AbstRacT – Synchrony Revealed
Timed Online Auction, 4 - 23 July 2025
AbstRacT – Synchrony Revealed
About the SessionIn 2024, the Rupert Museum presented AbstRacT – The Hidden Synchrony, an exhibition inspired by Oscar Forel’s Synchromies series - close-up photographs of tree bark that transformed the familiar into bold abstraction. These works were paired with South African modernist paintings from the museum’s collection, creating surprising visual harmonies and fresh interpretations.
Building on this concept, AbstRacT – Synchrony Revealed is the result of the museum’s third Open Call, which received over 300 submissions. From these, 41 artists were selected to showcase their work in a group exhibition - now part of an exclusive online auction in collaboration with Strauss & Co.
The auction offers collectors a chance to discover new voices engaging with themes of ecology, memory, materiality, and abstraction. Each work reveals a dynamic interplay between natural form and artistic expression - where chance, structure, and symbolism collide.
During the period of the online auction the exhibition is accessible to be viewed at the Jan Rupert Art Centre, 41 Middle street, Graaff-Reinet.
Collection of the artworks will be available once the exhibition closes on 16 November 2025.
Please contact Eliz-Marie Schoonbee to arrange collection/delivery
tel: 021 888 3261
email: eliz-marie@rupertmuseum.org
About this Item
signed
Notes
From an ongoing series that explores how movement can be perceived in stillness, this work is inspired by Oscar Forel's Synchromies #39 : Sequoia (base of tree trunk partly burnt). These patterns, though static, reveal the passage of time and an organic sense of motion.
Using ink and ribbon on canvas, the artist translates this idea into his precise yet expressive composition. Unlike his usual hard-edged style, he slightly softens his lines, mimicking the rough textures found in Forel's tree studies. Ink and ribbon, materials often associated with fluidity, become tools for both control and spontaneity. By embracing slight imperfections within his structured framework, Hlungwani challenges the idea that abstraction must always be rigid and exact.
In this artwork, movement is not directly shown but implied, held in a state of balance between order and natural variation. This piece reflects the artist's ongoing interest in the relationship between precision and intuition, structure and organic change. It invites viewers to consider how still forms can suggest movement, echoing both nature's patterns and the artist's hand at work.
View all Keamogetsoe Hlungwani lots for sale in this auction
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