Robert Hodgins
Oh, Oh, Oh She Cried in a Cracked Voice, diptych
About the SessionPreviously, a Fine Arts professor at the University of South Africa, Dr Rayda Becker spent from 1988 to 2001 as senior Art Curator at the University of the Witwatersrand, Art Galleries in Johannesburg. During her time at Wits Art Galleries, she completed her Doctoral Thesis entitled Tsonga headrests: the making of an art history category, which was published in 1999. While her specific research area focused on the headrests made by Tsonga carvers, Rayda developed a real affinity for all things Limpopo Province, figurative sculpture, medicine gourds, Nhnghuvani, carved stoppers with heads as their tops, and Tsonga beadwork.
She also formed deep friendships with some of the artists from the former Venda and Gazankulu areas, namely Jackson Hlungwani, Julius Chauke, Johannes Maswanganyi, Dr Phuthuma Seoka, Nelson Mukhuba, and Noria Mabasa, among others, and often conducted field trips to their homes for research while at Wits Art Museum.
This curated selection of items from Rayda’s collection includes two Angels by Jackson Hlungwani, whom she accompanied to an exhibition at the Watari Museum in Japan in 1995, where the “Altar of God”, originally from his hilltop sanctuary in Mbhokota in Limpopo, was exhibited and which later formed part of Wits Art Museum’s Collection. Also included are a group of Nhunguvana by Tsonga artists and a carved figure of a Sangoma by Johannes Maswanganyi that also doubles as a Nhunguvana.
Dr Rayda Becker was well known for never settling on a single point of view, either when approaching an exhibition or writing about a specific African art-related topic, always opting for a position of multivalency, which led her to be known among many friends and academics in her field as Rayda, Options” Becker.
This auction of selected artworks as well as a significant work by Robert Hodgins and other South African artists who loved her dearly, reflects Rayda’s always curious interpretation of the world around her.
Strauss & Co is delighted to announce that, in accordance with the wishes of the family, a portion of the proceeds from this auction will be donated to the Dr Rayda Becker Art Scholarship Fund. This contribution will support an emerging artist in the development of their career.
Special thanks to Fiona Rankin-Smith for the written contribution and for curating the sale which will be on view at our Cape Town office.
About this Item
signed, dated 83/84 twice and inscribed cat. c 10 on the reverse
Provenance
Late Estate Dr Rayda Becker.
Literature
Brenda Atkinson (2002) Robert Hodgins, Cape Town: Tafelberg, illustrated in colour on page 90.
Notes
Oh, Oh, Oh She Cried in a Cracked Voice is a seminal diptych from a pivotal era in Robert Hodgins’s career, exposing a South Africa in the grip of crisis. Painted between 1983 and 1984, this highly acclaimed work serves as a billboard-like medium for protest, resistance, and activism. Through an allegorical lens, Hodgins critiques the inhumane system of apartheid, much as William Kentridge’s early works referenced the Weimar Republic to reflect on a post-war world.
During the 1980s Hodgins frequently drew parallels between the humanistic atrocities of apartheid and the political commentary found in the works of Francisco Goya. His visual language in this period is also deeply rooted in the imagery of Francis Bacon and William Blake.
The work is populated by figures defined by disfigurement, distortion and the grotesque, reflecting a state of visceral panic and chaos. Hodgins employs a dramatic palette of reds, yellows, and whites—colours characteristic of his output during this turbulent decade.
Much like his 1986 work, A Beast Slouches, held at the Wits Art Museum. Like the 1986 seminal painting the present lot captures an "apocalyptic state of the nation". As noted by Dr Rayda Becker, while Hodgins's earlier works were often silent and contemplative, his later paintings "scream at you".
The title of the work evokes the dramatic and haunted voices found in the poetry of W.B. Yeats. Although the phrase "oh oh oh she cried in a cracked voice" is not a direct quotation from Yeats, it strongly echoes his use of theatricalised voices to represent tormented souls and intense, tragic emotions. This connection highlights Hodgins's identity as a "European in Africa," whose work is inextricably influenced by both European history and the specific South African landscape.
Provenance for this lot is particularly notable, coming from the estate of the late Dr Rayda Becker. Becker was a contributing writer to the 2002 monograph on Hodgins, in which this specific diptych was featured. The work remains profoundly relevant today as a reflection of the "pathos of man" and a haunting icon of social distortion.
1. Rayda Becker (2002) Made in Africa? In Brenda Atkinson (2002) ‘Robert Hodgins’, Cape Town: Tafelberg, page 32.
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