Gerard Sekoto

(South African, 1913-1993)

Portrait of a youth

Footnotes

Provenance
Bonhams, London, 24 March 2010, lot 63;
Grosvenor Gallery, London;
A private collection, Lagos.

It is challenging to precisely date the present work, as it forms part of a portrait series which runs through Gerard Sekoto's oeuvre from the 1950s. Portrait of a youth evokes the composition and palette of a series of bust portraits created by the artist in the 1960s – a decade colloquially referred to as Sekoto's 'Blue Head' period. The work illustrates a shift in the artist's style, as the warm yellows and oranges that had dominated his earlier palette are replaced with cool blues and black. The subject is depicted in profile, her head tilted down, so that half of the youth's face is cast in shadow. The areas of high relief – the cheekbone, bridge of the nose, and forehead – are highlighted in white and pick up strokes of buttery yellow in the clothing and background.

The dominant cool palette of the present work evokes both Pablo Picasso's Blue Period and the distinctive employment of indigo in the figurative paintings of the pioneer of postcolonial Nigerian art, Yusuf Grillo, who worked contemporaneously to Sekoto. While recognising the influence of art historical references on his practice, the South African artist's decision to employ this palette was primarily motivated by aesthetic preoccupations: 'The reason for my using the blue was merely because I chose it and that it was sufficiently strong to contrast with warmer colours' (Sekoto quoted in Lindop, 1988: p. 122). In the present work, warm pink and yellow highlights powerfully contrast with the blue and black background built up using textured brushstrokes. Presented in the artist's frame, Portrait of a youth thus stands as a skilful depiction of the human subject, expressed through Sekoto's signature handling of form and colour.

Bibliography
Barbara Lindop, Gerard Sekoto (Randburg, SA, 1988).