Perspectives on Africa

Live Virtual Auction, 17 February 2025

Perspectives on Africa
About the Session

Strauss & 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.


Current Bid

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Lot 147
  • Mikhael Subotzky; CJR
  • Mikhael Subotzky; CJR


Lot Estimate
ZAR 180 000 - 240 000
Current Bid
Starting at ZAR 150 000
Location
Cape Town
Shipping
Condition Report
May include additional detailed images
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About this Item

South African 1981-
CJR

signed, dated 17 and inscribed with the title

oil, acrylic and ink on canvas
104 by 73 by 2cm, unframed

Provenance

Strauss & Co, Cape Town, 15 February 2020, lot 62.

Exhibited

Frieze London, Goodman Gallery Booth, 5 to 8 October 2017.

Notes

The present lot depicting the mining entrepreneur, Cape politician, and British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes forms part of a body of work concerned with the “deconstruction of white masculine power.”1

Subotzky’s portrait of Rhodes, his face strategically whitewashed, is based on an 1890s photo taken by a member of Russell & Sons, a London studio known for their studies of ‘distinguished persons’ and royals. Subotzky’s portrait was first exhibited at Frieze London in 2017, where it drew favourable mention in an article about global artists engaged with themes of decolonisation and racism.2

1. Mikhael Subotzky (2019) Interview with Hansolo Umberto Oberist, Self-published text accompanying exhibition Massive Nerve Corpus at
Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
2. Anny Shaw (2017) The Art Newspaper, Artists step up to the plate in statues debate, online, https:// www.theartnewspaper.com/news/artists-stepup-to-the-plate-in-statues-debate, accessed 22 January 2025.

View all Mikhael Subotzky lots for sale in this auction