Tretchikoff`s - South Africa Deluxe

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Photos: © Delaire Graff Estate Images, © The Tretchikoff Foundation
Tretchikoff’s
Beguiling Chinese Girl
The collector
For Laurence Graff OBE, chairman of Graff Diamonds International
and owner of Delaire Graff Estate in Stellenbosch, the decision
to purchase Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Chinese Girl was immediate.
“As a young man, I noticed the image of Tretchikoff’s Chinese Girl
continuously displayed in many different locations in print form. It
was the first piece of art that made an impact on me, and I believe
ignited my interest and passion for art.”
Recently named as one of the world’s top art collectors, Graff began
his impressive art collection by collecting classic Impressionist
paintings, one of the first of which was a small Renoir purchased in the
late 1970s, which he kept in a safe amongst his diamonds. With this
purchase he made a promise to himself to acquire one Impressionist
painting a year. Graff’s transition into the contemporary art market
occurred when he was invited to see Andy Warhol’s Electric Chair
series on Madison Avenue in New York. On viewing Warhol’s Orange
Marilyn from 1964 at a Christie’s auction the following day, he was
inspired to learn all he could about contemporary art. His first
purchase of contemporary art was Francis Bacon’s Portrait of Lucien
Freud. Warhol’s Lavender Marilyn and Red Liz were two further
significant contemporary purchases.
Graff is a prominent collector of South African art and his collection
includes work by such artists as Deborah Bell, Dylan Lewis,
Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi and William Kentridge. Not satisfied with
simply collecting exquisite pieces of art, Graff is also passionate
about supporting museums that encourage and show contemporary
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The Artist
It is easy to see how Tretchikoff’s lustrous, polychromatic, oil portrait
would have caught Graff’s eye. Tretchikoff’s experimentation with his
colour palette resulted in a myriad of striking jewelled tones, from
her blue-green patina to her ruby-red pout, framed by her dark hair
and the yellow gold of her tunic.In ‘Pigeon’s Luck’ the artist explains:
"In painting 'Chinese Girl' I had a lot of experience to draw on... My
mind and soul went into this painting, and perhaps there lies the
explanation for its success. Somehow, perhaps, I caught the essence
of Chinese womanhood..."
While The Chinese Girl is commonly acknowledged as the highest
selling print in history,with its most prolific global display being
during the 50s and 60s, it is this trait that perhaps raised the most
ire amongst the art world’s elite, who believed that his lithographic
reproductions devalued and commercialised art. As to why he chose
to antagonise the artistic community, it depends who you ask and
what you read. The popular consensus is that for Tretchikoff, it was
about accessibility. He wanted everyone to be able to enjoy his art,
and this was one of the reasons he chose to exhibit and sell his works
in retail environments rather than the ‘elitist’ galleries.
For biographer Boris Gorelik, author of ‘Incredible Tretchikoff’, he was
as much an astute businessman as he was an artist. Gorelik believes
that the mass production was part of Tretchikoff’s marketing
strategy to fulfil his dream of becoming a rich, famous artist, loved by
the public across the world.
Photos: © Delaire Graff Estate Images, © The Tretchikoff Foundation
artists, and that combine art and charity. He sits on the Executive
Committee of the International Director’s Council of the Guggenheim
Museum in New York, the International Council of the Tate Modern in
London, the Berggruen Museum in Berlin, and the Board of Governors
of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Graff is also an International Trustee of
the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
Graff hosts charity art auctions and special fundraising events
in support of Graff Diamonds’ charitable foundation For Africa’s
Children Every Time (FACET), which aims to support the education,
health and well-being of the people of sub-Saharan Africa. The
proceeds from the charity auction held at the unveiling of the
Chinese Girl at her new home at Delaire Graff Estate in November
2013 will be used to support FACET’s three charitable initiatives in
Lesotho, Botswana and the Winelands of Stellenbosch.
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Was Tretchikoff selling out as many have claimed or was he simply
ahead of his time, seeing the future of art for what it would be and
ushering in a age where the common people had the same rights to
access vast bodies of creative works? While one may not have the
privilege of seeing the tireless techniques and finest brushstrokes
found on the original paintings, surely the emotional responses and
appreciation, or disdain for that matter, evoked by witnessing the
work in a reproduced format would be the same. Perhaps one should
rather question the motives of the establishment who were against
the public at large having easy and affordable access to artworks.
An artist’s original reason for putting brush to canvas is likely
never about financial gain. It is likely because their need to create
is inherently flowing through every strand of their DNA. Tretchikoff
was clearly proud of his body of work and wanted to share it with
the world. The idea of sharing it so freely is perhaps clearer when
placed in today’s increasingly social world, and the purchase of his
lithographic reproductions likened to an online portfolio which could
indeed be shared and the value measured in part by the likes and
tweets garnered each time it is viewed.
Does the original truly suffer a decrease in value because there are
reproductions available? Surely there is a strong argument that
exposure to the work increases interest, desirability and value of the
piece. Laurence Graff’s interest in art was sparked each time he saw
the Chinese Girl and this exposure lead to a lifelong passion, revealed
not only through his impressive art collection but also through his
keen patronage of the arts. How long should the ‘romantic’ notion of
the starving artist continue to be perpetuated? Surely what the art
world wants and needs is the increased support of an engaged and
appreciative audience.
Irrespective of the personal reasons for his approach to the sale of
his works and despite his critics’ sour barbs, Tretchikoff, a self-taught
artist who favoured oil, watercolour, ink, charcoal and pencil, indeed
succeeded in reaching the masses. He staged fifty-two exhibitions in
South Africa, Britain, China, Canada and the United States, drawing
a total attendance of more than two million visitors. Claiming to have
sold over half a million large format reproductions of the Chinese Girl
alone, his business-minded approach to selling his works influenced
the way that many of today’s artists manage their intellectual
property and artistic creations.
The Muse
Tretchikoff drew inspiration from the beauty he saw around him,
and he loved to glamourise the women who agreed to sit for him
and his students. His muse for the Chinese Girl was Monika Ponsu-san (née Sing-Lee), whom he learned about from a Russian
ballet teacher in Cape Town. He was not disappointed when he
tracked the seventeen-year-old down in her father’s laundrette on
Main Road in Sea Point and immediately asked her to sit for him.
Pon-su-san sat for Tretchikoff twice in 1952 over a period of six
weeks and was paid £6.10s. He painted two portraits of her, one in
the famous golden tunic and another in which the tunic is blue and
pink, apparently the real colour of the silk chiffon top which belonged
to Tretchikoff’s wife Natalie. She was rather taken aback at the final
product, finding the green-blue skin tone monstrous. When asked
about the stern look on her face, she explained, “One gets tired
sitting and just looking.”
While Pon-su-san never sat for an artist again, she revealed in an
interview with the BBC that, were he still alive, she would happily sit
for Tretchikoff again. “I liked him very much. He was a funny man. We
always laughed a lot.”
Tretchikoff’s Chinese Girl is currently on public display at Delaire
Graff Estate in Stellenbosch. Johann Laubser, General Manager at
Delaire Graff is delighted that the Chinese Girl has been returned
home to South Africa, “I’m certain it will attract a lot of attention and
my team and I look forward to welcoming all those who visit us to
experience this beautiful piece first-hand.” Lindsay Grubb
To learn more about Tretchikoff, visit his foundation’s website at
www.vladimirtretchikoff.com and for more information on Delaire Graff
Estate and the beautiful original artworks on display there, visit
www.delaire.co.za
Photos: © Delaire Graff Estate Images, © The Tretchikoff Foundation
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