david&GOLIATH auction supports the creative underdogby Rat Western
Six o'Clock in Mahlathini street, Fordsburg, downtown Johannesburg. A convoy of newer model Mercedes, sports cars and 4x4s pulls up outside the downtown artists' studios of The Bag Factory. The reason this traffic, more common in the Northern suburbs, braced itself to vie for a parking spot with the Fordsburg populace on their way to mosque was another unusual occurrence in this part of town - an art auction.
This auction was put together to raise funds for the newly established david&GOLIATH initiative which aims to create a platform through which the arts can support the arts in protecting creative ownership. How does it propose to do this?
The association between the arts and commercial industry is one in which issues of creative ownership and copyright infringement is frequently contested. One is all too familiar with the position where the creative individual is financially powerless to legally address issues of copyright when faced with a corporate giant. Hence the david&GOLIATH initiative called upon a variety of artists to donate work in aid of this cause and the donations were subsequently auctioned off to a diversity of collectors, gallerists and members of the general public.
Included in the auction were works by well known names such as Penny Siopis, Clive van den Berg, Jeremy Wafer, Jo Ractliffe, Usha Seejarim, Diane Victor, Walter Oltmann, Philip Miller, William Kentridge, Wim Botha, Santu Mofokeng, Minnette Vári, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, Gerhard Marx and Marco Cianfanelli. These heavyweights were joined by younger, early career artists like Jonah Sack, Stephan Erasmus, Suzanne du Preez, Sabelo Mlangeni, Zander Blom and Bronwyn Lace, whose contributions demonstrated that the aim of david&GOLIATH is widely supported.
Galleries, private individuals and art-related corporates as well as artists donated work and provided support for the auction. These included Goodman Gallery, artextra, Artist Proof Studio, Art on Paper, Art South Africa, Warren Siebrits, Bernardi Auctioneers, Brendan Copestake and Jillian Ross, gordart gallery, John Hodgkiss, Rooke Gallery, Templar Wales, Tonic and The Trinity Session.
Funds raised at this particular public sale will be used to support the case of Gerhard Marx vs. Ireland Davenport and BMW, and it was therefore significant that Marx's work raised the highest figure at the auction.
Father Father/Mother Mother fetched R38 0000, twice its reserve price and nearly a third more than its retail price.
Other significant sales included Stefanus Rademeyer's archival print Micrograph which fetched twice retail price at R12 000, Kentridge's Untitled lithograph which went for R30 000. Santu Mofokeng's Christmas Church Service At Mautse Caves, Ficksberg sold for R22 000, Philip Miller's soundtrack for Kentridge's 'I Am Not Me The Horse Is Not Mine' fetched R18 000, and Kim Lieberman's signed puzzle Human Currents well overreached its retail price of R 350 when it sold for R 1 500.
In attendance were nearly 200 people of whom 73 were registered to bid at the auction. A lively spirit continued thoughout the evening's bidding despite the heat and cramped space of the Bag Factory workshop room which had been catered in expectation of a much smaller crowd. The auction raised close to R450 000.
Gerhard Marx vs. Ireland Davenport and BMW is due to be heard in the High Court on October 9, 2008. Any remaining profits from the auction will enable the establishment of the david&GOLIATH trust, which will aim to financially support artists in legal cases of alleged copyright infringement and commercial exploitation.
