Strauss & co - 5 June 2017, Johannesburg

274 291 Jack Heath BRITISH/SOUTH AFRICAN 1915–1969 Thornveld oil and wax on board 120 by 180,5 cm R70 000 – 100 000 Trained at the Birmingham School of Arts and Crafts, and then at the Royal College of Art in London, Jack Heath settled in South Africa in 1946 having already developed a recognisable, vanguard style amongst such famed British Modernists as Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Edward Bawden and Sir William Nicholson. The present lot is evidence of the artist’s wonderful sense of clean, dramatic design and bold, fearless colour. From a distance Thornveld is instantly engaging and beautifully decorative; up close the texture and intricate, patterned brushstroke, achieved through the artist’s unique, wax-based medium, is utterly mesmerizing.