oil on canvas

Signature details: signed; printed with the artist's name on a Gallery 709 label on the reverse

(1)

30 x 40 cm

Notes:

Walter Battiss devoted the greater part of the 1960s to travelling extensively. He explored then-remote parts of Southern and East Africa, the Middle East and Southern Arabia. During these tours, Battiss passionately learned about the many peoples and diverse cultures he encountered, his many sketchbooks filled with detailed observations on the landscapes and settings of these seemingly ‘exotic’ places. All these new and exciting stimuli were absorbed in Battiss’ paintings, which revealed a shift in style and technique in the works from this period.A trip that had a profound impact on Battiss was his visit to Hadhramaut, in present-day Yemen, in late 1964. The desert intrigued him and he studied the ancient scripts and cultures of this land. He admired the enchanting views of the old cities and the historical Arabian architecture of these urban areas. Battiss beautifully portrayed such a scene in Buildings, Mukalla (1964), now in The Jack Ginsberg Collection. It was during this time that the artist gained a profound understanding of the various deep-rooted Arabic influences on the African continent, especially in the various countries he visited like Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania. In the same year, Battiss also travelled along the East coast of Africa, spending time in the ancient Arabic port cities of Zanzibar, Mombasa, Lamu and the Bajun Islands.The paintings he produced during this time of exploration are widely considered as the artist’s finest. African Village is such a work. Showing Battiss’ confident spontaneity with paint, it references one of the many scenes he would have encountered during his journeys – here a semi-rural setting, perhaps a marketplace with figures dressed in traditional attire. A flat-roofed Arabian-style building with typically arched windows, surrounded by palm trees, features in the background. Although the particular place depicted might be unknown, the painting serves as a personal and historical record of the artist’s memory and response to the sights of these locales. African Village closely resembles Buildings, Mukalla. The two paintings, with their similar warm tones, were in all likelihood painted during the same period in 1964.

Marelize van Zyl

Sources:

[i] Siebrits, W. 2016. The Five Lives of Walter Battiss. “My Art Celebrates Life, Love, Freedom”, in Siebrits, W. (ed). 2016. Walter Battiss: I invented myself. Wits University Press: Johannesburg.