Notes

Gerard Sekoto wrote that the present lot, Women and Baby in the Street, ‘was done after my return from Cape Town, about 1946–7’. This painting can be definitively attributed to the Eastwood period of Sekoto’s oeuvre and linked to other
similar works of this period, such as Women in the Suburbs and Women in the Country, both sold by Strauss & Co in recent years.

All three paintings depict women walking together, engrossed in conversation – a spontaneous snapshot of everyday living, with movement created through light, shadow, and line, and counterpointed colour contrasts
creating dynamic compositions. Women and Baby in the Street demonstrates Sekoto’s matured confidence, his flair for colour and assertive painterly technique. Here the patterned background of muted blues, mauves and soft pink enables the brilliance of the complimentary yellow and oranges of the headscarves and clothing to burst from the composition visually, enlivening it and engaging the viewer’s attention and curiosity.

Despite the evocative charm of the painting, Sekoto witnessed and suffered hurt, humiliation and frustration as a result of the political dispensation in South Africa, and shortly after he painted this work, he departed for exile in France. He was a founding member of Présence Africaine, established in 1947, which embraced many of the African intellectuals living in Paris. Sekoto spoke at various Présence Africaine meetings and described vividly the insult to which blacks were subjected, during the apartheid era, when walking on a pavement, and being forced to step into the road if a white person approached.

Barbara Lindop

Literature

Barbara Lindop (1988). Gerard Sekoto, Johannesburg: Dictum Publishing, illustrated in colour on page 163. The caption includes a quote from Sekoto: 'I respect the women for the burden they bear over problems – yet never putting up a real strike before men who always pose to know and resolve everything.'