The Oliver Powell and Timely Investments Trust Collection

Live Virtual Auction, 20 September 2022

The Oliver Powell and Timely Investments Trust Collection
About the Session

Strauss & Co is pleased to present this extraordinary collection as the featured session this September Live Virtual Auction. An established insolvency practitioner with a passion for the arts, Oliver Powell's principal focus has been collecting South African painting, sculpture and works on paper made since 1950. Colour, graphic ingenuity and emotional weight are all attributes in an artwork that Powell is drawn to. Powell also emphasises the importance of his many encounters with artists. “There is so much value in meeting an artist,” says Powell. “Aspects and details of their life are reflected in what and how they paint.”


Sold for

ZAR 28 450
Lot 58
  • Fred Schimmel; Two Figures and a Bird
  • Fred Schimmel; Two Figures and a Bird
  • Fred Schimmel; Two Figures and a Bird


Lot Estimate
ZAR 20 000 - 30 000
Selling Price
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
ZAR 28 450

About this Item

South African 1928-2009
Two Figures and a Bird

signed and dated '76

acrylic on paper laid down on board
47,5 by 61,5cm excluding frame; 58 by 72 by 6cm including frame

Notes

During the 70s Schimmel produced a substantial body of figurative paintings in acrylic. “Rather than the grid-like, organisational line of the serigraph landscapes, these paintings employ the same enveloping line found in the Hard-Edge landscapes from the sixties. The bodies and faces of the characters in these paintings are, like the elliptical caverns in the prints, often described in rolling contours that overlap and intersect. Several portraits, in which faces and features have been cut through and distorted by sharp lines scraped into the picture’s surface, have the qualities of blind contour drawings. It is as though the artist has drawn his figures without regard for the sanctity of faces, features and bodily proportions, in fact, some figures have been morphed into plant-like organisms.”1

1. Marelize van Zyl (ed) (2008) Fred Schimmel: Retrospective, Stellenbosch: SMAC Art Publishing, page 36.

Provenance

SMAC Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, 3 April 2008.

The Oliver Powell and Timely Investments Trust Collection.

Exhibited

SMAC Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, Fred Schimmel at 80, 27 November 2008 to 25 January 2009.

Literature

Marelize van Zyl (ed) (2008) Fred Schimmel: Retrospective, Stellenbosch: SMAC Art Publishing, illustrated on page 67.

View all Fred Schimmel lots for sale in this auction



Other lots that might interest you
Robert Hodgins; Girl on a Bright Cushion
Robert Hodgins
Girl on a Bright Cushion
ZAR 300 000 - 400 000
Norman Catherine; Tom & Dick
Norman Catherine
Tom & Dick
ZAR 100 000 - 150 000
Maeve Dewar; The Promise
Maeve Dewar
The Promise
ZAR 10 000 - 15 000
Simon Stone; The Soldier Who Lost his Rifle
Simon Stone
The Soldier Who Lost his Rifle
ZAR 70 000 - 90 000
Simon Stone; Interior Scene with Nude and a Man, recto; Portraits with Guitar, verso
Simon Stone
Interior Scene with Nude and a Man, recto; Portraits with Guitar, verso
ZAR 70 000 - 90 000
Kate Gottgens; Untitled (48), 2008
Kate Gottgens
Untitled (48), 2008
ZAR 20 000 - 30 000