Business Day Art - September 2004 Supplements

Below is the text as written for the Fair Vaue column by Harriet Hedley.

Unsigned sketch poses a quandary

THERE are times when we find treasures in the most unexpected places. But to find masterpieces among the ordinary you have to know your subject, and in this case, the artist. In this edition of Fair Value we look at a drawing from Alexis Preller, whose work has been known to fetch tens of thousands of rand.
 
Anne Taylor bought this drawing from an antique store in Pretoria in the early '90s. "I saw this picture in an antique shop that was holding a closing-down sale and I thought the work would be a good investment."
 
The drawing was sold with a letter of authenticity. Harriet Hedley, art consultant with Gilfillan Scott-Berning, says: "One either loves or misunderstands the work of Preller, the latter being my feelings until I read about what influenced him, where he got his inspiration, and what stirred his emotions and imagination."
 
Preller was born in 1911 in Pretoria and schooled at Pretoria Boy's High School. After school he worked as a clerk and persuaded his parents to allow him to seek a future in the arts. In 1934 he enrolled as an art student at the Westminster School of Art in London. He was fascinated by Gauguin and Van Gogh and his early work bore testament to the impressions these two artists made on him, as well as the inspiration he drew from the works of Irma Stern.
 
"It is my opinion that the work we have been shown came from this period. It is very difficult to be absolutely certain without a signature and date, however this colourful sketch of a Still Life is unusual because of the colours used and subject matter, unlike his later works which we have come to associate with him," says Hedley. "It is also my opinion that the influence of Irma Stern can be seen along the bottom of the sketch in the form of sketchy outlines of women which can so often be seen in her sketches."
 
Hedley believes that, as an unsigned sketch with a letter of authenticity from Edward Bernardi, this work could fetch R2 000 to R4 000. In the late 1930s, Preller went to Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. He had the opportunity to visit museums and was particularly interested in Greek statues in the Louvre. He was fascinated by Africa and spent time in Swaziland and the Congo, where he was exposed to customs, traditions, sculptures and fetishes. An extrapolation of the imagery and iconography played a part in his art throughout the rest of his career.
 
In the '50s, he visited Italy, where he studied frescoes and 15th century Renaissance paintings. His next stop was Egypt, where the mythology, ancestry and symbols made a lasting impression on his work.
 
His imaginative, intellectual and artistic sides fused to produce an individual style which does not fall into any established movement.
 
Esme Berman wrote in the foreword to the catalogue for a retrospective exhibition in 1972: "Though the images which make up Preller's iconography are personal and frequently mysterious, many are rooted in the simple visual perception which acquired overtones and symbolical significance as time wore on. The dividing line between image and symbols is therefore often very narrow; for what was initially perhaps no more than an appealing subject for a painting begins to signify for him a specific phase in his experience, a state of mind or feeling; and ultimately it becomes a metaphor dissociated from its original objective source."

Arts Correspondent