Important South African & International Art, Jewellery and Decorative Arts

Live Auction, 12 October 2015

South African and International Art, Day Sale
  • Guy Tillim; Leopold and Mobutu series 6: The statue of Henry Stanley which overlooked Kinshasa in colonial times. It rests on a steamboat that belonged to the African International Association, a company publicly charged by Leopold with a philanthropic and 'civilising' mission that veiled its true purpose of annexing and exploiting natural resources. The statue was removed during the Mobutu period of Africanisation in the 1970s and dumped in a go


Lot Estimate
ZAR 30 000 - 40 000

About this Item

South African 1962-
Leopold and Mobutu series 6: The statue of Henry Stanley which overlooked Kinshasa in colonial times. It rests on a steamboat that belonged to the African International Association, a company publicly charged by Leopold with a philanthropic and 'civilising' mission that veiled its true purpose of annexing and exploiting natural resources. The statue was removed during the Mobutu period of Africanisation in the 1970s and dumped in a government transport lot in Kinshasa. The boots belonging to the statue are found in another lot, September 2003

signed and numbered 2/5 in pencil in the margin

archival pigment ink on 300g cotton paper
diptych: paper size 61 by 158,5cm

Notes

Guy Tillim spent July to September 2003 photographing traces of the colonial occupation of the Congo by King Leopold II of Belgium and vestiges of more recent plunder under Mobutu Sese Seko. Tillim's images, frequently composed in diptychs and triptychs, juxtapose historical sites in the Congo and Belgium with contemporary views of the DRC. Adam Hochschild, author of the highly acclaimed King Leopold's Ghost, writes: 'Rare is the photographer whose work so well captures not only the country before his camera's lens, but also the country of a hundred or more years ago.'

Exhibited

Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, Guy Tillim: Leopold & Mobutu, 12 May to 19 June 2004

OK Center for Contemporary Art in Linz, Austria, Biennale Cuvée, 2008

Literature

Adam Hochschild. (2004) Guy Tillim: Leopold & Mobutu, Bégard, France: Filigranes Éditions, unpaginated.

View all Guy Tillim lots for sale in this auction



Other lots that might interest you
Pranas Domsaitis; Holiday Cottage
Pranas Domsaitis
Holiday Cottage
ZAR 30 000 - 40 000
David Botha; Waenhuiskrans
David Botha
Waenhuiskrans
ZAR 30 000 - 40 000
Terence McCaw; Malay Quarter, Cape Town
Terence McCaw
Malay Quarter, Cape Town
ZAR 40 000 - 60 000
Guy Tillim; Leopold and Mobutu series 31: Left: A UN helicopter lands at Bunyatenge bringing a Mai Mai official to help negotiate the demobilisation of remnants of the Hutu army, alleged committers of genocide in Rwanda, and their families who have taken refuge in the forests of the eastern DRC, January 2003; Centre: The model of a Force Publique soldier in a display case at the Military Museum in Brussels, January 2004; Right: Training camp for
Guy Tillim
Leopold and Mobutu series 31: Left: A UN helicopter lands at Bunyatenge bringing a Mai Mai official to help negotiate the demobilisation of remnants of the Hutu army, alleged committers of genocide in Rwanda, and their families who have taken refuge in the forests of the eastern DRC, January 2003; Centre: The model of a Force Publique soldier in a display case at the Military Museum in Brussels, January 2004; Right: Training camp for
ZAR 30 000 - 40 000
Gregoire Boonzaier; Caledon Street, Cape Town
Gregoire Boonzaier
Caledon Street, Cape Town
ZAR 80 000 - 120 000
Mohau Modisakeng; Ditaola (Frame XVI)
Mohau Modisakeng
Ditaola (Frame XVI)
ZAR 110 000 - 150 000