Notes

Pioneering black South African modernist, George Pemba, began his career concentrating on watercolour as his primary medium, but a meeting in Cape Town in 1942 with fellow artist Gerard Sekoto, changed his focus. Sekoto encouraged Pemba to paint in oils, and to find his subject matter in the township life that surrounded him. The present lot, The Road Diggers (undated), successfully embraces both aspects of Sekoto's advice.

The portrayal of the working figure is seen throughout art history, and in this instance, the depiction of the toil of Black South African labourers, many of whom had migrated to the cities in search of work. The Road Diggers is closely associated with Dorothy Kay's etching Song of the Pick (1938), and Sekoto's iconic painting with the same title, Song of the Pick (1946). Sekoto's later rendition of the subject painted in 1978, also titled Song of the Pick, is included in the exhibition Working Life in South Africa, Gerard Sekoto and Lena Hugo currently on view at Strauss & Co offices in Johannesburg from 1 April to 30 May 2025.

The dominant compositional characteristic of the works by all three artists is the portrayal of workers raising their picks in rhythmical unison as they fulfil their back-breaking task. Both Kay and Sekoto employ the repetitive use of line to create a visual rhythm echoing that of the labourers' accompanying song.

In the present lot, Pemba's similar portrayal of three labourers digging a road captures the moment of dynamic tension between the workers raising their picks, and their striking the golden ground below. The energy of the moment is emphasised by Pemba's masterfully strident use of colour in vibrant tones of red and yellow.

On the right of the painting, Pemba's portrayal of a faceless looming figure, holding a stick and confronting the workers could be a foreman overseeing the team of men, or a reference to the dominance of the economically powerful over the vulnerable workers. The distant cityscape serves as a reminder of the political and economic structures that shape our land.

The present lot embodies all the characteristics that make Pemba one of South Africa's great artists. Uncompromisingly honest, compositionally considered and vibrant, and bursting with movement, The Road Diggers is a superb example of Pemba at his best.