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An icon resurrected: Lucas Sithole 2019 highly important buffalo sculpture to go on sale
5 Nov 2019
An exceptional assembly of bronzes by three trailblazing modernist sculptors – Ezrom Legae, Lucas Sithole and Edoardo Villa – lead Strauss & Co’s robust offering of sculpture at its forthcoming live sale on Monday, 11 November in Johannesburg.
Strauss & Co is especially delighted to present collectors an opportunity to bid on Lucas Sithole’s monumental bronze, Wounded Buffalo (estimate R1.5 – 2 million), a storied piece of South African sculpture that portrays a stricken buffalo.
Measuring over a metre high, the bronze was commissioned by mining house Union Corporation Ltd, Johannesburg, at a price of R10 000. Modelled after a small work that Sithole included in his exhibition at Gallery 101 in 1970, Wounded Buffalo was installed outside the mineworkers’ recreation hall at Bracken Mines, Evander, a year later.
Richly imbued with metaphor – over 69,000 mineworkers died in mining-related accidents from 1900 to 1993 – Wounded Buffalo has a considerable reputation. Sithole’s work is discussed and/or illustrated in important books by art historians Esmé Berman, Frieda Harmsen, Elizabeth Rankin and Sue Williamson, and also featured in two journals published at the University of California, Los Angeles. When Bracken Mines closed in 1993, Wounded Buffalo was sold to a private collector. It’s appearance on the art market now is an opportunity for collectors to secure a museum-quality piece of South African art.
Ezrom Legae’s African Goat (estimate R1 – 1.5 million) is a fine example of the sculptural style that emerged in Johannesburg in the 1950s. A synthesis of African and European stylistic influences, it saw Legae and his mentor, Sydney Kumalo, frequently portray animal subjects. Legae’s interest in goats was at once formal (he was familiar with Picasso’s goats) and social (he recognised their use in traditional rites). African Goat was cast at the Vignali Foundry in Pretoria, the oldest bronze foundry in the country, in 1990. It was limited to an edition of seven, one of which is in the collection of Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town. This lot is the artist’s proof.
Strauss & Co is delighted to present six previously unseen works by Edoardo Villa from the estate of Aldo Carrara, an Italian businessman who lived in South Africa from 1949 to 1960. Introduced to the artist by collector and dealer Vittorio Meneghelli, Carrara and Villa struck up a lifelong friendship.
Five of the six lots were originally gifts to Carrara. They include two bronze pendants (estimate R7 000 – 10 000 each) and Heraldic Head (estimate R220 000 – 260 000), a Cubist-inspired portrait made from overlaid metal elements typical of Villa’s earlier style. Carrara’s only purchase was the steel candelabra Caged Light (estimate R250 000 – 350 000). The Norval Foundation featured similar pieces on its Villa survey exhibition in 2018.
“Ezrom Legae, Lucas Sithole and Edoardo Villa have long been revered by collectors, and for good reason,” says Susie Goodman, an executive director at Strauss & Co. “Both Sithole and Villa represented South Africa at the Venice Biennale, in the 1950s and 60s. Legae’s career blossomed later and he appeared on artist Rickey Burnett’s important exhibition Tributaries (1985). The importance of these artists is constantly being reaffirmed. In 2001, Sithole appeared on curator Okwui Enwezor’s much-lauded international exhibition The Short Century (2001), and earlier this year, both Legae and Sithole appeared on the much-discussed exhibition, A Black Aesthetic, at the Standard Bank Gallery.”
Other sculpture highlights from Strauss & Co’s forthcoming sale include editions of:
- Anton van Wouw’s The Bushman Hunter (estimate R1.2 – 1.5 million), a benchmark example of early South African sculpture that was conceived in 1902 and cast at the Nisini foundry in Rome. This bronze is an arresting example of Van Wouw’s peerless realism and is by far the artist’s most sought after desk-scale work.
- William Kentridge’s Horse (estimate R1 – 1.2 million), a schematic portrayal of a mount produced by Bronze Age in Cape Town. The horse is a common motif in Kentridge’s recent practice and the faceted construction of this lot is similar to two Kentridge public sculptures depicting horses in Toledo and Naples.
- Peter Haden’s Batman (estimate R40 000 – 60 000), a diminutive study of an attenuated human figure with sail-like wings – not the superhero. Produced in 1970 by this second-generation Amadlozi Group artist, the work was first exhibited locally in a 2019 exhibition organized by collector Gavin Watkins at Strauss & Co’s gallery in Houghton and at Welgemeend, a manor house in Cape Town.
Strauss & Co will be offering Lucas Sithole’s important work, Wounded Buffalo, on Monday, 11 November at 89 Central Street, Houghton, in Johannesburg. The sale, which starts at 7.00 pm, will also include two important works by painter Penny Siopis, as well as feature a segment devoted to South African artists linked to Paris.
Strauss & Co will be hosting an extensive programme of public talks and social events in the lead-up to this sale.
Press enquiries:
Bina Genovese, bina@straussart.co.za
Susie Goodman susie@straussart.co.za
2019 Press Releases
November
- 5 Nov 2019 An icon resurrected: Lucas Sithole 2019 highly important buffalo sculpture to go on sale
- 5 Nov 2019 From Sash to Siopis: Strauss sale celebrates prominent role of Wits University in South African art history
- 12 Nov 2019 Strauss & Co establishes four new world records at its Johannesburg sale
- 12 Nov 2019 Strauss & Co to auction contents of historic Constantia mansion
- 20 Nov 2019 Vigorous bidding for the contents of Harcroft House in Constantia
- 29 Nov 2019 2019 Cassirer Welz Award Winner
October
- 8 Oct 2019 Single-owner collections shine at Strauss & Co's 2019 upbeat spring sale
- 15 Oct 2019 Strauss & Co 2019 November sale explores South African art 2019 love affair with Paris
- 15 Oct 2019 Strauss & Co 2019 October results bode well for the Pierneef market
- 31 Oct 2019 The History of Harcroft House
September
- 25 Sep 2019 Strauss & Co's 2019 decorative arts sale features two impressive single-owner collections
- 25 Sep 2019 Two centuries of artistic innovation compiled in Strauss & Co's 2019 spring sale
August
July
- 8 Jul 2019 An exciting selection of contemporary art alongside ground-breaking Louis Khehla Maqhubela and Douglas Portway exhibition, & 2018 A Meeting of Minds & 2019 at RMB Turbine Art Fair (TAF) 12 & 2013; 14 July 2019
- 10 Jul 2019 Peter Haden, a vital force in 1960s Johannesburg, remembered at Strauss & Co
- 10 Jul 2019 Strauss & Co creates a meeting of great minds at the RMB Turbine Art Fair
- 19 Jul 2019 A warming current of satire and irony energises Art Month at Welgemeend
May
- 3 May 2019 Asian Decorative Arts and Jewellery Focus in Strauss & Co's 2019 May Online Sale
- 10 May 2019 Strauss & Co sale highlights how artist-teachers have shaped SA art
- 14 May 2019 Strauss & Co sale casts a spotlight on pioneers of South African painting
- 21 May 2019 Historical artists prove their staying power at Strauss & Co auction
- 27 May 2019 First Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction set to take place in Johannesburg on 8 June 2019
- 27 May 2019 Strauss & Co's 2019 & 2018;Saturday Live 2019 & 2013; An important new addition to the SA auction calendar
April
- 1 Apr 2019 Works from two important collections feature on Strauss & Co's 2019 April online sale
- 2 Apr 2019 African landscapes by Alexander Lindsay, descendent of Lady Anne Barnard on view in her former Cape home
- 11 Apr 2019 Strauss & Co set to establish ground-breaking fine wine auctions in South Africa
- 28 Apr 2019 Refinement and tradition central to Strauss & Co's 2019 Live Virtual decorative arts auction
March
- 7 Mar 2019 An Irma Stern feast on offer at Strauss & Co 2019 March sale
- 13 Mar 2019 Strauss & Co brings work from four peerless collections to market
- 13 Mar 2019 Strauss & Co offers two exceptional single-owner collections of decorative arts
- 19 Mar 2019 Strauss & Co shatters R100-million barrier
February
- 19 Feb 2019 New photography and young painters shine at Strauss & Co's 2019 Contemporary Art Sale
- 28 Feb 2019 Strauss & Co previews South African masterpieces in historical Stellenbosch home
January