Strauss & co - Wits Art Museum

WITS ARTS MUSEUM ENDOWMENT AUCTION 23 13 Sam Nhlengethwa (b.1955) Portrait of Miles Davis Charcoal on paper 157,5 x 117,6 cm 2010 Donated by the artist R70 000 – 100 000 Nhlengethwa’s monochromatic portrait of American jazz icon Miles Davis (1926–1991) effuses the cool sound and moody sentiment from Davis’ Kind of Blue (1959) and My Funny Valentine (1965) albums. The subjects of jazz music and musicians, Miles Davis in particular, are prominent themes in Nhlengethwa’s work. They have personal resonance for Nhlengethwa. For his 2010 solo exhibition at the Goodman Gallery, which included similar monochromatic images of jazz musicians and celebrated the 50th anniversary of Davis’ Kind of Blue , Nhlengethwa recalled that, during his youth, he and friends would spend their Sundays listening to the seminal album on a portable vinyl player. Based on images of jazz musicians he finds on posters, album covers, and photographs, Nhlengethwa’s portraits of jazz musicians are decidedly more naturalistic than his polychromatic etchings and lithographs. In this unique charcoal portrait, Nhlengethwa pictures a melancholic and contemplative Davis between sets, emerging from the background.  PD