In Africa

Provenance

Private Collection Murray Schoonraad.

Literature

Karin Skawran (2005) Walter Battiss: Gentle Anarchist, Johannesburg: Standard Bank Gallery, illustrated in colour on page 101.

Karin Skawran and Michael MacNamara (eds) (1985) Battiss, Johannesburg: AD Donker, page 99 and illustrated in colour on page 97 as plate 19.

Notes

'A work such as his In Africa cannot be seen as erotic, despite the attention given to sexual characteristics. Scratched onto a background of broadly applied strokes of brightly coloured paint, the lines conjure up a fertile crowd of human beings, their proximity within the tight space emphasising their physical awareness of each other. This is a luscious painting. Its decorative qualities are as delightful as its content. And one smiles when, on reading through the ingeniously related figures, one comes upon a girl whose breasts have risen vertically in a mood of special exuberance.'¹

1. Raymund van Niekerk (1985) 'Humour in Battiss', in Karin Skawran and Michael Macnamara (eds) Battiss, Johannesburg: AD Donker, page 99.