Walter Battiss: Under The Baobabs R2,500

This screenprint, titled Under The Baobabs by Walter Battiss (1906–1982), originates from his celebrated 1951 portfolio Fragments of Africa, published by Red Fawn Press in Pretoria.  

Historically, this work captures a pivotal transitional moment in mid-20th-century South African art history and in Battiss's own artistic evolution:

 Bridging San Rock Art and Modernism: Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Battiss spent extensive time researching, studying, and copying San (Bushman) rock paintings across Southern Africa. Rather than merely documenting them, he absorbed their visual language—the calligraphic economy of line, flattened spatial depth, and symbolic animal/human motifs. Fragments of Africa (1951) represents the moment where his deep study of ancient African rock art merged seamlessly with Western avant-garde Modernism, predating his later development of Fook Island.  

 Early Screenprinting Pioneer: Battiss was one of the earliest artists in South Africa to embrace serigraphy (screenprinting) as a fine art medium rather than a commercial tool. The bold block colors, textured background speckling, and minimalist graphic shapes in Under The Baobabs highlight his mastery of screenprint layering during the early 1950s.  

 Precursor to "Fook Island": The stylized figures, pod-like shapes, and playful abstraction seen here laid the formal groundwork for Battiss's famous imaginary concept, the "Fook Island" state of mind, which he formally launched in the 1970s to critique rigid artistic and political nationalism.

Fragments of Africa remains one of the landmark limited-edition print portfolios of South African modernist graphic art.

Not signed by Battiss, but the title in pencil, is in his hand. From a portfolio edition of 250. 

Graphic size: 200mm x 165mm

R2,500