Strauss & co - 11 November 2019, Johannesburg

159 185 Walter Meyer SOUTH AFRICAN 1965–2017 965 signed and dated ‘83 mixed media on canvas 98 by 78 cm R70 000 – 100 000 In the early 1980s, when the present lot was painted, Walter Meyer embarked on an extensive study tour of Europe and the United States. In Europe it was the art of the historic CoBrA group, which included such artists as Karel Appel and Ernest Mancoba, that influenced his work at the time. In the United States, it was the Pop artist Jasper Johns that impressed Meyer the most. Johns, famous for his number paintings, could well have been the inspiration of the present lot, in which the numbers 9, 6, and 5, are clearly depicted, with apparent personal symbolism, or possibly referencing Meyer’s birth year, 1965. A curious element of the work is the small sack-cloth mask-like image at middle top, surrounded by two spiral motifs. This could possibly be seen as the influence of another Pop artist, Robert Rauschenberg who frequently used fabric objects such as old quilts in his work.