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 1981 and inscribed with the title in ink in the margin
Literature
Paul Alberts (2009) Buite die hekke van Eden, Pretoria: Protea Boekhuis, illustrated on page 119, with the title Distrik Ses, Kaapstad, 1974.
Notes
“…day after day, week in and week out, the destruction continued until all dreams were completely destroyed. Just broken bricks. Chunks of raw cement and concrete remained. Wounds that have been properly cleaned and disinfected, at last. Then there is a scar that reminds of the wound and the pain. But District Six remains a festering sore. Because District Six should have remained an open field, with only the mosque and the palm trees standing alone in complete solitude amidst the rubble. It had to be ugly and unsightly, a portrait of a people's arrogance and audacity. District Six should have been our Auschwitz: a stark monument where not only buildings but the inhabitants and their souls were destroyed.”—Paul Alberts, 20091
1 Paul Alberts (2009) Buite die hekke van Eden, Pretoria: Protea Boekhuis, page 118.
Provenance
The Paul Alberts Estate.
The Photographic Archival and Preservation Association.