Title: Portrait in blue
Medium: Gouache on paper
Not signed
Unframed: 49cm x 31cm
Framed: 86cm x 66cm
From 1960, Sekoto started producing a series of busts that he was to revisit and re-work repeatedly until the mid-1970’s. These abstracted heads and portrait studies were primarily of African women and were usually executed in broad strokes using a blue palette. Sekoto explained that he chose to use the dominant blue palette because it was sufficiently strong, and contrasted well with the warmer colours, while also allowing for tonal adjustments when mixed with white in the highlighted areas. Apart from these technical aspects, he also liked the positive and expressive qualities of the strong blues, which contributed to the grace and dignity of these iconic heads
with elongated necks (Borman 2019:1).
