Notes

The Selati river flows into the Kruger National Park from the west, joining the Olifant’s River at the border of the present-day Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces. The present lot was painted near the intersection of these two rivers outside Phalaborwa, with the title referring to one of the distinctive rocky outcroppings that dot the lowveld landscape.

Rich in natural mineral resources, the area was mined for its copper and iron ore deposits over a thousand years ago; with archaeological evidence of the remains of smelting ovens found in the surrounding granite hills. Soon after this painting was executed, phosphates were discovered and the mining town of Phalaborwa was established in 1957.

Painted in the monumental style he mastered during the Station Panels years of the early 1930s, Pierneef staggers his pictorial planes, leading to an overall sense of grandeur. Inspired by geometric proportions, Pierneef developed an inimitable visual language. His “knowledge of structure resulted in attempts to form a deeper understanding of the world rather than its appearance alone”. “What is a landscape?” he would muse, asking “Is it the rough upper surface of the earth or is it the effect of its internal construction?”¹

This philosophical outlook is most notably achieved in his synthesis between the land and the sky, where once fleeting clouds build into monuments, anchoring and balancing the weight of his compositions. Pierneef’s clouds can be found in the poetry of C M van der Heever who writes:

“And so the tension builds in the summer’s day. Far in the West there are some thunder heads. At first the feathery tips are just visible on the other side of the haze, but then the white curves billow out, column after column, until the ends of the earth are surrounded by the snow white beacons which reign peacefully over the wide open space of the veld”.²

1.  P G Nel. (1990) J H Pierneef: His Life and Work, Johannesburg and Cape Town: Perskor, page 157.

2.  Ibid. Page 149.

Provenance

Johans Borman Fine Art, 2006.

Private Collection.