Art Auction to aid Red Cross Children's Hospital
No cause can be more deserving of help than the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital opened in 1956, which serves children from all over Africa, and is often the only institution they can turn to for any hope of a cure.
Every year, a most important event on the South African art calendar is the Art Auction which is held to support this vital insititution. On Thursday, February 8, work from leading South African artists will be sold at a glittering dinner to be held at Workshop 17 at the V & A Waterfront. The auction is held in partnership with Investec, and under the patronage of Amanda Bloch, whose own son's life was saved at the Red Cross. The money raised will go towards the R10 million still needed to construct a modern operating theatre complex.
The Goodman Gallery each year undertakes the task of organising the lineup of artists, and this year the list includes Marlene Dumas, the South African artist based in Amsterdam, who last year sold a painting on auction in London for 1.3 million sterling - the highest price ever paid for a woman artist's work.
Other luminaries include William Kentridge, who has donated a strong drawing of a rhinoceros with a band-aid collaged on his rear end on an old Italian envelope, Cecil Skotnes, Penny Siopis and Zwelethu Mthethwa. Art lovers can also bid on a beautiful tapestry of a Robert Hodgins painting, or a large mixed media work of one her mythical figures by Deborah Bell. Lisa Brice, who had a sellout show at the Goodman Gallery last year, is also donating a painting, and Sue Williamson has given two photographs from a new series about a project realised in Alexandria, Egypt. Frances Goodman's work is an exqusite soft sculpture of an arum lily lying on a bed of cream satin in a vitrine.
The list of artists is almost 50 long, and buyers can also expect to see work by such practitioners as Willie Bester, Norman Catherine, Senzeni Marasela, Pat Mautloa, David Goldblatt, Cameron Platter, Kim Lieberman, Dumile Feni, Brett Murray and Tracey Rose, to name just a few. For a full list of artists, go to http://www.kidzhospital.co.za/artauction.asp?PageID=290
Table bookings can be made by phoning Tara van Schalkwyk at (021) 686 7860 or emailing schalkwyk@ich.uct.ac.za
