Important British, Continental and South African Paintings

Live Auction, 1 November 2010

Session Two

Sold for

ZAR 2 339 400
Lot 197
  • Alexis Preller; Kouros


Lot Estimate
ZAR 800 000 - 1 200 000
Selling Price
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
ZAR 2 339 400

About this Item

South African 1911-1975
Kouros

signed and dated '71

oil with goldleaf on panel
60,6 by 50,7cm excluding frame

Notes

1968 was a seminal year for Alexis Preller. He met Guna Massyn, the attractive youth who was to become his life’s companion and he undertook a trip to Greece and Turkey in August and September. Preller was thrilled to be exploring the ancient Aegean history, culture and mythology that had so fascinated him. He toured many sites including Delphi, the seat of Apollo and the famed oracle. The son of Zeus, Apollo has been variously recognised as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; medicine and healing. Being supportive of all the arts and the very epitome of civilization, Apollo is seen to be both creative and handsome.

Apollo’s youthfulness is captured in the sculpted figure of the kouros, which has come to represent the ideal of male beauty. Inspired by these figures and what they may represent, Preller sought ways of developing this new theme in his paintings. As Karel Nel explains:

The image that Preller chose ... is that of an archaic Greek kouros, or Apollo figure. In company with so many of those ancient sculptures, only the torso of this kouros has survived the ravages of time. But the absence especially of a head and its identifying facial features is, in fact, a virtue, because it lends a universal quality to the emerging figure – an anonymity that amplifies the impact of the image and adds potency to Preller’s abstract theme.

 

Speaking of an earlier painting of the same subject, Nel continues:

The quality of the work lies in the grandeur of its conception. It does not present a mimetic image of a man, yet it conveys an immensely powerful idea of manhood. One fails to be concerned about the incompleteness of the figure: the mental image of this form is of a total being.i

 

While Preller’s experimentation with gestural abstraction is increasingly evident in the more painterly treatment that minimises contour lines and integrates the figure into the ground, the iconic status of this symbol of beauty is enhanced through the addition of gold leaf.

i Esmé Berman and Karel Nel, Alexis Preller: Collected Images, Shelf Publishing, 2009, pages 225-227.
 

Exhibited

Pretoria Art Museum, Alexis Preller Retrospective, October - November 1972, catalogue number 173, illustrated in black and white.

Literature

Esmé Berman and Karel Nel, Alexis Preller: Collected Images, Johannesburg, 2009, page 235, illustrated.

View all Alexis Preller lots for sale in this auction


Other lots that might interest you
Alexis Preller; Flowers in a Persian Vase
Alexis Preller
Flowers in a Persian Vase
ZAR 160 000 - 180 000
Alexis Preller; A Portrait of a Young Girl with Blue Eyes and Dark Hair
Alexis Preller
A Portrait of a Young Girl with Blue Eyes and Dark Hair
ZAR 180 000 - 240 000
Alexis Preller; African Head
Alexis Preller
African Head
ZAR 220 000 - 280 000
Alexis Preller; Apple
Alexis Preller
Apple
ZAR 150 000 - 200 000
Alexis Preller; Angel
Alexis Preller
Angel
ZAR 1 000 000 - 1 500 000
Alexis Preller; Three Wise Men
Alexis Preller
Three Wise Men
ZAR 800 000 - 1 000 000