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
from an edition of 10
Notes
In her practice, Lunga Ntila aims to subvert the inherent assumption of determining one’s character based on physical characteristics. To achieve this, the conceptual photographer works with the practice of the amalgamated collage and self-portraiture to obscure and confuse the eye into seeing beyond those that are strictly human.
The present lot, which formed part of the artist’s solo exhibition at BKhz entitled Ukuzilanda in 2019, uses the visual act of collecting aspects of the body and imagining the various forms they can assume, which is achieved through stretching, enlarging and re-arranging. The composition is not comprised of only one photograph but instead a collection of many angles and instances of the artist’s visage. By obscuring the form of the sitter, it protects them from the unwanted gaze and provides a sense of anonymity which speaks back to the sociopolitical realities of the femme body within South Africa.1
1 Zaza Hlalethwa (2019) Lunga Ntila - Ukuzilanda exhibition statement, online, https://bkhz.art/lunga-ntila-ukuzilanda, accessed 21 January 2025.
Exhibited
BKhz, Johannesburg, Lunga Ntila—Ukuzilanda, 11 September to 3 October 2019, another example from the edition exhibited.
Literature
Ayla Angelos (2021) It's Nice That, Lunga Ntila uses a cut-and-paste aesthetic to add drama, spirituality and narrative to her work, online, https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/lunga-ntila-photography-040121, accessed 22 January 2025.
Thuli Gamedze (2020) 'Redacted portraits, temporary solutions: on the work of Lunga Ntila', News24, online, https://www.news24.com/life/arts-and-entertainment/arts/redacted-portraits-temporary-solutions-on-the-work-of-lunga-ntila-20200703, accessed 22 January 2025.
Provenance
BKhz, Johannesburg, 2019.
Private Collection.
Other lots that might interest you
