Notes

Alexis Preller was known to “from time to time take out his mentally hoarded treasures and to burnish them. Thus the iconic African Head…recurred again and again.”¹

Gifted to Erich Frey², Gold Primavera is a tiny work but deservedly justifies the enthusiasm surrounding Preller’s “small, jewel-like” paintings.³ Richly worked in gold leaf and incorporating all the skill and detail for which Preller is renowned, it is presented in a highly polished brass frame. This staging further accentuates the parallels between this work and that of other ikons on wood such as the 1957 Woman with Lyre and The Young King.⁴

¹ Berman, Esmé and Nel, Karel. Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows. Shelf Publishing, Johannesburg, 2009, page 267
² Erich Frey undertook a co-operative brass mural panel for Preller’s guest suite at Dombeya
³ Berman, Esmé and Nel, Karel. Alexis Preller: Collected Images. Shelf Publishing, Johannesburg, 2009, page 217
⁴ Ibid.

Provenance

The Collection of Erich Frey

The Collection of Professor Karin Skawran

Exhibited

Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, Alexis Preller Retrospective, 24 October to 26 November 1972, catalogue number 134

Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows, 22 December 2009 to 28 February 2010

Literature

Berman, Esmé and Nel, Karel. Alexis Preller: Collected Images. Shelf Publishing, Johannesburg, 2009, illustrated in colour on pages 216 and 217
Berman, Esmé and Nel, Karel. Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows. Shelf Publishing, Johannesburg, 2009, illustrated in colour on page 268