Strauss & co - 5 June 2017, Johannesburg

251 273 Robert Hodgins SOUTH AFRICAN 1920–2010 Clem signed, dated 1983 and inscribed with the title on the reverse oil on board 61 by 80,5 cm R200 000 – 300 000 In June 1975, Clement Greenberg, an influential American art critic of the post-war period, visited South Africa for a lecture tour. ‘Regrettably, his introductory appearance was not a great success,’ recalled art historian Esmé Berman, who had befriended Greenberg in the early 1970s and extended the invitation to visit. ‘Although eminently articulate, Clem lacked the charismatic vocal skills required to captivate the crowded auditorium. 1 The Los Angeles Times reported that many South Africans found Greenberg to be ‘dull’, ‘strangely evasive’and ‘surprisingly insubstantial’on his specialty.’Robert Hodgins, himself a seasoned art critic, reported on Greenberg’s final lecture at Rand Afrikaans University. He was withering in his judgement: ‘Greenberg did not tell us something we expected, he, in fact, said nothing at all, gave us nothing serious to think about.’ 2 Hodgins’s scornful take on Greenberg, a champion of American painterly abstraction, is still discernible in this later, caricaturing portrait. 1. Esmé Berman, ‘All art has a history’, in Art South Africa , March 2010, page 23. 2. Robert Hodgins, Artlook , August–September 1975, page 8.