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

Michaela Younge

The Party Was Underway, When The Waters Began To Spray, The Couples Continued To Sway and Fill Available Ashtrays

Reserves

Lot Closed

January 31, 05:22 PM GMT

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Michaela Younge

South African

b. 1993

The Party Was Underway, When The Waters Began To Spray, The Couples Continued To Sway and Fill Available Ashtrays

signed (lower left)

merino wool and mohair on felt

100 by 114.5cm., 39⅜ by 45⅛in.

framed: 110 by 124cm., 43¼ by 48⅞in.

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

Michaela Younge is a textile artist who currently lives and works in Cape Town. Using needles, she creates tightly packed, colourful merino wool tableaux that often depict humourous, dreamlike narratives that reflect the absurdity of human vices, violences and obsessions, and attempts to find meaning.

The party was underway, when the waters began to spray, the couples continued to sway and fill available ashtrays (2022) depicts an elaborate party scene. Class divides are highlighted through the farcical behaviour of the attendees and the high expectations placed on the employees. The party can be seen as a collective escapism from daily life, where alcohol fuels confidence, transgressions are often overlooked, and excess is encouraged. It is this excess – illustrated through drama, lust and violence, that underpins Younge’s commentary on the profligacy of the South African ruling class. The overlapping scenes are satirical and surreal, yet they maintain a chilling familiarity of a preferential social system where the divide between the rich and the poor only continues to widen.