AT FEATURE: Borrow to Beautify: A Journey of Becoming | Oliewenhuis

Borrow to Beautify: A journey of becoming
By Gemma Hart
www.nasmus.co.za

Asanda Kupa, Chained in Blue, 2017, oil on canvas, 136 x 280cm

Imagine if you could curate your space with just a click of a button. That you could convert any blank wall in your lounge, dining room, or even office into a mesmerising showpiece. Whether you want to immerse yourself in a space that evokes feelings of joy, tranquility, or reverie – there’s an artwork for you. The key to finding a work of art that you’ll love is discerning what resonates with you. Cater to your own taste and cultivate contemporary culture through a tailor-made experience. You can browse an extensive catalogue of original artworks from the comfort of your own home.

Collecting work doesn’t have to be a lifetime commitment. You can ring the changes with each new season or suit your unique specifications. Breathe life into your living space. At a fraction of the sale price, leasing work offers the same gratification but without the financial burden. Whether you have a loft with a view, cozy cottage, or a post-modern mansion, Art Bank of South Africa, the national art leasing initiative, has a turn-key solution for transforming your space.

A recent client of the ArtbankSA who leased several pieces from the collection described how “all of them spoke to me for various reasons”. The first one that caught his eye was a large-scale oil painting by Asanda Kupa. Chained in Blue (2017) “is a big painting of women in blue overalls and you can’t actually make out their faces, you can’t even make out their form, but if you stand far enough back you can see that these are people in uniform”. For him, both the mood evoked by the piece as well as its scale, were crucial factors in selecting the work, “I had quite a big wall to fill, but also what it depicted was these unseen masses of women in overalls. These marginalised black women are invisible, but they are everywhere. You walk past them, you drive past them, they work in your house, but you never see them. So that really blows my mind. Even now, sometimes I just look at it and it sort of entrances me”.