THE SOUTH AFRICAN

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ART

TIMES

By Michael CoulsonIn the biggest development in theallery world since Rand MerchantBank tycoon Paul Harris boughtinto the Everard Read Gallery,control of Johannesburg’s other biggest and longest-establishedallery has changed hands. LindaGivon, who founded the GoodmanGallery 40 years ago, has sold

out to lm producer (her credits

include Oscar winner Tsotsi), artconsultant and serial entrepreneur Liza Essers.

he sale was nally completed,

with money changing hands, in thelast week of May, after prolongednegotiations that are believed byinsiders to have been so fraughtat times as to have come close tobeing called off – which those whohave known Givon for decades

will have no difculty in believing.

he sale also includes the offshootGivon established in Cape Townlast year.he price has not been disclosed,but Neil Dundas, senior curator in the Johannesburg gallery, says

market talk of a gure between

R50m-R100m is way off the mark.He points out that while the Good-man has accumulated a huge andvaluable inventory over the years,most of the works are held on con-signment and remain the propertyof the artists.

hen Givon (nee Finger,

ormerly Goodman) started out inhe 1960s, she had an inestimableadvantage: a wealthy family back-round. Her father owned most of Johannesburg’s leading privatehospitals. But she was no dilet-ante: the gallery was never run onless than totally professional lines,and from the outset she set out to

nd and encourage black artists at

a time when most galleries stucko the tried and true.he Goodman’s 1960s Sundaynight openings were legendary,not least because black artistswho later found internationalrenown were on occasion forcedto pose as waiters when theapartheid police came to sniff outCommunists and other subver-sive elements who, by Calvinist

denition, made up the bulk of the

audience. As the gallery’s Web site allitera-tively says, its policy was to foster the culture of the country despitedespotic duress. Post-1994, thishas widened to embrace thepromotion of SA artists internation-ally. The Goodman is a private

company (to be precise, it’s a

closed corporation that is nowconverting into a Pty company) sodoesn’t publish results, but Givonindicated to me some years agothat more than half her sales wereto foreign buyers. Artists fostered by Givon in thoseearly days include Judith MasonDumile Feni, Sydney Khumalo andEzrom Legae. More recently she’sbrought the likes of David Gold-blatt, Moshekwa Langa, KagisoPat Mautloa, Mikhael Subotzkyand Nontsikelelo Veleko to interna-tional attention. And though shedidn’t “discover” William Kentridge – that honour belongs to NadineGordimer’s husband, the late Re-inhold Cassirer – his internationaléclat owes much to her.Others who currently show thereinclude Deborah Bell, Robert Hod-gins, Penny Siopis, David Koloane

(whose current exhibition contains

some of his best work in years),Sam Nhlengethwa, Tracy Rose,Walter Oltmann, Diane Victor,Jeremy Wafer, Sue Williamson,Clive van den Berg and MinetteVari. Essers plans to meet allthese, and the rest of the stable, toassure them that it’ll be businessas usual. At the time of writing, Essers andGivon are in Switzerland for Art39 Basel, the prestigious art fair at which Goodman is the only SAgallery invited.

Continued on Page 2

GoodmanGallery sold

One beautiful lady: from R 350K to R 3.74M in one night

The South African art fraternity gasped in amazement as a Tretchikoff put on reserve for R300 000 sold for R 3. 740 M at a Sothebys auction in Cape Town on 26th May. Everyone has their own version for the reason for

this extraordinary auction result, which brings Russian born so-called “King of Kitsch” into line with icons of the

local art canon such as Irma Stern and Maggie Laubser.

Story on Page 3

Tretchikoff joins the Blue Chip old South African Masters Club as

The Fruits of Bali

sells for 10 x pre- sale estimate for a staggering R 3. 74 M

Page 2South African Art Times. June 2008

The South African

Art Times

June 2008www.arttimes.co.za

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As well as showcasing a number of SA artists at its stand, the gal-lery is representing Tom Mulcaire,a South African now resident inBrazil, on Art Unlimited, the major

curated exhibition at Basel.

Givon, who is taking the opportu-nity to introduce Essers to major international contacts, says: “Lizareminds me of myself at that age

and I feel very condent about

handing over to her”. Essers willalso accompany Kentridge to theSydney Biennale in mid-June and

Subotzky to his exhibition at MoMA

in New York in September.Originally a management

consultant with Accenture (for

-merly Andersen Consulting), after studying art in Florence, Essersshifted careers in 2003 to becomean independent art advisor andcurator.She advises several private andcorporate collectors in SA andabroad. Recent large-scale publicart projects include the Anglo American sculpture initiative

(2003 ongoing), the David project

sponsored by Nedbank and The

Legacy group (2005) and, morerecently, the Nirox International

Artist’s Residency Programme,established in 2007.

Group exhibitions she has curated,include Integrating Cultures (2003,

Cape Town), Faces to Names

(2006, Johannesburg) and Shift(2007, Johannesburg, and Lon

-don). The last-mentioned includedKentridge, Nhlengethwa, Mautloa,and Claire Gavronsky, so she’salready familiar to a number of theGoodman stable.Essers recently initiated a large-scale documentary series on

contemporary SA art, with the rst

episode featuring Kentridge andMarlene Dumas. Other currentprojects include the developmentof a major public art initiative for 2010 and a large-scale sculptural

exhibition for the Nirox sculpture

park. Located near the Cradle

of Mankind, the Nirox park,

beautifully designed by top gardenarchitect Patrick Watson, recently

hosted the latest exhibition by

the evergreen sculptor in metal,Edoardo Villa.Essers intends to maintain theGoodman’s reputation as a leadingcontemporary art gallery. No major changes in staff are planned,the name will remain, and Givonherself will stay on as a consultantfor three years. At least, that’sthe intention, though it remainsto be seen how she adapts to nolonger being the mistress in her own house. And as Dundas points out, likeits major rivals the gallery is

fully booked for exhibitions for the next couple of years, sowithout breaking rm contracts no

sudden shift of emphasis wouldbe possible, anyway. So far thisyear the gallery has shown AlisonKearney and Emily Stainer in a

joint exhibition, the late Walter Battiss (whose whimsical Fook

Island fantasy, devised in conjunc-tion with Norman Catherine, wasa feature of the Goodman in the1960s and 1970s), Rose and

Goldblatt. Booked in the next few

months are Hentie van der Merwe

(July-August), Mautloa (August-September), Mulcaire (Septem

-ber-October) and Jeremy Wafer

(October-November).In typical PR speak, the ofcial

announcement says the galleryanticipates a smooth transitionduring this change in leadershipand a continuous programme of

exciting and challenging exhibi

-tions and art works for visitors’viewing pleasure. Well, that’swhat they always say on such oc-casions; it doesn’t always work outso trouble-free.Much of the value of a businesslike the Goodman Gallery is thegoodwill attached to the proprietor,felt by both artists and clientele.Essers plans to meet all the latter to reassure them. But clientswho’ve virtually grown up ascollectors with Givon may proveharder to keep on board.The other question still stimulatinggossip is where the money’s com-ing from. Rumour is that Essers isbeing backed by a businessman

with a career in the nancial serv

-ices business neither as long nor as distinguished as Paul Harris’s;but that’s something on which the

parties involved are staying rmly

and immovably silent.

The Goodman sale

Continued from Page 1

(Left) Goodman Gallery - Johannesburg situated on a busy Jan Smuts Ave forms one of the cornerstones of the new artstrip galleries opposite. (Right) Goodman Gallery - Cape Townopened in 2007 in the new trendy Woodstock art belt, subsequently Michael Stevenson and Bell- Roberts Gallery have moved to close proximity to the Goodman.

South African Art Times. June 2008 Page 3

KUNSGALERY

CAPE TOWN

JOHANS BORMAN

FINE ART GALLERY

A showcase for the best of South African Masters,as well as some leadingcontemporary artists.

Telephone: 021 423 6075www.johansborman.co.zaMon-Fri: 10h00 - 18h00Sat: 09h00 - 14h00or by appointmentIn Fin Art BuildingUpper Buitengracht Street, Cape Town 8001Cell: 082 566 4631E-mail: art@johansborman.co.za

Hussein Salim,

My People II

Art Investment writer The South African art frater-nity gasped in amazement as aTretchikoff put on reserve for R300 000 sold for R3. 740 Mat a Sothebys auction in CapeTown on 26th May. Everyone has their own version for

the reason for this extraordinary

auction result, which brings Rus-sian born so-called “King of Kitsch”into line with august icons of thelocal art canon such as Irma Sternand Maggie Laubser. Both these venerable hallowedfemales recently fetched whatwere considered record prices atrecent London auction houses.But stocky blonde inimitable Tretchis enjoying what will probably bea whole series of last laughs fromthe grave as he considers howall his South African life time hewas derided and resented by localart critics and snobs. All he ever said of local opinion was “Bullshit!” while his reputation grew ever greater world wide and his Chi-nese Girl became the best sellingart print in history and continuesselling. Robert Brooks, Emiritus professor and former head of Fine Art atRhodes University, said the R3.7-million sale trashed those criticsand academics who had “mutteredaway” about Tretchikoff, whosework has previously been labelledkitsch and lacking in substance.“He was accessible and he bright-ened people’s lives in the 1950sand 1960s.”

He explained the price leap as

being related to art investment be-ing in a “tremendously good way”.He said there was “a lot of money

oating around looking for things

to buy” but he said people werealso looking back and seeing thevalue of Tretchikoff’s work. He said

Tretchikoff had been the rst to

realise that money could be madefrom prints and had the ability topaint for the public in a way thatmade people feel important in thatthey were able to understand themeaning of his workBrooks believes that the priceachieved for The Fruits of Baliwill result in a “total re-evalua-

tion” because it would be difcult

for anyone to ignore the kind of money that had been raised. Andries Loots of 34 Long ArtGallery in Cape Town has another take on the high price. 34 Longauctioned Trechikoff’s “DyingSwan” two years ago just after the artist died and got R300 000for this famous painting. Andries

rmly believes that the Russians

are buying heavily into art as arethe Chinese. He does not thinkthat “Fruits of Bali” is all that greata Tretchikoff work but this wouldnot matter to the Russians.“They are driving the art marketat present. The Russians think of Tretchikoff as one of their own andthey want his work back in Russia.There is enormous wealth therenow - money totally no object andI believe that they will be lookingfor more Tretchies now. After all,Tretch has always been bigger anywhere else in the world buthere. Everyone shunned him hereas not being a truly South Africanartist but I reckon that his portraitsof some of our African tribesmenand local people of colour are the

nest representations of the genreyou can nd in South Africa’.

Graham Britz of Grahams Fine Art gallery, however, was loud inpraise of “Fruits of Bali” “I thinkthat this is an absolute classic,iconic work by a master painter.

This is a denitive piece. The

Balinese woman as the centrepiece is so striking and so beauti-ful and the colours of the fruit glowintensely. I don’t believe that this is

a ash in the pan price - I think we

will see steadily increasing pricesfor Tretchikoff as long as they areworks of this kind of quality” An art auctioneer in Durban whoprefers to remain anonymous andwho has dealt often auctionedoriginal Tretchikoffs believes thatthis astonishing price was part of ascam to raise the asking price for Tretchikoffs.“Everyone knows what Brett Keb-ble did with his collection of Irma

Sterns. He signicantly raised

the price of his Stern collection byhaving some of them auctioned

and then bought for hugely inated

prices. In this way he dramaticallyincreased the asking price for her works. I think the same thing hashappened here. After all, why didthe others on the auction go for average prices - why just this onefor 10 times the estimate ?”

The same art expert knows of the

well-know fan in Durban who isreputed to have the largest collec-tion of original Tretchikoffs in theworld, collected from the artist’searliest days when this Durbanman became an instant and undy-ing fan of his work.“I have been in touch withsomeone who knows him and thiscollector is totally ecstatic at theSotheby’s result - naturally.......”In quoting Ian Hunter of Sotheby’sConstantia Cape said: “We were all very surprised but of

course extremely pleased when

Fruits of Bali achieved this recordprice over our estimate. Wepegged it at R300 000 because

ww ecoud nt nd a sale price for

Tretchikoff over R400 00 so wewere abit of the conservative side. All the others up sold well withintheir margins but I think this one

exceeded all expectations be

-cause it is a picture that comfort-able embraces all the strongestelements of the artist’s visualvocabularly. Tretch was well know

for his love of baroque exoticism,

glowing sensual colour, rich tropi-

cal massing of fruits or owers,

black naked beauty of humanform....it’s all in this picture.”

(Art Times) Flash in the pan then,

a once off or a foretaste of what iisto come for Tretchikoff sellrs andbuyers of the future ? Says Ian “Well, it is in my opinion

an exception but I suppose we will

get owners of his works phoningus and demanding no less than 3mil for their paintings ! We’re usedto that. In the same sale we had

a record price for an Alexander

Rose-Innes and for an AdriaanBoshoff. But as for Tretchikoff,

it’s difcult to say: the barrier has

been broken now, anything canhappen as far as we’re concerned.With Tretchikoff, both the art andthe artist, you can never takeanything for granted”.

Ian conrmed that the painting had

been bought by a South African.However the Art Times would liketo not rule out that they could haveacted on a local or internationalclients behalf.Tretchikoff’s daughter Mimi, whowas approached by SA Art Timesfor comment regarding the resultsremarked in true Tretchi spirit“about bloody time”