Saatchi Collection sends major Ibrahim Mahama work to auction

The hemp sacks he utilizes are made in Asia and imported to Ghana to carry cacao beans and rice to Europe, America and somewhere else. They are then often recycled often times to lug feed, coal and charcoal around the country for residential consumption, prior to being finally repurposed by Mahama at the end of their working life, illustrating the complex trade networks of the worldwide economic climate and post-independence Ghana.

The work, which is currently displayed on Charles Saatchi’s internet site, will be supplied in the Modern and modern art sale (16 October). It was first displayed in the exhibition Pangaea: New Art from Africa to Latin America at the Saatchi Gallery in King’s Road, London, and is on display at Bonhams, New Bond Street, until 29 August.

The Saatchi Collection– amassed by the headline-hitting UK enthusiast Charles Saatchi– has consigned a massive setup by the Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama to Bonhams auction house in London. The piece Untitled (2013 ), consisting of 11 draped coal sacks made from hemp fiber, has a price quote of ₤ 30,000 to ₤ 50,000.

Helene Love-Allotey, head of Bonhams’ Modern and contemporary African Art Department, states in a declaration: “It’s a work that heralds Ibrahim Mahama’s early deep rate of interest in just how textiles have actually been reused and repurposed and what can be attracted from the background of the threads and the memories embedded in them.” Last October, Mahama’s work AJ-10100 (2013-14), a solitary coal sack piece, fetched ₤ 17,920 (with charges) at Bonhams.

Other recent auction sales from the Saatchi collection consist of Stella Creeping plant’s painting Hi Paul Can You Come By? (2003) which brought ₤ 11,700 (with charges; estimate ₤ 600-₤ 900) last September at Roseberys auction home in West Norwood, London. Saatchi did not respond to an ask for comment about the sales.

Various other current public auction sales from the Saatchi collection include Stella Vine’s painting Hi Paul Can You Come Over? (2003) which brought ₤ 11,700 (with costs; price quote ₤ 600-₤ 900) last September at Roseberys public auction residence in West Norwood, London. Saatchi did not react to a request for remark regarding the sales.

The Saatchi Gallery in King’s Roadway, which opened in 2008, hosts a diverse mix of programs consisting of the current exhibition Being homeless: Reframed (up until 20 September), which includes jobs by musicians such as Marc Quinn and Tiffany Barham. Early exhibitions at the room included works mostly attracted from Saatchi’s collection such as The Change Proceeds: New Art from China (2008 ).

Earlier this year Mahama revealed the work Purple Hibiscus at the Barbican Centre in London. The item, made from 2,000 square metres of woven cloth, covered the beachfront frontage of the brutalist framework, producing a vivid contrast against the grey building and sky.

Mahama is understood for his massive tapestries of sewn-together hemp sacks that he drapes over whole structures. These have included theaters, luxury houses and social real estate jobs in his indigenous Ghana, as well as two outside walls of the Arsenale at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, and Kassel’s historic Torwache (guard buildings) for Documenta 14 in 2017.