Notes

Alexis Preller’s life-long interest in mythology and archaic civilisations was fostered by his travels in Egypt, Greece, and Italy, as well as intense study in museums with collections of historical artefacts, particularly the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. The painting Herdboy (also known as Boy with a Flute) is most likely one of two works of the same title that appeared on the artist’s much-anticipated exhibition at the Pieter Wenning Gallery in Johannesburg towards the end of 1962. Preller had been secluded in his rural studio in the Hartbeespoort area for years working on the large Discovery mural for the Transvaal Provincial Administration building in Pretoria and had not put on a solo show since 1958. The kings, warriors, and musicians who appeared in the new show, and the youth in the present lot, are clear descendants of the figures in the central panel of Discovery (1959–62) and the artist’s earlier large public mural commission for the Receiver of Revenue building in Johannesburg, All Africa (1953–55). 

The Mapogga matriarchs that dominated Preller’s work in earlier decades were derived from an interest in the dress and architecture of an actual Ndebele community near Pretoria. In contrast, these lithe, elegant, breast-plated, and draped figures are representations of a more personal, invented mythography of an imagined African civilization that owes more to fable and fiction than to observed reality.

Provenance

The Professor Leon Strydom Collection.

Literature

Esmé Berman and Karel Nel (2009) Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun, and Shadows, Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing, a similar example illustrated on page 228.