Tatham Art Gallery

Curator's Notes

Fund-Raising

The daunting task of fund-raising continues because we absolutely must reach our target of R125 000 : An opportunity such as the one presented to us by Johannesburg art dealer Dennis Hotz cannot arise again unless the international art market crashes as Wall Street did in the 1930's. Judging from comparable works offered for sale at auction and by a London dealer, the current market value of Deux Danseuses en Buste should be in excess of a quarter of a million rand.

The pastel was given to the Tatham Art Gallery on long option by the art dealer in a sympathetic gesture to allow us to fund-raise, and in this way secure an extraordinary work for our French colllection at a low price.

Twice we have held our breath because we believed that a single donor had come forward to make a "newsworthy" gift. The SABC were alerted and were ready to report, and twice there has been a "slip twixt cup and lip".

The Pietermaritzburg City Council has taken our campaign seriously and secured the option by offering us bridging finance.

Please support us by sending your contributions to:

• "Trust Fund for Special Purchases"
  The City Treasurer
  P.O. Box 261
  PIETERMARITZBURG

Speaking of fund-raising campaigns, congratulations must be extended to teh Durban Art Gallery's Curator, Jill Addleson, the chairperson of the Art Gallery Advisory Committee, Ros Sarkin, and artist and newspaper critic, Andrew Verster, for spearheading the blitz campaign which the Durban public responded to so enthusiastically. The result, of course, was the acquisition, at acution, of the first John Constable oil painting to enter a South African public collection.

The painting is entitled East Bergholt Church and was purchased on the advice of Brian Sewell who, as you know, has acted as the London agent of the Tatham Art Gallery since 1974.The advantage of having Brian Sewell aware of the needs of both Natal Collections is that the art galleries (only 50 miles apart, after all) can dovetail and build up a formidable aesthetic and educational repetoire not only for Natalians but also for visitors to the Province.

New purchases for the collection are a source of pride, I suspect, because the art gallery staff become very intensely involved long before the painting, sculpture or whatever is acquired. After the initial choice of a suitable work is made, the purchasing process of going through two highly critical committees and the full City Council begins. Before and during this process, nervous activity involving research, argument, and bargaining goes on behind the scenes. The gallery staff see most purchases, therefore, as a victory worthy of press publicity.

Not all purchases are made in this way, however. One notable exception was made during a visit to Johannesburg when I was introduced to one of South Africa's most accomplished potters and glaze chemists, Thelma Marcuson. After my visit I bore away nine prize examples of her work, three of which feature on the cover of Garth Clark's celebrated book "Potters of Southern Africa". The works slipped quietly into our permanent collection, and I hope that this small mention serves in some way to draw attention to the fact that our contemporary South African Ceramic collection has received a shot in the arm with such worthy additions.

At other times quite remarkable purchases present themselves by sheer chance. A private collector from Durban, James Logan, who came to the Tatham Art Gallery to deliver a small work to be included in the Clement Seneque exhibition, mentioned in passing that he had been a friend of Merlyn Evans and owned one of his paintings. The Assistant Curator and I travelled to Durban to see the painting. Several exclamations later we were on our way back to the gallery with a heavily insured and blanket-wrapped canvas.

Some good natured bargaining had taken place with neither James Logan nor myself aware of the true current market value of the work; we settled on what seemed to be a reasonable price. Two telephone calls to London and an express delivery of a photograph to our agent established that what we had been offered was not only a rare and major work of the 1940's but also a work worth almost double the price negotiated. Much to James Logan's credit he honoured the original price. We are now the proud owners of a Merlyn Evans oil and tempera entitle Midnight Picnic (an article on the painting appears in the Newsletter under the "New Aquisitions"). We are hoping to offer this worl to the Tate Gallery for the Merlyn Evans Retrospective Exhibition which is presently being planned.

Lorna Ferguson
Curator

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