Strauss & co - 13 November 2017, Johannesburg

17 In no way do the sixty KwaZulu-Natal artworks selected here represent the remarkable, lively and moving history of artmaking in the province. While never trying to present a survey of the area’s artmaking, or re-evaluate it, the selection reveals a number of clear points and trends. A strong influence from British Modernism is evident, both stylistically and in terms of tertiary guidance. The touch of Bloomsbury’s Roger Fry, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, for instance, as well as Stanley Spencer, Wyndham Lewis, the Nashes, Edward Bawden and Graham Sutherland – a roll call of thrilling, vanguard painters – is unmistakable in the pictures by Merlyn Evans, Bertha Everard, Leonora Everard-Haden, Normand Dunn, Jack, Jane and Jinny Heath, Carola Brotherton and Susan Davies. No surprise that most would have had access to eye-popping modern British pictures in the permanent collections of the Tatham Gallery and the Natal Art Gallery. Yet despite a British inflection, most of these artists sought to animate their works with a distinctly African spirit. Dunn and Jack Heath did so most dramatically, perhaps, drawing on bold Zulu motifs, vernacular pattern, daring, uninhibited colour combinations, and indigenous, natural symbols, particularly thorns and horns. The development of prominent and gifted artist-families is particularly notable in the province. The four generations of Everard women need little introduction, of course, but the Heaths, Alcocks and Taylors are perhaps not as widely known. Collaborative studios have also played a significant role in KwaZulu-Natal. The Ardmore Ceramic Studio has harnessed the creative energies of Fée Halsted, Bonnie Ntshalintshali, Josephine Ghesa and Wonderboy Nxumalo, to name only a few, allowing each to develop their own unique aesthetic. Similarly, the Rorke’s Drift Arts and Crafts Centre and the Vukani Arts Association have given a platform to talented artists and makers, many of whom uphold traditional methods. As might be expected, the province’s landscape provides the inspiration for many of the works on offer. There are beautiful and important topographical views by Methven, Charlesworth, Brotherton and Saint Mokoena, as well as vivid, expressively painted local scenes by David Moon, Leonora Everard-Haden, Jane Heath, Scott Bredin and Celeste Matthews. This selection of works from KwaZulu-Natal offers an opportunity to present together the provocative, erudite and innovative works by Walter Oltmann, Hussein Salim, Rauri Alcock, Virginia MacKenny, Patrick O’Connor and Andrew Verster. Moreover, it gives reason to showcase the work of Clement Sénèque and Diamond Bozas, two distinctive, astonishing, contrasting and often-overlooked painters, both of whom had European exposure, and both of whom have produced breathtaking pictures. Sénèque, born in 1896, dying in the Durban Sanatorium in 1930, aged only 33, and Bozas, still painting from his Eshowe studio at 94 years old, just hint at the long, distinguished and diverse artistic tradition in the province. Lots 239 to 298 A Selection of Artworks from KwaZulu-Natal Lot 263 Diamond Bozas Gavin Wiseman’s Farm