Gerard Sekoto (South African, 1913-1993)


The water collectors signed 'G SEKOTO' (lower right)oil on canvas55 x 46cm (21 5/8 x 18 1/8in).
|ProvenanceAcquired directly from the artist;A private South African collection;Gifted to the current owner's mother.We are grateful to Barbara Lindop for dating this work to the artist's 1945-47 Eastwood period.In 1945 Sekoto moved from District Six, Cape Town to Eastwood, Pretoria where he stayed with his mother and stepfather. While based in Eastwood, Sekoto produced many of his most masterful, self-assured works.As is characteristic of many of Sekoto's group scenes, the individual features of each figure are not rendered in detail. The artist focuses rather on the dynamics between the women. The tilt of the central figure's head and her partially open mouth lends the scene an immediacy; the artist has captured a snapshot of life in the township.Sekoto relates that Eastwood was very different from "the hectic life of District Six...At the new home I found myself much more relaxed to concentrate upon my work, without the many distractions and visits I had in the big city with its many sophisticated people. Here people were not too inquisitive about why you looked at them. Some would even be willing to pose." Lesley Spiro, who curated the first major retrospective of Sekoto's work in 1989, asserts that "the Eastwood period may represent the pinnacle of Sekoto's artistic achievement. It was a time when he pushed his understanding of colour and form to new heights, when he seemed to sharpen even further his already remarkable sense of mood and movement".BibliographyB. Lindop, Gerard Sekoto, (Randburg, 1988), p.25.L. Spiro, Gerard Sekoto: Unsevered Ties, (Johannesburg, 1989), p.42.