Women in the Township

Provenance

Bonhams, London, The South African Sale, 27 October 2010, lot 115.

Strauss & Co, Johannesburg, 14 September 2021, lot 57.

Notes

The present lot is similar to another work by the artist titled Two Women in the Township (1958), illustrated in Barbara Lindop's 1988 publication, Gerard Sekoto. ¹ The similarities between them place Women in the Township in what critics have termed Sekoto's 'blue period'. He engaged with various texture and paint techniques in the late fifties and early sixties, an experimental methodology which he explains as follows:

"The poster colours I used were thick, but could be diluted very thin, almost like watercolours when needed. But seeing they were thus thick, I took advantage and used them almost as oil. There would also be disadvantages of cracks when applied too thickly. The reason for my using the blue was merely because I chose it and that it was sufficiently strong to contrast with warmer colours. Also I could make it into various tones with white and could vary other colours with it."²

^1. Barbara Lindop (1988) Gerard Sekoto, Randburg: Dictum Publishing, page 221.

^2. Ibid, page 212.