Strauss & co - 26 - 28 July 2020, Online

168 388 Hannatjie van der Wat SOUTH AFRICAN 1923–2020 Conflict signed; inscribed with the artist’s name and the title on the reverse oil on board 121 by 78 cm R40 000 – 60 000 387 Hannatjie van der Wat SOUTH AFRICAN 1923–2020 Johannesburg signed; dated 67 and inscribed with the artist’s name and the title on the reverse oil on canvas 92 by 61 by 3 cm, unframed R30 000 – 50 000 Hannatjie van der Wat’s range of artistic expression is evident in the three lots on this sale. Having studied under Maurice van Essche in the 1940s and Sydney Goldblatt in the 1960s, both of whom emphasised the importance of a good structure to underlie an art work, Van der Wat naturally developed from an organic, gestural style of painting – ‘her forms abstract and painterly, suspended in vague, undefined surrounding’ 1 (Lot 387) – to an exploration of a post-painterly abstraction, characteristically with flat, geometric and striped compositions (Lot 389). Her experimentation with ceramic sculpture in the 1970s led to a return the organic, with a new ‘spontaneous, humanised vigour’. 2 (Lot 388). 1. Esme Berman (1983) Art & Artists of South Africa , Cape Town: AA Balkema, page 467. 2 . Ibid, page 468. HANNATJIE VAN DER WAT IN MEMORIAM 1923–2020