Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Decorative Arts and Wine

Online-Only Auction, 22 - 29 March 2021

Staff Picks

Sold for

ZAR 5 628
Lot 49
  • Wonderboy Nxumalo; Basa Umlilo Ngaphandle Kuka Matches (Making a Fire Without Matches)
  • Wonderboy Nxumalo; Basa Umlilo Ngaphandle Kuka Matches (Making a Fire Without Matches)
  • Wonderboy Nxumalo; Basa Umlilo Ngaphandle Kuka Matches (Making a Fire Without Matches)
  • Wonderboy Nxumalo; Basa Umlilo Ngaphandle Kuka Matches (Making a Fire Without Matches)
  • Wonderboy Nxumalo; Basa Umlilo Ngaphandle Kuka Matches (Making a Fire Without Matches)
  • Wonderboy Nxumalo; Basa Umlilo Ngaphandle Kuka Matches (Making a Fire Without Matches)
  • Wonderboy Nxumalo; Basa Umlilo Ngaphandle Kuka Matches (Making a Fire Without Matches)


Lot Estimate
ZAR 4 000 - 6 000
Selling Price
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
ZAR 5 628

About this Item

South African 1975-2008
Basa Umlilo Ngaphandle Kuka Matches (Making a Fire Without Matches)

signed, dated 1995, numbered 19/45, inscribed with the title in pencil and embossed with the Caversham Press chopmark in the margin; printed with the title in English in the plate

colour screenprint
sheet size: 64 by 76,5cm; 70 by 82,5 by 3,5cm including frame

Notes

This work depicts a troop of baboons at sunrise near the 'Sounding River'. The leader magically points fire at a bucket of maize and cooks a meal for his fellows. One of the baboons overindulges and develops a stomach ache.

In the Spirit of our Stories project, 1995, a group of rural artists from the Ardmore Ceramic Studio at Winterton worked in a medium that was new to most of them at the time, printmaking, at the Caversham Press. The artists’ skill in working in a narrative tradition lent itself to the translation of images from 3-dimensional ceramic forms into 2-dimensional prints.
The images the artists produced include interpretations of dreams, references to folklore and bible stories, and observations from the world around them.

View all Wonderboy Nxumalo lots for sale in this auction