Strauss & co - 13 November 2017, Johannesburg

282 345 Alexis Preller SOUTH AFRICAN 1911–1975 Sea Amphora signed and dated 62 oil on panel 51 by 38 cm R1 500 000 – 2 000 000 EXHIBITED Pieter Wenning Gallery, Johannesburg, November 1972. Pretoria Art Museum, Arcadia Park, Alexis Preller Retrospective , 24 October 1972 – 26 November 1972, catalogue number 13. Illustrated, unpaginated. This work, Sea Amphora , was exhibited as part of a series of four works titled, Sea Amphora, Sun Amphora, Earth Amphora and Winged Amphora , at the Pieter Wenning Gallery in 1962. This was an unexpected departure in concept and handling of a newly introduced classical Greek theme, a new dimension in Preller’s mythography. He had long been fascinated by Grecian art, was widely read and very knowledgeable about the ancient culture, although his only previous use of Grecian subject matter in a major painting had been in Wounded Sculpture (1947). The new works projected an altogether different mood. In this painting, an amphora or vessel-like form floats rather flatly on an azure blue background. A stark tonal rendition of a bearded head of Poseidon, from a famous ancient Greek bronze, is imposed on the golden- ochre urn form. Preller finally travelled to Greece and Turkey in 1968, seeing at firsthand the early Greek bronzes and marble Kouros figures, which further prompted the influence of ancient Greek art on the themes of his future work. Sea Amphora was included on the 1972 Preller Retrospective at the Pretoria Art Museum. The long-term influence of this image of the Poseidon head only became apparent when it was eventually exhibited alongside his subsequent large intaglio mythical heads, made after his return from Greece. These intaglios were an unusual Preller innovation, in his use of a negative cast relief, a mould-like structure cast in resin and then painted to read in reverse. Karel Nel