Curatorial Voices: African Landscapes, Past and Present

Live Virtual Auction, 19 February 2024

Curatorial Voices: African Landscapes, Past and Present
About the Session

From Thomas Baines to Jake Aikman, Curatorial Voices: African Landscapes, Past and Present will showcase art by pioneering modernist and trailblazing contemporary artists, spanning 175 years of visual landscape painting on the African continent. This comprehensive auction reveals a nuanced understanding of the diverse cultural, historical, and environmental contexts that have shaped artistic representations of the landscape. Through an examination of various themes, the auction seeks to engage viewers in a dialogue that transcends time and space, connecting past representations to contemporary perspectives. The auction attempts to engage with the diversity of artists that have shaped and continue to shape the depiction of Africa through time.

The auction invites viewers on a captivating journey through the artistic expressions that mirror the multifaceted nature of African terrain. Through meticulous  curation and insightful analysis, the catalogue aspires to be a valuable resource for scholars, art enthusiasts and anyone eager to embark on a thought-provoking exploration of Africa’s rich and complex artistic heritage.

Curatorial Voices
Recognising the dynamic discourse surrounding African Landscape, both past and present, the auction features texts by invited contemporary curators responding to the auction selection and themes. As external voices, they provide critical insights into the complexities of the landscape theme. By amplifying these contemporary perspectives, the exhibition seeks to bridge the gap between traditional representations and the ever-evolving discourse on the role of African art within the global art market.

Azza Satti, Independent Curator, Kenya
Azu Nwagbogu, Founder and Director of the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), Nigeria
Camilla van Hoogstraten, Head of Sales, Latitudes Online
Ugoma Ebilah, Curator, Gallerist & Founder of Bloom Art
Nkgopoleng Moloi, Independent Curator, South Africa


  • Thameur Mejri; Two Figures at War
  • Thameur Mejri; Two Figures at War
  • Thameur Mejri; Two Figures at War
  • Thameur Mejri; Two Figures at War


Lot Estimate
ZAR 140 000 - 180 000
Location
Cape Town
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About this Item

Tunisian 1982-
Two Figures at War
2016
charcoal, pencil, pastel and acrylic on canvas
197 by 184,5cm excluding frame; 203,5 by 204 by 6cm including frame

Notes

Thameur Mejri’s work can be located within the geopolitical context of his native Tunisia, which, by the time he was twenty years old, was rocked by the so-called ‘war on terror’ that occurred with the invasion of Iraq in 2003.1

Less than a decade later, Mejri found himself confronted with the effects of the Arab Spring that gave rise to a wave of Islamic extremism across the region.

Such conceptual traces of violence and aggression are not far away in Mejri’s paintings, which aim to ‘capture the chaos of the breakdown of human order’.2

Yet, whilst the body remains central to Mejri’s representational concerns, his nuance lies in the way that abstraction is used to communicate the pressures that lead to a fractured sense of being in contemporary Tunisian society. In so doing, his canvases become ‘the space where the physical and psychological dimensions of that conflict is projected’.3

1. Katrina Kufer (2018) Tunisian Artist Thameur Mejri’s Inevitable Journey , online, https://www.harpersbazaararabia.com/art/artists/meet-tunisian-artist-thameurmejri [9 December 2018].
2. Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi (2017) ‘Invitation into the Depiction of Violence’, in Thameur Mejri, Heretic Spaces, Dubai: Elmarsa Gallery, page 7.
3. Thameur Mejri (2017) Heretic Spaces, Dubai: Elmarsa Gallery, page 29.

This lot has been selected by Curatorial Voice: Azza Satti.

Provenance

Jack Bell Gallery, London, 2017.

Private Collection.

Exhibited

Jack Bell Gallery, London, Before You Split the Ground, 7 to 21 April 2017.

View all Thameur Mejri lots for sale in this auction



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