17th Jun, 2018 18:00
Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art
39
Lucas Thandokwazi Sithole (South Africa 1931-1994)
Mother and Child
bronze
Artwork date: 1970
Signature details: signed
Literature: Haenggi, F. F. (1979). Lucas Sithole 1958–1979: A Pictorial Review of Africa’s Major Black Sculptor. Johannesburg: Gallery 21 and The Haenggi Foundation Museum, illustrated on p.84.
bronze
Artwork date: 1970
Signature details: signed
Literature: Haenggi, F. F. (1979). Lucas Sithole 1958–1979: A Pictorial Review of Africa’s Major Black Sculptor. Johannesburg: Gallery 21 and The Haenggi Foundation Museum, illustrated on p.84.
(1)
139 x 19 x 15 cm
Notes:
Lucas Sithole displayed a natural talent from a young age, and his parents sent him to Vlakfontein Technical College in 1948. After working in a soap factory, he created tourist craft (in the 1950s), making his way eventually to the Polly Street Art Centre (1959/60). Later he studied painting under Alpheus Kubeka at the Chiawelo Centre, and in 1960 successfully migrated into Johannesburg’s art gallery system.The Adler Fielding Galley hosted his first exhibitions, and later Gallery 101 and Gallery 21 promoted Sithole as a major artist.“One day in early 1960 when the Adler Fielding Gallery was a mere tin shed, a young, shy African walked timidly into our workshops […] Lawrence Adler and I were most impressed with two wood carvings of African women. He said that he always wanted to do fine arts, but he was sent by his parents to learn carpentry and cabinet making.” (Major Aubrey Fielding, www.sithole.com )John Povey, reviewing Sithole’s Retrospective (1958-79), writes: “the elongation of writhing form, the simplification in lines., allow[s] the image to emerge from the natural forms of the wood [into] mythological beings.”His biomorphic forms are drawn from nature: the wood or bronze is a living organism, a living spirit, in which the artist finds, and carves, symbolic human and animal archetypes. Mother and Child is certainly one of these, the elongated figures and textured bronze non-naturalistic and yet intensely spiritual.Sithole had major solo and group exhibitions during his life in London, Basel, Berlin, Chicago, and New York, and represented SA at the Venice Biennale in 1968; his work is housed in some 18 museums and institutions (including the Museum der Weltkulturen in Frankfurt, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and the Wits Art Museum). He has over 70 recorded works in the USA, more than 40 in the UK, and at least 60 more in collections all over Europe.
Steven Sack
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Auction: Historic, Modern & Contemporary Art, 17th Jun, 2018
In a slow and unresponsive market, amid tight economic conditions generally in South Africa, Aspire Art Auctions made impressive statements and set several world records.
Two rare works by Irma Stern achieved sparkling results. The top lot by value: Still life with magnolias, apples and bowl (1949), fetched R6 828 000, the highest price achieved for a work by Stern for over a year. Another significant still life, Still life with chrysanthemums in the artist’s handmade ceramic jug, from 1950, sold for R3 414 000.
A significant, world record was achieved for Peter Clarke – R1 479 400 for Lazy Day, an acrylic and gouache on paper from 1975, and records were also set for contemporary artists, Zander Blom and Paul Stopforth.
Viewing
Thursday 14 June 2018 | 10 am – 5 pm
Friday 15 June 2018 | 10 am – 5 pm
Saturday 16 June 2018 | 10 am – 5 pm
Sunday 17 June 2018 | 10 am – 5 pm
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