Footnotes

Provenance
A private South African collection;
By direct descent to the current owner;
A private collection.

Irma Stern wrote from Alicante to her friends Richard and Freda Feldman in Johannesburg on 12 February 1961, that she was staying in the Spanish harbour town to escape the Northern European winter and return to work after a long illness. She and Dudley Welch stayed in the Carlton Hotel, with a sitting room turned into a studio, until the end of June 1961, and it was during this time that she painted 'Old Friends'.

In the same letter, Stern rejoiced in the fact that the local press had celebrated her as 'La Picasso' and described her as a multi-millionairess, seemingly on account of her luxurious accommodation. But she was obviously pleased with her progress, declaring that she was "doing work that astonishes even me"!

Stern painted views of Alicante harbour from her studio window, and the occasional Still Life, but, as she wrote to the Feldmans, "We drive out all the days and I come back and paint in the studio". On these excursions, she sketched agricultural workers, notably tomato pickers, hilltop towns, and villagers that caught her attention as she and Welch drove through the countryside.

A drawing in black ball-point pen and black pastel owned by the Irma Stern Trust (#1251) records Stern's original view of two figures that form the subject of 'Old Friends'. Stern was obviously struck by the closeness of the two figures framed by a window opening. The figures do not embrace, and their relationship is not amorous, but they appear to be completely comfortable with each other physically. Stern's translation of this scene into a painting repeats the general configuration of the drawing but, by increasing the size of the group in the format, she transforms an anecdotal observation into a celebration of physical intimacy. Moreover, in having the figure on the right seem to acknowledge the presence of the viewer – which she does not do in the drawing - Stern introduces a sense of self-awareness in the subject.

Stern's translation of a passing observation into a generic statement on friendship is also communicated in the abstract quality of her rendering of the two figures. As she explained in her 1954 article 'My aim in art', in her later work Stern tended to reject external appearances in search for what she understood to be the 'essence' of her subjects. And in the radio talk 'Is there such a thing as modern art?', that she gave in December 1961, a few months after she had painted 'Old Friends', Stern declared that good art "is an abstraction – a mental abstraction – from the vision that you have, which is the form of the creation". In this talk it is clear that Stern deplored the vogue for abstraction that was sweeping the art world at that time. But she admired the abstract qualities in the figurative art of Henry Moore and Sepic art of Papua New Guinea – that she had seen in exhibitions in Zurich and Basel respectively shortly before her move to Alicante - and, especially, "our youngest and most virile and greatest genius – Picasso".

Inspired by such diverse examples, in 'Old Friends', as in other late works such as 'Meditation', 'Gossip', and 'Bread', Stern uses human figures to portray neither physical fact nor narrative, but a sense of human experience, an aspect of the human condition.

We are grateful to Michael Godby for the compilation of the above footnote.

Bibliography
Irma Stern, 'My aim in art', National Council of Women News, (November 1954), p.8.
Irma Stern, 'Is there such a thing as modern art?', SABC Radio Bulletin, (25 December 1961).
Marion Arnold, Irma Stern, A Feast for the Eye, (Vlaeberg: Fernwood Press, 1995).
Sandra Klopper, Irma Stern, Are You Still Alive? Stern's life and art seen through her letters to Richard and Freda Feldman, 1934-1966, (Cape Town: Orisha Publishing, 2017).