Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Decorative Arts and Jewellery
Live Auction, 7 October 2019
Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
About this Item
signed and inscribed with the title and a dedication "for John" and "for Marie" on the underside of each base
Notes
In a letter to Dacre Punt from Moorea, Tahiti, in September 1978, Battiss uses the word TANE to describe the "men, boys, males" he encounters there.1 In the dictionary, the word Tane [Tah-ney], refers to a Polynesian god of fertility.
1. Ibid, page 200.
Provenance
A gift from the artist to the current owner's grandmother Marie Rautenbach, University of Pretoria librarian from 1973-1980.
Literature
cf. Warren Siebrits (2016) Walter Battiss: I Invented Myself: The Jack Ginsberg Collection, Johannesburg: The Ampersand Foundation. A similar example illustrated on page 201.