Notes

Delmas born Cecily Sash was a founding member of Egon Guenther’s Amadlozi Group and exhibited work internationally at the Venice Biennale in 1964 and the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1963 and 1967, as well as impacting a generation of South African artists as a respected educator, having taught at the Jeppe High School for Girls and the University of Witwatersrand. In 1966, Sash, having gained exposure to the international and contemporary art scene, was working with an Op art style, typified by rhythmically flowing designs and vivid colours, often reds, blues and black. Abstract expressionism in England and America during the sixties allowed for more divergent styles to bloom, including Pop and Op art. Sash was lecturing on Op and Pop art all over South Africa during the sixties and seventies, training students in the international avant-garde and rejecting the notion of South Africa existing as a ‘colonial backwater’. The present lot, while not fully abstract and still maintaining some sense of figuration, is an excellent example of the work Sash was producing during this important period. The flowing, coiling lines employed both embrace the flatness of the canvas in a contemporary, abstract exploration of surface and are reminiscent of ancient designs found on the early Minoan and Cretan pottery that Sash referenced in her 1966–1967 work, Minoan Series. The present lot was exhibited at the 1967 Sao Paulo Biennale, alongside works by Cecil Skotnes and Dumile Feni.

Exhibited

São Paulo Biennial 1967