oil on canvas

Artwork date: 1977
Signature details: signed and dated

(1)

117.5 x 117.5 cm

Notes:

Douglas Portway’s abstract paintings intuit a complex reality that cannot easily be put into words. Similar to the experience of standing in front of Mark Rothko’s large-scale ‘floatingforms’, his works are quietly powerful. Without referencing any subject, they appeal immediately, alluding to sensations, feelings and reactions. Addressing the viewer in a purely formal visual language, Portway often stated that his paintings are ambiguous in meaning, in order to invite individual contemplation and a consideration of the expressive elements in each work. In their own individual sincerity, it is this ‘abstract poeticism’ (Hodin 1983:17)1 that is part of Portway’s artistic authority, making him one of the most moving and esteemed artists of his generation working in abstraction. Yellow Abstract (1977) (Lot 94) is a striking example of Portway’s distinctive mature style and his unique technique of colour and surface layering without giving tactile body to the paint – a sensibility derived from the restraint of Far Eastern painterly traditions.

He was greatly influenced by the intellectual currents of abstract expressionism and the philosophy of Zen Buddhism which he explored in his paintings. Working intuitively, yet introspectively, was central to his process of manifesting visually a state of mind or feeling, without the interference of conceptual thought. A sense of serenity can be read in Yellow Abstract, a warm circular form - as the focal point dominates the contained, black-outlined composition. It draws the viewer in and demands a minute ofquiet reflection. The background is nondescript and calm. Yellow Abstract was painted a decade after Portway settled in St Ives, West Cornwall, in 1967, which at the time had been the centre for modern developments in British art since the 1940s. There he met other artists involved in the British Abstract movement of the 1950s and 1960s and became an important member of this dynamic artistic community. He however kept very close ties with South Africa after emigrating in 1956,shortly after his works were included in the South African presentation at the Venice Biennale that year. Portway’s first solo exhibition in London in 1959 was with the prestigious Drian Galleries. The show drew much critical acclaim. Following its success, he was contracted by the gallery founder and director Halima Natecz, who then officially represented his work until the 1970s.

Composition No. 11 (Lot 95) is one of the many works first handled by Drian Galleries and carried its stamp of approval. It is an impressive painting and typical of Portway’s gestural compositions from the 1960s. Despite the notable large scale and voluminous – almost movable – shapes, it shows the artist’s subtle handling of paint, layered scraffiti and the application of colour in monochrome, to create a sensuous surface. The title references its form, and is not revealing of meaning or narrative. Rather, the work is a semblance of sensation or of thought, expressed without a concrete image. Composition No. 11 is not rooted in time or place, but universal in its aesthetic quality and continuing mystery.

Marelize van Zyl