Alexis Preller (South Africa 1911-1975)
Cape Malay Girl

oil on board

Artwork date: 1939
Signature details: signed and dated top left
Exchange Rates*: USD 19 991,42 - 25 703,25
GBP 14 796,09 - 19 023,54
EURO 17 064,79 - 21 940,44

(1)

34.5 x 24.5 cm; framed size: 59.5 x 48.5 x 6.5 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Johannesburg.

Graham's Gallery, Johannesburg.

Bonhams, The South African Sale, 14 October 2009, lot 36.

Private collection, Israel.

Dennis Hotz Fine Art.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Painted in 1939, this portrait belongs to an important transitional phase in Alexis Preller’s career. Having recently returned from Europe, where he immersed himself in the artistic ferment of Paris and beyond, Preller was completely taken by the work of modern masters that dotted the walls of the museums and galleries. Encounters with the works of Van Gogh and Gauguin were especially transformative. From Van Gogh, the conviction that colour could act as pure emotion, and from Gauguin, the notion of the figure as symbol rather than likeness. At the same time, his eye was opened to broader European movements: Expressionism, with its heightened distortions and emotional intensity, and Fauvism, with its unrestrained use of colour.

The present work demonstrates how thoroughly he absorbed these lessons. The sitter’s face is constructed with a startling play of greenish yellows and red shadows, a chromatic daring that recalls the Fauves. The mask-like face is sharply modelled, set against a patterned field of turquoise blue that carries scattered marks of red, the space around the sitter flattened to deny illusionistic depth. The result is a head suspended, pushing the sitter forward.

While Preller was finding his own direction, he was not alone in this rejection of academic naturalism. 1938 saw young South African artists beginning to coalesce around what the founding members, which included Preller, would call the New Group. This was a loose fellowship of progressive painters and sculptors who sought to bring modernism into a conservative cultural climate, often at the cost of extreme controversy and criticism. What united them was a refusal of the polished, descriptive realism favoured by the establishment. In its place they pursued more expressive, experimental forms: abstraction, distortion, bold colour, and the exploration of new subject matter. Preller, though temperamentally distinct, shared this desire to push painting into uncharted territory.

Seen in this context, this 1939 portrait, Cape Malay Girl, acts as an experiment in painterly language, where European modernist strategies are tested and transformed. The Fauvist palette, the Expressionist distortions, the Gauguinesque decorative field – all are present, yet recombined in ways that mark the beginnings of Preller’s distinct voice as he searched for his identity as an artist. In the years that followed, he would continue to push boundaries, and would begin to distance himself from the European modern example in favour of an expression rooted in Africa.

Amy Carrington

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Norval Foundation, Cape Town; Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg; Javett Art Centre, Pretoria and Ellerman House Collection, Cape Town.