Notes

Red Angel is one of the most powerful examples of Alexis Preller’s large heads. Like Two Angels (1970) in the Pretoria Art Museum collection, it is distinguished by its fusion of African and European elements into a new symbolic language of transcendence.

In this example, broader and more intense areas of flat colour accentuated by dramatic shadows are reminiscent of fresco paintings that he viewed on his travels in Italy. Wide almond-shaped eyes, cicatrised markings on the cheek, full lips and the suggestion of a beard are typical of Yoruba sculpture while the ritual beard, an Egyptian symbol of divine authority, is evident in the artist’s previous evocations of royal heads.

The angel is propelled forward by winged projections emanating from the head – forms evolving from earlier works representing the winds. The large heads proved to be the ideal vehicle for developing his iconography. Discussing Preller’s concept of the isolated head, Karel Nel explains that it offered the artist a way of liberating the seat of consciousness from the physical burden of the body, permitting him to concentrate the symbolic content of his painting in the cranial container.¹

Red Angel was included in the Alexis Preller Retrospective held at the Pretoria Art Museum in 1972, the climax of his career and the most comprehensive exhibition of his work to date. Describing the impact on entering the exhibition, Esmé Berman recounts: ‘Inside, the immediate impression gained was of a treasury encrusted all around with lustrous gems. In every direction glowing colour beckoned from the walls; large imposing panels and small precious ikons competed to allure the viewer into closer contemplation.’²
1. Berman, Esmé and Nel, Karel. (2009) Alexis Preller: Collected Images, Saxonwold: Shelf. Page 245.
2. Berman, Esmé and Nel, Karel. (2009) Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows, Saxonwold: Shelf. Page 303.

Provenance

Pieter Wenning Gallery, Johannesburg

Purchased by the current owner from Die Kunskamer in 1992

Exhibited

Pretoria Art Museum, Alexis Preller Retrospective, 24 October to 26 November 1972, catalogue number 178, illustrated

Irma Stern Museum, Rosebank, Works from a private collection of contemporary South African art on loan to the Chancellor Oppenheimer Library, University of Cape Town, 29 May to 28 June 2001

University of Cape Town, on loan from a private collection since 2001

Literature

http://www.vgallery.co.za/2001article17/vzine.htm, illustrated