Strauss & co - Wits Art Museum

WITS ARTS MUSEUM ENDOWMENT AUCTION 41 28 Joachim Schönfeldt (b.1958) Five Faces and Castle Varnish and oil paint on acrylic on hand-embossed paper; enamel on acrylic on hand- embossed paper 128 x 97,5 cm 2002 Donated by the artist R80 000 – 120 000 This work belongs to a series produced for an exhibition in 2005. Called Model Men the exhibition project featured writing by Ivan Vladislavić precipitated by Joachim Schönfeldt’s images and a reading of the resultant image text relations by Andries Oliphant. Works from this series have found homes across the world. The embossed paper of the work causes the five faces of men and the five castle pieces to stand out from the matrix on which they are made. The use of colour and modeled tones to make the faces look real is contrasted to the flat, schematic rendering of the castle pieces. While it is clear how the latter would fit together to form a conventional five-pointed star plan, the implication that the human faces could all be joined to solve a puzzle, hangs in the balance, parallel to the way in which the faces are suspended above the castle. The work is accompanied by the catalogue from the exhibition.  AN