Notes

Donated by the artist to the National Cancer Association’s 60th anniversary fundraising auction, Art on the Box, Cape Town, 11 March 1991.

The organisers of the National Cancer Association’s Art on the Box fundraising auction invited 80 well-known South African artists, including Deborah Bell, Norman Catherine, William Kentridge, Erik Laubscher, Dumisani Mabatho, Tommy Motswai, Tony Nkosi, Penny Siopis, Cecil Skotnes, and Andrew Verster, to create an artwork incorporating a pre-made lidded agathis-wood box, hand-crafted by Willie Volbrecht.

Laubscher’s art object – unique in his oeuvre – is painted with his familiar Cape landscapes on all four sides. On the painted lid, he glued a variety of small, found, natural objects, including rocks and dried bones that he is likely to have picked up on his painting excursions. He attached photographs of local landscapes, dabbed with paint, to the inside walls of the box and laid a piece of jute cloth, signed, dated and inscribed with the title of the work, inside on the bottom.

Authenticity confirmed by Phillippa Duncan (Trustee for the Erik Laubscher and Claude Bouscharain Heritage Trust) and the artist’s estate.

With thanks to Phillippa Duncan for the research undertaken to identify this lot and its full provenance.

Provenance

Acquired by the current owner's husband from the National Cancer Association's fundraising auction, Cape Town, 1991, and thence by inheritance.

Literature

National Cancer Association (1991) Art on the Box, auction catalogue, Cape Town: NCA, illustrated in colour as catalogue number 45.