oil on canvas

Artwork date: circa. early 1980s

(1)

72 x 87 cm; framed size: 78 x 93 x 4.5 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

This delightful painting of a female nude captured in bold swatches of rose pink and soft apricot, with confident black outlines, was certainly painted late in Walter Battiss’ life. Although undated, the work clearly exhibits important stylistic elements employed by the advanced painter – in scale and paint application – in the 1970s and early 80s.

Battiss retired from the University of South Africa in 1971 and, although he travelled throughout his life, he was able to dedicate more time to overseas visits once he was no longer bound to teaching. While the artist greatly admired England and Europe, Warren Siebrits notes that, in the late 1970s America made a significant impression on Battiss.[1] He first visited New York in May 1974. In a letter to his sister Doreen, he wrote, “This is a real tonic being here on the island of Manhattan and will richly benefit me. I’m glad I left it till now when I’m that mature to take it in properly”.[2] Battiss would return to America more than six times in the remaining eight years of his life. Often based in Boston, where he even rented an apartment and had a studio, his time in America taught him the importance of ‘thinking bigger’. This shift in perspective saw the artist painting on a much larger scale.[3]

Woman by a river is a wonderfully large-scale work painted in assertive brushstrokes – another important element of the artist’s late style. Well-known for his use of the palette knife in creating thick impasto works, art historian, Marion Arnold notes that the brush replaced the palette knife in the last decade of Battiss’ life.[4] Working extensively in watercolour at this time, Arnold explains that, “watercolour, demanded a feeling for fluidity and translucency, and an understanding of the calligraphic power of the brush to create form economically”. The historian concludes that, “Battiss found the descriptive qualities of a brush and the effects of liquid watercolour increasingly fascinating and that he transferred his dexterity with a brush to the oil medium”.[5]

Painted in translucent layers, the painting also offers a whimsical or playful aspect – another well-loved characteristic of the artist and his works. The composition ends just above the woman’s nose and she thus has no eyes with which to return the viewer’s gaze. Upon another look, however, one discovers a ‘second’ face with eyes looking directly at the viewer – right in the pelvic area! Above the figure, a lively pattern flows in brilliant yellow, turquoise and lilac flows, taking on the form of a river. The woman is perhaps enjoying a private moment of quiet sunbathing in the outdoors? But on further inspection the pattern is in fact made up of figures, their black legs flung in all directions. The rich composition is wonderfully successful because it offers endless possibilities for the viewer to contemplate. It holds intrigue as Battiss makes you look, and then makes you look again.

Sarah Sinisi

^{[1] Siebrits, W. (2016). Walter Battiss: “I Invented Myself” The Jack Ginsberg Collection. Johannesburg: Wits Art Museum.p.129.}

^{[2] Ibid.}

^{[3] Ibid.}

^{[4] Arnold, M, Confronting Paintings, in Skawran, K. & Macnamara, M. (eds). (1985). Walter Battiss. Craighall: AD. Donker (PTY) LTD.p.70.}

^{[5] Ibid.}

COLLECTOR'S NOTE:

• Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Giles Battiss.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg; Javett Art Centre, Pretoria; Durban Art Gallert, Durban; William Humphreys Gallery, Kimberley; University of the Witwatersrand Art Museum, Johannesburg; and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Gqeberha.