Strauss & co - 30 June 2014, Johannesburg

178 236 WalterWhall BATTISS south african 1906–1982 MedleyNo. 1 signed oil oncanvas 74by 59cm R500000–800000 literature cf. Skawran, Karin (ed.) (2005) WalterBattiss,Gentle Anarchist , Johannesburg: TheStandardBankGallery. A similar example illustrated incolour onpage 152. notes ‘Mybelief is that youenter intoa spiritual state through sex…Don’t you feel thatwhenyou aremaking loveyouaremoving intoa situation of cosmicconsciousness?You’renot human anymore. That is Satori [enlightenment]. And that iswhy I draweroticpictures. I liberatemany people thisway. I could still beput in jail for it.’– Walter Battiss 1 MedleyNo. 1 displays thequalityof lineandconfidence of handofWalter Battiss inawork that demonstrates hisdraughting talent anddexterity. Theeconomyof linewithwhichhedescribes thefigures is reminiscent of theSan rockart thatwas so influential in the development of his style. Comprisingonly three colours: black, ceruleanblueandbisque, thefigures are renderedwithout paint. Thenegative shapes producedby theblackoutlinedefine thegroundwhile theunpaintedarea represents thefigures – theprimed canvas asbareas thefigures it suggests. Though sexuallycharged, thefigures in the ‘erotic’ art that Battissproducedbetween themid-sixties and seventies arenever specific, nor vulgar. Always innocent andplayful, he removes any senseof theunsavouryor exploitative. Rather, hedepicts iconsof a liberated ideal of freedomandemancipation, aconcept particularly pertinent ina repressive 1970s SouthAfrica. The stylisationof thefigures and the simplification of their form isderived largely from the rockpaintings he studiedaroundSouthernAfricacoupledwith the influenceofModernartmovementsof the late twentiethcentury likeAbstract Expressionism,while the boldareasof flat colour areparticularlyevocativeof the concurrent PopArtmovement inAmericaandBritain. Theconfluenceof this simplificationand stylisation in theseeroticworks subverts the subject and renders it inanun-offensivemanner, precludingany senseof distasteor lasciviousness. NicolaasCoetzeeargues that theeroticism inBattiss’s workalso functions as social criticism, noting that the artist believes, thoughnever states explicitly that ‘his society, andevenperhapshiswholecivilisation, are sexually repressedanddishonest’and that heobserved this ‘dishonesty, bigotry, pruderyand repressionas signs of thedistancesbetweenpeople. 2 In theworksof this period, it is exactly this ‘eroticanxiety’whichBattiss gentlyparodies. In theundatedpublicationof interviews tapedand transcribedbyManieEager andBarryDavidowentitled BattissbyBattiss, theartist, a self-confessedhedonist, explains: ‘I doeroticart,which tome is a formof beauty which I think shouldbeexpounded. I think that it is verynecessary to liberate themind toanother beauty. Abeautycalled love,which shouldbemademanifest throughart… I prefer thehuman form toall other objects. I like the lines and rhythmsof people. I think they fascinateme.’ 3 1 ‘BattissbyBattiss’ inAndreCroucamp. ‘The sexual banter of the jester- kingof Fook’ inKarinSkawran (ed.). (2005) WalterBattiss: gentleanarchist. Johannesburg: StandardBank. Page 56. 2 NicolaasCoetzee. ‘EroticismandBattiss’ inKarinSkawranandMichael Macnamara (eds.). (1985) WalterBattiss . Johannesburg: ADDonker. Page88. 3 KarinSkawran. (2005)Opcit. Page 55.