Image: Hammer & Gavel/Supplied
Strauss & Co is pleased to announce details of an important sale of collectable ceramics to be offered at the company’s first live auction in Pretoria on Sunday, 21 July.
Titled Sculpted Narratives: Contemporary South African Ceramics, this spotlight sale includes high-value pieces by acclaimed clay artists Astrid Dahl, Andile Dyalvane, Ian Garrett, Frances Goodman, Nesta Nala, Hylton Nel and Bonnie Ntshalintshali.
The live virtual auction will be at Pierneef’s Kraal Guest Lodge, the former home of landscape painter JH Pierneef.
“Sculpted Narratives is our second sale dedicated to ceramic art in South Africa and follows in the wake of our highly successful auction, Contemporary South African Ceramics in 2020,” says Wilhelm van Rensburg, senior art specialist and head curator.
“As is suggested by the auction’s title, Sculpted Narratives focuses on the sculptural nature of ceramic art and marks a shift in emphasis from the well-known and loved Anglo-Oriental ceramic styles practised in South Africa in especially the ’60s and ’70s.”
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The sale acknowledges the centrality of Pretoria in the story of South African art. The catalogue for Sculpted Narratives includes three gorgeous painted tiles – one depicting purple-crested lories – by the doyen of ceramics, Esias Bosch, who lived and worked in Pretoria from 1955 to 1960.
It also includes a rare vase by Walter Battiss (estimate R25 000-R35 000) and a fired clay sculpture by Robert Hodgins titled The Senator from North Carolina (estimate R50 000–R70 000).
A resident of Pretoria in the 1950s and ’60s, Hodgins regularly commuted to a studio in Pretoria in the 1990s and 2000s to work on ceramic pieces.
“The impetus for the shift to sculpted ceramics can be traced back to American ceramic artist David Middlebrook’s visit to South Africa in 1982-83 and the avant-garde teaching of Suzette Munnik at Technikon Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in the late 1980s.
This period also saw the advent of the world-famous Ardmore Ceramic Art Centre in KwaZulu-Natal. Its studio output is characterised by its strong sculptural iconography,” says Van Rensburg.
Sculpted Narratives include work by first-generation Ardmore artists, notably a 1992 teapot with jackal and flower motif by Bonnie Ntshalintshali (estimate R12 000 –R15 000) and two zoomorphic figures by Josephine Ghesa, another first-generation Ardmore luminary.
The sale also includes pieces by second-generation Ardmore artists produced in the last two decades that derive from the single-owner collection of late ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza.
A distinguished politician, diplomat and scholar, Mabuza was instrumental in popularising Ardmore internationally during her postings in Germany, Malaysia, the UK and the US. The preview exhibition of the sale will be hosted at Strauss & Co, Johannesburg, on Tuesday at 6 pm.
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Activities will then move to Pierneef’s Kraal Guest Lodge in Pretoria. Strauss & Co will host a preview of a selection of art highlights from the Pretoria Sale: Modern and Contemporary Art next Friday, 19 July and Saturday, 20 July.
Two walkabouts of the exhibition at 11 am and 3 pm will include a walkabout of Pierneef’s Kraal.
Two auctions will take place at Pierneef’s Kraal Guest Lodge on Sunday, 21 July, at 10 am – Sculpted Narratives followed by the Pretoria Sale: Modern and Contemporary Art at 12pm.
The diverse range of work included in Sculpted Narratives acknowledges the profound shifts in the making and appreciation of ceramic art since art historian FEG Nilant, writing in the 1960s, set out to define the idea of a contemporary tradition of ceramics in South Africa.
Nilant highlighted the rise of commercial ceramic factories such as Continental China in Boksburg, as well as the proliferation of small-scale potteries, including Cullinan Refractories, producer of Linnware in the 1940s and ’50s, and Boksburg East Potteries, maker of Lucia Ware in the 1960s.
Sculpted Narratives includes two studios listed by Nilant – Kalahari Studio and the ceramic department of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Arts and Crafts Centre at Rorke’s Drift.
Nilant also intimated the rise of ceramic artists setting up individual studios in the 1960s and ’70s.
Well-known ceramic artists from this group include Esias Bosch, Alice Heysteck, Tim Morris, Andrew Walford and David Walters, who are all represented in the catalogue for Sculpted Narratives.
A special feature of the sale centres on legacy vessels by the illustrious Nala family from matriarch Nesta Nala, who is represented by three pit-fired and burnished earthenware pieces, to ceremonial pots by Jabulile Nala and Zanele Nala.
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The influence of the Nala family is considerable on contemporary practitioners like Ian Garrett, whose master’s thesis focused on the work of Nesta Nala.
Garrett is represented by the burnished pot Reflection (estimate R50 000–R60 000). Andile Dyalvane is at the apex of a new wave of sculptural ceramics and is represented in the sale by a scarified conical vessel (estimate R60 000–R80 000).
Other well-known contemporary sculptors include Frances Goodman and Eugene Hön. The catalogue for Sculpted Narratives also includes ceramic work by “ultra-contemporary” artists – a category used to refer to artworks made by artists under 40 years old – like Hannah Massey, Mpho Mokgatlhe, Joy Mwali, Mellaney Roberts and Amo Maepa.
They all graduated from the ceramic department of the Tshwane University of Technology.
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Johannesburg – Strauss & Co – 89 Central Street, Houghton
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