R80,000 - R120,000
John Koenakeefe Mohl (South African 1903 - 1985) TO THE WEDDING WITH THE GIFTS
signed and dated 1964; signed, dated and inscribed with title, and place, label adhered to the reverse bears the artist's studio address
oil on board
71 by 40,5cm
PROVENANCE
Strauss & Co, 2009, Johannesburg, March, lot 118
John Koenakeefe Mohl (1903 - 1985) was born at Dinokana in the Transvaal near what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate and what is known today as Botswana. His full surname Motlhankana, was shortened to Mohl by the Germans that educated him. He was trained for five years at the Dusseldorf Kunst-Akademie until the beginning of the Nazi rule.
A modest and respected intellectual, Mohl was active in what was known as the Sophiatown Renaissance in Johannesburg where he founded the first independent black art college.
Mohl’s life and career spanned almost the entire twentieth century and his work depicts both sprawling rural landscapes, and built up urban metropolises, as Mohl was familiar with both. Travellers, or people in transit are a common theme that appear in Mohl’s paintings. His descriptive titles often evidence a reason for the travel as his figures are rarely leisurely tourists without purpose. Like the many changes to technology and lifestyle that Mohl witnessed in his lifetime, the figures in Mohl’s paintings are always in transition.
In To the Wedding With the Gifts, Lesotho depicts two prominent figures on horseback, with a further two figures ahead of them in the distance. As Lesotho is a country high above sea level, the ash grey ground may portray fallen snow. The sky which is a darker shade than the ground, may confirm this. The guests of the wedding wear typical Basutho dress with highly patterned blankets with pointed straw hats. As the title informs, are carrying their gifts for the wedding couple. The vast landscape that stretches out ahead of them indicates that the weary travellers have far to go before they reach their destination.
S.D
‘’Towards a biography of John Koenakeefe Mohl (1903-85), southern African painter of landscapes-with-figures’’ Neil Parsons, accessed May 13, 2021, https://coms.events/ASAUK2018/data/abstracts/en/abstract_0348.html
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