Walter Whall Battiss (South African, 1906-1982) 'Figures In White Light'
Notes : Battiss represented South Africa at the Venice Biennale of 1950 with the work Africans in the Autumn, which showed the genesis of the above technique.He seems to have revelled in the very application of the paint. It was applied in thick slabs of colour and with wide sweeps of the palette knife, he then used the characteristic sgraffito work to outline the figures and subject.The above work dates from the mid-1960s and may be compared to the similar 1967 oil White Light Red Ground offered at auction at Bernardi Auctioneers, Johannesburg on 18th May 2009, lot 484.