Deborah Bell (South Africa 1957-)
Negotiations Take Place

gouache, collage, charcoal, pastel and watercolour on paper

Exhibited: Gertrude Posel Gallery, Johannesburg, 'Ubu: +/- 101', 1 to 15 August 1997.
Observatory Museum, Makhanda, 'Ubu: +/- 101', 3 to 13 July 1997.

Literature: Doepel, R. (1997). 'Ubu: +/- 101: William Kentridge, Robert Hodgins, Deborah Bell'. Johannesburg: French Institute of South Africa, illustrated in colour on p. 31.
Exchange Rates*: USD 9 599 – 11 998
GBP 7 195 – 8 994
EURO 8 267 – 10 334

(1)

151 x 114 cm; framed size: 170 x 133 x 2 cm

Provenance:

Private collection of Dr Bruce Hoffman, Cape Town.

Strauss & Co., Cape Town, Important South African & International Art, Decorative Arts & Jewellery, 16 March 2015, Lot 613.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Negotiations take Place was created in 1997, at a time when South Africa was in the middle of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings.

The work formed part of a larger project, for which Deborah Bell, William Kentridge and Robert Hodgins were tasked with creating their own interpretations of Alfred Jarry’s 1896 play, Ubu Roi, wherein the central character is a thoroughly evil, spiteful and dangerous bureaucrat. A figure which has become a widely used symbol of transgression, Ubu has been drawn upon by artists including Bonnard, Picasso, Duchamp, Miró, Ernst and Hockney, amongst others.

Over a century after the play’s creation – Bell, Hodgins and Kentridge approached Jarry’s concept within the context of a contemporary South Africa. Each artist created a set of 8 graphics which were published as a portfolio and exhibited alongside additional material in the landmark 1997 exhibition UBU: +/- 101, at the Gertrude Posel Gallery at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

The current lot, a large-scale drawing, was created alongside two other drawings. The three works show an almost hidden, masked word, which visually underlies the pasted and drawn elements, each containing one of the letters: U – B – U. Positioned at the centre, Negotiations take Place forms the ‘B’ and is completed using imagery that parallels her set of etchings titled, Ubu in Africa.

Ubu in Africa (Ubu, Ma Ubu and Ma Ubu’s Lover; The Grand Tour; Left Luggage; Ma Ubu; Seat of Power; Ma Ubu – Political Advisor; Salutations – Ubu expands his horizons 2; Ubu Potentate)

The electric blue clasped hands at the center of the drawing are, for example, the dominant image of the etching Salutations. While the hands connect to the title, the etching also includes another less easily read inscription (bottom right), ‘Greas (ed?) Palms’ which together with the inclusion of a small pile of coins, generates a thematic layer – a pointed comment on the nature of Ubu.

The sharply featured mask in the top right with long pointed horns, highlighted in blue, is Ma Ubu, also portrayed in an etching of the same name. The image is derived from an 18^th century Yoruba sculpture, a bronze figure of Onile, the spirit of the earth now in the Nigerian Museum in Lagos. The severe form portrays the artist’s characterisation of Ma – cold and impersonal, she is a hard and aloof figure. In the drawing, Ma’s gaze falls onto her throne in the bottom left corner, based on a beaded King’s Stool from Cameroon the throne rests upon a locked suitcase, containing Ubu’s conscience and repeated in the etching Left Luggage.

In between the 5 large images that make up the ‘B’, there are small drawings too – a razor, a man on a bike, a gun – again, all repeated in the print portfolio. Looking carefully and deeply into the work thus rewards the viewer with endless possibilities for discovery. Interestingly, Bell began the drawing as a preparatory work but reworked it after the etchings were complete. The large scale work thus acts both as a before and an after, a place where ideas were developed but also a fully resolved and complete artwork. The rich imagery rendered in charcoal, gouache and watercolour, and built up and layered in collage, reveals the artist’s nuanced and personal interpretations of the archetypal and notorious Ubu.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Leeu Collection, Franschhoek; Delaire Graff Wine Estate, Stellenbosch; Friends of the National Gallery, Cape Town; Hara Museum, Tokyo; Johannesburg Art Gallery; Johannesburg City Council; The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Gqeberha; MTN Art Collection, Johannesburg; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein; Javett Art Centre, Pretoria; Roodepoort Museum; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Sanlam Collection; Sasol Art Collection, Johannesburg; Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C.; Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg; Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg; University of Pietermaritzburg Collection; and the University of the Witwatersrand Collection; Johannesburg.