Strauss & co - 13 November 2017, Johannesburg

324 373 Deborah Bell SOUTH AFRICAN 1957– Sentinel Figure signed and dated 2002 mixed media on paper sheet size: 158 by 121,5 cm R200 000 – 300 000 PROVENANCE Barloworld Collection Important artworks of this size by the artist Deborah Bell rarely come to auction, and this work embodies the ‘mystical godliness’of her art making. Bell’s art is created in dialogue with multiple worlds, texts, histories and consciousness. For Bell art is a spiritual practice in which the role of the artist is to ‘co-create the world, to materialize what exists for all time’. Her work incorporates multi-layered visual, symbolic and iconographic references to past and present worlds. She is fascinated by ancient civilizations and excavated objects displayed in museums. She searches for the spiritual within the material and for the material within the spiritual.