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Hargreaves Ntukwana(1938-1998)- Original Painting,South African Artist - $475 (Markham)
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This major original work of art is by a talented and well recognized black South African artist: Hargreaves Ntukwana (1938-1998). It is in the semi abstract expressionist style. The composition is based on his people’s experiences in the mining industry he knew so well as a boy growing up on the Crown Mines in Johannesburg. His father worked as a clerk on the mine. Black labour was and is the backbone of the mining industry in South-Africa. In this work the artist captures the essence of mining- man and machine. The artist depicts a bust of a robust black miner, with a hard hat and a headlamp affixed to it; a headframe depicted by two spoked wheels (pulleys/sheaves) with three cover plates, shafts protruding in the center, held in place with four bolts each; and cables. The headframe’s function is to facilitate lifting and lowering of the personnel/material cage in the vertical mine shaft. The red glowing sun, in the center, adds warmth to the composition. The dominant bright colors are shades of orange and green. The work is typical of the artist’s oeuvre depicting the lives and activities of Black South-Africans. The contrast of the soft back ground with the sharper details using pen and ink brings the work to life. To produce this work, and others, the artist used an innovative technique of blowing diluted oils onto the canvas, wiping the excess with cloth and cotton swabs then inking shape outlines over the dried color background.
Details:
Title: Untitled
Medium: Mixed Media, oil and ink on canvas laid on board
Size: 30”x40” (image); 31”x41” (framed)
Date: 1970’s
Signature: Signed lower left
Condition: Very good
Framing: Aluminum in gold frame
Asking Price: $475.00
Value: Bonhams, London sold a similar size work by this artist in the 2012 auction for £1,000 (CA$ 1,744)
https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19787/lot/179/
African art is very much in demand, these days, and rising prices.
About the Artist: Hargreaves Ntukwana was born at Crown Mines (today part pf the city of Johannesburg), South-Africa on June 17, 1938. His father was a clerk at the Crown Mines (gold mine). He went to school locally and completed there his secondary education. Much to the disappointment of his father, he rejected medicine as a career. Hargreaves decided to follow a career in fine art and music. He worked as a messenger and clerk to pay for his tuition in fine art. In the 1950’s he studied at the Polly Street School of Art in Johannesburg under Cecil Skotnes (1926-2009) learning African style art. From 1960 to 1962 he studied under Cordelidos at the Artists’ colony in Toledo, Spain. From 1971 to 1973 he received further private tuition from Professor Mel Edwards (b.1937), black artist, in New York. Hargreaves started his artistic career in music, playing tenor sax and piano but never felt comfortable having a career at it. The fast life was not for him so he sold his instruments and began painting. Hargreaves first gained recognition for his art when he designed a cover for the album "Dollar Brand Underground in Africa." He went on to design for the Letta Mbulu's record company, and also painted the designs for the costumes of the cast of the multiracial show "Black and White is Beautiful". His media were charcoal, water color and pen and ink, but he mostly used the technique of blowing diluted oils onto paper/canvas, wiping the excess with cloth and cotton swabs then inking over the color background when it is dry. He filled his paintings with glorious rich colors of Africa in a style unique and contemporary. He was the first black artist to exhibit at the Alder Fielding Gallery in Johannesburg in 1967. Other local exhibitions followed in 1972. He also exhibited his work in Salisbury (Harare), Zimbabwe at the African School of Art. His first overseas solo exhibition took place in London in 1973 and from there exhibitions were held in Denmark, Zurich, Paris, Munich, Frankfurt, The Hague and Bonn. His work was popular in the United States where he has exhibited extensively since his first exhibition in Boston in 1974. In 1986 he exhibited in San Diego and in the late 1980’s at the Oglethorpe University Art Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia. He also lectured on South African art both in South-Africa and in the USA and was also an accomplished sculptor. In the 1990’s Hargreaves suffered from Parkinson's decease and was unable to control the brush as he once did which can be seen in his later works as he still continued to paint. On February 25, 1998 Hargreaves Ntukwana passed away. Hargreaves Ntukwana's creative work was largely inspired by the 1950’s. The 1950’s have been dominated by Abstract Expressionism, a form of painting that prioritized expressive brushstrokes and expressed ideas about organic nature, spirituality and the sublime. Hargreaves traveled extensively abroad and lived in the USA, Switzerland and the former West Germany during the seventies and eighties. He summed up his life philosophy by saying: “God gives you talent which you in turn make use of and then other people are there to appreciate your God given talent”.
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