LONDON.- Hannah O’ Leary,
Sotheby’s Head of Modern and Contemporary African Art, said: “From an international perspective, the interest in and market for modern and contemporary African art has developed enormously over the past decade. Sotheby’s entry into the market with the launch of our sales in 2017 has had an immediate positive effect and been a real game-changer. This is clearly a market that is poised for growth and the opportunities for collectors to get involved right how are extremely exciting.
Our third dedicated auction this October widens the scope of our previous sale, with more countries represented than ever before. This is our best sale yet, comprising works by fifty-six artists from eighteen countries across Africa. We have a particularly strong selection of Ethiopian art, including masterpieces by Afewek Tekle, Skunder Boghossian and Wosene Worke Kosrof, and a painting by Senegalese artist Papa Ibra YTall, which was purchased by jazz legend Duke Ellington in Dakar in 1966 at the World Festival of Negro Arts. With museum-quality works on offer, such as Gavin Jantjes’ seminal South African Colouring Book, by established artists with a great track record, this is a sale which will appeal to seasoned and new collectors alike.”
SALE HIGHLIGHTS
El Anatsui (Ghanaian, b.1944) Tagomizor, aluminium bottle caps and copper wire, 2005, estimate £550,000-750,000
Tagomizor by El Anatsui is a hanging sculptural work made of aluminium bottle caps and copper wire. This glimmering work, part of the artist’s Danudo Series, is comprised of recycled bottle caps that are weathered and ingrained with dirt. In 1998, while talking an exploratory walk, El Anatsui discovered a bag of discarded ‘Peak’ branded milk tin can lids, inspiring him to begin creating metal sheet works which formed an initial body of work that prefigures the artist’s renowned series of bottle neck wrapper tapestries. The works in the series are characterised by their resemblance to fabric and are often described as El Anatsui’s most cloth-like wall hangings. Unlike many of the artist’s larger tapestries, which benefit from bunching and rippling, the works in this series were intended to hang flatter. Tagomizor was exhibited in New York in 2006 in an exhibition which marked the first time the artist’s bottle cap works were shown in North America. That same year, El’s bottle cap works were included for the first time in an American institutional show at the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles. Since then, the Ghanian artist has achieved global recognition as one of the world’s leading contemporary artists, with works in many museum collections worldwide. In 2014, he became the first honorary Academician from Africa at London’s Royal Academy of Art, and in 2015 he was honoured with the Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. El Anatsui is set to be the subject of a major retrospective in Europe in 2019.
Gavin Jantjes (South African, b.1948) A South African Colouring Book, 20 of an edition of 20 + 3 Artist’s Proofs, silkscreen prints on paper, 1974-5, estimate £40,000-60,000
Making a rare appearance at auction, A South African Colouring Book by Gavin Jantjes has been exhibited extensively from the time it was created in the mid-1970s through to the present year. Comprising twelve silkscreen prints, this radical work dared to address the issues of apartheid through a direct criticism of the status quo. When the artist began his studies at the Hamburg Academy in West Germany in 1970, he was amazed to discover that his fellow German students knew little about South Africa and apartheid. Against this background he decided to follow Bertold Brecht’s idea of art as an instrument of political struggle and make a work that could be understood as a tool for knowledge about South African apartheid policies. Using the new and popular technology of photographic silkscreen printing, intended for mass production, also allowed Jantjes to integrate photographic images into a work of art. Together the twelve images operate as an archive, each sheet acting as a heading for a much larger text on apartheid. The main and sub-titles of the ‘Colouring Book’ play with the euphemisms for institutionalised racial discrimination, such as ‘the colour question’ or ‘the colour bar’. In April 1979 the work was banned under the South African Publication Act, a year after a replica was produced by the International University Exchange Fund (IUEF) and distributed by the UN Special Commission on Apartheid. Copies of ‘A South African Colouring Book’ are held in several institutional collections, including the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Tate Gallery (London), the Baltimore Museum of Art (Maryland), and the South African National Gallery (Cape Town). In 1977, upon the request of Joseph Beuys, it was exhibited in Germany at the artist’s Free International University space at Documenta 6, the quinquennial contemporary art exhibition.
William Kentridge (South African, b.1955) Kinetic Sculpture (Bicycle Wheel), wood, metal, bicycle wheels and rubber wheels, 2016, estimate £70,000-90,000
Kinetic Sculpture (Bicycle Wheel) by South African artist William Kentridge is constructed from found objects: the wheels and chain from a bicycle, a megaphone, tripod and rulers. In reclaiming old objects, he demonstrates his artistic process of rewriting and reusing, to create artworks which poetically comment on pre- and post-apartheid South Africa. This work engages the viewer with a handle bar and bicycle peddle which can be turned and peddled, respectively, activating the rotation of a megaphone around the entire structure. The artist, who has stated that all his work is rooted in Johannesburg and its history, has works in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Art Institute, Chicago, and Tate Gallery, London. His kinetic sculptures have been used in major productions in recent years, including The Refusal of Time (2012), More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015) and The Head and the Load (2018).
Bodys Isek Kingelez (Congolese, 1948-2015) New Wax, cardboard, plastic, card, marker, coloured pen, sellotape, glue and Styrofoam, circa 2000-2001, estimate £20,000-30,000
Acquired directly from the artist by the current owner, New Wax is one of Kingelez’s ‘extreme maquettes’, or ‘extreme models’, a body of sculptural works which reflect the social and economic inequality that came as a result of rapid growth and industrialisation in the African mega-city of Kinshasa, the artist’s hometown. He used commonplace materials, from razors to milk cartons, to create meticulously detailed structures depicting dream-like metropolises, featuring recognisable structures and completely original constructions. Delicate yet grand, these works echo the physicality of the city that Kingelez grew up in, where he was presented with a patchwork of structural and design inspiration. Kingelez is currently the subject of City Dreams, a complete retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, spanning over three decades and including a large number of rarely seen works from throughout his career.
Fréderic Trigo Piula (Congolese, b.1953) Ta Télé, oil on canvas , 1984, estimate £15,000-20,000 Materna, oil on canvas laid to board, 1984, estimate £20,000-30,000
Ta Télé and Materna are considered to be two of Trigo’s most seminal works. They belong to Trigo’s New Fetish series, in which the artist proclaims himself as a modern day Nganga, or healer. Recognised as one of the most important artists to emerge from the Republic of the Congo, Trigo often incorporates Western themes, symbols, products or techniques into his works, in order to highlight the increasing assimilation of Western culture into African identity and daily life, and the conflicts that arise because of this. The artist’s mission is to heal and ward off; to sound the alarm on modern-day problems and obsessions. In Materna, he comments on the cultural tensions that have arisen due to the introduction of evaporated milk and its replacement of breast milk. Ta Télé speaks to the development of a highly consumerist culture within the Congo, a warning of the dangers of thoughtless consumerism.
Afewerk Tekle (Ethiopian, 1932-2012) Defender of his Country, oil on canvas, 1977, estimate £15,000-20,000
Afewek Tekle is remembered as one of Ethiopia’s most renowned artists, mostly known for his depictions of African and Christian themes. In Defender of his Country, a biblical figure emerges out of a geometrically patterned composition, reminiscent of stained glass, standing confidently and ready to defend his country. Coming onto the market from a private collection in Norway, the painting perfectly represents the themes and techniques for which the artist is most known. Studying in London, Tekle expanded his artistic methods whilst he was in Europe, using stained glass and studying ancient manuscripts from Ethiopia. He went on to design the stained glass windows for the Africa Hall of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa.
Alexander Skunder Boghossian (Ethiopian, 1937-2003) The Split, mixed media on canvas, 1977, estimate £8,000-12,000 Crossroads, acrylic on celotex, 1992-1997, estimate £40,000-60,000
Following his formal training in London and Paris, Boghossian Skunder moved to Ethiopia in 1966 before accepting a teaching position in the US at the Atlanta Center for Black Art in 1970. When civil war broke out in Ethiopia in 1974, he could no longer return, and lived in exile until his death in 2003. Following from afar the Eritrean War of Independence against successive Ethiopian governments, which lasted 30 years until 1991 when the Ethiopian forces in Eritrea were finally defeated, the artist painted The Split in 1992, in the context of the split between the two countries. The two countries remained hostile until this year, when a peace treaty between both nations was signed on 8 July 2018. Richly textured, Crossroads embodies the delicate weaving of lines and the complex interlacing of symbols characteristic of Skunder Boghossian’s art. His imagery presents a critical account of the political culture of the colonial and post-colonial eras, by positing a historical continuity of ‘Africanness’ that spreads from early civilisations of Africa to the Ethiopian Othordox Church. Besides depicting Orthodox Christian symbols, the painting also represents West African spiritual symbols. As well as taking his inspiration from Ethiopian illuminated manuscripts made by debteras, the artist was also felt a kinship with music and particularly with the rhythms of jazz.
Wosene Worke Kosrof (Ethiopian, b.1950) Coffee The Ethiopian Ceremony, acrylic on canvas, 2001, estimate £15,000-20,000
Wosene Worke Kosrof integrates characters of the ancient Ge’ez alphabet, used as the basis for several modern languages in Ethiopia and Eritrea, into abstract based paintings to explore communication in its complexity across the world stage. Originally from Ethiopia, the artist has lived in California for more than half his life. Wosene links quotidian activities such as coffee drinking and card playing around the world, with his memories of Addis Ababa and his experience of everyday life in Berkeley. Coffee The Ethiopian Ceremony expresses an ancient tradition central to people across Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the coffee bean – seen painted at the bottom right corner – has been harvested since the tenth century and is still exported today. Using language as the key connector in his work, through tumbling and twisting alphabet characters painted on canvas, the artist conveys how coffee transcends place and time, signing the painting in English and Amharic. Wosene has exhibited internationally, in London and the US, and held solo shows in California, Sweden, and at the National Museum of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.
Papa Ibra Tall (Senegalese, b.1935) The Warrior, oil on celotex, 1964, estimate £8,000-12,000
Tall’s The Warrior was exhibited at the first Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres (FESMAN), which took place in Dakar in 1966. The inaugural event brought together thousands of artists, musicians and writers from across Africa and its diaspora, including André Malraux, Aimé Césaire, Duke Ellington and Josephine Baker. In the context of decolonialisation and the civil rights movement in the United States, the festival – which continues today – aimed to recognise and celebrate art by black artists and writers. The Senegalese artist gifted this work to Ellington, his musician friend. Together with Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal’s first president after independence in 1960, Tall founded the first Senegalese centre for monumental tapestry production in 1966. The Warrior demonstrates the crossover between Tall’s designs for tapestries and his paintings – the mass of lines radiating out from and intersecting the figure creates a sense of woven threads. In 2013, Tall’s works were exhibited at the 55th Venice Biennial.
