Gerard Sekoto (1913-1993)
These lots have been imported from outside the EU … Read more PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN COLLECTION
Gerard Sekoto (1913-1993)

Portrait of a young woman wearing a headscarf

Details
Gerard Sekoto (1913-1993)
Portrait of a young woman wearing a headscarf
signed ‘G SEKOTO’ (lower right)
oil on canvas
24 x 19 ¾in. (60.9 x 50.2cm.)
Provenance
Private collection, USA.
Special notice
These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

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Helena Ingham
Helena Ingham

Lot Essay

One of a series of monumental blue heads, possibly inspired by his ballpoint sketch of the South African singer Miriam Makeba (1960), painted by Sekoto in the 1960s: 'Just prior to [1963] Sekoto embarked on a subject and format that he was to revisit and re-work repeatedly until the mid-1970s. ... The series of busts that Sekoto produced beginning in 1960 were primarily of women, although there are a few isolated examples of male heads. Frequently they are executed using a blue palette. These busts, not dependent on direct observation of the individual sitter, are more abstracted and iconic than the earlier portrait studies, although there are perhaps vague resemblances in some instances with portraits of the artist's mother.' (L. Spiro, Gerard Sekoto: unsevered ties, Johannesburg Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, Johannesburg, 1989, p.55)

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