20th Nov, 2024 19:00

20th Century & Contemporary Art

 
  Lot 12
 
Lot 12 - Edoardo Villa (South Africa 1915-2011)

12

Edoardo Villa (South Africa 1915-2011)
Maquette for Traverse

steel sculpture

Artwork date: circa. 1956-57

Sold for R117,250
Estimated at R80,000 - R120,000


Condition Report

The overall condition is good.

Minor surface dirt along the crevices.

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.

 

steel sculpture

Artwork date: circa. 1956-57

(1)

35 x 17 x 137 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Johannesburg.

Acquired directly from the artist.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Maquette for Traverse was created circa the late 1950s in preparation for one of the largest sculptures ever produced by Edoardo Villa, his magnificent Traverse (1957).

Notably, in 1957, Villa was selected to represent South Africa at the São Paulo Biennale in Brazil where he received an Honourable Mention. That same year, the artist’s work was included in an exhibition of South African Art that toured several cities in the United States of America and a group show at the Helen de Leeuw Gallery in Johannesburg. Remarkably, Traverse was produced two years before Villa’s monumental Africa. Similar to Africa, it is a welded piece constructed from a series of intersecting flat and curved planes of steel. The use of steel broke away from the labour-intensive processes of conventional clay modelling and bronze casting. This new material enabled the bold forms and spiky shapes with which he forged a new aesthetic, referencing both the stark African landscape and art from this continent. The use of steel would not only mark a change in aesthetic, but allowed Villa to create larger-scale works, complimenting the growing development of local urban architecture and celebrating the innovations made possible by a rapidly growing local steel industry at that time. Traverse (1957) was sold at Aspire Art’s September 20th Century and Contemporary Art sale in 2020 at more than double the low estimate at a remarkable R 4 894 089.97.

Traverse (1957), shaped steel plates, painted and mounted on a

base with castors, 98 x 42 x 562.5 cm, sold at Aspire Art in 2020

for R 4 894 089.97.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch; Edoardo Villa Museum, Pretoria; Rand Merchant Bank, Johannesburg; Norval Foundation, Cape Town; Javett Art Centre, Pretoria; Iziko South African National Gallery; Sanlam Art Collection, Johannesburg; Johannesburg Art Galler; University of Cape Town; Durban Art Gallery; The South African Reserve Bank, Johannesburg; University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town and the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg.

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.

Images *

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



 

Currency conversions are based on the exchange rate at the auction's start time and date. Bidders should verify the current exchange rate on the day of the sale. All invoices and payments must be made in South African Rands.

 

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.