Gerard Sekoto (South African, 1913-1993) Nude Study
Provenance : Provenance A private collection, UK. The present work exemplifies South African artist Gerard Sekoto's interest in illustrating the female form - an impetus particularly evident in the 1960s. The work on paper relates closely to a series of blue heads created by the artist in the early 1960s and a number of female nudes executed in gouache towards the end of the decade. As in these comparable works, Nude Study depicts the head and shoulders of a figure presented in a frontal position. The woman is set against a non-representational background comprised of fluid strokes of pigment. Responding to this lyrical painterly approach, Barbara Lindop suggests that Sekoto's studies of the human form in this period are of an idealised African woman rather than living subjects and therefore 'are more abstracted and iconic than the earlier portrait studies' (Sekoto quoted in Lindop, 1988: p. 55). Certainly, the present work might be conceived as an exercise in form, line, and colour as much as an expression of figurative representation. Sekoto highlights the woman's facial features and jewellery using warm red tones that contrast with the cool blues and buttery yellow hues of her skin. Bibliography Barbara Lindop, Gerard Sekoto (Randburg, SA, 1988).
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