2nd Jun, 2019 9:00

Modern & Contemporary Art

 
Lot 60
 
Lot 60 - Pieter Hugo (South Africa 1976-)

60

Pieter Hugo (South Africa 1976-)
Mallam Mantari Lamal with Mainasara, Abuja Nigeria 2005

archival pigment inks on 100% cotton rag paper

Artwork date: 2005
Signature details: signed, dated, numbered 1/5 and inscribed with the title in pencil along the bottom margin
Exhibited: FOAM Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Hyena & Other Men, 5 September to 2 November 2008, another example from the edition exhibited. Les Rencontres D’Arles Photography, Arles, 13 July to 14 September 2008, another example from the edition exhibited. Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, The Hyena and Other Men, 29 November 2007 to 10 January 2008, another example from the edition exhibited. Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, Pieter Hugo ‘Gadawan Kura’ – The Hyena Men series 1, 2005, another example from the edition exhibited.
Literature: Abiola, A. and Hugo, P. (2007). The Hyena and Other Men. Munich: Prestel, an example of this image illustrated in colour on the cover and within, unpaginated.

Sold for R512,100
Estimated at R400,000 - R600,000


 

archival pigment inks on 100% cotton rag paper

Artwork date: 2005
Signature details: signed, dated, numbered 1/5 and inscribed with the title in pencil along the bottom margin
Exhibited: FOAM Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Hyena & Other Men, 5 September to 2 November 2008, another example from the edition exhibited. Les Rencontres D’Arles Photography, Arles, 13 July to 14 September 2008, another example from the edition exhibited. Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, The Hyena and Other Men, 29 November 2007 to 10 January 2008, another example from the edition exhibited. Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, Pieter Hugo ‘Gadawan Kura’ – The Hyena Men series 1, 2005, another example from the edition exhibited.
Literature: Abiola, A. and Hugo, P. (2007). The Hyena and Other Men. Munich: Prestel, an example of this image illustrated in colour on the cover and within, unpaginated.

(1)

sheet size: 112 x 110 cm

Michael Stevenson Contemporary, Cape Town.

Notes:

Few contemporary photographic series are as widely recognisable as the works from Pieter Hugo’s ‘Gadawan Kura’– The Hyena and Other Men I and II. Of all the photographs from this famous series, this is perhaps the best-known and most regarded, as it was selected as the cover image for the Prestel book The Hyena and Other Men, first published in 2007.Since it first burst into public imagination with a debut at Michael Stevenson Cape Town in 2005, we have been captivated by and sought to understand the seemingly impossible relationship between man and beast evidenced in these images.The history of the series has taken on a mythology nearly as legendary as the images themselves: Hugo first learned of the itinerant performers from an online cell phone image snapped from a car window, that mislabeled the animal handlers as ‘debt-collectors’. Local Nigerian journalist Adetokunbo Abiola, who wrote the essay for the book of the series, worked to clarify the identities and locations of the troupe, which is part of the Hausa community. Hugo travelled to Nigeria in both 2005 and 2007 and was faced with the seemingly impossible task of locating the itinerant group which operates on the geographic and legal peripheries of Nigeria’s major cities, within a vast country of nearly 200 million people.After initially planning to photograph the public spectacle of the performance, Hugo’s focus rather became more personal, more intimate: the most compelling story was the seemingly contradictory connection between the animals and their handlers, of which Hugo says: “[it] was more interesting than all the fireworks of the performance. There was something very strange going on between the guys and the hyenas, bordering on sadomasochism. These animals had been taken out of the wild as pups. They couldn’t return. They were entirely dependent on these guys for food. And these men were dependent on the animals for their livelihoods. They needed each other, but it wasn’t an easy symbiosis.While much has been written about the Hyena Men series, the images themselves resist easy interpretation. They offer instead a window into a delicate and complicated balance of power between man and beast.

Kathryn Del Boccio

Sources:

[1] Pieter Hugo interviewed by Edward Siddons (2018). ‘Pieter Hugo's best photograph: the hyena men of Nigeria’, The Guardian, 19 July Available at: https://https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jul/19/pieter-hugo-best-photograph. Accessed 26 April 2019.

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, 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.

 

View all lots in this sale

Images *

Drag and drop .jpg images here to upload, or click here to select images.


 

IMPORTANT NOTICE:


 

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.