Notes

Born in Germany and trained in Dresden, Adolph Jentsch arrived in South-West Africa with an artistic language rooted in the tradition of modernists like Kandinsky, whose book Über das Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) had a great impact on his philosophical outlook.

“But while the depiction of subjective reality and empathy with Nature, so characteristic of the expressionists, affected Jentsch, their emotive tensions and violent use of colour were completely alien to his character”.¹

Instead he is far closer to the harmony and serene philosophical contemplation of nature embodied in Chinese art. As Nico Roos identifies: “Like the Chinese, he feels that colour is merely an accessory adding to the decorative value of a painting, but is not of primary importance”.²

In Dresden Jentsch had the chance to study works of Chinese art from its golden age between the 8^th and 10^th centuries, where he first came into contact with vertical works in the forms of hanging scrolls which gave the viewer the “sensation of travelling through the landscape” ³

In this the present lot Jentsch tackles the rocky shore of the Schaf River, illustrating with a deft calligraphy, the zone between the river bed and the land. Here, as Esmé Berman observed “the artist becomes form. The painted message is part of his nature. The nature within and around him, and it exposes the quality and condition of his spirit”. ⁴

1. Nico Roos. (1978) Art in South-West Africa, Pretoria: J.P van der Walt. Page 26.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid, page 18.
4. Esmé Berman (1983). Art and Artists of South Africa, Cape Town: Southern Book Publishers. Page 225.

Provenance

Exhibited

Literature