Notes

In the Catalogue of the Collections of the Irma Stern Museum, Neville Dubow makes the observation that “the artefacts which (Irma Stern) acquired in the course of her life and which contributed so much to her life style, offer some considerable insight into the nature of her own artistic vision”.¹ This comes sharply into focus when examining her many still lives, particularly those featuring darker vessels from her vast collection of ceramics. Often overlooked due to her exuberant representations of floral arrangements, whose impasto brushwork and commanding colour dominate the viewer’s eye, a closer study of the items that structure her compositions provides an opportunity to build a bigger picture of Stern’s world, not only from the perspective of an artist but of a prodigious collector with eclectic tastes. 

The present lot includes a vessel of Chinese origin catalogued with the assistance of Dr I Eckert, of the South African Cultural History Museum, when the extensive inventory of Stern’s collection was formalised at the beginning of the 1970s under the direction of the Irma Stern Trust. In the accompanying item notes Dr Eckert classifies the object as belonging to a group of “multi eared jars from Southern Chinese provincial kilns” dating from the Yüan dynasty or earlier. Described as “folkspottery” whose “destination was everyday use” and “whose shapes are handed down through innumerable generations”, Eckert notes that these vessels were “potted in two parts with the joint visible at the shoulder”, beneath the ears which were added after potting.²

Covered in a slightly mottled black and green glaze, Stern indicates this uneven surface though her fractured brushwork that gives form to the darkened contours of the jar. The placement of the arrangement in the lower right-hand corner of the picture set against a deep blue background provides a formal balance where the weight of the painting allows the eye moments of calm in these flat surfaces, and others of expressionist frenzy evident in her ebullient blooms. 

Thanks to Dr Kathy Wheeler of The Irma Stern Trust for her assistance in compiling these item notes. 

1.  Neville Dubow (1971) Catalogue of the Collections in the Irma Stern Museum, University of Cape Town, page 5. 

2.  Southern Chinese Provincial Prototype Jar, Yüan or earlier Irma Stern Trust Collection, accession number 525, page 39.

Provenance

Sotheby Parke Bernet South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Johannesburg, 27 April 1982, lot 173.

Aspire Art Auctions, Cape Town, 3 March 2019, lot 59.

Private Collection.