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 2005 and inscribed with the title twice on the reverse
Exhibited
Stevenson, Cape Town, Sacred Yin, 21 September to 22 October 2005.
Kizo Art Gallery, KwaZulu-Natal, Awaken, 26 September 2008.
Notes
”My paintings mirror the sacred geometry or archetypal energy forms that underpin all creation. I am not alone in recognising that our world is out of balance—we have been living in a left-brain, male-dominant society for centuries. In my paintings I consider this imbalance by working with the geometrical form that the six vibration generates: the hexagon and its internal form, two perfectly balanced, interlocking equilateral triangles. This is the most evocative symbol of the spiritual axiom, As Above, So Below”—Tracy Payne1
1 Stevenson (n.d.) Sacred Yin Artist Statement, online, https://archive.stevenson.info/exhibitions/payne/sacred_yin.htm#statement, accessed 19 January 2025.