Notes

‘For me what is so beautiful is that there is this line, the dark line across the stage, but then it becomes white and enlivens the horizon line.’  Karel Nel

Alexis Preller painted Consider the Lizard in 1955 directly after completing All Africa (1953–1955), the large-scale mural commissioned by the Receiver of Revenue (now South African Revenue Service) for its building in Johannesburg. This complex mural consisting of three panels forms the backdrop to many of Preller’s subsequent works, as is the case in Consider the Lizard. In this painting the emblematic image left of centre, that of a flattened radiating form, seems to rest on a spiked tripod that links very strongly to the image on the far right-hand side of All Africa, as does the lizard and the leaf-like forms that resemble spears or sharp objects jutting out on the left-hand side. The flattened form represents a kind of insignia featuring a lizard or small crocodile, often symbolic of the male presence in African art. This painting is characterised by beautiful russets, browns, dark maroon-toned browns and bronze, with the gentle pink and a hint of light azure blue given to the hieratic figure on the right. The shift in the background from the russet to a coral-like colour seems to stem from a shadow being cast by light streaming in from the side.

Although the painting may appear flat, it seems to imply a stage-like space: when Preller left for London in 1934 he did not necessarily intend to study painting but was also seeking to further his deep interest in the theatre. He remained captivated both by the theatrical and by the spatial qualities of painting, and in this 1955 work he makes strong reference to both these pursuits. The hieratic woman that appears on the far right-hand side of this painting, as though she is about to step into the picture from the wings, is a direct quotation from Preller’s famous painting called Hieratic Women, painted in the same year, 1955, which forms part of the Johannesburg Art Gallery collection. Above the head of the hieratic women in both paintings three very beautiful stars appear. These stars allude to Nut, the ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky, who is often depicted on the ceilings of Egyptian temples. The side-on pose of the hieratic woman also makes direct reference to representation in Egyptian art. The woman in Consider the Lizard holds a lyre under her arm, and this figure subsequently reappears in Preller’s Woman with a Lyre of 1956. This bodily form is also transposed into his Primavera of 1955 and 1956, confirming Preller’s deep interest in the notion of a powerful symbolic female presence. When one considers these works together one understands the fugue-like quality of Preller’s work where the same images or the same compositions are used again but the changing scale, or the changing colour or background alters the very nature of the work itself.

Karel Nel and Marion Dixon

Provenance

Purchased by Alexis Preller from Volks Art Auctions, Pretoria, July 1969.

Sold at Volks Art Auctions as part of the Preller-Massyn Estate, 3 March 1978, lot number 8.

Vesta van Rensburg Collection, Pretoria.

Exhibited

XVIII Biennale Internazionale, 1956.

Pretoria Art Museum, Arcadia Park, Alexis Preller Retrospective, 24 October 1972 -26 November 1972.

Literature

Esmé Berman (2010) Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows, Johannesburg: Pan Macmillan and Shelf Publishing. Illustrated in colour on page 182.

Volks Art Auctions (1978) Preller-Massyn Collections, Pretoria: Volks Art Auctions. Illustrated on page 3.