4th Mar, 2021 19:00
Modern & Contemporary Art
56
William Kentridge|b.1955 South Africa|Drawing from Sobriety, Obesity and Growing Old (Mrs Eckstein, preparing for the day)
charcoal and pastel on paper|signed bottom right|1991
NA
Sold for R2,845,690
Estimated at R2,800,000 - R3,800,000
NA
(1)
TBC 135 x 108.5 cm; Framed size: TBC 164 x 136 cm
Notes:
William Kentridge’s works captivate audiences in galleries and museums worldwide and set auction rooms alight with heated bidding. Never more so than when Aspire Art Auctions captured a world record with Drawing from Stereoscope (Double page, Soho in two rooms) selling at R6,600,400 in October 2018, bettering its own world record of R5,456,640 for Drawing from Mine (Soho with Coffee Plunger and Cup) on our November 2017 auction.More recently Aspire sold Kentridge’s Drawing for Johannesburg, 2nd Greatest City after Paris (Soho Eating) for €232,200 in a collaborative auction in Paris. The drawings from the artist’s celebrated animated film series, combining both his artistic and literary sensibility, are undoubtedly amongst his most sought-after works. Sobriety, Obesity and Growing Old (1991), in which Soho and Felix resume their contest for the affections of Mrs Eckstein, is the fourth film in the Soho Chronicles. The story takes a dramatic turn when Soho questions what it profits him to own the earth if he has lost the woman he loves. To win her back he is forced to dissolve his empire. Drawing from Sobriety, Obesity and Growing Old (Mrs Eckstein, preparing for the day) depicts the beloved in all her splendor, giving herself over to the pleasure of dancing in anticipation of the day ahead. She is the object of desire. In fact, the real subject of the films, as the artist’s brother, Matthew Kentridge, states in his celebrated book. It is worth noting that Kentridge won the Rembrandt Gold Medal at the Cape Town Triennial in 1991 for the animated film Sobriety, Obesity and Growing Old.
Emma Bedford
Sources:
[1] Kentridge, M. (2015). The Soho Chronicles: 10 Films by William Kentridge. London, New York and Calcutta: Seagull Books, p.6.
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Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 4th Mar, 2021
Aspire Art Auctions’ Cape Town sale proved that the market for African and international art continues to thrive despite the pandemic.
The top lot by value was Irma Stern’s Dahlias and fruit, one of the most outstanding paintings from her late period, which achieved an impressive R5,234,800. Marlene Dumas scored a sensational hit when her early painting, Score, sold for R3,414,000, and stellar results were also achieved for celebrated artists; William Kentridge, George Pemba, Gerard Sekoto and Peter Clarke, amongst others, with world records at auction set for contemporary artists Turiya Magadlela and Gerhard Marx.
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