Portrait (1976) framed Gouache on paper by Gerard Sekoto.

On display.
S1047 A rare example of Gerard Sekoto’s (1913-1993) work painted in 1976. Framed Gouache on paper. 54cm x 37cm. 
Provenence
Private collection until acquired by Paris Africa Art
And then The Gallery at Hayling. 2024
Certificated authentication by Paris Africa Art.
Gerard Sekoto 1913-1993
Portrait of a Woman 1976
Framed Acrylic on Paper
Authentication attestation by Barbara Lindop.
In my opinion, this painting is an authentic painting by the South African artist, Gerard Sekoto.
The all- Black cast of the landmark jazz-influenced musical billed as ‘an all-African jazz- opera’ (challenging apartheid’s socio/political conventions) included the celebrated South African vocalist Miriam Makeba playing opposite the trumpeter Hugh Masekela as her counterpart. It was first stage in Johannesburg in 1957. The reviews spread worldwide with Time magazine choosing in 1960, Makeba as the front cover. The musical travelled to London and New York.
Sekoto had recently emerged from St Anne’s Hospital having recovered from a mental breakdown and in 1960 he made a small ballpoint drawing of a woman simply entitled ‘Miriam Makeba 1960”. Shortly thereafter, he began a series of portraits of women in which their beauty and inherent strength is clearly celebrated.
Between 1960 – 1963 he made a flurry of different versions of this theme.  He returned with new energy, and a variation on the theme, in a brighter and varied colour interpretations emerged at the beginning of the 70’s.
He had returned from a trip to Senegal in the mid 60’s, where he was overwhelmed by the statuesque beauty and elegance he observed in Senegalese women. The warmth and brightness of colour in the African sunlight filled Sekoto’s mind and art production    
Danielle Mitterand established Présence Africaine in 1957. Sekoto had been an active member presenting various papers at their conventions in Paris including the early one in Rome. He had won a competition to design a poster for this festival. His prize was an invitation to the Second International Festival of Negro Arts hosted in Senegal.
His friend and fellow Brazilian artist, Wilson Tiberio accompanied him and together they immersed themselves in west African culture. The nephew of Léopold Senghor had befriended Sekoto in Paris, and through this contact, the two artists were given the loan of a car to explore Senegal. They travelled to remote areas observing tribal cultural life. Sekoto made countless sketches with ballpoint on small scraps of paper and on the back of envelopes, to which he returned in Paris for inspiration. This powerful influence remained as he translated his memories of Senegal intertwining them with his fading memories of his South African upbringing and those memories.
Another flurry of production of women’s heads appears from 1973, where the focus remains on the beauty of African women.
The portrait dated 1976 reflects the more stylised and idealised portraiture referencing the early 60’s rather than the freer interpretation of the immediate after period from Senegal. The limited colour choice of the palette references the earlier “Blue Head’ series but the overriding cream background is enlivened with distinct line and touches and highlights of warm tones.
The back of the canvas features a typical ‘Sekoto’ notation: NO 14. He had an oblique numbering system which references his own personal data base.
On his return from Senegal Sekoto’s artistic position became more stable. He shared an exhibition in 1973 with Tiberio at the Galerie du Marais, Bourges. In South Africa, the Pretoria Art Museum showed work belonging to the Gallery’s “Friends Collections” in 1973, and in 1975, the Atlantic Art Gallery staged a solo show of his work.
In 1978 Galerie Art Premier in Paris gave him a solo exhibition.
He was now well known within his artistic circle in Paris and had friends: Dr Jacques Pernet, a general practitioner whom Sekoto had befriended in the bleak period of 1949, whilst in St Anne’s Hospital had remained close until Sekoto’s death. In 1993, Pernet described Sekoto as ”A sentimental and tender man, always in a dream, a pure creative artist, not at all interested in practical questions, except to assume what he considered as his duty”.
Sadly, by the end of the decade, his partner Marthe Hennebert’s ill health deteriorated. After she died, Sekoto lost their apartment and his life fell apart for a difficult period of a few years. 
Barbara Lindop
 
Gerard Sekoto 1913-199
Gerard Sekoto biography. - Gerard Sekoto's contributions to South African
Gerard Sekoto's contributions to South African art and music have been vital elements in South Africa's cultural development in the twentieth century. Most notably, Sekoto was the first black artist to have a picture purchased for a museum collection, following an acquisition by the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 1940. The artist's rural upbringing in the Lutheran Mission Station in Botshabelo and periods of residence in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Pretoria nourished his perspective on the South African people, primarily the impoverished black population. Sekoto (1913 -1993) had trained as a school teacher but decided, as a self-taught artist, to launch his professional art career in 1938. He left the rural areas of northern South Africa to travel to Johannesburg where free association between different races was still possible. Here he was introduced to the liberal artistic White community and amongst others, met an artist, Judith Gluckman, who offered to teach him how to paint with oils. He quickly assimilated these techniques and was soon recognised as a notable artist in Johannesburg art circles. He wished to familiarise himself with the country and in 1942, having sold enough paintings to pay his way, travelled to Cape Town to live in District 6 and then to Eastwood, Pretoria in 1945. Apartheid policies, legislated from 1948, resulted in the destruction of Sophiatown, District 6 and Eastwood in the 1950s. Sekoto's paintings remain as vivid historical records of these vibrant urban environments and the people who lived there. In 1947 Sekoto left South Africa in voluntary exile for Paris, planning to expose himself to what he believed would be the centre of the international art world. The artist would never to return to the country that inspired his stirring and colourful depictions of cultural activity and racial tensions. Sekoto's position as one of South Africa's first and most important modernists and social realists has been reinforced by a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 1989, an honorary doctorate from the University of Witwatersrand, the presence of his work at the South African National Gallery, record sales of his paintings at recent auctions in London and Johannesburg, and a recent mural-painting project featuring Sekoto's work as painted by apprentices though the Gerard Sekoto Foundation.
Gerard Sekoto is recognized as the pioneer of urban black art and social realism. His work was exhibited in Paris, Stockholm, Venice, Washington, and Senegal, as well as in South Africa.
Towards the end of his life, Sekoto's art increasingly gained recognition mainly through the pioneering work of Barbara Lindop. Her research brought to life many paintings thought to have been lost, and, through her correspondence with Sekoto, she was able to confirm details of his life before his death in 1993. In this book, Lindop introduces the extraordinary life story of Gerard Sekoto accompanied by full colour plates of his most powerful, stirring works of art.