Strauss & co - 13 November 2017, Johannesburg

264 Paul Gauguin Spirit of the Dead watching Manao Tupapau (1892) and ear are framed by the sharply pointed hair hanging down on one side. In contrast, above, a full body of hair echoes back, almost landscape-like, into the background. The undulating cloth upon which the young person’s body with the painfully swollen legs lies appears to transform, in the distance, into snowcapped mountains of the imagination or delirium, receding into the darkness. The four corners of the work are painted bright yellows, red and black, alluding to the eroded edges of Gauguin’s famous work, Where DoWe Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897). These punctuating edges work like quotation marks alluding to the psychological and philosophical quests posed by Gauguin’s artistic pursuit and his sense of engaging extremity. In this early powerfully poetic work, Fleurs du Mal , his tragic rendition of this damaged young man is a precursor to the leitmotif of the male nude in his oeuvre. The male nude plays out in many symbolic semblances: Adam, Apollo, David and Sebastian, all appear in different embodiments. These culminate in the empowered and transcendent male forms derived from the kouroi, the 5th century BC Greek marble sculptures. These heroic and iconic torsos are seen in Preller’s final triumphant Marathon works of the 1970s. On a profound level, they reflect a self-realisation for Preller himself, both as a man and an artist. Metaphorically Preller seems to have engaged on a long journey, the vulnerable and damaged young man lying prone on the edge of the battlefield in Fleurs du Mal is a far cry from the transcendent Marathon images of his late works. Karel Nel Continued from page 262