Born in the Karoo town of Somerset East, Walter Battiss became interested in archaeology and rock art as a young boy after moving to Koffiefontein in 1917. Through pioneering field work, research and publication he brought this indigenous art form to the attention of a wider public. It also informed his view of art and culture and his own art making process in significant ways. Bathers, on Strauss & Co’s 15 March auction sale, is a fine example of Battiss’s use of the homogeneous treatment of the picture plane with small figures distributed evenly throughout the composition, not unlike many aspects of rock paintings.

Battiss was an active member of the New Group. Unlike most of his contemporaries he had not studied in Europe but meeting with Picasso and the Futurist Gino Severini in the late 1940s made strong impressions on him. Visits to Greece and the Seychelles in the late 1960s and early 1970s inspired Fook Island, his utopian ‘island of the imagination’ that encouraged fun and creativity in a universal present.

His paintings and graphics are enjoying renewed interest with contemporary art lovers responding to the artist’s palpable joie de vivre, appreciation of beauty and sensual treatment of the human form. An open-minded approach to life that might have shocked more conservative viewers is now finding purchase with contemporary connoisseurs. His retrospective exhibition Walter Battiss: Gentle Anarchist (2005 – 2006) has accorded him well-deserved recognition and his unique contribution to the development of South African art is confirmed through his inclusion in major survey shows such as Dada South on view at the South African National Gallery from late 2009 to early 2010.

Record achieved at Strauss & Co
Bathers, Sold R1 336 800, March 2010