Perspectives on Africa
Live Virtual Auction, 17 February 2025
Perspectives on Africa
About the SessionStrauss & Co is pleased to present Perspectives on Africa, a sale that explores the complexity, beauty, and fluidity of perspectives through African art and works by artists with strong ties to the continent. The sale coalesces the rich and varied connections between Africa and its artistic expressions, presenting works that span figuration, landscape, and abstraction, inviting collectors to engage with powerful narratives emerging from Africa's evolving perspectives. The works reflect layered meanings, both as a method of representing depth and dimension as a way of framing our understanding of the world. Work by Contemporary artists reflects on the historical foundations of Modernist artists, exploring themes such as identity, belonging, urbanisation, and re-encounters with tradition, while the sale transitions to Modernist interpretations of Africa, exploring the complexity of colonial encounters, post-independence aspirations, and indigenous practices. Building on Strauss & Co’s commitment to developing a strong local photography market, the sale includes an artist focus on the work of social documentarian Paul Alberts, whose images captured poignant narratives of everyday life, particularly in Cape Town. These works sit alongside David Goldblatt and Zanele Muholi, whose visceral images explore themes of identity, social justice and the multifaceted realities of African life.
About this Item
signed, dated 2008, numbered IX, inscribed ‘for Storm’ in pencil and embossed with the David Krut Workshop chopmark in the margin
Provenance
Gifted by the artist to the current owner.
Literature
Nadine Monem and Faye Robson (ed) (2012) A Universal Archive: William Kentridge as a Printmaker, exhibition catalogue, London: Hayward Publishing, Nose 14 illustrated in black and white on page 92.
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen (ed) (2010) William Kentridge: Nose – Thirty Etchings, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing, illustrated in black and white, unpaginated.
Notes
‘Based on a drawing by Picasso, the double breast seen under the armpit. When drawn onto the plate, the condensed milk and Indian ink mix is the same tone for all sections of the drawing. The difference between the body and the head is only a question of time. The first bite of the aquatint – which gives the light grey body – took approximately four minutes. The black head was 'bitten’ in the acid for about an hour. The white eye was protected from the acid by a permanent felt-tip marker. Initially I had thought The Nose would be contemplating Picasso’s Odalisque. But this was not sufficient.’1
1. Bronwyn Law-Viljoen (ed) (2010) William Kentridge: Nose – Thirty Etchings, Johannesburg: David Krut Publishing, unpaginated.