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 06 and numbered 6/10
Exhibited
João Ferreira Gallery and Die Kunskamer, Cape Town, Two Men and their Dog and Other Works, 6 to 30 May 2009.
Notes
"I made my first dog as a 'dog of war' in 1979 it was carved in wood and parts, like muzzles and collars, were clad in steel. Subsequently I had my second exhibition at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg in 1980. The theme of the dog had then evolved into a series called One man and his dog. These were monumental two-piece sculptures showing maimed figures on wheeled structures drawn by dogs. My first studio was situated on the edge of District 6 in a derelict building in Canterbury Street. Life in this area was raw and hard. District Six was crumbling and meths drinking street people lived out- side my studio window. The stories they told were of desperate lives, but with fondly conjured memories of homes that once existed and the pleasure of family once experienced. The sculptures I made at that time reflected this a microcosm of bizarre paradoxes made more stark by the ruthless oppression of the apartheid state. Humour, too, however dark, has always been part of my iconography. After that time I never made another dog until a collector asked me in 2004 to make a large sculpture for him with two men and a dog. The 6 small dogs were maquettes for him to choose from. Enjoying revisiting an old theme I made a few more resulting in this small exhibition. Dogs are our closest companion species, but they can also go feral and become dangerous in ways not unlike their human masters."1
1David Brown (2009) The SA Art Times, David Brown: Two Men and their Dog and Other Works, May, page 5.
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