oil on canvas

Artwork date: 1953
Signature details: signed and dated bottom right; signed, inscribed with the title and a dedication and attached with an Elaine Hopewell Gallery label on the reverse

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24 x 35.5 cm; framed size: 44 x 54 x 3 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

Elaine Hopewell Gallery, Gqeberha.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

George Pemba is amongst South Africa’s most celebrated artists having been acknowledged with a retrospective exhibition at the South African National Gallery in 1996 accompanied by a superb catalogue edited by art historians Hayden Proud and Barry Feinberg, two biographies edited by Sarah Huddleston and Barry Feinberg respectively, as well as inclusion in the impressive two-volume publication, Revisions: Expanding the Narrative of South African Art.

West End depicts a scene taking place in the area just eight kilometres north of Korsten in Gqeberha (previously named Port Elizabeth) where Pemba was born. It is in Gqeberha that he met Elsa Pitman, the mother of the current owner of this work, with whom he forged a close friendship in the 1980s. The dedication on the reverse to Elsa Pitman ‘with compliments’ and ‘son-in-law’ confirms the extraordinary relationship between artist and mentor, whom Pemba valued as a family member, as well as someone who played a significant role in encouraging and supporting him.

With a firm grasp on the power of perspective, the artist invites us into West End where a donkey cart has pulled up on the left to allow those gathered around the driver to purchase some of his goods while catching up on the news of the day. Across the road a couple engages in discussion next to a car with the dimensions and shape of a 1940s sedan, perhaps dreaming of a day when they, too, will drive such a vehicle.

This urban scene has all the appeal of a bucolic pastoral landscape, evoking a steady measured pace of life when there was time to stop and chat or to marvel at a car. In its subject and dedication, West End reflects a charming story of the close relationship between an artist and his mentor, Elsa Pitman.

Emma Bedford

COLLECTIONS

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the University of Fort Hare Art Collection, Alice; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Sanlam Art Collection, Bellville; Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Gqeberha; University of Natal Art Collection, Durban and The World Bank Collection, Washington, DC.