Notes

This lot appeared on the group show Thinking in Paint at Gallery 2, Johannesburg, in 2013. The exhibition also featured work by Gail Behrmann, Ricky Burnett and Jenny Stadler, colleagues of Koloane from his days at Bill and Fieke Ainslie’s Johannesburg Art Foundation in the 1970s. This art school is closely associated with second and third wave abstract painting, when the austerity of European modernism was leavened by the optimism of US-influenced abstract expressionism. Koloane’s mature work, of which this is an example, is an ecstatic synthesis of vigorous mark-making and sympathetic narrative; pure abstraction is always held in abeyance. The artist’s great subject throughout is Johannesburg, its vertiginous cityscapes, crowded streets and risky dormitory suburbs patrolled by packs of dogs. This lot – like the other works in the series it formed part of – is noteworthy for Koloane’s bold use of colour and cellular approach to form, the cues for which are lit windows, traffic lights and pedestrians.
Sean O’Toole