Aspire Art’s Cape Town auction sale features specialist Black Modernism and African Photography
By CityLIfe Arts Writer
Aspire Art’s upcoming live auction 20th Century & Contemporary Art will take place in Cape Town on Wednesday, 14 September 2022. Excitement is building for this much anticipated sale which features a focussed 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, Pennys 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: a. Aspire has championed both of these collecting segments and remains committed to bringing key artists from these categories to market.
Leading the sale 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.
Also included are significant works by other leading modernists Gerard Sekoto, George Pemba, Lucas Sithole and a particularly scarce painting by the prodigiously talented Julian Motau, who tragically died at the age of 20.
The Photography section includes 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.