Notes

The peahen, depicted here in high gloss paint on embossed paper, is one of the four animals frequently appearing in Joachim Schönfeldt’s early works: The others being the lioness, the cow and the eagle. They are the female counterparts of the animals in the New Testament that represent the four apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They stand as icons of what the artist calls a possible ‘pan-African religion’. Here, Schönfeldt pairs the image of the peahen with a series of four floating orange discs that represents a social pyramid, ‘a diagrammatic representation of social strata, with the king at the apex and the people at the base, and the tiers of the church, the military and the bourgeoisie in between’.¹

1. Joachim Schönfeldt (2004) The Model Men, Johannesburg: Wits Art Galleries, page 10.

Literature

Cf. Strauss & Co Contemporary Art Auction, sale catalogue, February 2018, lot 55.