Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Decorative Arts, Jewellery and Fine Wine

Live Virtual Auction, 8 - 11 November 2020

Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art Part II
  • Walter Battiss; Abstract Composition
  • Walter Battiss; Abstract Composition
  • Walter Battiss; Abstract Composition
  • Walter Battiss; Abstract Composition
  • Walter Battiss; Abstract Composition


Lot Estimate
ZAR 350 000 - 500 000

About this Item

South African 1906-1982
Abstract Composition
signed
oil on canvas
50 by 60cm excluding frame

Notes

Gordon McIntosh was a prominent Pretoria architect, responsible for the design of many iconic buildings in the city including the Pretoria Art Museum in Arcadia. On his sketches for the Modernist design for House Munro, he included a quote by the European architect Walter Gropius, which indicates his interest in the International Style and suggests both his architectural design motivation and, perhaps, his reason for acquiring this painting from Walter Battiss: 'The ground plan … is a geometrical projection of its spatial idea – the organizing plan for moving within a house. The elevation, facade, is the result of that plan and not the starting point … Hence, no artificial symmetry, but a free functional arrangement of the succession of rooms.'1

McIntosh was the president of the Transvaal Provincial Institute of Architects from 1936 to 1942 and received the Institute of South African Architects Gold Medal in 1968.

1. https://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=1958.

Provenance

Gordon McIntosh, acquired directly from the artist, mid-1960s.

Deneys Reitz.

View all Walter Battiss lots for sale in this auction


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