What do our top tax collector, the chair of the holding company for a major South African bank and one of the country’s most powerful businesswomen have in common? Besides knowing a thing or two about raking in the moola, they’re well versed in the value of art.
These three bold type-faced names were among a throng of well-heeled guests who converged at the old offices of a leading law practice for the VIP opening of this year’s RMB Turbine Art Fair.
This is the brainchild of Glynis Hyslop, the clever catering and events queen whose The Forum Company owns some of the land’s top function venues.
Originally housed at one such spot, — Turbine Hall in downtown Joburg, — Thursday night marked the first time the market has popped up at a different locale.
Entering the Illovo ex-Webber Wentzel atrium, I head into one enclave where Julie Taylor’s Guns & Rain gallery was showcasing the wares of artists such as like Nigerian Ayobola Kekere-Ekun and Joburg-based Thina Dube.
Outside the nearby Millennium Gallery space I spy the night’s most eccentrically dressed belle, artist Hannalie Taut, who was wearing a ball gown made offashioned from rubber inner tubes with her head adorned with a crown of embroidered flames.
“Life is an inspiration. Fairytales … Fantasy… It is a paracosm,” explained the Fochville-born artist about the catalyst for the her intricate rubber tapestries on display.
On to greeting the chic-in-monochrome lady of the hour, Glynis, who cheekily pinches Bowmans legal eagle Robert Legh on the posterior as she leads me through the crowd.
At art auctioneers Strauss & Co’s more expansive section I come across one of our greatest artistic sons, William Kentridge, who is there with his wife, Anne Stanwix, to whom he jokes: “They want us to pose for a pic for the Sunday Times back page.”
Onto At another section ofElsewhere at the fair I meet another internationally acclaimed artist, Phillemon Hlungwani, whose work, Ku Tsaka Ka Mbilu Swi Tshungula Mirhi, showsbrings home just why art is so bankable: the triptych, which fetched for R70,000 in 2010, is now valued at more than three times as much.
That’s the artists, but what about those three money-dealing patrons?
Heading upstairs to get a better view vantage point of choreographer Greg Maqoma’s performance, I find Wendy Luhabe, who earlier this year was the recipient of Forbes magazine in Africa’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Downstairs again I seenotice FirstRand chairman Roger Jardine in conversation with Edward Kieswetter, the newly appointed head of Sars.
“Are you here conducting lifestyle audits?” I ask the man tasked with fixingmopping up the revenue service and who has his Singapore-based music conductor son, Matheu, in tow.
“Well, if you’re wearing a jacket like that we might have to ask a few questions,” he jokes about my tailored blazer.
Enough about money and art, what about the grub? Forget the cheese and plonk usually served up at art exhibitions — this truly was a foodie’s dream.
Think goat cheese lollipops covered in toasted pistachio crumbs, bite-sized braised pork cubes with beetroot and cranberry compote, and squares of grilled polenta with spinach hummus and spiced carrot mousse as canapés to begin.
Then there were beef shin potjies and bowls of chilli pumpkin curry, coq au vin with veg chips and chili pumpkin curry before we were served sage panna cotta with black pepper honeycomb and matcha dark choc swirled brownies for dessert.
Yum!
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