Art News

Images of Sophiatown, the town that would not die, by South Africa’s leading black artist, Sekoto

LONDON.- Images by Gerard Sekoto of Sophiatown, once his home outside Johannesburg, demolished and renamed “Triumph’ by the apartheid regime, and now resurrected once more as Sophiatown, go on sale at Bonhams next week. The two images are listed among the South African Masterpieces in the sale and are estimated at £200,000 to £300,000. Had he lived Sekoto (1913 to 1993) would doubtless have been astonished by the critical recognition and the prices being achieved by his art. He spent the best part of his life down and out in Paris working for very little money as a musician. Lot 507 ‘Horse and Cart, Sophiatown’ estimated at £250,000 to 350,000. It is generally accepted as being the earliest known oil painting in Gerard Sekoto’s oeuvre. Sekoto had moved to Johannesburg from Limpopo province in 1939 and found He’d found accommodation in Sophiatown, where he lived with his cousins. One of his cousins, Fred Norman, was