R400,000 - R600,000
Cecil Edwin Frans Skotnes (South Africa 1926 - 2009) THE BRIDE
signed
carved, incised and painted wood panel, with artist's original handmade brass and copper frame
121,5 by 121,5cm; 139,5 by 139,5cm including framing
Cecil Skotnes’ move from Johannesburg to Cape Town in 1978 marked the artist’s reinvention of his medium and the rejuvenation of his practice. Johannesburg was a place that embodied years of creating, teaching and mentoring, but also became a place of expectation, of repetition and of preconceived processes. While Skotnes spoke fondly of his time in Johannesburg, the Cape quite literally came with a new light and a freedom to explore picture-making and painting once again.
Lot 465, The Bride, is an impressive example of the artist’s work produced in the 70s, where painterly techniques developed during his days as a student studying at the University of Witwatersrand, found common ground with his imposing, well-documented carved and incised panels. This period of work embodies the experiences and memories of an artist who was heir to a wide spectrum of precedent. In this way, his works evaluate and represent life from a far more considered perspective than the simple illustration of the ‘African Image’.
While Skotnes was a trained painter, the artist was notoriously known and respected for his willingness to experiment with mediums. He was exposed to and inspired by the works of European artists such as Cezanne and Braque, but throughout his career attributed his interest in carving and print-making to Rudolph Scharpf, a young German print-maker who produced black and white woodcuts in the 50s. Skotnes maintained that his encounter with this artist’s work was pivotal to his career and his long relationship with the woodblock throughout his life. As Skotnes developed and became more comfortable with the concept of print-making, he began to incorporate the printing block itself into his works and made this a significant component of the image, rather than a simple substrate for a print. The 60s saw the production of Skotnes’ first carved and incised panels.
Skotnes’ panels took on the characteristics of sculpture, with their undulating ridges, areas of solids and ribbed striations, while also remaining pure in their successful two-dimensional formal relationships in terms of positive and negative space and intuitive design. In this way, the artist’s works offer a synthesis between art and craft, where each informs the other. Lot 465 illustrates the combination of formal techniques, where the still-life elements make up a stylised domestic landscape, dispersed over all three planes, and almost splitting the work in half. This is placed in direct juxtaposition to the carved elements of the work, as well as the presentation of the piece in a hand-crafted copper and brass frame, highlighting the extension of craftsmanship in Skotnes’ work. While the elements of art and craft work harmoniously, the tension between the two also sets the emotional pitch of the work.
Stephan Welz & Co. is pleased to be offering this mature work on our upcoming auction. The piece is undeniably ‘Skotnes’, clearly indicating the link in structure, architecture, and design to the artist’s most characteristic works. Wrapped up in the piece are all the small influences throughout his life and career, coupled with the subconscious will to form, and the conscious handling of materials.
- A.C
Dubow, N. Landscapes of the mind, Cecil Skotnes [O]:
http://cecilskotnes.com/publications/landscapes-of-the-mind/
Accessed 8th May 2022
Skotnes, P. At the cutting edge: Cecil Skotnes as printmaker, Cecil Skotnes [O]:
http://cecilskotnes.com/essay-by-pippa-skotnes/
Accessed 8th May 2022
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