The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize 2023 Benefit Auction | Hosted by Sotheby’s

Arébénor Basséne

Solstice 0

Reserves

Lot Closed

January 31, 05:08 PM GMT

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Arébénor Basséne

Senegal

b.1974

Solstice 0

each signed and dated 2022 (on the reverse)

acrylic, natural pigments, wax, ink, graphite and sawdust on paper mounted on a canvas in artist's wooden frame

150 by 150cm., 59 by 59in.

Please be aware of the Conditions of Sale when bidding. As a benefit auction, there is no buyer’s premium charged. The only additional costs due to the winning bidder are applicable sales tax and shipping. Works auctioned are sold “as is,” and condition reports are included with lot descriptions as available. In-person previews of the auction artwork will be available at Norval Foundation at 4 Steenberg Rd, Tokai, Cape Town, 7945, South Africa from 25 January – 20 March, Monday to Sundays 9AM – 5:00PM (Closed on Tuesdays).Please note that while this auction is hosted on Sothebys.com, it is being administered by Norval Foundation (“the museum”), and all post-sale matters (inclusive of invoicing and property pickup/shipment) will be handled by the museum. As such, Sotheby’s will share the contact details for the winning bidders with the museum so that they may be in touch directly post-sale.

This work has been kindly donated by the artist

Arébénor Basséne approaches his work like imagined documents from the past, taking inspiration from the development of language and writing systems, fragments of history and archaeological remains. In an attempt to fill the gaps left in history and comment on one’s access to the past, Basséne has developed his own lexicon. The artist uses materials found in Senegal: Arabic gum (a historically attractive commodity to the foreign sailors), ink (used in Koranic teaching tablets), fouden (henna), crushed wood and natural pigments. These materials comment on history’s plurality as well as its falsifications.

Solstice 0 (2022) is composed of twenty-four works on paper which have been mounted on canvas. Mimicking the printing technique of batik—whereby patterns are drawn in wax on fabric and then the fabric is submerged in dye, leaving the sections covered in wax untouched—Basséne transforms the paper’s surface with multiple layers of materials, including natural pigments, wax, ink, sand, and sawdust. In Solstice 0, microscopic visions of earth’s base elements seemingly sit alongside macro perspectives of geographical areas, depicting deltas, desert dunes, and rivers. Each piece carries the illusion of history’s erosion, swept away by time.

Credit: Selebe Yoon Gallery