27th Mar, 2017 15:00
Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art
127
Peter Schütz, Waiter with stars
Waiter with stars
Jelutong, oil paint and metal
Exhibited: Wits Art Museum, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Peter Schütz: An Eye on the World, 9 June to 16 August 2015.
Sold for R85,260
Estimated at R60,000 - R90,000
Jelutong, oil paint and metal
Exhibited: Wits Art Museum, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Peter Schütz: An Eye on the World, 9 June to 16 August 2015.
(1)
127 x 23 x 17 cm
Acquired from the artist.
Notes:
Peter Schütz was one of South Africa’s most respected sculptors. Much revered as a teacher himself, he was an avid collector of popular visual culture, which informed his work. Schütz made a number of works on the theme of theEdwardian figurative ‘dumb waiter’. The original figures, invented as body substitutes for real servants, were often rendered as black persons, many being caricatures. Schütz not only inverts this negative image by, ironically, placing on a pedestal people whose slave origins are written in their skin colour and facial features, but he also invokes their enduring patience and constancy. Walter Oltmann, Schütz’s life-long friend, writes that Schütz intended them ‘to convey a feeling of silence and respect’(2015:44). Schütz’s waiter, slender and trim, stands on a tall base of silver grey. His clothing of black high-heeled shoes, stockings, knee-length pantaloons, tailcoat and shirt with stiffly starched collar points, recalls the late nineteenth-century hey-day of colonialism. His erect stiffness and expressionless face exactly capture the normative stance of people who served the upper classes. The smoothly finished surface and matt colour of the man’s clothing enhance the sense of control and urbanity the figure projects. Schütz further elevated his waiter figures by investing them with attributes of saints. Some he named after saints, others he rendered saintly by the addition of attributes derived from mediaeval Christian sources. Among these were saints with stars and constellations like the unidentified one which this waiter balances delicately on the tip of his fingers. The constellation, however, completely prevents anyone mistaking this for an actual dumb-waiter, it makes the figure’s status as an icon clear.
Anitra Nettleton
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Auction: Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art, 27th Mar, 2017
The Inaugural Cape Auction offed a diverse range of top-quality historic, modern and contemporary works. With a focus on critically engaged art and a curated approach, seasoned and new collectors competed to acquire significant works.
Aspire’s commitment to the growth of the art market saw international records broken in recognition of exiled South African artists. Louis Maqhubela’s Exiled King, a definitive, politically motivated work, sold for R341,040 - three times his previous record, and Albert Adams’ Untitled (Four Figures with Pitchforks), his first appearance at auction, sold for R136,416. Top prices were also achieved for established artists including J.H Pierneef, William Kentridge, and Edoardo Villa, and contemporary artwork fared exceptionally with record prices for David Brown, Steven Cohen, Mohau Modisakeng, Moshekwa Langa, and Mikhael Subotzky.
Viewing
Friday 24 March 2017 | 10 am – 7 pm
Saturday 25 March 2017 | 10 am – 5 pm
Sunday 26 March 2017 | 10 am – 4 pm
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