Local South African Art in Full Flower at Major Sale

Irma Stern's still lifes will take pride of place, and sculpture gets a showing, writes Christina Kennedy.

Stephen N Welz says there is an interesting conundrum about South African art on auction.

Welz, who heads up fine art auction house Strauss & Co, says: "It is easier to sell a R1-million painting than a run-of-the-mill R10000 painting - unless the latter is a remarkable example of the artist's work. The lower market is feeling the pinch, but you'll find that those who could afford to pay R1-million can still afford to pay that."

This would suggest that entry-level collectors could pick up some bargains at the Johannesburg Country Club in Woodmead on May 24, if they have the cash available. That is when Strauss & Co's next fine art auction takes places. Welz describes it as "undoubtedly the largest number of major paintings to come on to the market for a long time".

A selection of prime Irma Stern still lifes from different periods of the artist's career will take pride of place. Still Life with Gladioli and Fruit is estimated to fetch R4.5-million, and Welz says Still Life With Dahlias and Fruitcould set a collector back R6-million.

Also going under the hammer is JH Pierneef's 1949 painting Barberton, which should fetch up to R1-million. "It's one of Pierneef's more painterly landscapes," says Welz.

There are also a number of works by the likes of Alexis Preller, Maggie Laubser, Maurice van Essche and Maud Sumner up for auction, with Welz advising that Sumner is an "underpriced" South African artist whose work should make a sound investment - especially her The Thames at Sunset. Preller's major work, The Flower King is a noteworthy addition to the auction palette.

Other major artists whose work can be snapped up are William Kentridge, Colbert Mashile, Robert Hodgins, Helen Sebidi and Gregoire Boonzaier.

A fascinating feature of the auction is a number of sculptures by a loose association of artists known as the Amadlozi Group - Edoardo Villa, Cecil Skotnes, Sydney Kumalo, Giuseppe Cattaneo and Cecily Sash.

Amadlozi - meaning "spirit of the ancestors" - held their first exhibition, co-curated by art dealer Egon Guenther, in his Johannesburg gallery in October 1963. The exhibition also toured Italy, but they never exhibited again together as the Amadlozi Group. Despite this, the influence of these pioneering artists' on the development of South African art is regarded as profound.

Welz talks about the "last-chance syndrome" of auctions, when a collector who has been waiting years for a particular work will "beg, borrow or steal" the money to purchase it. "Most art collectors buy with their hearts," he says. "The investment aspect is there, but is relatively low."

He says that "in the 40 years I've been in the industry, South African art has held up remarkably well, and now people who had confidence in it are reaping the rewards. "

Source: www.timeslive.co.za

By: Christina Kennedy

Santa Cruz Bank Hosts African Art Collection

Since opening its doors in 2004, Santa Cruz County Bank has taken on an unlikely second role -- an art museum.

The bank has about four exhibits a year, and while only local art has been displayed in the past, the bank now welcomes its first international exhibit.

"Circle of Life" is a collection of works from seven Zimbabwean artists. The art, which is currently on display, will remain up until July 9, and a reception will be held May 7. Mary Anne Carson, director of the Santa Cruz County Bank Arts Collaborative, heard about the collection, owned by Jess and Laura Brown, and contacted the couple in the hopes they'd be interested in sharing their art with the community.

"We like the public to have artwork that hasn't been seen before," said Carson, who is also the bank's senior vice president and director of marketing.

There are about 60 pieces in the exhibit, including sculptures and the paintings. The paintings are now up in the Aptos, Capitola, Scotts Valley and Watsonville offices, while the sculptures are on display in the bank's downtown Santa Cruz location.

Carson said the paintings are full of life and vibrancy, a stark contrast to the country's current economic and political climate.

"I was very impressed with the work and how colorful and vibrant and joyous the works are," she said.

The artwork creates an intersection where people can gather.

"It's our way of connecting the bank with our community and welcomingthe community into our bank," she said.

Jess Brown, the collector as well as the executive director of the Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau, began volunteering in Zimbabwe in 1998. While there, he helped bring small-scale farmers together to form larger communities that could work together to yield more efficient and productive crops.

"The economy and politics is really bad over there," Brown said. "I really believe in these people and I want to help them"

His collection includes more than 100 pieces, ranging from paintings to sculptures. All of the pieces in the exhibit are for sale, and all of the money made will go directly back to the artists.

The bright colors and interpretation of life illustrates the hope they have as a people, he said.

"There's such vibrancy and joy in the paintings," he said.

Curator Joan Blackmer was touched by the sincerity in the work.

"I could feel the heat of the sun, I could feel the connection to the community," she said of the paintings. "There was a depth to how the figures were relating to each other."

The sculptures in the exhibit are Shona sculptures, an ancient process that enables spirits in the stone to be acknowledged in a more recognizable form. The sculptures on display in the bank combine ancient and contemporary principles, she said.

"They're really building on their cultural sensibilities and philosophies," she said.

Working as the curator for the bank's art collaborative has allowed Blackmer to be part of an emerging scene while sharing her love of art.

"It's exciting because it's developed into part of the arts community," she said. "Art enriches our lives."

Brown and his wife have long collected local art, but he feels a special connection to the people of Zimbabwe. Their art shows hope and inspiration, as well as the deep connection to community and culture. Most people who have seen the collection have been impressed with the spirit, he said.

"You smile," he said. "You feel good about it."

Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel

By: Justine DaCosta

I See Africa Enlightens Cincinnati

I See Africa is a group show offering artists' concepts of Africa's influence through sculpture, painting and photography, including the work of Nigerian photographer Alfred Olusegun Fayemi.

"Fayemi's photographs articulate the realities of contemporary Africa and Africans," curator Barbara Gamboa says. "They traverse a wide spectrum in the rhythm of the daily lives of Africans, from the resplendent attire of African women in markets and churches, to children playing with home-made toys to crowded classrooms; from pounding yam to grinding pepper; from street minstrels and itinerant musicians to open-air dancing parties in far-flung locations like Nigeria, Ghana and Ethiopia."

The show also features artists James Haase, Queen Brooks, Cynthia Lockhart and Elliott Jordan with contemporary work inspired by traditional African art. Educational exhibits and African artifacts on loan from Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Museum Center and private individuals provide cultural context.

Through June 5. Opening reception 6-8 p.m. Saturday, free; preview 6-8 p.m. tonight includes a gallery talk by Fayemi, music and East African food. Tickets $30 per person at www.kennedyarts.com and 513-631-4278. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. 6546 Montgomery Road, Kennedy Heights.

In conjunction with I See Africa, Kennedy Heights Arts Center will present an African Culture Fest from 1-6 p.m. May 2 with music and dance, activities provided by Cincinnati Art Museum.

Source: Cincinnati.com

By: Jackie Demaline

Contemporary Pakistani Art at the Pacific Asia Museum

A review by Sharon Mizota from the Los Angeles Times:

'Beyond the Page: The Miniature as Attitude in Contemporary Art From Pakistan' at the Pacific Asia Museum

Artists of Pakistani descent riff on the techniques and imagery of miniatures in an illuminating exhibit at the Pacific Asia Museum.


When Picasso incorporated motifs from African art into his paintings, it was seen as a step forward for modern art. No one thought about what it might mean for African traditions. After all, they were "primitive" and therefore frozen in time.

Something similar might be said for our understanding of South Asian miniature painting. Although references to its diminutive, highly stylized depictions of aristocratic life or mythic stories have appeared in contemporary art -- Shahzia Sikander's work being the most prominent example -- there has been little discussion about how the miniature tradition itself has evolved.

"Beyond the Page: The Miniature as Attitude in Contemporary Art From Pakistan" at the Pacific Asia Museum aims to change that state of affairs. The show at first comes across as another paean to the globalization of contemporary art (and the rise of South Asian artists and markets within it), but ends up revealing how the miniature tradition resonates surprisingly well with contemporary practices.

The carefully focused exhibition features the work of 13 artists of Pakistani descent who riff on the techniques and imagery of miniature painting, in particular the delicate, courtly images of the Mughal Empire of the 16th to the mid-19th centuries.

Seven of the artists trained in the genre at the National College of Arts in Lahore, where "miniature" is a discipline alongside painting, printmaking and sculpture. All are well versed in the conceptually oriented global language of contemporary art, and they interpret the miniature tradition through a variety of media, including painting, video, sculpture and photomontage.

Several artists reexamine the initial colonial encounter between Pakistan (then part of India) and the British Empire. Hamra Abbas turns the tables with tiny, extreme close-up portraits of smiling white people she met during a residency in London. The delicately painted but brutally cropped images echo the miniature portraits that British subjects commissioned from South Asian artists during the colonial era, some of which are on view in a companion exhibition drawn from the museum's collection. In these images, colonists inserted themselves into an aesthetic tradition usually reserved for images of rulers and gods. By contrast, Abbas' present-day miniatures reflect a movement in the opposite direction: the Pakistani artist's presence in the homeland of the former colonizers.

Whereas Abbas uses the miniature aesthetic as a historical touchstone, other artists examine the genre's formal affinities with Western art.

One example is the similarity between the painting technique par dokht and late 19th century pointillism. In both cases, an image is composed, not of lines and areas of color, but of hundreds or thousands of tiny dots.

Rashid Rana updates both traditions for the electronic age by replacing paint with images from pop culture. In the mural-sized digital print "All Eyes Skywards at the Annual Parade," he reproduces a photograph of a Pakistani nationalist celebration out of thousands of Bollywood film stills. Whether par dokht or pointillism, the image suggests how the unrestricted flow of global pop culture might undermine political tensions between Pakistan and India.

Other artists explore the miniature's reliance on a grid structure, also a staple of Western art. In an untitled work, Rahana Mangi revisits a painting she began as a student in the miniature program at the National College of Arts by stitching a fine net of black hair across the central image. The diagonal grid makes palpable (and bodily) the armature that miniaturists use to structure their pictures and create patterns. It also brings the genre into dialogue with the spare, rectilinear work of Sol LeWitt and Agnes Martin.

Likewise in a reductive vein, Noor Ali Chagani extrudes the grid into three dimensions, constructing his pieces out of hundreds of tiny bricks. His dollhouse-scale walls and undulating brick "carpet" are wry little minimalist sculptures.

There is a tendency to define works like these as contemporary to free them from restrictive and often exotic associations with traditional forms. But couldn't they simultaneously be a continuation of the miniature tradition? Why should the categories "contemporary art" and "South Asian miniature" be mutually exclusive?

"Beyond the Page" suggests that they aren't and provides a glimpse of what a truly global culture might look like: a place where the local textures the global and difference can be recognized without becoming a disadvantage.

Frank Frazier's African Paintings on Display

The exhibition, “African Art Tradition & Influence: Frank Frazier, Painter” at the King Arts Complex in Columbus, Ohio will show the artistry of African Textiles. The pattern forms and styles are raffia cloth from Zaire, Kente of the Ashanti and Ewe, Bogolanfini mud dyed cloth of Mali, Aso Oke of Yoruba and Khasa blankets of Mali, Adinkra stamped cloth from Ghana. These textiles reflect the excellent quality of style and design which have inspired and influenced many artists. Guest curator George Miller, CEO & founder of Black Arts Plus Gallery, augments the exhibition with selected works from the international artist, Frank Frazier. Frazier, a collagist, sculptor and painter, works with oils, watercolor, charcoal and other materials drawing his influences from artifacts and artisans in Senegal, Gambia and Sierra Leone, West Africa.

The exhibition will run from Thursday, April 08, 2010 through Monday, May 31, 2010 in the Elijah Pierce Gallery.

For more information on Frank Frazier visit http://www.artistfrankfrazier.com.

Contemporary African Art with George Hughes: Look Both Ways

“Look Both Ways” is a three-day residency by artist George Hughes. A Ghanaian painter and performance artist who was trained in Ghana and who currently teaches art at the University of Buffalo, Hughes will engage in a series of activities at Haverford in Lancaster, PA, including this performance piece.

Hughes’ works are “thematically dominated by visual reminders of the ubiquity of violence – in nature and in man,” representing both natural disasters and “the savage side of man” as seen in colonialism, traditional rites, and contemporary global conflicts (Eisenhofer, Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, 2009). For Hughes, art is a forum through which to explore war, violence and tragedy. Born in the colonial Gold Coast and raised during Ghana’s first years as an independent state, Hughes experienced first-hand and explores in his art the combination of superstition, traditional rituals, modernization, and rapid urban growth which characterize the postcolonial period.

Exploring this juxtaposition and multiplicity in medium as well as content, Hughes’ paintings are mixed-media works, incorporating acrylics, oils, enamels, latex, dimensional fabric paints in addition to found materials. He produces three-dimensional objects which incorporate recyclage and found materials as well as performances which explore savagery along with daily routines and obsessions.

WED. MARCH 31st, 7:30 p.m.
“Rites of Blue Impediment” Performance Piece
@ Dining Center Black Box Theater

THURS. APRIL 1st, 4:30 p.m.
“Painting, Violence, and African Art at the Crossroads”
A conversation with Ruti Talmor about Hughes’ visual work, focusing on violence, history and identity, contemporary African art, and the category “African Artist.”
@ Chase Auditorium

FRI. APRIL 2nd, 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Open Lunch with George Hughes
@ CPGC Café

Modern Photographs by Sammy Baloji at Museum for African Art

The Museum for African Art, New York, announces an exhibition of recent photographs and large-scale photomontages by Sammy Baloji, whose work explores the history of copper mining and postcolonial architecture in Katanga province and its major city of Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Organized by the Museum, The Beautiful Time in Lubumbashi: Photography by Sammy Baloji initiates an important dialogue about postcolonial history, urbanization, and the aspirations of youth in twenty-first-century Africa. It will be on view at the Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 135 East 22nd Street in New York City, from March 26 to April 28, 2010.

In the middle of the twentieth century, Katanga Province in southeastern DRC, was one of the most productive mining complexes in Africa and the world’s second largest producer of copper. Recollections of this mid-century period as “the beautiful time” have provoked the artist’s explorations of the paradoxes of life in Lubumbashi today. Once-lucrative mines, which loom large in historical memory, are still physically present, yet copper production is halting and undependable.

The Beautiful Time features Baloji’s articulate and moving images of out-of-use machinery and the industrial landscape of the run-down mining infrastructure. His photomontages combine archival pictures of mine workers and colonial administrators with his photographs of present-day Lubumbashi. The striking juxtaposition of the black-and-white historic images with jarring color portraits of today’s decayed mines evokes the mingling of past and present in the contemporary Lubumbashi cityscape. Baloji’s photographs and photomontages offer a unique perspective on a hundred years of the DRC’s social and political history, and reflect a period of industrial transformation and environmental decay.

For Baloji and others of his generation, who were born after DRC achieved independence in 1960, the colonial period (1908–1960) is viewed as a time when hard work transformed a sparsely inhabited area into a modern city. In contrast to this storied productivity, Baloji’s images portray an industrial environment haunted by the physical absence of humanity: no one is inside the buildings, machines are rusting and idle, and train tracks sit without trains. Like many young people in the Congo today, Baloji aims in his work to understand and reconnect two strikingly different eras.

In addition to the artist’s photographs and photomontages, the exhibition includes six examples of Congolese “popular paintings.” These are created in order to document local history and chronicle contemporary events, and those made in Katanga, like the ones on view in The Beautiful Time, frequently include references to copper mining. The examples in the exhibition are by artists whose work has inspired Baloji’s photographic practice, which is deeply rooted in Katanga’s visual culture and tradition.

The Beautiful Time is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by exhibition curator Bogumil Jewsiewicki, professor of history at Université Laval, Québec. Published by the Museum for African Art, the 48-page catalogue is distributed by the University of Washington Press and is available at www.africanart.org. The exhibition is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Verizon Foundation.

Sammy Baloji

Sammy Baloji (b. 1978, Lubumbashi, DRC) began working with photography and video after graduating from the University of Lubumbashi with a degree in Humanities Studies. In March 2005, the series Vues de Likasi was exhibited in Brussels. The series was later included in Cape 07, in Cape Town, South Africa. In December 2006, Baloji exhibited his film Mémoire at the Royal Flemish Theatre, Brussels, and in March 2007 the project was selected for the Festival International du Film d’Aubagne, France. Also in 2007, he exhibited at the French-Mozambican Cultural Centre of Maputo; in Brussels during Yambi 2007; in Photoquai, the First World Images Biennale, organized by the Musée du Quai Branly, in Paris; and in the seventh edition of the Bamako Photography Biennale, where he received the Image Award from the Foundation Blachère and the Africa in Creation Award from HRA Pharma and CulturesFrance. In 2008, he participated in residencies at the Musée Royale de l’Afrique Centrale in Tervuren, Belgium, and the Musée du Quai Branly. In 2009, Baloji exhibited his assemblages of Likasi at the Montreal Month of Photography, was a finalist for the Swiss Pictet award, and received a Prince Claus award, a program of the Dutch Priss Claus Fund.

Indian and South East Asian Art Sale Announced at Sotheby's

Sotheby's upcoming Indian and Southeast Asian sale presents a well-curated selection of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian works of art, Indian miniature paintings and modern and contemporary art from the subcontinent, with a focus on property culled from important private collections.

The Works of Art section of the sale features Buddhist art of pan-Asian origin from the Francisco Capelo collection, which was originally intended to be housed in a museum. Also on offer are a group of fine and rare Southeast Asian bronze sculptures from a private collection. Amongst the paintings in the sale is a selection of Indian miniatures with a provenance going back to the 19th century, reputedly originally collected by Warren Hastings, the first Governor General of India. Finally, highlighting the modern and contemporary section is a group of early modern Indian paintings from the collection of Emmanuel Schlesinger; friend and mentor to the Progressive Artists Group and one of the earliest collectors of Modern Indian Art.

MF Husain, Untitled painting showing a woman riding a leaping horse (est. $80/120,000)

THe auction will take place on March 24, 2010. There will be 184 lots on sale that are estimated to fetch $5/7.3 million; the auction will be on exhibition at Sotheby’s from this Friday, March 29.