1st Sep, 2019 9:30
Modern & Contemporary Art
65
Alexis Preller (South Africa 1911-1975)
Stone
oil and gold leaf on a found stone in the artist's hand-made brass frame
Artwork date: 1966
Signature details: signed and dated on an adhered sun motif on the back of the stone
oil and gold leaf on a found stone in the artist's hand-made brass frame
Artwork date: 1966
Signature details: signed and dated on an adhered sun motif on the back of the stone
(1)
46 x 46 x 5 cm
Notes:
By the time this work of Alexis Preller’s was made in 1966, he was moving into a phase of his career marked by both a concern with more ‘cosmic’ subjects on one hand, and an increasingly abstract style on the other. The decisive move into abstraction was unveiled in a highly successful exhibition in Johannesburg, at the Lidchi Gallery in October 1965. The money generated by the exhibition was ploughed back into Preller’s home and studio complex at Dombeya. As Berman points out, Preller’s guest suite at his home was designed partially with ‘the co-operation of the Pretoria jeweller Erich Frey, to create a brass mural panel comprised of multiple rectangular units set out in rows”.Berman further points out that the design for Preller’s homestead also featured stones set into the floor, selected by Preller himself.[2] It is not such a leap to seeing the household environment as inspiration for this quirky and arresting work, with its elements of brass plate and centrally-set and painted stone. We might speculate further that the sad passing, a few months after the Johannesburg exhibition, of Preller’s great friend, the architect Norman Eaton, gave some inspiration to the piece. Eaton had been actively involved in the design of Preller’s home. The jeweller Frey, also a personal friend of the artist, was gifted a contemporaneous work at this time, one of his Gold Primavera paintings, which was displayed in a similar brass and gold frame. The work on auction bears a Pretoria Art Museum label with the word ‘Retrospective’ on it, although no record of it appears in the retrospective catalogue from the Museum of 1972.
James Sey
Sources:
[1] Berman, E. (2010). Alexis Preller: Africa, the sun and shadows. Johannesburg: Pan McMillan/Shelf Publishing. p.265
[2] Ibid.
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Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 1st Sep, 2019
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