Strauss & co - 20 May 2019, Johannesburg

165 272 Walter Battiss SOUTH AFRICAN 1906–1982 Abstract Composition signed oil on canvas 50 by 60 cm R400 000 – 600 000 PROVENANCE Gordon Mckintosh, purchased directly from the artist, mid-1960s, and thence by descent. 273 Walter Battiss SOUTH AFRICAN 1906–1982 The Initiate inscribed with ‘This painting was in Walter Battiss’ studio when he died. It has been in my possession since that time. Signed: Rain Battiss formerly Belinda Battiss. 18/5/2006’on the reverse; signed by Giles Battiss on the reverse oil on board 60 by 59,5 cm R300 000 – 500 000 Gordon Mckintosh was a prominent Pretoria architect, responsible for the design of many iconic buildings in the city including the Pretoria Art Museum in Arcadia. On his sketches for the Modernist design for House Munro, he included a quote by the European architect Walter Gropius, which indicates his interest in the International Style and suggests both his architectural design motivation and, perhaps, his reason for acquiring this painting fromWalter Battiss: ‘The ground plan … is a geometrical projection of its spatial idea – the organizing plan for moving within a house. The elevation, facade, is the result of that plan and not the starting point … Hence, no artificial symmetry, but a free functional arrangement of the succession of rooms.’ 1 Mckintosh was the president of the Transvaal Provincial Institute of Architects from 1936 to 1942 and received the Institute of South African Architects Gold Medal in 1968. 1.  https://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes. php?archid=1958.