The Winter 2017 auction being held 17 July at Aspire in Johannesburg features work by South African artists

One of Aspire's aims is to give artists in the local secondary market more exposure, and the upcoming auction features many fine examples of work in the modern and contemporary idioms.

Ephraim Ngatane's 'Bicycle Rider' is one of the pieces to be featured and was created back in 1968. Aspire senior art specialist Emma Bedford, “It’s astonishing to think that Ngatane produced much of his best work in his twenties – a testament to a prodigious talent.“

One of the artists influenced by Ngatane, Louis Maqhubela, returns to auction this time, following the huge success of the politically motivated work, Exiled King. This sold for R341,040 (US$25,700)  at the Aspire Autumn auction earlier this year, more than three times his previous record, from an estimate of R60 000 – R80 000 (US$4,000-6000).

Maqhubela is one of the artists who has previously benefited from Aspire Artist’s Resale Rights initiative, which sees a part of the proceeds from sales in the secondary market passed on to living artists – uniquely in the local auction market. 

Dumile Feni’s charcoal drawing Children under Apartheid (1987) will also be presented by a campaign against child abuse in the United States, and following this was exhibited for some years in the UN buildings in New York City.

Commenting on this piece art critic Athi Joja, “The drawing depicts figures peering from behind jail bars. Suppose these are the young victims of state brutality and subjugation, caged inside apartheid’s prisons – their fate murky and unpredictable, their cardinal sin being the unflinching petitioning for self-determination… Until his death in 1991, Feni’s work grappled with deep existential questions and the dynamics of human vulnerability that have made his oeuvre as rigorous as it is aesthetically inviting.”

Aspire’s Spring sale will be held on 4 September 2017, at the Avenue, V&A Waterfront. Visit thisvenue to enjoy some choice works, including a rare early Simon Stone mosaic triptych.