Nine Divers
Notes : Framed by Zakkie Eloff.
In thirty years of being the art master at Pretoria Boys High School, Walter Battiss watched numerous school activities that inspired paintings such as Athletics, Pretoria Boys High and Masters League Cricket Match (both sold at Strauss & Co in July 2020). The suggestion of terracotta red paving bordering the swimming pool in the present lot reproduces the actual paving that still exists in that area at the school. The dominant colours – red, green and yellow – are some of the school’s housecolours, suggesting the annual gala is in process. Nine archetypal figures in swimming trunks stand poised to dive in from the edge. A perspective warp allows Battiss to depict front and back views of the figures at the same time as a bird’s-eye view of their reflections on the surface of the water. Battiss painted groups of swimmers throughout his career, mostly engaged in more leisurely activities on a beach or at a natural waterhole, such as the work Boys’ Swimming Pool in the Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg, and The Early Men, which references his lifelong interest in San rock art.
