Strauss & co - 15 February 2020, Cape Town

93  NORMAN CATHERINE SOUTH AFRICAN 1949– Negotiator signed and dated 1990; inscribed with the artist’s name, title and exhibition details on a Pretoria Art Museum label on the reverse oil on canvas 89 by 149cm R450 000 – 600 000 EXHIBITED Pretoria Art Museum, Norman Catherine Now and Then , 4 August to 3 October 2004. LITERATURE Hazel Friedman (2000) Norman Catherine . Johannesburg: Goodman Gallery Editions. Page 105 and illustrated in colour on page 104. Ashraf Jamal (2001) Norman Catherine and the Art of Terror . Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal. Page 17. “ Negotiator [...] pits the urban mobster against the primal man-as- monster. Here the gangsters’ arsenal includes guns, daggers and a serpent. The monster is mummified, emasculated and disarmed [...] His hollow, truncated bandaged limbs are positioned impotently in front of his torso, unable to ward off the serpent slithering towards him. The ‘negotiaton’ here appears to revolve around positions of domination and subjugation, both sexual and violent. And the symbolism of the daggers, the serpent and the shotgun are unavoidably phallic.” 1 1. Hazel Friedman (2000) Norman Catherine . Johannesburg: Goodman Gallery Editions. Page 105. 111