Strauss & co - 5 March 2018, Cape Town

204 506 Peter Clarke SOUTH AFRICAN 1929-2014 Adam signed, dated 14 October 2005 and inscribed with the title and text watercolour and collage on paper 39,5 by 31cm R  –   “The combination of text and image had taken a new form in the Fan series. Clarke used the shape of an open fan to provide continuity throughout the series, saying ‘I fell in love with the idea of variations for a visual series in the same way that classical composers’music often takes the form of a theme with variations’. He created evocative images within the format of the fan while inscribing related texts below. Many fans pay homage to a specific personality, the text often supposedly ‘speaking’ in the first person, sometimes in a soliloquy, sometimes in conversation with Clarke. The inscription signals that the works are personal because the text is transcribed in his own distinctive handwriting and, whether or not he speaks with his own voice, one is constantly aware of Clarke’s experiences and ideas and his puckish humour. 1 Phillippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin. (2011) Listening to Distant Thunder: The Art of Peter Clarke . Johannesburg: Standard Bank of South Africa. Page 197. 507 Peter Clarke SOUTH AFRICAN 1929-2014 Battiss signed and dated 1.1.2007 twice and inscribed with the title and text gouache and collage on paper sheet size: 49,5 by 34,5cm R  –   507 ©The Estate of Peter Clarke | DALRO 506 ©The Estate of Peter Clarke | DALRO