30th Nov, 2022 18:00

20th Century & Contemporary Art

 
Lot 41
 
Lot 41 - Dumile Feni (South Africa 1939-1991)

41

Dumile Feni (South Africa 1939-1991)
Mother and child

bronze

Artwork date: 1966
Signature details: signed and numbered 4/5 on the underside
Exhibited: Adler Fielding Galleries, Johannesburg, 'Sculpture SA 1900-1967', 12 September 1967 another example from the edition exhibited.
Literature: Feni, D. & Dube, P. M. (2010). 'Dumile Feni: The Story of a Great Artist'. Johannesburg: Motloatse Arts Heritage Trust, illustrated on p.225; Dube, P. M. (2006). 'Dumile Feni Retrospective'. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, the terracotta mould illustrated on p.28.

Sold for R341,400
Estimated at R300,000 - R500,000


Condition Report

The overall condition is very good.

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.

 

bronze

Artwork date: 1966
Signature details: signed and numbered 4/5 on the underside
Exhibited: Adler Fielding Galleries, Johannesburg, 'Sculpture SA 1900-1967', 12 September 1967 another example from the edition exhibited.
Literature: Feni, D. & Dube, P. M. (2010). 'Dumile Feni: The Story of a Great Artist'. Johannesburg: Motloatse Arts Heritage Trust, illustrated on p.225; Dube, P. M. (2006). 'Dumile Feni Retrospective'. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, the terracotta mould illustrated on p.28.

(1)

27 x 19 x 21 cm excluding base

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

Notes:

The theme of mother and child has both personal and political significance in the oeuvre of Dumile Feni. In its typical (art) historical convention, mother and child conveys fecundity, beauty, and idealized motherhood. This idolization of the mother as bearer of and embodied life was an expressive motif of the filial values and lived experience of a given, convivial social life.

However, in Dumile’s iconography such a visual motif acquires a new materialist valance and interpretation. It asks us to contend with denied filiality. At the level of the personal, it gestures to the loss and mourning of the artist’s mother who died when he was still very young. It can also become a eulogizing and appreciatory device that recognizes the maternal figures in and around his life.

Here the severance of the black family is a natural outgrowth of the political lived experience under conditions of racial subjection. Thus, the recurrence of this theme throughout his art, might be indicative of the presence and inseparability of the personal from political or even the aesthetic from the moral.

The sculpture depicts an intense frontal figuration of dejection and torment not only in how it portrays the subject’s faces, but also in how their bodily forms are distorted. The mother’s arms are wrapped around her child’s body, as she kneels, staring at the viewer with a look of desperation. We can’t escape her despondent eyes. However, the sheer muscular comportment of the mother indicates her latent potential to raise herself from the dirt. She has the power!

Athi Mongezeleli Joja

The work was cast by the Renzo Vignali Foundry as confirmed by the Foundry and by Salome le Roux from the ART-Group and Gerard de Kamper from the University of Pretoria Museums.

Collections:

The artist is represented in numerous local collections, notably, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Johannesburg Art Gallery; De Beers Centenary Art Gallery, Alice and the University of Fort Hare, Alice.

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Auction: 20th Century & Contemporary Art, 30th Nov, 2022

 

The focused sale brings to market 84 highly collectable lots, with the diverse collection showcasing highlights by modern masters including magnificent still-life compositions and a Zanzibari boat scene by Irma Stern, an Alexis Preller abstract and an early JH Pierneef landscape. Also included is a significant collection of celebrated contemporary artists: Mustafa Maluka, David Koloane, Walter Oltmann, Norman Catherine, Willem Boshoff, a rare self-portrait oil by Robert Hodgins as well as a large bronze sculpture by Zanele Muholi, the first of this new body of work to be offered on auction.
 
The sale features a special selection of artworks by William Kentridge. One of the most celebrated and influential living artists today, his major retrospective exhibition is currently on show at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. This is one of the most unique and high-quality Kentridge collections to come to market. Spanning his career and showcasing the many mediums in which he works, the sale features signature charcoal drawings alongside collages, tapestry, prints and sculptures.

View all lots in this sale

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IMPORTANT NOTICE:


 

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Medium (≤90x120x15 cm): R960

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