Strauss & co - 12 October 2015, Cape Town

On the extreme right hand side a woman holds an animal specimen in a glass box. Behind her is a grayish figure that is actually a sculpture, another reference to art history. It too blurs the lines between the real and the fake, the natural and the man-made. There is a curious disconnect between the figures represented, as if they are all in their own worlds. On the extreme left is a man of indeterminate race. With arms folded he appears to be witnessing the events. Is he a spectator or an active agent? His eyes are not visible so the exact point of his stare is unclear adding more ambiguity to the whole scene. The creases in his white shirt’s sleeve are echoed in the white lilies and the white curtain that cuts across the upper part of the composition. Linking this drawing to Siopis’painting Melancholia not only serves chronology or context, but also highlights the similarities between the two works even though their medium, scale and format differ. Both are rich in colour and form and seem to be set in an infinite space – a studio with no end in sight. However, in some areas of Melancholia form is created by the physicality of thick paint, whereas in this drawing the colour shapes the form. This is where the artist shows her full set of skills and control over multiple mediums to create dramatic evocative images – a point reiterated time and again across her three decade long career. 1. Melancholia was acquired by the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 1986 and was a key work in the artist’s retrospective, Time and Again , which on view at Iziko South African National Gallery from December 17 2014 to March 23 2015 and Wits Art Museum from 22 April to 20 July 2015. 2. Colin Richards ‘Prima Facie’ in Kathryn Smith (ed) (2005) Penny Siopis , Johannesburg: Goodman Gallery Editions. Pages 8-9. 3. Sue Williamson (1989) Resistance Art in South Africa . Cape Town: David Phillip. Page 22. 4. Gerrit Olivier (ed) (2014) Time and Again , Johannesburg: Wits University Press. Page 228. Penny Siopis Melancholia 1986 oil on canvas 197,5 by 175,5cm Collection of Johannesburg Art Gallery The present lot (detail) 283