Alexis Preller (South African, 1911-1975) Still life with flowers
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Notes : PROVENANCE:Mrs Delores Bilu, IsraelDennis Hotz Fine ArtAn extremely similar work, with the same title as the present lot, was included in the Alexis Preller Retrospective at the Pretoria Art Museum in October 1972 (cat. no. 61) and is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue. Save for the type of blossom depicted, the two compositions are almost identical.This still life is a typical assembly of objets trouvé that was often used by the artist in his still lifes. Preller light-heartedly described the objects as "household gods". The patterned vase, fruit and shells are all talismans to which he frequently turned for artistic inspiration. A single egg is seen in the right of the foreground; eggs were to take on a heavily symbolic central role in works such as Still life with Eggs, 1948 and the Icarus series (both illustrated in Berman & Nel, 2009). The vase, also featured in Still life with sunflowers and a vase (lot 42), was a favourite subject:"The so-called 'Persian' vase [was] one of Preller's most precious possessions. He painted any number of studies of this vase, alone, empty or filled with flowers, accompanied by one or two of his favourite objects, or - as here - as a unit of a larger group." (Ibid, p.51)"His enduring attachment to it was a compound of sentiment - it had been a gift from his mother; superstition - it was one of several objects that he regarded as his talismen [sic]; and aesthetics - its perfect form and exquisite decoration were a source of endless visual pleasure. There is no reckoning of the number of times that he drew or painted the vase." (Ibid, p.109)Other works featuring the vase include Morning Glory and Thorns, 1947, Blue Flowers, 1946, The Cello, 1947, Mangoes and Sunflowers, 1948, Still-life with Pomegranates, 1951, The Broken Vase, 1952, Still life with Head and Vase, 1955, and Still life with Vase and Carved Head, 1956 (all illustrated in Berman & Nel 2009).BIBLIOGRAPHY:E. Berman & K. Nel, Alexis Preller, A Visual Biography: Collected Images (Johannesburg, 2009)
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