2nd Jun, 2019 9:00
Modern & Contemporary Art
29
Diane Victor (South Africa 1964-)
Stadium (from the Disasters of Peace series)
charcoal on paper
Artwork date: 2007
Signature details: signed bottom right
Sold for R204,840
Estimated at R150,000 - R250,000
charcoal on paper
Artwork date: 2007
Signature details: signed bottom right
(1)
140 x 194 cm
Notes:
Diane Victor is renowned for the technical quality of her drawing: intricate, intense, detailed and nuanced, she is able to convey drama, emotion and complex narrative structure simply through her incredible technique.Her subject matter is rarely unchallenging. She tackles difficult topics without fear, often taking a strong stance on socio-political and gender issues in artwork that is confrontational yet subtle and beautifully realised. Her work in the series Disasters of Peace, commenced in 2001, is a brilliant case in point.The title of the series is a clear allusion to Goya’s Disasters of War series of prints from the early nineteenth century. The Spanish court artist expressed his revulsion for the trauma and debasement caused by the regional wars with France in explicit political works that weren’t publically displayed until after his death. In a similarly agitprop vein, Victor takes aim in her own group of drawings at the iniquities of contemporary South Africa. The Disasters of Peace series is notable for its monumentalism; Victor eschews her usual meticulously observed and penetrating character studies in favour of depictions of edifices and large-scale architecture which reveal something about the dark heart of South African public life. The drawing on auction depicts the 2001 Ellis Park stadium disaster, where 43 football fans were crushed to death at a Soweto derby football match between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates – the worst such disaster in South African football history. Victor imagines the scene as an apocalyptic collapse of the stadium itself, making this a companion piece for a drawing in the same series depicting the collapse of the bleakly iconic Voortrekker Monument. The dark subject matter is overshadowed, however, by the artist’s immense talent. The drama of the collapsing building, seen from an aerial vantage point that takes in a familiar Johannesburg skyline and the area surrounding the world-famous stadium, is meticulously and seductively rendered at a scale perhaps only Diane Victor, of all South African artists, could convincingly achieve.
James Sey
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Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 2nd Jun, 2019
Aspire Art Auctions presented a focused and insightfully compiled selection of top-quality modern and contemporary art in their latest sale in Johannesburg.
The company’s commitment to innovation led to a bold and signature move in this sale, which featured a special section dedicated to photography. The medium has been traditionally strong among South African artists but has been without a proper focus in the local auction market. The ground-breaking segment featured a wide range of the most important South African photographers, including Pieter Hugo, David Goldblatt, Guy Tillim, and Zanele Muholi. In addition, the sale starred a number of the market’s big signatures – Alexis Preller J.H. Pierneef, Gerard Sekoto, and Maggie Laubser and top contemporary artists including, Diane Victor, and Wim Botha.
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