Once-in-a-lifetime chance to view Preller’s ‘Adam’
Work may be lost to SA again after auction
WHEN a massive crate arrived at the premises of an art auction house in Houghton a few weeks ago, staff held their breath. The crate’s contents had made a very long journey and were precious – like R9 million precious.
But safely sheathed inside a cocoon of bubble wrap and polystyrene chips was a painting deemed “lost” for 47 years. The life-sized painting inside the crate had arrived all the way from New York. The work, titled Adam, is an Alexis Preller last seen on South African soil in 1969.
The intaglio and oil on fibreglass is considered one of Preller’s most significant works. It features a striking blue elliptical background and on it is an image of a male nude that is part human, part mythological being.
“It was a like opening a tomb when the crate arrived – we were so nervous and also thrilled and excited that the painting was back in South Africa,” says Alastair Meredith, an art specialist with Strauss & Co.
Preller created the work in 1969 in his unique negative relief technique. The distinctive artwork was bought that year by prominent New York art collectors Ruth and Jerome Siegel.
“That the Siegels, who collected mostly post-war American and European art, bought the Preller for their collection says volumes about Preller’s prominence,” says Meredith.
Meredith says there’s no record of how much the painting that was displayed at the Lidchi Gallery in Joburg sold for at the time.
As soon as the Siegels returned to New York, the painting left with them and disappeared into their private collection.
There was no longer a paper trail or any publicly available information about the work.
So elusive was Adam that when artist and lecturer Professor Karel Nel and Esmé Berman wrote Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows, a two-volume mono- graph of the artist, they could only refer to and publish a blackand-white image of the work as it was photographed in Preller’s studio.
Now the enigmatic painting is back on South African soil after nearly half a century and it’s going on auction on Monday. It’s ex- pected to fetch anything between R6.5 million to R9m.
South African art is held in high international regard and a Preller of this distinction has had buyers and collectors from across the world interested. Meredith says prices are determined by market sentiment and appetite and previous sale records.
A Preller artwork that Strauss & Co sold recently fetched R8.5m.
“Preller, who died in 1975, is considered one of South Africa’s most prominent and influential artists. His work reflected the time he was working in. His works are highly complex but also bright and easy to live with, which makes them attractive to collectors,” says Meredith.
Nel, who was present for the opening of the crate was “thrilled”, says Meredith. Nel wrote of Preller’s work being “incandescent” and that he was “an avant-garde artist who was able to synthesise the language of modernism within an African frame of reference”.
The “lost” Preller will be up for auction alongside other significant Preller works. Together they’re expected to fetch at least R18.5m. There are also two early Walter Battiss works and pieces from Cecil Skotnes and Edoardo Villa that will go under the hammer at the Wanderers ballroom on Monday night.
“The public viewings that have been arranged are a once-in-alifetime opportunity to see Adam and to see the works displayed together.
“Adam really is a museum piece and we’d love that it stays in South Africa, but you never know who will buy it,” says Meredith.
Bina Genovese, marketer for the auction house, says: “We welcome the public to the viewings. There is something special about seeing a repatriated work of such significance on display.
“Once the pieces are sold in to a private collection they will be lost to the public, possibly for another 30-year cycle.
The artworks are open to free public viewing at the Wanderers ballroom today and tomorrow. There will also be two free walkabouts today and tomorrow at 11am.