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 18-9-1964 and inscribed with the title and 'Simons Town, Friday'; inscribed with the artist's name, the date, title, medium and 'Simons Town, Friday' on a label adhered to the reverse; inscribed with the artist's name, 'Simon's Town 1807' and a dedication on the reverse
Provenance
Acquired from the artist and thence by decent.
Notes
The present lot transports us to Simons Town, a place that played a pivotal role in Clarke’s formative years of creative output. His earlier period in Simon’s Town is marked by depictions of labour and everyday life under the harsh realities of apartheid, often conveyed a sense of
ease and optimism, capturing ordinary moments despite the difficult social circumstances. “My art is about people and the presence of people. The humanistic image is what interests me. I enjoy reflecting on people and their activities, their emotions, what could be events in their daily lives. But beyond that I speak via my symbols of activities on a larger, wider scale that transcends all boundaries … I speak about a heritage of a common humanity.”1
The present lot, a sketch depicting a gentle scene of three figures: two engaged in shoe shining while the third looks on – evokes the feeling of the early soft and humble labour scenes depicted in Clarke’s Simon’s Town and Tesselaarsdal period. It seamlessly blends the quiet, contemplative tone of his earlier works with the bold, angular character of his prints, while also evoking the illustrative quality of his style through crosshatching and ink washes in shades of grey and blue. “In his sketchbooks, studies from life far outnumber any derived from other artists. They bear witness to his increasing engagement with the social life of his community, something else that suggests an affinity with social realism … he was depicting not only Simon’s Town and Tesselaarsdal but also sites that more overtly exposed the plight of the
indignent and dispossessed.”2
1. Peter Clarke Art Centre (no date) Peter Clarke – The Artist, online, https://www.pcac.co.za/peterclarke-2/, accessed 22 January 2025.
2. Phillipa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin (2011) Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke, Cape Town: Fernwood Press, page 72.
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