Notes

In 1937, after returning from a stay in Paris, Preller was ‘impatient to proceed with the development of his African theme’¹ and was convinced that in order to do this, he needed to immerse himself in what he perceived to be natural, traditional, unspoilt, rural Africa. He and his partner Christi Truter set off in a ramshackle old car, bound for Swaziland and northern KwaZulu-Natal, via the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga).² This trip proved to be a huge inspiration and it emboldened Preller to venture even further afield to more remote and unfamiliar climes in 1939. This time a small Austin van was purchased, which had the benefit of space to sleep in the back so there was no need to set up camp every night on the long journey. The car had endless mechanical problems but Alexis and Christi headed north through Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia) and into Zambia (Northern Rhodesia). Christi had to return to his job in South Africa, but Preller carried on into what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. He set up camp at Lake Kivu when the car finally gave out completely, and he marvelled at the appearance and customs of the Mangbetu community he encountered there.³ He witnessed a dramatic eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano, which was an intense sensory experience that stayed with him and informed his work for years.

The present lot dates from this time, and the three figures are depicted against an expressionistic green-blue background that seems to include the volcanic eruption on the left. The exaggerated, artificial colour use continues a breakthrough Preller made earlier, which he described in a letter dated 1937 to his sister Minnie. He wrote about how he was working on ‘a large picture of my new [African] form – a landscape of natives walking down a hill with pots of food on their heads … Here the colour is marvellous. The intensest I could find of each shade, terribly fierce’. ⁴

The composition in the present lot seems to be a reworking of this earlier scheme, which was characteristic of Preller’s practice throughout his life, and the colour here is equally intense. The figure in the centre carrying a gourd on her head is a generic African ‘type’ he might have distilled from actual women he saw on his travels but the two flanking figures, coloured surely with the most modern, industrially-produced pigments in Preller’s paintbox, have the presence and three-dimensionality of Mangbetu carved wooden standing figures he would probably have come across in Lake Kivu.

Preller’s stay in the Congo was cut short by the outbreak of WWII and he made his way back to South Africa with difficulty, by riverboat and train, to join the army and serve in a field ambulance unit of the SA Medical Corps, where he could contribute without compromising his principles by carrying a weapon.

1. Esmé Berman and Karel Nel (2009) Africa, the Sun and Shadows (vol. 1), Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing, page 39.

2. Ibid page 41.

3. Ibid page 52.

4. Letter to Minnie, 24 April 1937, quoted in Berman and Nel (2009), page 35.