Stephan Welz & Co
Lot 511
Gerard Sekoto (South African 1913-1993) HEAD OF AN AFRICAN WOMAN signed and dated 68; label adhered to the reverse inscribed with the title and 'Maximum Fund Trust' oil on canvas laid down on board 59 by 48cm In 1947, Sekoto travelled to Paris to further his studies, he remained in exile for many years, mainly living in Paris. Sekoto attended the Académie Populaire d’Arts Plastiques in Paris from 1963 – 1965. Many of Sekoto’s works from his time in Paris evidence a concern with formal elements, influenced by his fellow students, who were exhibiting their work in Paris at the time. During his time in South Africa, Sekoto tended towards simplifying the facial features of his subjects, positioning them in stances where their faces were streamlined almost to the point of abstraction. This inclination increased during his time away from South Africa. This preference altered from 1963 to the mid-1970’s, when Sekoto repeatedly painted what became known as his ‘blue heads’, a series of busts primarily of women, most frequently with the use of a blue palette. Unlike his previous portrait studies, these busts did not rely on the direct observation of a sitter. In all of the blue head paintings, Sekoto loaded his brush and applied the paint in broad, flat strokes. Mostly, the composition is cropped just above the subject’s head and just below the collar bone, the neck elongated. Unlike his more typical busts, Head of an African Woman contains fewer contrasting colours and highlights. Rather than the white, beige and occasionally yellow highlights found on other busts, the highlights in Head of an African Woman, are subtler, and the artist has incorporated softer blues. The red umber and burnt sienna that Sekoto seemingly used straight out of the paint tube in other blue head paintings, are almost entirely absent here apart from a few select strokes on the headdress. Most of his busts share the same pose, where the subject faces the viewer directly, their eyes either directly connecting with the viewer, or cast downwards Many of the blue heads were produced around 1963, while Head of an African Woman is signed 1968. The subject in this painting wears a headscarf which adds height to her head. The headscarf is undetailed, painted with expressive brushstrokes, giving it the appearance of a headdress. She wears hanging earrings and her eyes connect directly with the viewer, although the slight hoods of her eyes give her otherwise confrontational expression, a demure quality. The vertical brushstrokes of navy paint emphasise her strength, and form a pleasing geometry with the triangular sloping of her elegant neck and sharp collarbones. Head of an African Woman portrays a regal quality in the sitter that other blue busts do not possess. In 1960, before he began painting his first blue heads, Sekoto produced a ballpoint pen on paper sketch of Miriam Makeba which he inscribed with the title Inspiration - Miriam Makeba. Makeba was known at the time as the ‘Queen of African song’ due to the inspiration she drew from the music of South Africa and other African countries. The songstress went into exile in 1959 and was accepted as an African icon by both those living in South Africa and those also in exile. In 1960, when the drawing was created, Makeba had just arrived in New York to much acclaim and photographs of her had featured on the cover of Time magazine. The pen drawing of Miriam Makeba features the same composition as Sekoto’s blue heads, with the singer directly facing outwards, the head cropped closely to the frame. It is possible that Sekoto’s pen drawing of Miriam Makeba, produced in 1960, may have been the inspiration for his blue head paintings of African women, which he began painting around 1963. It must be noted that some of the blue heads also resembled portraits that the artist made of his mother. Sekoto wrote of his practice of painting the blue heads that he wanted to express the beauty of the women of his own race, as opposed to the white female beauties that he felt were so abundantly portrayed by artists throughout history. Lindop, B. Sekoto: The Art of Gerard Sekoto. Great Britain: 1995. Johannesburg Art Gallery: Gerard Sekoto: Unsevered Ties. Johannesburg: 1989 -SD
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