Strauss & co - 2016 Review

On our sweep across the Eastern Cape in search of art for our October auction in Cape Town, we were lucky enough to have the use of a grand room in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum in Port Elizabeth as a venue to evaluate and consign work. The imposing building, with its comprehensive collection, also became the site for a deep encounter with the work of one of my favourite artists, George Pemba. Prior to our visit to the museum, the Port Elizabeth branch of the Black Sash had contacted us as they wished to consign a painting donated by Pemba to the organization in 1993. My knowledge of the Black Sash had, until then, come throughmy high school history textbook and overhearing my parents’ conversations about politics. The Black Sash is a veteran human rights organisation whose current programmes draw on a rich institutional heritage of advocating for social justice in South Africa. Port Elizabeth-born Pemba spent most of his life in the Eastern Cape. Something of his world is depicted in this 1993 painting, Pensioners Queuing for their Payouts (estimate R100 000 – R150 000). Pemba was himself a pensioner at the time. When we were compiling the catalogue we were thrilled to find a photograph documenting the ceremony of the artist handing over the painting to Judy Chalmers of the Black Sash. We included the photograph in our catalogue entry as a way to mark the personal and historical significance of the work. Alex Richards on George Pemba 54