Gerard Sekoto: Blue head - SOLD
Gerard Sekoto
Blue head
Oil on canvas
65 x 50 cm
Signed and dated bottom right
Sold - 2009
From 1960, Sekoto started producing a series of busts that he was to revisit and re-work repeatedly until the mid 1970’s. These abstracted heads and portrait studies were primarily of African women and were usually executed in broad strokes using a blue palette. Sekoto explained that he chose to use the dominant blue palette because it was sufficiently strong, and contrasted well with the warmer colours, while also allowing for tonal adjustments when mixed with white in the highlighted areas. Apart from these technical aspects, he also liked the positive and expressive qualities of the strong blues, which contributed to the grace and dignity of these iconic heads with elongated necks.
Sekoto inscribed a 1960 ball-point pen drawing of the South African singer extraordinaire, Miriam Makeba; “Inspiration - Mariam Makeba”. Recently deceased (2008), she was ‘Mama Afrika’ to the world and an anti-racist activist till the end - always supporting and identifying with the downtrodden and the disenfranchised. Both Lesley Spiro and Barbara Lindop are of the opinion that it is most probable that this drawing provided the inspiration for Sekoto’s series of ‘Blue Heads’.
Provenance:
Blomqvist Kunsthandel, Oslo, Norway, 2008
Bibliography:
Lesley Spiro, Gerard Sekoto: Unsevered Ties, Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1989, pp 54 to 56 and 89
Barbara Lindop, Gerard Sekoto, Randburg, 1988, pp 212 and 213
To view the Gerard Sekoto web page click here
To view the Gerard Sekoto biography click here