Excitement is building for Aspire Art’s much anticipated auction in Cape Town which features a collection of 81 specially selected top-quality works by some of South Africa’s most influential modern masters and renowned contemporary African artists practicing in the international art arena today.

Contemporary highlights include seminal works by William Kentridge, Robert Hodgins, David Koloane, Penny Siopis, Deborah Bell, Sam Nhlengethwa and Kemang Wa Lehulere alongside emerging stars Blessing Ngobeni, Troy Makaza, Zemba Luzamba and Atang Tshikare. 

Collectors of 20th century modernism can look forward to rare and never before seen works by leading figures of the Amadlozi Group; Edoardo Villa and Cecil Skotnes. Other highly collectable works by the much-loved artists Walter Battiss, Fred Page and Judith Mason are also included. 

The auction features two specialist sections: Black Modernism and African Photography. Aspire continues to champion both of these collecting segments.

The seminal exhibitions Tributaries, curated by Ricky Burnett in 1985, and The Neglected Tradition: Towards a New History of South African Art, curated by Steven Sack at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 1988, followed by Revisions: Expanding the Narrative of South African Art, from the Campbell Smith collection and curated by Hayden Proud at the Iziko South African National Gallery in 2005, aimed at redressing the unjust balance in South African art history. The 2019 high-profile survey exhibition A Black Aesthetic: A View of South African Artists (1970 – 1990) curated by Dr Same Mdluli at the Standard Bank Gallery highlighted once more the  abiding need to appreciate and call to cherish this historic chapter and its artists. This necessary reconsideration of South Africa’s art history presented a major shift in the way work by black artists was presented, viewed, assessed, valued and handled, while establishing a new and important collecting category in the art market. 

Aspire Art presents an outstanding selection of works by some of the  foremost artists representing South African Black Modernism. The cover lot is an impressive large-scale drawing by Dumile Feni titled Mother and Baby, created in 1969, the year just after Dumile left South Africa to go into exile. The drawing is a powerful example of Feni’s ‘London Period’ works which are considered poetically expressive and at times indirectly biographical. Inscriptions in the artist’s hand on the drawing reads; ‘Yoliswa. 68. Amos. Feni. Beti’, memorialise his family – that is his cousins, ancestors and his mother – some alive and others already passed away in 1969. 

Also included are significant works by other leading modernists Gerard Sekoto, George Pemba, and Lucas Sithole. Of significance is a particularly scarce painting by the prodigiously talented Julian Motau, who tragically died at the age of 20 in 1968, a mere week before his first solo exhibition was due to open. In the wake of the shock of his death, it was decided to defer and recast it as a Memorial Exhibition at the Pretoria gallery of the SA Association of Arts. Contributions to the display and the opening event were made by his influential mentors Dumile Feni and Ezrom Legae. Consisting of 90 works, the exhibition was sold out on the opening night. 

LEFT: George Pemba, Pennies from Heaven, 1986. Auction Estimate: R300,000 – 400,000
RIGHT: Julian Motau, Prisoner, 1966. Auction Estimate: R200,000 – 300,000

Over the past two decades, photography and photographic based works from Africa have become one of the most popular and sought-after collecting segments in the art market with a growing, global audience. From early modern studio portraiture, documentary images to contemporary performance-based portraits, it is a medium long employed by image makers from the continent to capture unique moments in time, places and individual artistic expression. 

Landmark exhibitions such as In/sight: African Photographers – 1940 to the Present, curated by the late Okwui Enwezor at the Guggenheim in 1996 and later Snap Judgments: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography at the International Centre of Photography in New York in 2006, as well as seminal publications like Recent Histories: Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from the Walther Collection (2017) by Daniela Baumann, State of Mind: Contemporary Photography Reimagines a Continent (2020) by cultural writer Ekow Eshun, and The Journey: New Positions in African Photography, edited by Simon Njami and Sean O’Toole amongst others, not only challenged long-standing misconceptions about Africa, but also forced a recognition and appreciation of the innovative and varied forms of photographic based practices that arise across the continent (and the African diaspora).

Events such as Les Rencontres de Bamako, Addis Foto Fest, LagosPhoto and Paris Photo, continue to spotlight photographers working autonomously on the continent, while initiatives like the Cap Prize, the Market Photo Workshop, The African Photography Network and the Nuku Studio support and incubate established and emerging talents.

An auction highlight is a special collection of selected photographic work by some of the foremost artists working in the medium – historically and currently. Collectively, these images demonstrate how the artists explore narratives of identity, ‘Africanness’ and place, revealing their locations in Africa to be as much a psychological space as a physical territory – a state of mind as much as a geographical place.

LEFT: David Goldblatt, Near Botterkloofpas, Karoo. 2 March 2002. Auction Estimate: R 180,000 – 250,000
RIGHT: Mohau Modisakeng, Zanj 1, 2019. Auction Estimate: R120,000 – 180,000

Included are limited editioned, silver gelatin prints by celebrated documentary photographer David Goldblatt alongside incredible photographic works by the award-winning Mikhael Subotzky, Mohau Modisakeng, Kudzanai Chiurai and the multi-talented Simphiwe Ndzube. Of note is a portrait by visual activist Zanele Muholi from the renowned Somnyama Ngonyama series which also showed at the Tate Modern in 2021 as part of the artist’s retrospective as well as a striking image by multi-media artist Mary Sibande from her critically acclaimed Long Live the Dead Queen series, which also recently showed at the Lagos Photo Festival. 

LEFT: Zanele Muholi, Thulani I, Paris, ‘Somnyama Ngonyama’ series, 2014. Auction Estimate: R150,000-250,000
RIGHT: Mary Sibande, Caught in the Rapture, 2009. Auction Estimate: R180,000 – 240,000

Aspire Art’s 20th Century & Contemporary Art auction takes place on Wednesday, 14 September at 6pm

View the Auction and Download the Catalogue at: www.aspireart.net

Auction Viewing: 9 – 14 September 2022

Location: Aspire Art, 37A Somerset Road, De Waterkant, Cape Town. 

Sales Enquiries: [email protected] / 021  418 0765. DM/ML