Notes

Primavera, like its famous antecedent by Sandro Botticelli, extols the joys of spring. While Preller may pay homage to the great Renaissance painter in the minstrel figure strumming his lute on the left of the painting, the bold abstracted figure with cicatrised markings, bracelets and indigenous regalia on the right is an entirely local innovation that acknowledges African customs and rituals and puts them on a par with those of Europe.

In counterpoising these two supposed opposites, Preller brings together a European figure that appears to celebrate and pay homage to Africa and an African figure that offers branches, symbolic of both regeneration and of peace.

Between the graceful paganism of Botticelli on the left and the hieratic symbolism of Africa on the right is a window into a space of architectural motifs that evoke elusive shrines or spiritual structures suggesting that it is here that common ground might be found.

The dark tonality, though unusual in Preller's paintings, serves here to unify the disparate elements and herald the solemnity of the occasion while the use of a range of purples suggests that these personages are royalty.

The blue panel at right, a device often included by Preller to alert the viewer to other worlds beyond the visible, operates like a curtain that has been drawn aside to reveal something significant. It heightens the drama of the moment and also reminds us that, in 1946, Preller had designed the sets and costumes for John Cranko’s ballet, Primavera.

Literature

Esmé Berman and Karel Nel, A Visual Biography Alexis Preller: Collected Images, Johannesburg, 2009, pages 168-171, illustrated.