Footnotes

Provenance
Collection of the artist;
Volks Art Auctioneers, Pretoria, The Alexis Preller and Guna Massyn Collections, 18 November 1977, lot 91;
A private collection, Cape Town;
Stephan Walz, Johannesburg, 30 November 1987, lot 421 (titled 'Man and Bird');
A private collection UK.

Literature
S. Welz, Art at Auction in South Africa: Twenty Years of Sotheby's/Stephan Welz & Co, 1969 - 1989 (Johannesburg, 1989), titled 'Man and Bird', (illustrated) p. 184.

Exhibited
Pretoria, Pretoria Art Museum, Alexis Preller Retrospective, cat. no. 193, titled 'Portrait of the Artist as a Visionary', (illustrated).

'When I came in, my painting had been framed and placed in the centre of the room. I remember the shock of surprise I had at how complete and finished the painting suddenly looked. I had never thought of putting it into a frame.
We all sat back on a tier of seats...and the tutor and this man went around from one painting to the other, discussing them. When they got to mine, his remark was, "I think this is the most outstanding painting in the room...!". ' (Berman, E. and Nel, K. Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows. (Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing, 2009) p. 16.)[1]

Alexis Preller (1911-1975) travelled to London to undertake formal painting studies. He negotiated this arrangement with his family and would therefore receive a modest stipend from his family drawn from the funds his father had left for him in trust. Preller planned to take advantage during this time to further hone his acting and writing skills based on his being based in London and therefore could easily access the thriving theatre scene.

Preller was the youngest of five children. His parents, Mauritz and Livvie (Olivia) Preller were opposites in personality and had all but abandoned the pretence of tolerating each other by the time that Alexis was born.

Mauritz's uncle, Gustav Preller had helped develop Afrikaans as the 'people's language' thus shifting the use of Dutch by the Boer citizens to this specific vernacular. The three older Preller boys spoke Dutch and Afrikaans, played rugby and went hunting with their father whereas Alexis and his sister Minnie, grew up speaking English with their mother. Livvie's dismissal of Afrikaans was used to explain the animosity between her and Mauritz[2]. Alexis's schooling at the English-speaking Pretoria Boys High School was unremarkable aside from his natural aptitude for theatre, both as an actor and playwright[3].

Upon leaving school he secured a position with the Pretoria City Council as a clerk, continuing to fuel his dreams of becoming an actor or playwright by attending every dramatic production that opened in and around Pretoria. The dull nature of his employment did nothing to feed Alexis' creative interests and by 1933 he was looking to London to provide him with the stimulation he craved. Provided with a letter of introduction to J.H. Pierneef from architect, Norman Eaton, Alexis set off for London. Pierneef, a South African artist respected for his panoramic renderings of the bushveld landscape of the then Transvaal, was in London as one of the artists commissioned to provide site specific artworks for the newly built South Africa House situated on Trafalgar Square.

Alexis, acting on Pierneef's recommendation, enrolled at the Westminster School of Art. He initially floundered through studio sessions, his disparate style at odds with the style of painting espoused by first year tutors. It wasn't until Mark Gertler, another artist-tutor at the school demonstrated how to create form from colour, that Alexis began to enjoy his time in the studio.

'By the time I left the studio I was so excited to think that a painting of mine could be singled out...I realised that if I could do that in a year, then painting would be the thing...I stopped trying to write, to act, and made up my mind that I would be a painter!' [4](Berman, E. and Nel, K. Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows. (Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing, 2009) p. 16.)

'Portrait of the Artist as a Visionary' (1972) was included in the artist's 1972 Pretoria Art Museum retrospective. A retrospective is an important marker on any artists timeline but for Preller to receive this recognition during his lifetime indicated not only institutional approval but also a milestone in South African art history. This accolade was normally reserved by South African academic institutions as a posthumous celebration of an artists career.

The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue which included black and white thumbnail reproductions of each artwork. It is evident from that publication that the artist revisited this canvas after it was returned to his studio at the conclusion of the exhibition[5]. The later additions comprise a kingfisher and an apple. The former considers notions of purity and true love, mortality and immortality, and the latter represents knowledge, immortality, temptation, the fall of man and sin. The right-facing profile[6] further supports the dominance of the subject and deserves comparison to the work of Piero della Francisco, an artist who had long been instrumental in the development of Preller's visual language.

The monumental head emerges from a deep shadow on the left-hand side of the canvas, the light falling onto the subject's face, embraced by the light of a new day, the shaman emerging from a cave after a period of meditation. It is logical to then draw parallels to the professional accolades afforded the artist during this time. While the Pretoria Art Museum exhibition was still underway, Preller was approached to take part in the 1973 Sao Paulo Biennale. We can then imagine that this recognition would have similarly served to affirm his declaration four decades earlier 'to be a painter'.

Tracking this work through the Alexis Preller archives[7] proved fascinating for this writer. Preller had begun to assemble his archive as early as 1967 by lodging letters, photographs and documents pertaining to exhibitions with a friend Eithne Doherty whose husband had designed the Pretoria Art Museum. In doing so the understanding was that Doherty would write and publish a comprehensive monograph on Preller. The book remained unrealised as Doherty was hyper-aware of the impact that its publication could have on the lives of many of Preller's friends[8]. Homosexuality remained a closeted lifestyle within South Africa, and it wasn't until May 1996 that constitutional protection was extended to LGBT people, via section 9(3) of the South African Constitution. A comprehensive double volume publication on the life and work of Alexis Preller was published in 2009, supported by an exhibition at the Standard Bank Art gallery and later the Iziko South African National Gallery.

The Alexis Preller Archive is now housed at the Norval Foundation in Steenberg, Cape Town, South Africa. It provides a fascinating case study about legacy management as planned for by an artist themselves[9].

Preller's health had begun to fail in the 1970s. He increasingly relied on the support he received from his younger partner, Guna Massyn. Massyn had been working at a local Post Office and given Alexis' regular written correspondence with friends it is easy to imagine that the two struck up conversations at the postal counter. It was Massyn who initiated their relationship by leaving a letter in Alexis' post box. To this end the changing of the contents of his will might have come as a great shock to his sister Min, but Alexis likely viewed Massyn, himself an artist, as the best suited and most sympathetic recipient of his estate.

Alexis Preller died in hospital on 13 December 1975. He had gone in for heart surgery but had passed away shortly after the conclusion of the actual procedure. The events that took place over the next few days has been the source of much speculation.

On the morning of 15 December 1975, Guna Massyn, driving into Pretoria from Dombeya, Alexis' farm and studio, lost control of the vehicle and subsequently had to be cut free from the wreckage. His injuries, so severe that he was admitted in a coma with no brain activity, every bone in his body having sustained damage, led to the decision to terminate his life support on 18 December 1975.

Resultant to Guna's death was that his estate, which now included the property and contents of Alexis', passed to his mother. Alexis' friends, some of whom were fellow artists and art academics were horrified. A virtual stranger was now set to inherit Preller's artistic output and his precious Dombeya[10].

Alexis' friends and colleagues rallied and called for a meeting of the Pretoria branch of the South African Arts Association. The resolution confirmed culminated in an unrealised attempt to secure the property and Alexis' work to establish a museum wholly focused on Alexis Preller[11].

The plan of the SAAA was derailed by the actions of Orde Levinson, a newly domiciled art dealer who had inserted himself into the confidence of Guna's mother. Levinson was appointed as sole agent for the estate but failed to provide any clear plans for the disposal of the artworks. Levinson left South Africa in 1977, abandoning his promises to Hazel Massyn who was under increasing pressure to meet double death duties for the estates of Guna Massyn and Alexis Preller.

Hazel Massyn appointed Volks Auctioneers of Pretoria to dispose of the contents. Fortunately, the owners of the auction house, Edward and Romano Bernardi were art enthusiasts and collectors. They too had been friends of Alexis' and their sympathetic grouping and spacing of the subsequent sales ensured great attendance and strong prices.

Unlike many posthumous auctions featuring the contents of artists' studios, the quality of the work on the Preller sale provided a unique opportunity for museums and collectors to secure top tier works[12].

'Portrait of the Artist as a Visionary' (1972) was accompanied by a full page illustration in the auction catalogue, number 91. Other notable works on the inaugural auction included 'Self Portrait' (1939) and 'Icarus II' from his 1973 Sao Paulo Biennale submission.

Bibliography
[1]Berman, E. and Nel, K. (2009). Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows. Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing, p. 16.

[2]Berman, E. and Nel, K. (2009). Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows. Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing, p. 6.

[3]Berman, E. and Nel, K. (2009). Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows. Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing, p.9.

[4]Berman, E. and Nel, K. (2009). Alexis Preller: Africa, the Sun and Shadows. Johannesburg: Shelf Publishing, p. 16.

[5]A number of the large canvasses on the 1972 retrospective had been specially planned and painted for the show. It is then entirely plausible that Preller wished to include these details but lacked the time to do so before delivering the work for the exhibition.

[6]This is now defined as 'spatial agency bias' which rests on the premise that people whose native language is rightward written will predominantly envisage action along the same direction.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/applied-psycholinguistics/article/spatial-agency-bias-and-word-order-flexibility-a-comparison-of-14-european-languages/9BC99E6B73E8374B4FAE880E94EA0C95

[7]In 2024, the Norval Foundation hosted an Alexis Preller exhibition curated by Karel Nel. The works shown were primarily the holdings of the Homestead Collection supplemented by numerous loans from public and private collections.

[8]Doherty gave this archive to Karel Nel. Nel has subsequently written extensively on the artist.

[9]The archive was accessed by this writer on 25 January 2024.

[10]Dombeya had been designed by Norman Eaton.

[11]There were many plausible reasons for wanting to secure the estate in such a form. Should the market be flooded with works by Preller the value would rapidly depreciate causing long-term damage to both the value of Preller's art and his artistic reputation.

[12]Due to Preller's poor health, he had not taken in many exhibitions between the years 1970 to his death.

We are grateful to Ms. Philippa Duncan for the completion of this footnote.