Strauss & co - 11 November 2019, Johannesburg

30 26 Lucas Sithole SOUTH AFRICAN 1931–1994 Wounded Buffalo, LS7101 bronze with brown patina height: 130 cm R1 500 000 – 2 000 000 PROVENANCE Union Corporation Ltd (Bracken Mines), Evander. Private Collector, Boksburg. LITERATURE HEWWinder (1970) ‘An Outstanding Item in Lucas Sithole’s Exhibition of Sculpture at Gallery 101’, Rand Daily Mail , Johannesburg, 17 October. Illustrated in black and white. The Star, Johannesburg, 13 October 1971. Illustrated in black and white. Union Corporation Ltd, Johannesburg, Annual Report, 31 December 1971. Illustrated in colour. SA Digest , Pretoria, 21 February 1975. Illustrated on page 8. SA Panorama , Pretoria, August 1975. Illustrated on page 37. Esmé Berman (1983) Art and Artists of South Africa , Cape Town: AA Balkema. Illustrated in black and white with the artist on page 409. Frieda Harmsen (1985) Looking at South African Art , Pretoria: Van Schaik. Illustrated on page 103. Fernand Haenggi (2015) Lucas Sithole 1931–1994 , Basel: The Haenggi Foundation. Illustrated in colour on page 33. ITEM NOTES Thanks to Fernand Haenggi and Warren Siebrits for assistance with cataloguing this lot. The moving and iconic Wounded Buffalo is a highmark of South African modernism. It depicts a near life- size beast, bowed, but not beaten, representing the indomitable spirit of the oppressed and exploited black mine workers whose labour built the foundations of the country’s economy. The work was commissioned by Union Corporation Ltd, Johannesburg, based on the maquette (LS7005) the artist included in his exhibition at Gallery 101 in Johannesburg in October 1970. The art writer for The Star newspaper, HEW (Teddy) Winder considered it to be ‘the biggest and most important commission so far to come the way of this competent artist’. He described how the artist depicted ‘the stricken animal down on its knees, but still with fight in its rather pathetic eyes. It is a most magnificent conception and a moving piece of work’. 1 Sithole completed the full-size plaster in the studio of sculptor Hennie Potgieter, in Schoemansville, and it was then cast in bronze by Hendrik Joubert. The finished work was installed outside the mineworkers’recreation hall at Bracken Mines Ltd in Evander and unveiled on 24 October 1971. Union Corporation, first founded in 1897 as A Goertz & Co, was acquired by General Mining in 1980, and the resulting gold mining corporation became known as Gencor. When Bracken Mines closed down, the Wounded Buffalo was sold to a private collector. 1. HEWWinder (1970) ‘An Outstanding Item in Lucas Sithole’s Exhibition of Sculpture at Gallery 101’, Rand Daily Mail , Johannesburg, 17 October. The artist Lucas Sithole with Wounded Buffalo. Wounded Buffalo installed at Bracken Mine, 1971.