | 083 377 1470 | info@aliceart.co.za


Business Art Feature – Editor’s Choice

HOW ARE EMERGING ART DEALERS DEALING WITH THE GALLERY CRISIS? We asked a dozen of them at NADA. Sales were fast and furious on opening day of NADA Miami Beach. So why are dealers still so nervous? ARTNET NEWS Julia Halperin & Tim Schneider, December 7, 2018

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t’s undeniable that the gallery sector is a different place in December 2018 than it was in January. Throughout this year, galleries worldwide have shuttered, dealers have vocalized their mounting discontent with the hamster-wheel art-fair system, and a small number of top-tier galleries have continued to hoover up a growing number of prominent artists and estates. Art Basel Miami Beach’s heavy hitters ended the year with a largely status-quo vibe—but then they also happen to represent the extreme top end of the market. Do their emergingmarket counterparts at NADA Miami share the general sense of stability? Day one of the fair was a natural opportunity to find out. At first blush, the stresses of the so-called “gallery crisis” seemed remote during NADA Miami’s opening hours. The aisles were packed with fairgoers, and early sales came in at a fast clip for many of the 106 dealers. By the end of the day, for example, Chicago gallery Shane Campbell had sold six drawings by Elliott Hundley ($2,700 each) and a sleek blue abstract painting by Anthony Pearson ($30,000), among other works. New York dealer Rachel Uffner sold a number of charming, unvarnished ceramics by Joanne Greenbaum priced between $5,000 and $8,000, as well as several photo-on-glass works by Sara Greenberger Rafferty for $7,000 each. But after consulting with about a dozen dealers at the fair, it became clear that the veneer of positivity inside the booths came either despite, or perhaps because, the shifting sands of the industry had compelled several sellers to make major changes to their business models in the preceding 12 months.

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Those changes took a variety of forms. Yet individually and collectively, the actions speak to the fact that many smaller dealers have given up on the idea that art fairs and shortterm gallery-share initiatives like Condo would be enough to keep them ahead of the hurricane for much longer. Something bigger is afoot. And since one of the primary factors separating NADA members from their blue-chip cousins is simply the size of their prices (and associated profit margins), it’s possible that we can use NADA Miami to apply sci-fi author William Gibson’s famous adage to the gallery sector as a whole: The future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed. If so, then you can find some of the key business trends of that future below. Closing… But Persisting Asked to articulate how his business had changed in the past year, dealer Simon Preston barely missed a beat. “Well, I don’t have a space anymore,” the British-born, New York-based dealer replied. After 10 years on the Lower East Side, Preston opted not to renew his lease when it ended in May. Instead, he rented a small office and viewing room month-to-month. One factor, he says, was the precipitous drop in foot traffic to the gallery, which dovetailed with a desire to reduce overhead. “I thought, ‘This is my way to take my woes and turn them into opportunities.’” Preston has since begun to collaborate with other dealers to present shows of work by artists he represents while searching—at a less than frantic pace—for a new space. During NADA’s opening day, Preston sold two painted flat-screen television screens by Josh Tonsfeldt for $22,000 and a Matisse-inspired painting by Nick Goss for $40,000. The stigma attached to being without a space is steadily evaporating, he notes. “If I said I was

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A view inside the busy opening day of NADA Miami 2018. Photo by Tim Schneider.

closing the gallery a year ago, people would have gasped. Now, no one blinks.” Continuing Collaboration In a year characterized by a proliferation of short-term gallery-share initiatives, it is unsurprising that a growing number of dealers at NADA opted to share booths in order to maximize exposure while cutting costs. “The market has to find some ways to cooperate to survive,” says the Polish dealer Dawid Radziszewski, who participated in two Condo events and a new Warsaw-based gallery share program called Friend of a Friend this year. At NADA, Radziszewski presented witty sculptures of faces made out of shells, clams, and coral by the Polish artist Katarzyna Przezwańska ($1,700–4,000) in a booth he shared with fellow Polish dealer Wschód. A similar spirit of collaboration is behind the partnership between the New York galleries

Sargent’s Daughters and Shrine, whose shared booth at NADA was only an offshoot of their grander decision to permanently share a brick-and-mortar gallery space as of this past summer. Scott Ogden, the founder of Shrine, was looking for something bigger than his closetsize 240-square-foot space on Henry Street in New York, while Allegra LaViola of Sargent’s Daughters was considering giving up her spacious gallery on the Lower East Side. After first meeting at the opening for the Met’s “Souls Grown Deep” exhibition in May—a show that crystallized their mutual interest in works by self-taught artists—the duo decided to split the lease, renovated, and reopened as a twogallery shop in early August. At NADA, the duo is presenting a multi-artist group of work anchored by the late painter, ’60s-era East Village expat, and ahead-of-histime social-justice thinker Hak Vogrin (priced


between $4,000 and $10,000), whose estate they began working with after a family friend of the artist walked into the gallery unannounced with images of the works. A joint exhibition of paintings by Vogrin is on view at the gallery as, in Ogden’s words, “a full-building retrospective,” through January 6. For both dealers, the collaboration has felt reinvigorating. “I really wish all the headlines lately weren’t so doom and gloom. Obviously there’s pressure just like always,” LaViola says. But people are figuring things out. “Not to sound like a hippie on a commune, but a lot of it is just about being open to community”— though perhaps, she admits, in a longer-term or more full-bodied way than in years past. Moving Outside a Hub For at least one dealer, the best way to stay in the game was to move away from the action. After running an eponymous gallery in Los Angeles for four years, Tif Sigfrids decided to do something dramatic: She picked up and moved her gallery to Athens, Georgia earlier this year. She now operates a shared gallery space with close friend, artist, and Athens prodigal son Ridley Howard inside a former retail shop in the legendary music city and college town’s main district. Sigfrieds says their rent for the year is less than the cost of participating in one art fair. A less frequently-recognized bonus of the move outside a major art-market hub: Sigfrids is able to continue to work with emerging artists as they become more established and move onto larger galleries, because she is not competing with anyone for representation in the same city. At NADA, for example, she presented work by rising star and pastel painter Mimi Lauter, who recently joined Blum & Poe in Los Angeles. (The blue-chip gallery sold a massive yellow pastel painting by Lauter at Art Basel in Miami Beach for around $40,000.) “Moving the gallery to a small Southern town sounded like an absurd storyline, but I went with it anyhow,” Sigfrids says. The low overhead in Athens “makes the whole thing seem more flexible…. Having new sets of challenges and a new context for looking at art has made the whole project more interesting.” Whether her geographical transition will inspire others to abandon the coasts will be a question worth watching.

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The Instagram Takeover Several dealers said the biggest change they’ve witnessed over the past year has been the growing centrality of Instagram. Although collectors and dealers have been buying, selling, and discovering art on the platform for years, some say it has become a bigger and bigger part of their business’s identity—for better or worse. “People were saying, ‘I loved that show—that I saw on Instagram,’” recalled Simon Preston. The New York dealer Jack Hanley, who sold a number of Cubist-inspired paintings by Danielle Orchard for $8,000, among other works, said more people now pay more attention to his gallery’s Instagram than its emails or newsletters. “A year ago we didn’t pay too much attention to it,” he said. “Now we’ve found a couple artists on Instagram, and made a few sales.” Similarly, Francesco Lecchi, director of Milan gallery Clima, noted that the photosharing app has become “fundamental” to his business. By providing an unmediated, simple, and ever-present line of communication with collectors, Instagram has even allowed the gallery to propel conversations begun with wary collectors at fairs into finalized sales back inside the gallery at a later date, showing how technology may actually be best at building bridges between sales channels rather than replacing them outright. Diversifying A number of dealers are also fundamentally altering their business models in order to ensure longevity. Los Angeles gallery the Landing announced in October that it would transition from being a project space to representing artists and estates. Founder Gerard O’Brien says the main motivation for the shift was the excitement of constructing a team to help build entire careers for special talents they were lucky enough to work with (like artist to watch Yevgeniya Baras). But the dealer says he primarily sees himself as a storyteller. Growing a gallery means growing the number of stories you can tell, and in the art market, good storytelling is good business. Meanwhile, Damîen Bertelle-Rogier of the Brussels gallery Super Dakota, which

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specializes in emerging artists, opted to begin incorporating established artists and secondary market material into his program. “The emerging market has slowed down a lot compared to top tier,” Bertelle-Rogier said. The shift wasn’t easy: Bertelle-Rogier had to raise capital in order to build up secondary market inventory and hire additional staff members to maintain relationships with the gallery’s younger artists. But he is confident that hedging his bets was the right decision. At NADA, he sold a painting by the more established artist Julia Wachtel, with whom the gallery began working earlier this year. Popping Up Bertelle-Rogier isn’t the only one who is noticing a more judicious pace among emerging art collectors. “People are taking longer and being more deliberate—which is fine with me,” says Julia Fischbach of Chicago’s Patron Gallery. The gallery is re-evaluating its strategy in order to match the market’s new pace. After participating in 13 art fairs in two years, it plans to think outside the booth in 2019. In lieu of a number of fairs, Patron plans to rent out popup spaces for shows in New York and Los Angeles around three times a year. The first of these—a presentation of work by Greg Breda and Myra Greene—will take place in New York in March 2019 to coincide with the Armory Show. These projects are “a fraction of the cost of an art fair,” Fischbach says, and allow her artists to have exhibitions in hub cities without the gallery having to open new brickand-mortar spaces. (Whatever the case about a new and more deliberate pace among the gallery’s collectors, they aren’t all being that slow: By the afternoon of the VIP preview, Patron had sold multiple works by every artist it brought to NADA.) Looking Ahead Dealers are not unified in their outlook on 2019. Some are convinced the market is headed for contraction: “We’re all stuck on a train that is going really really fast and there is a wall coming at us,” says Damîen Bertelle-Rogier. Others are more sanguine. But everyone seems to be in agreement that the traditional gallery model is no longer viable.

“Generally speaking, it’s not business as usual,” noted the New York dealer James Fuentes, who sold more than 10 works by the outsider artist Purvis Young at prices ranging from $1,000 to $30,000. “What I’m fighting for is the right to have a mom-and-pop shop in New York City.” Nevertheless, he still feels more hopeful now than he did at this time last year. “Maybe,” Fuentes said, “it’s because I got through another year.”


Business Art News

STRAUSS & CO

Strauss & Co’s benchmark sale of contemporary art returns to the V&A Waterfront www.straussart.co.za

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trauss & Co is pleased to announce the second of its contemporary art sales, the only such sale in South Africa devoted exclusively to this exciting category. The announcement of this 107-lot sale, due to be held on 16 February during the run of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (15 - 17 February), coincides with news that Jack Ginsberg, noted Johannesburg collector and philanthropist, has joined the board of Strauss & Co.

Highlights from the forthcoming sale, which will once again be held at the Cape Town Cruise Terminal of the V&A Waterfront, include rare early works by Marlene Dumas and William Kentridge, among South Africa’s most celebrated artists internationally. Produced in the 1970s, Naked Man (estimate R1.5 – 2 million) is an early student work by Dumas and identifies her future trajectory as a gestural painter interested in retaining the illusion of the pictorial image. This benchmark sale also includes important recent paintings by Lisa Brice, Kate Gottgens, Georgina Gratrix and Penny Siopis, as well as photographs by David Goldblatt, Pieter Hugo, Mohau Modisakeng, Athi-Patra Ruga and Mary Sibande. Gratrix’s sumptuously painted Bride Dressed as Cake (estimate R100 000 – 150 000) typifies her energetic use of colour. Equally vibrant is Ruga’s large photograph The Knight of the Long Knives I (R250 000 – 350 000), which tells the mythical story of a ruler from a matriarchal dynasty ruling a fictional utopia. “This diverse sale of contemporary art is an important part of Strauss & Co’s commitment to exploring and expanding the market for South African art,” said Frank Kilbourn, Strauss & Co’s executive chairperson. He added that collector enthusiasm for innovative works by a younger generation of artists is growing very rapidly. Athi-Patra Ruga, The Knight of the Long Knives I R 250 000 - 350 000

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Igshaan Adams, Untitled R 80 000 - 120 000

Penny Siopis, Gravity’s Wave R 500 000 - 700 000

“We were thoroughly delighted by the fact that Strauss & Co established 19 new artists’ records at its inaugural contemporary art sale last year. These results, in the context of the rapidly maturing art eco-system, make us very confident of the longterm future and success of South African art.”

Ginsberg says: “I am delighted to be joining the Board and hope that my contribution will be useful to the continued strength and social outreach of the company. My involvement with the fine arts as a supporter and collector (and, of course, an enthusiastic bidder at auction!) over many years may allow me to add something to the expert mix.”

Kilbourn also hailed the news that Jack Ginsberg will be offering his wisdom and insight to Strauss & Co’s endeavours. “Jack is not only an innovative collector, who has bravely supported past generations of contemporary artists, but he is also a nurturing person,” said Kilbourn. “These are values we admire and promote at Strauss & Co.” Ginsberg’s support of contemporary art in South Africa is legendary. Founding patron of The Ampersand Foundation (TAF), which has run a residency programme for South African artists in New York since 1996, he is also a significant donor to the Wits Art Museum (WAM) and financial supporter of Artist’s Proof Studio, both in Johannesburg. In 2016, after a successful exhibition, Ginsberg donated his 700-piece collection of works by Walter Battiss to WAM, which now also holds his world-class collection of artists’ books in the Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts.

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A number of artists on the contemporary art sale have previously been selected to stay in New York as part of the TAF award, including Willem Boshoff, Wim Botha and Diane Victor. Botha’s bronze sculpture Prism 17 (estimate R300 000 – 500 000) is part of a series of busts sculpted from polystyrene with a chainsaw and wire cutter before casting. Similar works are featured on his midcareer survey, Heliostat: Wim Botha, currently at the Norval Foundation. One highlight from the upcoming contemporary art sale is an early charcoal drawing by William Kentridge, Preparations in the Ante-Chamber (estimate R1.5 – 2 million).

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Mary Sibande, Her Majesty, Queen Sophie R 120 000 - 160 000



Simphiwe Ndzube, Inevitable Journey to Mars I R 100 000 - 150 000

Produced in 1986, this markedly expressionist drawing, with interjections of white-gold paint and pastel, ambiguously portrays a scene of pleasure. Although largely focussed on South African artists, the sale includes a robust selection of works by established and emergent contemporary artists from Africa and beyond. Alongside lots by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and Londonbased German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans, there are pieces by two Beninese artists, Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou and Thierry Oussou, as well as Congolese painter Chéri Cherin. Tunisian painter Thameur Mejri’s Two Figures at War (estimate R180 000 – 240 000) will offer South Africans a rare insight into North African creativity. USA-based Nigerian-British artist Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze’s mixed-media drawing there is abundance (estimate R150 000 – 200 000) showcases her ability to transform a two-dimensional image into a limitless plane of possibility. Zimbabwean painter Richard Mudariki’s From Parow to Cape Town (estimate R40 000 – 60 000) is typical of his graphic figurative style. Mudariki, who last year participated in a twomonth residency at Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), is one of eight artists who have donated work to the sale in support of the Greatmore Studios Trust. David Goldblatt, David Koloane, Igshaan Adams, Simphiwe Ndzube, Kemang Wa Lehulere, Sam Nhlengethwa and

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Claudette Schreuders also donated work to support this Cape Town-based organisation which nurtures emerging artists. Adams and Wa Lehulere are both past winners of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art. Support and interest in contemporary art is growing, both among private individuals and corporate benefactors, with Cape Town emerging as the premier location to show-case this innovative category of art. “Strauss & Co is proud to endorse contemporary art as a category worthy of its own dedicated sale,” said Bina Genovese, Strauss & Co’s joint managing director, of the company’s decision to hold the sale in Cape Town. “Our strategic decision to host the auction at the same time as the Investec Cape Town Art Fair has, we believe, added another important dimension to the programming of Art Week Cape Town (6 - 17 February 2019). There is now a close alliance between the primary and secondary markets, providing momentum for expansion across both markets, which will ultimately benefit artists.” Strauss & Co’s contemporary art sale will take place on Saturday, 16 February at the Cape Town Cruise Terminal of the V&A Waterfront. The sale is supported by a dedi-cated catalogue and detailed programme of educational and social events.

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ANTIQUES • ART • DESIGN

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Fri 11am & Sat 2pm

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www.saada.co.za 011 880 0815


Business Art News

STRAUSS & CO Chairperson’s Report – Frank Kilbourn www.straussart.co.za

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am happy to report that Strauss & Co performed very well in 2018, achieving its second highest turnover ever. This satisfying result was achieved despite challenging macro-economic circumstances and increasing competition in the art auction market. Various factors contributed to this upbeat outcome.

We expanded our active buyers by more than 10% in the past year. Importantly, there was a remarkable uptick in international buyers. Strauss & Co has transacted with new clients in Lithuania, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. The company’s online sales platform also flourished in 2018, generating R18 million in sales. These are encouraging numbers indeed. The year kicked off briskly with our new contemporary art sale in February. This sale was an exciting addition to the Cape Town art calendar and coincided with the Investec Cape Town Art Fair. The 71-lot sale generated total sales of almost R14 million and established 18 new artist records. The fact that this inaugural sale was well received by the market bodes well for the future. These sales will, I believe, grow to become a significant draw for international collectors In the last two to three years, we have seen the very strong emergence of South African and African contemporary art internationally as a collectable. There are various strategic reasons why Strauss & Co is responding to this dynamic market. Whereas modern art tends to trade hands every 10 to 20 years, with top-end works only coming to market every three or four decades, contemporary art has a far shorter horizon of three to five years during which people update their collections.

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Contemporary art is also a vehicle for Strauss & Co connecting more with the African continent. In December Strauss & Co facilitated a charity sale of contemporary African art at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa. Held in partnership with Strauss & Co, the live auction featured 23 artists from 10 countries. The white-glove sale drew a packed audience and raised over R6 million from just 28 lots. Every year we host approximately ten charitable auctions. We also support various initiatives such as the Cassirer Welz Award, Stephan Welz/Strauss & Co lecture series in Hermanus and Art Month at Welgemeend. The latter collaboration aims to support the historic Cape home of Welgemeend and every year includes an exhibition. In 2018, Shifting Boundaries: A Selection of Works showcasing South African Women Artists of the Past 100 Years celebrated the great diversity and pioneering spirit of women artists in South Africa. The past year was characterised by continuous innovating in various aspects of our business. Together with a group of colleagues I travelled to Amsterdam and London to promote works on our November live auction in Johannesburg. Outreach like this is important if we are to grow awareness and interest in our South African masters, many of whom are either overlooked or forgotten internationally. In this regard, Strauss & Co was happy to lend support to our colleague Wilhelm van Rensburg, whose exhibition The Safest Place is the Knife’s Edge at the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg surveyed the career of pioneering abstract painter Christo Coetzee. Much in the way William Kentridge is internationally celebrated now, Coetzee was a

vital force in Europe and America in the 1950s. There is significantly more critical mass around the research and curatorial presentation of modern and contemporary South African art. Initiatives like Zeitz MOCAA and the Norval Foundation, as well as the soon to be opened Javett Art Centre in Pretoria, expand the options for the display and study of art. These ambitious new ventures will greatly benefit collectors by affirming careers and identifying highpoints. It was particularly gratifying to attend the 21st BASA Awards where Strauss & Co received the discretionary Chairman’s Premier Award for our various initiatives supporting the South African art community. Our outreach to improve the whole art eco-system is not a legal duty, but rather an expression of our belief in corporate citizenship and the need to build a market for tomorrow. Looking ahead, I am delighted to announce that collector and philanthropist Jack Ginsberg will join the board of Strauss & Co in 2019. His support of art in South Africa is legendary. Over and above his in-depth knowledge of the market, Jack will greatly assist Strauss & Co in our art education and philanthropic initiatives. Strauss & Co will be ten-years-old in 2019. To date we have sold nearly R2 billion worth of art. The average price for the almost 21 000 lots sold is just under R100 000 per lot. That is an incredible track record and was achieved by continuously exploring and expanding the market for art. I am confident for the long-term future and success of the South African art market, and Strauss & Co’s pivotal role in it.


JHB: 011 206 1500 | fineartjnb@stuttafordvanlines.com CPT: 021 514 8700 | fineartct@stuttafordvanlines.com www.stuttafordvanlines.com


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Business Art News

ASPIRE ART Aspire presents top-quality contemporary art line-up aspireart.net

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spire Art Auction’s next major sale takes place on March 3 at Avenue, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town. Collectors will be intrigued in particular by the spectacular line-up of contemporary art on offer. Aspire’s reputation as the leading South African auction house for top quality work in this segment is growing apace, with several world records set at its sales in the last calendar year alone, including benchmark prices for younger artists Georgina Gratrix, Zander Blom and Mohau Modisakeng. In what is something of a coup for the local auction market for contemporary art, Aspire is presenting as one of its lead lots on the sale a high-quality early painting by world-renowned South African-born, Dutch-based artist Marlene Dumas. With its atmospheric colour palette of olive greens and inky Prussian blues, Love Lost is amongst her earliest works exploring the experience of love found and lost. This transformative experience raises questions of how we relate to one another, not only sentimentally in the picture postcard renditions of Victorian England which appear on the painting in collage, but fundamentally. Here, the effects of these profound emotions are recorded in the personal experience of a young woman whose tousled hair and body are not unlike those of the young artist herself. The auction market in South Africa has not been notable for major works by Dumas, who once held the record for the highest global price fetched for a painting by a female artist. This remarkable early work redresses the balance somewhat.

Marlene Dumas, Love Lost (detail)

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William Kentridge, from the Colonial Landscape series



Stephen Conroy, Figure in doorway

Few such auction offerings in the local market are complete without an exemplary William Kentridge drawing, and Aspire is presenting a splendid example of the work of this doyen of the local scene with one of his Colonial Landscape series. This series renders implicit critiques of the struggle over the representation of territory in the colonial era. Kentridge seems to be telling us that the attempt to represent land in a particular way lies at the heart of the ideology of the colonial enterprise. Allegorical and subtle, this work is a particularly strong instance of his landscape drawing. Also on offer is a much wider range of contemporary works than usual on auction sales. There is even some international flavour in the offer of two works by highly regarded Scottish painter Stephen Conroy, associated with the so-called New Glasgow School emerging in the 1980s around the famous Glasgow College of Art. Both works on the sale are figurative, in the particular mode of Conroy’s painting that has attracted comparisons with Gilbert and George. Another South African artist with an international market comes to a South African

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auction for the first time. Critically-lauded Berlin-based Robin Rhode has a series of studies from a photographic series on sale, titled Pan’s Opticon. Of the remaining contemporary pieces on the sale, ranging from another South African artist, like Dumas, with connections to the Netherlands in Moshekwa Langa; to several pieces by esteemed local favourite Sam Nhlengethwa, attention will focus on the section of the sale devoted to photography. Aspire has seen notable success in sales of this medium in recent times, and has been responsible for developing a market for South Africa’s many highly regarded fine art photographers. Recent successes have included top prices achieved for work by David Goldblatt, Pieter Hugo and Guy Tillim, and a world record for a photographic work by Cape Town’s Athi-Patra Ruga. On this sale, apart from the aforementioned work by Robin Rhode, a range of highly collectable photography by Tillim, Hugo and Modisakeng will feature.

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5 th Avenue F ine Art Auctioneers Irma Stern, Oil ~ On Auction 17th February 2019

We are now inviting entries for this auction. Closing date 6th February 2019

www.5thaveauctions.co.za

Enquiries: stuart@5aa.co.za ~ 011 781 2040

Art, antiques, objects, furniture and jewellery wanted for forthcoming auctions

William Kentridge, linocut with hand-painted India ink wash SOLD R520,000 View previous auction results at www.rkauctioneers.co.za

011 789 7422 • 083 675 8468 • 12 Allan Road, Bordeaux, Johannesburg


Business Art News

OLD JOHANNESBURG WAREHOUSE AUCTIONEERS www.oldjwauctioneers.com

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s 2019 starts off, the excitement is palpable as to what new wonderful treasures will be seen at auction this year – Old Johannesburg Warehouse Auctioneers are hosting 12 auctions at their vintage warehouse in Selby in Johannesburg this year; one scheduled every month. ‘’At a 1500 plus lots per auction, with anything spanning from antiques, art, books, collectible cars, automobilia, silver, jewellery and watches, vintage toys, kitchenalia, retro and mid-century designer pieces, coins, ceramics, industrial items, tools, vintage bags, and more, every new-comer becomes a regular as the great selection, happy vibe, helpful staff and excitement draws you in”, says owner, Christiaan Scholtz. “Our business has grown exponentially over the last five years, with our dedicated art and jewellery sections being the fastest growing. We have sold some magnificent jewellery and time pieces from 6ct loose diamonds to scarce Breitlings and vintage Patek Philippe wristwatches and we have seen top traditional and contemporary art pieces come under the hammer by the likes of Irma Stern, J H Pierneef, William Kentridge, Gerard Sekoto, Maggie Laubser, Eleanor Esmonde-White, Sydney Khumalo, Sidney Goldblatt, Maud Sumner, Alexis Preller, Diane Victor, Deborah Bell, Robert Hodgins, Walter Battiss, and more.”

Neil Rodger (SA 1941-2013), The Blue Settee signed, oil on canvas, 120 by 120cm Provenance: Bought Everard Read early 90s Sold for R123 213

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Top: Cecil Skotnes (SA 1926-2009), Adrift, signed, painted, carved and incised wood panel, 40 by 61cm Sold for R61 606 Left: Gerard Sekoto (SA 1913-1993), Standing Female Nude, signed and dated 76, watercolour on paper, 47 by 26cm Sold for R78 408

“We have great pieces for new comers and seasoned buyers alike, and we are always on the lookout for items for our next auction – intake is open right throughout the year, and clients are welcome to bring items to us. If someone is not sure what the value of a vintage piece of jewellery, watch or fine piece of art or sculpture is and looking for an outlet to sell, we are there to assist.” For more information call 011 836 1650 or visit the website: www.oldjwauctioneers.com

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OLD JOHANNESBURG WAREHOUSE

Antiques Art & Collectables Auctioneers

Eleanore Esmonde-White Sold for R336 350

WE ARE INVITING CONSIGNMENTS FOR OUR

MONTHLY AUCTIONS 29 Village Road, Selby, Johannesburg oldjwauctioneers.com - info@oldjwauctioneers.com Tel: 011 836 1650 - Cell: 066 307 5444


Business Art News

STEPHAN WELZ & CO

Stephan Welz & Co, starting 2019 in style www.stephanwelzandco.co.za

Lot 424  Walter Whall Battiss (South African 1906 - 1982), East African Scene signed, oil on canvas, 34,5 by 50cm R 280 000 - R 380 000

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e begin the year with a strong sale in Cape Town, featuring desirable pieces of furniture, decorative arts, silverware and paintings by artists such as: Alexis Preller, Walter Battiss and J.H. Pierneef. As well as the above, the Africana library of the late diplomat and bibliophile Frikkie Botha is sure to draw interest from book lovers both locally and internationally.

Shortly after this sale a dedicated online stamp and coin auction will follow. Featured lots on this sale include a 1971 proof Krugerrand estimated at R 18 000-R 20 000, and an 1892 Swaziland stamp with an estimate of R 12 000R 15 000. Getting into the full swing of 2019 in Johannesburg we will host a premium

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auction in March, which is followed by further online art and book auctions. For the March Johannesburg auction we will be consigning from the very beginning of January right up until the 4th of February and are looking forward to having a well-rounded year filled with exciting new ventures and an eye to achieve more world records in the saleroom. One of the more exciting developments has been the advent of online auctions, something we will be actively pursuing this year. Online auctions provide the platform to offer themed sales, so watch our website and your inbox for news of our online sales in 2019, whether they be books, art, jewellery, unmounted diamonds or silver and decorative arts we hope to be able to offer enough to keep our clients bidding.

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Lot 408  Alexis Preller (South African 1911 - 1975), Constellation signed and dated ‘65, oil on canvas, 91,5 by 102,5cm R 800 000 - R 1 200 000

Lot 368  A Rosewood sideboard designed in the Late 1950S by Arne Vodder for Sibast Møbler R 45 000 - R 60 000


Lot 717 A large ceramic ‘Namaqualand’ lustre tile, Esias Bosch (1923 - 2010) R 250 000 - R 350 000

Left: Lot 254  Wanderings of a Pilgrim (Fanny Parkes) first edition, inscribed by author R 25 000 – R 30 000 Bottom left: Lot 772  A Chinese six piece silver tea service, Luen Hing, Shanghai, Circa 1900 R 20 000 - R 30 000

Should you wish to make an appointment with any one of our specialist to have your collectables valued please feel free to send us an image using our new App which is available on both Google Play Store and the Apple Store, or email us on jhb@stephanwelzandco.co.za or ct@stephanwelzandco.co.za We are looking forward to seeing you in the saleroom in 2019.

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ed to announce We are delight e Town rooms ar that our Cape t is m er the Silv now located at Constantia Nek Wine Estate in Silvermist Wine Estate Main Road | Constantia Nek welzandco.co.za 021 794 6461 or ct@stephan

TM

w w w. s t e p h a n w e l z a n d c o . c o . z a

Download t he Stephan Welz & Co. app


The SA Art Times

NEW BLOOD WANTED FOR A NEW WORLD Featured Schools Young Artists email your artwork to editor@arttimes.co.za

Rondebosch Boys High School, Patric McKeown.Grade 11

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Penryn College, Shayna McTaggart, theme illusion. 3d view of a gallery


Penryn College, Leela Stein, Paper Stein, Grade 10

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Rondebosch Boys High School, Seth Kriger, Grade 12, Oil paint on canvas

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Brescia House School, Taeya Dukes, Grade 12, The Edge of Reason

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St Peter’s College, Kaitlin Banahan, charcoal and pencil on paper

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Clifton College, Declan Miles, Grade 12, Joyland

Penryn College, Joshua Kluckow, Sculpture with theme 7 deadly sins


Smith, Once Removed, Daniel Nel solo exhibition

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EXHIBITIONS & GALLERY GUIDE: FEBRUARY 2019 • Ongoing Shows: Feb-March 2019 • Opening Exhibitions: Feb-March 2019 Tsoku Maela, Appropriate V We Won’t Move gicle+photo rag archival print, dibond mounted 153 x 106 cm, edition of 10

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ARTGO.CO.ZA

ONGOING SHOWS: FEBRUARY 2019

PALETTE FINE ART COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITION MARTIN OSNER/ TONY & LYDIA SILVA 31/01/2019

ART@39ONLONG GROUP EXHIBITION. EXQUISITE ART & CRAFT. BOUTIQUE GALLERY ON THE GARDEN ROUTE.

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UNTIL 28/02/2019

GALLERY ON 103 LAURINDA SMIT

YIULL DAMASO ARTISTS’ STUDION & GALLERY

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www.teresadecinti.com 082 4325188 teresa@teresadecinti.com 3 Eikehoff, Church St. Stellenbosch

WWW.-YIULL.COM

UNTIL 28/02/2019

UNTIL 28/02/2019

UNTIL 28/02/2019

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JESSICA MICHELLE LE ROUX CONTEMPORARY ARTIST | WWW.JMLR.CO.ZA


WWW.ARTGO.CO.ZA ONGOING SHOWS: FEBRUARY 2019

Featured Artist - Lwandiso Njara 012 4600284

THE CHRIS TUGWELL GALLERY MICHAEL COSTELLO AND OTHER WELL KNOWN SOUTH AFRICAN ARTISTS

NDIZA GALLERY - GORDON’S BAY - HARBOUR ISLAND THE SPICE OF LIFE A VARIETY OF ARTISTS

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UNTIL 31/12/2019

Featured Artist - Lwandiso Njara 012 4600284 wwww.stlorient.co.za/the-viewing-room

UNTIL 01/03/2019

ART@AFRICA SECRET LIFE OF CATS AND WOMAN 07/02/2019 WWW.ARTATAFRICA.ART

UNTIL 05/03/2019

THE WHITE HOUSE GALLERY JIM DINE 13/02/2019

IS ART MEDULLA BY KOBUS LA GRANGE 021 876 2071

WWW.WHG.CO.ZA

UNTIL 13/03/2019 106

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UNTIL 10/02/2019



WWW.ARTGO.CO.ZA ONGOING SHOWS: FEBRUARY-MARCH 2019

ART IN THE YARD PAINTINGS OF PAINTERS, SOLO EXHIBITION BY FRANS SMIT

GALLERY AT GLEN CARLOU LINES OF DE-LIMITATION BY ZYMA AMIEN & INGRID BOLTON

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UNTIL 18/02/2019

UNTIL 21/02/2019

UNTIL 24/02/2019

ART@AFRICA POST PARIS 06/03/2019

ART@AFRICA POETRY IN MOTION

WWW.ARTATAFRICA.ART

WWW.ARTATAFRICA.ART

UNTIL 30/04/2019

UNTIL 06/12/2019

AFRICAN TWILIGHT 01.11.18–28.02.19

15/16 Feb 2019 – Artist walkabouts & other special events. Please visit www.thkgallery.com for more info.

UNTIL 28/02/2019

www.framingplace.co.za

LANGKLOOF GALLERY AND SCULPTURE GARDEN SHEENA RIDLEY, STUDIO AND PERMANENT EXHIBITION WWW.RIDLEY.CO.ZA

UNTIL 31/12/2019 108

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Framing Place Conservation framing, framing of art, Block mounting and Block frames. Observatory, www.framingplace.co.za


RODRIGO PETRELLA

T 011 559 2556/2099

GALLERY HOURS M O N D AY – F R I D AY 09:00 – 16:00 CLOSED ON WEEKENDS + P U B L I C H O L I D AY S

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WWW.ARTGO.CO.ZA

OPENING EXHIBITIONS FEBRUARY 2019

Tsoku Maela, Appropriate IV The Last Stand gicle+ photo rag archival print, dibond mounted 153 x 106 cm, edition of 10

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WWW.ARTGO.CO.ZA OPENING EXHIBITIONS: FEBRUARY-MARCH 2019

RUST EN VREDE GALLERY “INTER-APOCALYPTIC BLISS” 05/02/2019 UNTIL 06/03/2019

Eclectica Collection “WORKS BY AIMEE LINDEQUE” 07/02/2019

SMITH ONCE REMOVED – DANIEL NEL SOLO EXHIBITION REMNANT – CLAIRE JOHNSON SOLO EXHIBITION

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05/02/2019 UNTIL 06/03/2019 WEEK 1 FEBRUARY

OPENS 07/02/2019 WEEK 1 FEBRUARY

09/02/2019 UNTIL 09/03/2019 WEEK 1 FEBRUARY

RK CONTEMPORARY OUTSIDE - GROUP SHOW 10/02/2019 UNTIL 27/02/2019

GALLERYONE 11 “SKIN DEEP” SAYSAY.LOVE SOLO EXHIBITION 11/02/2019 UNTIL 09/03/2019

CHRISTOPHER MOLLER ART GALLERY ICTAF 15/02/2019 UNTIL17/02/2019

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10/02/2019 UNTIL 27/02/2019 WEEK 2 FEBRUARY

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15/02/2019 UNTIL17/02/2019 WEEK 2 FEBRUARY

SALON91 IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS A SOLO EXHIBITION BY AMBER MOIR 27/02/2019 UNTIL 30/03/2019

SA PRINT GALLERY SELECTION OF FINE ART QUALITY PRINTS

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27/02/2019 UNTIL 30/03/2019 WEEK 4 FEBRUARY


Obituary

SISTER WENDY BECKETT

Nun and art critic who found fame in the 1990s with her popular TV programmes Peter Stanford Published in The Guardian (UK) 26 December 2018

www.theguardian.com

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ister Wendy Beckett during her visit to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham in 2004.

Sister Wendy Beckett during her visit to the Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham in 2004. Photograph: John James/Mirrorpix Sister Wendy Beckett, who has died aged 88, could be dismissive of the high-profile television work that made this hermit nun with owl-like glasses into an unlikely household name during the 1990s. “If I had known how much time it would take, I would never have started it.” But those who made series such as Sister Wendy’s Odyssey (1992) and Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting (1996) recall that, at the time, she seemed to be enjoying herself on and off camera. There was always something contradictory about a nun, who had devoted her life to solitude and contemplation (since 1970 in a caravan in the grounds of the enclosed Carmelite monastery at Quidenham in Norfolk), but who also managed to slip away from the cloister to make large-scale TV series on (in the eyes of the world, if not Sister Wendy herself) non-religious subjects. Yet, while the contradiction could irritate some devout Catholics – she was giving, they said, a misleading impression of religious life – it was, for most, a key part of her appeal and brought her programmes large audiences.

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Sister Wendy, a clever and perceptive woman, was herself aware of the contradiction and struggled to square the circle, some times more successfully than others. When asked once what the other Quidenham nuns thought about her going round the world with a camera crew, she replied, “they feel sorry for me”. She also suggested that she only said yes to the BBC because she felt the need to make a small financial contribution to the monastery for her keep and had been forced by ill health to give up her work as a translator of medieval Latin manuscripts in the late 70s.

ability to bridge the gulf between fine art and a popular audience. Her insights into the artists she encountered on screen struck a chord with many who had previously lacked the vocabulary and the confidence to feel at home in art galleries.

In moments of candour, though, she would admit that she liked to share knowledge – she had originally joined a teaching order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, in 1947, but had to give up the classroom after having epileptic seizures brought on by stress. And certainly those who accompanied her on the road enjoyed the more down-to-earth side she would display, enjoying a glass or two of wine (in preference to tea or water) to revive her when she felt faint, or counselling members of the crew on their romantic lives. She even used to promise to enlist the nuns of Quidenham to pray that some of the unmarried women producers she worked with would find suitable partners.

Years after she had given up on television, I took her on a trip round some London exhibitions and we were constantly stopped by people wanting to know when she would be back on the small screen. “No one else does it quite like you,” one woman told her. “It’s because of you that I’m here today.” Wendy was born in Johannesburg to Aubrey and Dorothy Beckett. She never liked her Catholic parents’ choice of name. “It’s a trivial little name. I think Mother called me Wendy because she thought I would be small and pretty. She was probably rather taken aback when she got this lump of a child who did nothing but read.” She spent part of her childhood in Edinburgh, where her father trained to be a doctor before returning to South Africa. She was, by her own account, a frail girl. Had she been worldlier, she used to reflect, she would never have joined the Notre Dame de Namur sisters – the order that ran her own school – because she was physically unsuited to the rigours of classroom teaching. After graduating in style, however, she soldiered on for 17 years in convent schools in South Africa, feeling she had no alternative, until finally her health collapsed.

Aside from the sheer novelty of having a nun on mainstream television – unknown since the brief chart-topping career of Jeanine Deckers, the Singing Nun of the early 1960s – Sister Wendy’s success rested largely on her formidable intellect (she received a congratulatory first in English from St Anne’s College, Oxford, in 1953) and her sure-footed

Her order agreed to her living thereafter under the protection of the Carmelites in Norfolk as a hermit, devoting herself to prayer. She was received by the local bishop as a consecrated virgin, an ancient ceremony, revived in Catholicism in the 1970s, in which she pledged her perpetual virginity and was “betrothed mystically to Christ”. She dressed not as a

Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting, which first aired in the 1990s

“It’s a trivial little name. I think Mother called me Wendy because she thought I would be small and pretty. She was probably rather taken aback when she got this lump of a child who did nothing but read.” 114

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Carmelite, but in a traditional black and white habit that she designed herself, merging features from several orders. Her caravan in the grounds of the Carmel was small, cold and basic, but was crammed with postcards and calendars of works of art. Starting in the early 80s, she began to put down on paper – often in close type, squeezed onto the back of a recycled luggage label – her thoughts about paintings that she had only ever seen in reproduction. A visitor to the Carmel, the cook and devout Catholic Delia Smith, was so impressed by Sister Wendy’s writing that in the late 80s she persuaded the Catholic Herald newspaper to publish them as a weekly series. It led in turn to an appearance on a TV arts show and eventually to five major series, scripted and presented by “one-take-Wendy”, as she was known to directors. Her impact on audiences was so great that she even had a musical written about her. Postcards from God: The Sister Wendy Musical, created by Marcus Reeves, ran briefly and camply in a small West End venue. Sister Wendy herself said she was bemused but not displeased by the accolade. Her health was never good – she had suffered from a weak heart since childhood – and could very quickly run out of energy in mid-take. After Sister Wendy’s American Collection and Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum had made her name with US TV viewers in 2001-02, she declined any further offers. Her novelty may have also worn off for commissioners in Britain, for her subsequent attempt to return to our screens to present a short series on Orthodox icons, a great passion, failed to find a taker. Her routine in the caravan was both simple and extraordinary. She would get up at 1am, the best time for prayer and contemplation, she said. She would find time for a couple of hours of work, writing the occasional article and a series of well-received books on prayer, St Paul and the religious festivals. At some stage, she would walk over to the Carmel to collect food and her post and then turn in for the night at 6pm. She communicated with the Carmelites only by note and lived, for the most part, alone and in total silence. It was as she wanted it. Behind her gentle, toothy smile, though, Sister Wendy could be fierce. It was seen in some of her verdicts on modern artists who failed to

interest her, though cloaked as ever in a show of nun-like Christian charity. “I find myself saying to myself firmly that I might not have been interested or excited or challenged by what I’ve seen,” she said on a rare trip to London in 2008 to see an exhibition by those on the Turner Prize shortlist, “but the artists who made these installations must have been. I am prepared to marvel at their inexplicable enthusiasm.” Her own preferences among the current generation featured figurative and often religious painters such as Greg Tricker, Simon Garden and James Gillick. Her steel could also be glimpsed in relation to what she insisted was her own “very minor celebrity”. When approached, during a trip to a London gallery, by a fan who wanted to get into contact with her about a personal problem, Sister Wendy smiled kindly but, once the woman had gone, remarked, “I hope that woman doesn’t write to me. My time is for God. I’ve no time for gardening and letter-writing, the usual let-outs for those who are alone.” Despite her old-fashioned garb, her views on Catholicism were anything but traditional. In private – and occasionally in public – she would question the church’s strict code on sexual ethics as a distraction from the real business of bringing people to God, whatever their gender, chosen method of contraception or orientation. And her views on God were challenging. When asked once what she felt about God, she replied, sharply: “I don’t think anyone can feel God. Those who believe in him most are most aware of his non-feelability, as it were. God is such a total mystery. My heart sinks when the word God is bandied around glibly.” She is survived by a brother. • Wendy Mary Beckett, nun and art critic, born 25 February 1930; died 26 December 2018 • This article was amended on 31 December 2018. Postcards from God was created by Marcus Reeves, not the originators of Jerry Springer: The Musical as stated in an earlier version.


A MONTH AFTER I PUBLISHED A BOOK ABOUT HOW TO RUN AN ART GALLERY, I CLOSED MINE. HERE’S WHY The co-founder of the gallery yours, mine & ours on the current gallery crisis Patton Hindle, January 10, 2019

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n November 2018, the second edition of How to Start and Run a Commercial Art Gallery, a book I co-authored with Edward Winkleman, was released. The following month, my gallery partners and I announced we were closing our own twoand-a-half-year-old space, yours mine & ours. Fun timing, no?

In fact, the sequence of events didn’t feel all that surprising to me. The economics of a small, multi-partner gallery require either independent wealth or a second job, which limits the business’s ability to grow. Compound that with a rapidly slowing emerging art market reflective of structural shifts in the US economy and you can begin to see what we, and others like us, were dealing with. Before opening yours mine & ours on New York’s Lower East Side, I had worked at two other galleries, Judi Rotenberg gallery in Boston and DODGEgallery in New York, both of which closed. (Look out for my forthcoming memoir, How to Close a Commercial Art Gallery.) When my partners and I sat down to develop the model for yours mine & ours, we sought to push against industry norms that seemed to hamstring small businesses (a big space, participation in too many fairs, a large stable of artists, splashy print ads). Content to remain small so we could control our overhead, we wanted to show many artists but represent few, often giving representation only when the artist asked for it. At a moment when galleries all around us were closing, we felt it

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was more important to offer opportunities for artists we believed in to show their work. Many of them moved on to work with other larger galleries, a fact we’re proud of and embrace. What It Really Takes Just a few years ago, the art industry was deeply concerned about the closure of midsize galleries. It used to be that if you were big, you were dominant and safe, and if you were small, you were nimble and safe. As the bifurcation in the broader economy has grown, however, that’s changed—and the shifting economics are having a big impact on the way galleries operate. In our book, Ed and I note that you either need to have a large amount of seed funding or a second job in order to support yourself during the early days of your gallery. By the time we opened yours, mine & ours in 2016, I knew that I would need to keep my full-time job, first as director of partnerships at Artspace and then as director of arts at Kickstarter, so as not to rely solely on income from the business. Similarly, my co-founder Nick Rymer would continue to teach and, in turn, our third partner RJ Supa would be the main presence in the space. As many know, you don’t have to be physically in the gallery to work on its behalf. What I loved about my life during that period was the way my work at the gallery and at Kickstarter fed into each other—I rarely had a professional conversation limited to just one. Both positions sought to build communities and help artists, and both felt like forms of patronage.

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Ultimately, however, as my role at Kickstarter grew, it became personally unhealthy to continue in both roles. My responsibilities as a gallerist—organizing exhibitions, writing press releases, doing studio visits—often conflicted with travel for my day job. At one point, I took a vacation day from Kickstarter to help paint the walls at the gallery from black to white. Over Thanksgiving, I told Nick and RJ that I had to choose the position that could support me. We had always agreed to run the space together, so I knew my decision might affect their choice to carry on. Also weighing on us was the slowing art market and constant financial pressure. Our rent, cheap for New York, came out to $3,000 per month, including real estate taxes. But we took many risks in our programming, often showing work that wasn’t sellable or by artists right out of school, priced under $1,000. I can’t say we made one significant financial mistake, because we didn’t. But collectors were primarily interested in the more expensive work we showed ($15,000 and up), while we weren’t willing to stop offering opportunities to young, untested artists. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past year reading article upon article trying to identify

what the “problem” might be—art fairs, the internet, you name it. I don’t think any of those factors individually are the culprit. The problem is much deeper, and much broader. Economics Lesson The art market is known to move in cycles, and it seems fair to say that we are currently experiencing a downturn in the middle and lower-priced art market. But another phenomenon threatens to make this downturn permanent: a diminishing pool of young, engaged, dedicated collectors. Part of the reason for the shrinking young collector base is economic: Fewer young people are turning to collecting because of wage stagnation and the rising cost of living, especially in major metropolises. As the PEW Research Center reported in August, today’s average hourly wage is essentially equivalent to that in 1978 due to an incredible spike in the cost of food, rent, healthcare, and other necessities. Most people simply have less disposable income than their parents or grandparents did. At the same time, more employers are relying on freelance workers, which means many denizens of the “gig economy” have to work more than they might have in the past for the same quality of life.

In 2007, more than 50 percent of college graduates had a job offer lined up. For the class of 2009, fewer than 20 percent of them did. According to a 2010 study, every 1 percent uptick in the unemployment rate the year you graduate college means a 6 to 8 percent drop in your starting salary—a disadvantage that can linger for decades. The same study found that workers who graduated during the 1981 recession were still making less than their counterparts who graduated 10 years later. 118

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You are invited to

“Toewyding” An exhibition by

Cornelia Smook Snyman 16 February - 17 March

Ilse Schemers Art Gallery 11 Huguenot Road Franschhoek 021 876 2071 gallery@isart.co.za Gallery hours: Week days: 09h00-17h00 Weekends: 10h00-17h00

MAUREEN QUIN

THE HUNT

THE CAPE A selection of bronze GALLERY sculptures on view

14th Feb - 2nd March. 60 Church Street, Cape Town, 021 423 5309, web@capegallery.co.za open Saturday 10am - 2pm, weekdays 9.30am - 5pm


Would it even be possible for the exceptional, inspiring collector couple Herbert and Dorothy Vogel to build their collection of more than 4,000 works today? In the ‘60s, the pair used their disposable income—a public librarian’s salary and a postal service worker’s salary that topped out at $23,000 per year—to buy art that they loved. But $23,000 in 1975 would amount to roughly $110,000 today. That sounds healthy, but doesn’t go very far when you add in the cost of living in a major city like New York. Millennials, in particular, have a different relationship to spending than our predecessors because we were indelibly shaped by the recession. (I say this as a 33-year-old who graduated from college in 2008, deemed the worst year to enter the workforce since the Great Depression.) As Michael Hobbes wrote in The Highline, recessions have lingering effects on young people: In 2007, more than 50 percent of college graduates had a job offer lined up. For the class of 2009, fewer than 20 percent of them did. According to a 2010 study, every 1 percent uptick in the unemployment rate the year you graduate college means a 6 to 8 percent drop in your starting salary—a disadvantage that can linger for decades. The same study found that workers who graduated during the 1981 recession were still making less than their counterparts who graduated 10 years later. A Call for Action So what does all this mean for the future of the art world? I frequently hear galleries and arts fundraisers say they struggle to connect with people in their late 20s and early to mid30s. That makes sense: When the small, selfselecting group that might be predisposed to buy art is put under pressure by real economic factors, a whole generation becomes significantly less likely to collect in a serious

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way. At the same time, the number of galleries has grown exponentially since the 1970s. The combination suggests that more closures are inevitable, and this makes me sad. I’ve spent my career thinking about ways to support artists and the ecosystem that allows them to work. Now, I believe we are at a turning point: Our focus needs to shift outside the insular art world and toward our local politics. We need to research what our representatives stand for and push for the agendas that benefit artists, galleries, and our wage-earning peers, as well as policies that benefit the lower and middle classes more broadly, such as raising the minimum wage, fighting against real estate rezoning, higher education debt forgiveness, and affordable healthcare for all. At the same time, let’s stop blaming the individual facets of the art system—fairs, the rise of social media, and so on. And let’s be generous to one another and stop judging artists and galleries for trying something new, like raising money on Patreon or Kickstarter, sharing spaces, or using an online sales platform. Instead, remember the root causes of the problem. We all have the same goal: to create an industry and an economy that can support us, and others, better than the one we have now. Patton Hindle is the senior director of arts at Kickstarter. She also co-founded the gallery yours, mine, and ours, which closed in 2018.

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PAINTINGS & PRINTS NICOLAAS MARITZ

MARITZ MUSEUM 5 Nemesia Street Darling, South Africa by appointment

078 419 7093

https://sites.google.com/view/nicolaasmaritzgallery


BEAUTIFUL ENDINGS … SOME SOUTH AFRICAN ARTISTS AND WRITERS GRAVES A few SA Artists graves illustrates how they wanted to find their eternal peace of their remains.

Please feel welcome to send us your images of artists and writers graves to editor@arttimes.co.za

Olive Schriener was exhumed from Maitland Cemetery to a family Mausoleum that included her husband, baby and dog, Buffleshoek, Cradock

Pierneef was buried in Hero’s Acre, Pretoria (with Avante Car Guard doing their thing)

Helen Martins of The Owlhouse grave in Nieue Bathesda

Irma Stern’s ashes were sprinkled outside her studio at The Firs, Rosebank, Cape Town.

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Uys Kriege, Onrus River

Jan Rabie and Marjorie Wallace share eternity in one grave, Onrus River

Beautiful endings ‌

Ingrid Jonker’s Grave, Maitland Cemetery, Cape Town


Beauty that you can own, Quality investment prints

Tinus de Jong, The Twelve Apostles, Camps Bay, Clifton on Sea, Cape, Etching


www.printgallery.co.za gabriel@printgallery.co.za we buy and sell quality prints





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R220 000 - 260 000 Moshekwa Langa, Untitled I

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