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Large Battiss Combines Sensuality and Virtuosity
1 Jan 2013
Walter Battiss is increasingly garnering positive critical acclaim as South Africans become aware of the extent of his practise and influence. While he mastered many media from print-making to performance, his paintings are generally of a modest scale.
So it is perhaps not surprising that his large painting, Bathers, sold for a record R1 336 800 at Strauss & Co’s March 2010 auction. More recently, African Figures broke all auction records for this artist when it sold for a deserved R2 562 200 at Strauss & Co’s Johannesburg sale in November 2012.
Figures in a Landscape is comparable in size and treatment to Bathers. Both display the technical skill and sensual subject matter that have made him one of the most sought-after artists at auction today. Across a painterly surface of warm tones flecked with white are gathered serried rows of African people busy with their daily activities of carrying, collecting, cooking and chatting. The even distribution of figures across the picture plane owes much to Battiss’s pioneering research into San rock art paintings.
Text by Emma Bedford, Senior Paintings Specialist
Lot 510
Walter Battiss
Figures in a Landscape
Signed
Oil on canvas
75 x 100 cm
R1 600 000 – 2 200 000
2013 Press Releases
November
October
- 14 Oct 2013 Strauss Online: Time-limited auction sales exclusively online
- 20 Oct 2013 Pocket Money to Millions & students keen eye for art admirably rewarded
- 30 Oct 2013 As Large as Life The Ceramics of Irma Stern
- 30 Oct 2013 Seminal works from Jane Alexander's masters show destined for auction
- 30 Oct 2013 Staging a moment in art - William Kentridge and Opera
- 30 Oct 2013 Through The Eyes Of An Artist - Romantic Accounts Of Africa
September
- 7 Sep 2013 Discovery of Double-sided Laubser Painting Delights at Strauss Spring Auction
- 7 Sep 2013 Hodgins for the brave
- 7 Sep 2013 Hot Stuff from Goodman
- 7 Sep 2013 Humanist's Vision of Early Cape Town
- 7 Sep 2013 Kentridge's Queen of the Night
- 7 Sep 2013 Kruger on the Station
- 7 Sep 2013 Pierneef on a Grand Scale
- 7 Sep 2013 Preller's Exotic Explorations
- 7 Sep 2013 Stern Scintillates at Strauss & Co's October Auction
- 7 Sep 2013 Stern's Island Reveries
- 7 Sep 2013 The Pleasures of Food, Friends and Art
- 7 Sep 2013 WWF Art Auction Poised to Raise Record Funds
- 18 Sep 2013 Millions raised at WWF Art Auction
May
- 10 May 2013 Vladimir Tretchikoff's unique rendition of Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Alicia Markova
- 10 May 2013 You only live twice.....
- 15 May 2013 Strauss & Co to sell one of the world's most reproduced paintings
- 15 May 2013 Tretchi fever heats up
- 20 May 2013 R1 818 880 for Last Supper
- 24 May 2013 Private donation of iconic Chris Levin designs to boost Iziko Collection
April
- 24 Apr 2013 Iconic South African artworks spanning 160 years set to go under the hammer in May
- 29 Apr 2013 Strauss & Co goes Vintage with South African Haute Couture Legend, Chris Levin
February
January
- 1 Jan 2013 "Dis 'n genot van die hart" se Laubser
- 1 Jan 2013 Early Naude' Captures Charms of a Bygone Era at the Cape
- 1 Jan 2013 Gem of a Painting evokes Malay Quarter
- 1 Jan 2013 Large Battiss Combines Sensuality and Virtuosity
- 1 Jan 2013 One of Stern's Most Compelling Portraits
- 1 Jan 2013 Rare Siopis at Auction
- 1 Jan 2013 Van Wouw Skill Shines in Early Italian cast
- 3 Jan 2013 Cape Furniture From The Collection Of Dr Bothma Buitendag, For Sale At Strauss & Co
- 3 Jan 2013 Impact of Modernism Demonstrated in Seminal Painting
- 3 Jan 2013 Important Cape Silver presentation covered cup, John Townsend, circa 1830
- 10 Jan 2013 Contemporary Jewellery by Design Maestro Erich Frey For Sale At Strauss & Co
- 14 Jan 2013 Chairman's Report 2012
