Mulling Over Art: Tayali goes for K27,000 at auction

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AFTER an animated bidding war between Chilambwe Lwao and Justine Chola, two well-known Zambian art collectors, a painting by Lusaka-based artist Geoffrey Phiri sold to the highest bidder, Chola for a handsome K18,000 (eighteen thousand kwacha).

But taking the top spot in the art auction at Tace Zambia Ltd (The Auction Centre) on Kafue Road in Lusaka on Saturday, February 29, was an abstract painting by Zambian modern master Henry Tayali (1943-1987) that went under the hammer for an arguably acceptable K27,000. This painting also went to Chola.

Tayali is not only considered the most famous Zambian artist outside Zambia, the Henry Tayali Visual Art Centre and the Henry Tayali Award for Best Two-Dimensional Visual Artist presented during the National Arts Council of Zambia’s Ngoma Awards are named after him.

Advertised and presented as “Artworks and Sculptures Auction Sale duly instructed by Bank of Zambia – Liquidation Auction Sale on behalf of Access Financial Services in liquidation”, the public sale featured 26 sculptures, and close to 60 paintings, drawings and photographs by Zambian artists.

In what can be described as a theatrical movie, another Lusaka-based artist, Mwamba Mulangala successfully bid K10,600 for his own painting, a work that he created during his formative years. According to the artist he aimed at rescuing the painting “from expedience of standards lower than desirable – especially that I value and know the worth of my work”. Mulangala, like a few others present at the auction, felt most of the artworks were undervalued.

Other notable works in terms of fetching were an abstract painting by Vincentio Phiri at K12,000, a William Miko sold for K5,000, a Lutanda Mwamba for K6,000 and two Enock Ilunga’s for K6,000 and K4,000 respectively.

The auction also featured works by Mulenga Chafilwa, Patrick Mumba, Victor Makashi, Dominic Mwamba Yombwe, D. Holthuyesein, Laurey Nevers and Cynthia Zukas of which prices ranged between K1,000 and K2,000.

In terms of numbers, the late Peter Maibwe’s work featured prominently with close to 20 works of which one might agree were grossly undervalued for an artist of his prominence in Zambian art historical terms. Similarly, sculptures by two of Zambia’s foremost sculptors, David Chirwa and the late Friday Tembo were equally undervalued, some going for as little as K500. However, most of the stone and wood sculptures also appeared to be in bad shape, a few were broken while most were scratched.

While auction houses pride themselves for selling things on an “as is basis”, meaning take it or leave it, specialised art auctioneers in the global art world are known to restore works close to their original condition. This was not the case at Tace Zambia Ltd. Likewise, the world’s leading auction houses such as Christie’s, Sotheby’s or Strauss & Co (South Africa) own or work hand in hand with galleries and publish detailed catalogues complete with short essays, artists’ biographies and descriptions of the work. These catalogues, which of course include lot numbers for the bidding process are distributed to a mailing list of collectors and also circulated on websites long before a pre-auction exhibition of the artworks is held. The pre-auction exhibitions that are open to the general public (just like the auctions) usually last for up to a week, this allows the bidders to engage with the work before they make the decision to bid for it. Finally, on the auction date, bidders would have come to the event well informed on what is available, such as the provenance of the artwork as well as the estimated asking prices.

While all this may have not happened so accordingly at Tace Zambia Ltd, it would be unfair to fault the auction house that was handling art for the very first time. The Auction Centre, as it is called, usually handles the sale of household goods, industrial items, motor vehicles and real estate, so surely this was a learning curve. If anything, operations executive Richard Chefu and his dedicated team did a brilliant job in executing their auctioneering duties with much enthusiasm to an equally enthusiastic audience of artists, art lovers and collectors that included eager beginners and more seasoned collectors such as representatives from the Lechwe Trust Gallery who also bagged a few of the works on sale.

The auction can perhaps be used as a litmus to test out the possibilities and downsides of selling art through an auctioneer’s lens in Zambia. It also invites us to look afresh at the viability of art auctions on the Zambian art scene and probe whether auction houses can help do something that art galleries as go-betweens seem to be struggling to do. This is not to endorse the commodification of art per se, but in an art context that does not really have adequate support structures for the production, display, distribution and sale of artworks. Auctions sound like a good alternative. After all, artists need money in their pockets. - [THE MAST ONLINE]