oil on board
Artwork date: 1973
Signature details: signed and indistinctly dated top right
Sold for R250,360
Estimated at R180,000 - R240,000
Condition Report
The overall condition is good. Colours are vibrant, paint dry in areas. Minor losses in areas.
Please note, we are not qualified conservators and these reports give our opinion as to the general condition of the works. We advise that bidders view the lots in person to satisfy themselves with the condition of prospective purchases.
oil on board
Artwork date: 1973
Signature details: signed and indistinctly dated top right
(1)
45 x 60 cm
Notes:
George Pemba is considered to be one of the most important social realist artists in South African art. Throughout his career, Pemba drew inspiration from his own surroundings. Although he denied any explicit interest in politics, Pemba took a passive stance through his art. As a compassionate and concerned observer, Pemba became a visual chronicler of the joys and sorrows of township life, at a time when it was being forever changed.In 1937, Pemba won first prize in the May Esther Bedford Competition, with Gerard Sekoto as the runner-up. Although the two contemporaries had not yet met, in 1942 Pemba visited Sekoto in the Cape where it is alleged that Sekoto encouraged Pemba to move away from watercolour painting and turn instead to oil, suggesting that watercolours were too soft for South African subjects.By the 1950s Pemba had mastered oils, and by the 70s he made the decision to step away from his family’s business – a spaza shop called Gabby’s Store in New Brighton, Eastern Cape – to paint more prolifically. What followed was a great maturation of the artist’s technique, leading him to find his own distinctive style for which he is recognised today.Both The wedding (1973) and Congregation (1975) are exemplary of Pemba’s unique ability to empathetically capture the emotions of his subjects at a critical turning point in his career. Painted predominantly in bold hues of blue and yellow, with masterful attention to tonality, the artist depicts a wedding band with feet lifted off the ground as they perform and dance in celebration of the newly-weds’ unity and singers in a church congregation with mouths agape, singing passionately.
Lisa Truter
You can place an absentee bid through our website - please sign in to your account on our website to proceed.
In the My Account tab you can also enter telephone bids, or email bids@aspireart.net to log telephone/absentee bids.
Join us on the day of the auction to follow and bid in real-time.
The auction will be live-streamed with an audio-visual feed.
Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 3rd Sep, 2020
This Spring, Aspire Art Auctions broke new ground with a fresh, yet considered selection of artworks that is demographically more representative and reflects the spirit of current times. With a strong focus on South Africa, the sale also proudly represented artists from 10 African countries (Benin, DRC, Ghana, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sudan, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe) and international artists from Europe, the UK and USA.
A great highlight was Edoardo Villa’s monumental steel sculpture titled Traverse from 1957 which achieved R4,893,400 – an auction record for the artist. Other exceptional offerings included works by Gerard Sekoto, George Pemba, Peter Clarke and Nicholas Hlobo.
Currency conversions are based on the exchange rate at the auction's start time and date. Bidders should verify the current exchange rate on the day of the sale. All invoices and payments must be made in South African Rands.
Logistics
While we endeavour to assist our Clients as much as possible, we require artwork(s) to be delivered and/or collected from our premises by the Client. In instances where a Client is unable to deliver or collect artwork(s), Aspire staff is available to assist in this process by outsourcing the services to one of our preferred Service Providers. The cost for this will be for the Client’s account, with an additional Handling Fee of 15% charged on top of the Service Provider’s invoice.
Aspire Art provides inter-company transfer services for its Clients between Johannesburg and Cape Town branches. These are based on the size of the artwork(s), and charged as follows:
Small (≤60x90x10 cm): R480
Medium (≤90x120x15 cm): R960
Large (≤120x150x20 cm): R1,440
Over-size: Special quote
Should artwork(s) be collected or delivered to/from Clients by Aspire Art directly, the following charges will apply:
Collection/delivery ≤20km: R400
Collection/delivery 20km>R800≤50km
Collection/delivery >50km: Special quote
Packaging
A flat fee of R100 will be added to the invoice for packaging of unframed works on paper.
International Collectors Shipping Package
For collectors based outside South Africa who purchase regularly from Aspire Art’s auctions in South Africa, it does not make sense to ship artworks individually or per auction and pay shipping every time you buy another work. Consequently, we have developed a special collectors’ shipping package to assist in reducing shipping costs and the constant demands of logistics arrangements.
For buyers from outside South Africa, we will keep the artworks you have purchased in storage during the year and then ship all the works you have acquired during the year together, so the shipping costs are reduced. At the end of the annual period, we will source various quotes to get you the best price, and ship all your artworks to your desired address at once.
Aspire Art will arrange suitable storage during, and cost-effective shipping at the end, of the annual period.
Collections
Collections are by appointment, with 24-hours’ notice
Clients are requested to contact the relevant office and inform Aspire Art of which artwork(s) they would like to collect, and allow a 24-hour window for Aspire Art’s logistics department to retrieve the artwork(s) and prepare them for collection.
Handling Fee
Aspire Art charges a 15% Handling Fee on all Logistics, Framing, Restoration and Conservation arranged by Aspire.