Strauss & co - September 2026 Highlights

used a charcoal of his own manufacture, burning sticks in the evening fires (fig 2). These drawings formed the basis for the body of work which signalled a departure from the eloquent but Eurocentric post-Paris still life (fig 3). It was also here that Laubscher made his first strides towards abstraction by filling in spaces between the foliage with flat planes of pure colour. By 1956 the young artist was married with two young children. His professional standing as an art- ist was cemented when he was invited to submit works for the 1956 Venice Biennale. His work Landscape with Red Sky received favour among judges at the event and he was awarded a special mention. This meant however that when the collective Biennale works were exhibited to a Cape Town (fig 2) Study for Euphorbia (1954) charcoal on paper. . audience Euphorbias (1956) was substituted as the former had travelled to Geneva as part of a cultural exchange. Indeed it was this that led Matthys Bokhurst to publish the news that South Africa had been invited to participate in the fourth Sao Paulo Biennale. Euphorbias (1956) is a substantial composition characterised by strong flat planes of colour that defy the two-dimensionality of the painting surface. Laubscher’s use of black functions as both a descriptive line and a register through which the eye travels. The euphorbias from which the title is derived appear sinuous and humanoid. Given Laubscher’s deepening friendship with Jan Rabie, this writer argues that the work can be experienced as a metaphor for the existential path that the young artist had embarked upon. As an artist he was constantly challenging himself creatively while also assuming the roles of husband and father. (fig 3) Two Stick Figures (1955) Sasol Art Museum Collection, illustrated in Hans Franzen (2009) Erik Laubscher: A Life in Art, Stellenbosch: SMAC, page 63. Hans Franzen (2009) Erik Laubscher: A Life in Art , Stellenbosch: SMAC. Erik Laubscher. The artist’s own unpublished press clipping books (Vol I 1946-1979). No Author (no date) Johans Borman Biography, online, accessed July 2017.