Georgina Gratrix; South African 1982-; Blue Bird
Provenienza : SMAC Gallery, Cape Town. Private Collection.
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Note : Gratrix paints from the inside out. Her work is centred on the act of gathering. As the artist explains, 'it's a whole world I need to pull in.'1 Drawing inspiration from the vast expanse of mass media, she curates and reimagines fragments of contemporary life. Through a process of selection, cutting, mapping, linking, and combining, she creates images that are distinctly her own, blending the traditions of still life and portrait painting. While painting can often be serious, for Gratrix, it becomes a way to merge collective moments with her personal experiences. Her works are vibrantly coloured, characterised by bold expression, and her surfaces loaded with thick and vivid layers of paint. Still Life with Flowers (Lot 110) features a vase with plumped-up blooms, while a drooping blossom on the right side and a lone cigarette butt rest nearby. The present lot illustrates Gratrix's gestural oils and has a sculptural quality, with parts extending beyond the edges of the canvas, creating a dynamic interplay between sculpture and painting. Grumpy Bride, executed in watercolour, presents a distorted figure with vibrant fleshy red tones and cool blue hair, complemented by a sharply downturned crimson mouth. The distortion and contrasting colours are haunting and captivating. The present lot somewhat echoes Nine Weeks, a 63 panel series of portraits which touched on the artist's psyche as the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown unfolded,2 revealing the complex interplay between the personal and collective moment. The artist's muses are often people familiar to her, and she paints their portraits in ways that reflect her interior world, challenging traditional conventions by moving beyond depictions of likeness. As a South African artist embracing the European traditions and scholarship of painting and the genres of still life and portraiture, she debunks and reinterprets conventions. Her works are rich with layers of experience, emotion, and perspective - a constant dance between attraction and repulsion, beauty, and chaos. 1. The Norval Foundation (2021) The Reunion: Georgina Gratrix, YouTube (online video), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_o7WEgfYpI, accessed 15 January 2025. 2. Anya Brilus (2021) ArtThrob, More Than Just a 3D Portrait, online, https://artthrob.co.za/2021/09/03/more-than-just-a-3d-portrait-georgina-gratrixs-the-reunion/, accessed 15 January 2025.
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