What the Fook? The Life and Work of Walter Battiss
Timed Online Auction, 12 - 30 June 2025
What the Fook? The Life and Work of Walter Battiss
Incl. Buyer's Premium & VAT
About this Item
signed with the artist's initials in the plate; signed, numbered Second Proof and inscribed with the title in pencil in the margin; inscribed with the artist's name, the title and catalogue number 115 on a Pretoria Art Museum label on the reverse
Literature
Warren Siebrits (ed) (2016) Walter Battiss: "I Invented Myself", exhibition catalogue, Johannesburg: The Ampersand Foundation, another impression from the edition illustrated in colour on page 106 with the title 'Woman, Deer and Salamander', cat. no. 1971.11 S6.
Provenance
The Collection of Professor Murray Schoonraad.
Exhibited
The Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, Walter Battiss Retrospective, 1979-80, cat. no. 115.
Notes
In 1968, the Transkei government allowed Battiss to cut 30 feet of a giant Boxwood tree into end-grain sections for a series of prints. He left them to age for three years, making them ready for engraving by 1971.
Battiss believed this rare wood was ideal for fine engraving. He produced many prints during this period, with the current lot and lot 40 being compelling examples. The natural material shapes each work, influencing both form and composition-the thicker the woodblock, the lower it came from on the trunk.1
1Warren Siebrits (ed) (2016) Walter Battiss: "I Invented Myself", exhibition catalogue, Johannesburg: The Ampersand Foundation, page 106.
