So much has been happening it's been hard to keep up. Jane Alexander's sculptural piece Racework - in the event of an earthquake which went on the block at the Strauss & Co auction on March 15 broke the R1 million rand mark, selling for R1 058,300. A tribute not only to the strength of the artwork, but to be read as a promising sign for the future of top quality contemporary art at auction. The buyer has not yet been disclosed, but it is known that the work will stay in the country.
RoseLee Goldberg, director of Performa, ex Capetonian Mark Coetzee, and N'Gone Fall, the lively curator from Senegal flew in to judge the Spier exhibition, and it was great to see them all. RoseLee gave an inspiring and energetic lecture on visual art performance at Michaelis, to a packed hall.
Spier Contemporary 2010 opened to muted applause. Spier, the art world appreciates your extremely generous sponsorship and applauds your democratic ideals in encouraging artists who are not professionals, but this time around there is too much work on show of poor quality. Survey shows are by their very nature controversial, but as one Cape Town artist put it bluntly, there is so much bad work, than when you do see a good piece it looks like an accident.
Suggestions have been made that next time there should be separate sections for established, professional artists and those who have not yet reached this level.
But Spier, please accept these comments in a spirit of constructive criticism. We want to see the exhibition continue and go from strength to strength.
And finally, very sadly, the grand old man of South African art, the irrepressible Robert Hodgins has taken his leave of the studio where he painted so many sublime works. R.I.P. Robert.
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