Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Sandile Zulu (South African, born 1962) Labyrinth of Genes and Elements I, 2004 image 1
Sandile Zulu (South African, born 1962) Labyrinth of Genes and Elements I, 2004 image 2
Lot 15TP

Sandile Zulu
(South African, born 1962)
Labyrinth of Genes and Elements I, 2004

9 March 2022, 16:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

£5,000 - £8,000

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our African Modern & Contemporary Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

Sandile Zulu (South African, born 1962)

Labyrinth of Genes and Elements I, 2004
fire, water, air, earth, canvas and stones on canvas
108 x 378cm (42 1/2 x 148 13/16in)
in 56 individual 27 x 27cm (10 5/8 x 10 5/8in) canvases.

Footnotes

Provenance
A private collection, UK.

Literature
C. Richards, Sandile Zulu: Portrait of the artist as a young firebrand (Johannesburg, 2005), p. 72 (illustrated).

Born in the town of Ixopo, in the Nwazulu-Natal region of South Africa, Sandile Zulu began his study at Rorke's Drift Art and Craft Centre in 1982. Shortly after, he became one of the few black students to enrol at Technikon Natal in nearby Durban to study Fine Art, and by 1993 he received his degree from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

It was during his time at Wits University that Zulu first began his experimentations with fire as a medium. Fire would later become the title of his first solo show in 1995 at the Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery in Johannesburg. Zulu's first UK solo show took place at the October Gallery in London in 2005. Entitled Fire This Time: Planetary Cycle, it showcased Zulu's monumental fire paintings.

Labyrinth of Genes and Elements 1 is a work composed of fifty-six canvases. The repeated squares represent the building blocks of genetic codes. Each canvas has been burned with patterns of coiled DNA strands. The calm order of the grid structure opposes the violence of Zulu's creative method, communicating the artist's belief in an underlying universal harmony.

Bibliography
C. Richards, Sandile Zulu: Portrait of the artist as a young firebrand (Johannesburg, 2005), pp. 61-2.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

PERSONNAGE GUERRERO EN SERPENTINE Mexique, Culture du Guerrero, influence Olmèque, 350-100 av. J.C.

TÊTE HACHA VERACRUZ EN PIERRE VOLCANIQUE Mexique, Culture Veracruz, Période classique, 450-750 ap. J.C.

MASQUE ANTHROPOZOOMORPHE EN COQUILLAGE Mexique, Culture Maya, Période classique, 450-750 ap. J.C.

TÊTE EN STUC MAYA Mexique, Culture Maya, région du Yucatan, Période classique, 500-900 ap. J.C

VASE MAYA CYLINDRIQUE EN TERRE CUITE Mexique, Culture Maya, Période préclassique, 500-900 ap. J.C.

PERSONNAGE DEBOUT EN TERRE CUITE COLIMA Mexique, El Chanal-Colima, Période postclassique, 900-1521 ap. J.C.

STATUE AZTÈQUE DE CHALCHIUHTLICUE, DÉESSE DE LA FERTILITÉ, EN PIERRE VOLCANIQUE Mexique, Culture Aztèque (ou Mexica), 1400-1520 ap. J.C.

STATUETTE AZTÈQUE DE XIPE TOTEC EN PIERRE VOLCANIQUE Mexique, Culture Aztèque (ou Mexica), 1400-1520 ap. J.C.

MASQUE FUNÉRAIRE CHANCAY EN BOIS Pérou, Culture Chancay, 1100-1450 ap. J.C.

URNE FUNÉRAIRE CALCHAQUÍ EN TERRE CUITE Argentine, Style Santa Maria, Vallées de Santa María et Calchaquí, Diaguita-Calchaquí, Époque tardive, 1000-1400 ap. J.C.

VASE NICOYA REPRÉSENTANT UN JAGUAR EN TERRE CUITE Costa Rica, Culture Guanacaste, Civilisation Chorotega, ca. XIIe siècle ap. J.C.

Fine Ceremonial Scarf, South Sumatra circa 1910 silk, framed78 x 36 1/4in (198.1 x 92cm)ProvenanceEuropean Private Collection