The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize 2022 Benefit Auction | Hosted by Sotheby’s

Mawande Ka Zenzile

Landscape Painting

No reserve

No Reserves

Lot Closed

February 22, 05:20 PM GMT

Estimate

8,000 - 12,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Mawande Ka Zenzile

South African

b.1986

Landscape Painting

signed, titled and dated 2021 (on the reverse of left canvas)

cow dung, gold leaf, oil paint and gesso on canvas

each: 61 by 75.5cm., 24 by 29¾in.

Please be aware of the Conditions of Sale when bidding. As a benefit auction, there is no buyer’s premium charged. The only additional costs due to the winning bidder are applicable sales tax and shipping. Works auctioned are sold “as is,” and condition reports are included with lot descriptions as available. In-person previews of the auction artwork will be available at Norval Foundation at 4 Steenberg Rd, Tokai, Cape Town, 7945, South Africa from 26 January – 22 February, Monday to Sundays 9 AM – 5:00 PM (Closed on Tuesdays). Please note that while this auction is hosted on Sothebys.com, it is being administered by Norval Foundation (“the museum”), and all post-sale matters (inclusive of invoicing and property pickup/shipment) will be handled by the museum. As such, Sotheby’s will share the contact details for the winning bidders with the museum so that they may be in touch directly post-sale.

This work has been kindly donated by the artist

Mawande Ka Zenzile (b. 1986, South Africa) is an artist whose practice debunks normative knowledge frameworks and proposes new ways of considering art, the art historical narrative and what constitutes the ‘decolonial project’. Ka Zenzile’s combination of cow dung, a material frequently used in Nguni cultures for domestic ends, and oil paint, a staple of the western art historical establishment, reflects his dual preoccupations with reaffirming indigenous systems of knowledge while adapting current modes to disrupt hegemonic constructs.

Landscape Painting brings to focus ideas of ‘decolonising visualities’, a topic he has been researching for some time. The deep hues, counterbalanced by radiant blues, in this diptych are inspired by colours naturally occurring across the small, agrarian town in the Eastern Cape in which the artist was born and raised. The huts featured are the artist’s non-figurative representation of the homes in this environment. Instead of an idyllic, pastoral and distorted depiction of the African landscape, the artist aims for a depiction of the countryside that is true to the essence of a space, based on feeling and a connectedness to the ecosystem.