Strauss & co - 26 - 28 July 2020, Online

112 Wim Botha studied sculpture at the University of Pretoria and graduated in 1996 with distinction. He formed part of a talented cohort interested in exploring the formal and material limits of sculpture and painting. ‘I think the common factor between us was that we distrusted a lot of what was taught, and so had to find our own approaches,’ Botha later reflected. 1 The present lot dates from that period of enquiry and discovery. Originally presented as a triptych, the work is composed of silver- plated bronze figures mounted on a plinth of steel plate and government documents. Many of the artist’s future working methods and material concerns are latent in this student work. The role of human figure, an abiding concern in his practice, is clearly stated, as is his interest in harnessing tradition and innovation. The work suggests the influence – or at least awareness – of David Brown’s speculative figural tableaux, as well as Jane Alexander’s use of deformation and monstrousness to lodge social critique. The work’s title is a composite of two words, each referenced in the ensemble. The recurring winged figures, each with distinctive goatee, invoke Jan Smuts, a worldly South African statesman once caricatured by an American journalist as ‘a pink-cheeked, kinetic old gentleman with a white goatee’. 2 According to the artist, the drift in the title could refer to a landscape element as well as to something translatable as ‘strife’. 3 ‘These were fun allegorical and political satire in the days following democracy,’says Botha. 1. Wim Botha (2005) ‘In conversation with Michael Stevenson’, in Wim Botha , Cape Town: Standard Bank, page 66. 2. Noel F Busch (1944) My Unconsidered Judgment , New York: Houghton Mifflin, page 57. 3. Wim Botha, by email, 6 May 2020. 287 Wim Botha SOUTH AFRICAN 1974– Smutsdrift, diptych c.1996 bronze with a brown patina and found objects (1) height: 16 cm; length: 42 cm; width: 30 cm; (2) height: 25 cm; length: 55 cm; width: 30 cm R150 000 – 200 000 ITEM NOTES A third work in this series is in the Sasol Corporate Art Collection.