Motswana artist sells P 8.4 million painting

Due to travel restrictions, fewer collectors from the United States and Asia made the journey to Europe, but that didn’t stop the world’s top galleries from making major sales. There were more than a few paintings at Art Basel Unlimited that were so large that they required their own rooms, but none felt as epic proportioned both in size and content as Meleko Mokgosi’s Bread, butter and Power. Spread over 21 panels, it was immersive and filled almost all four walls of its dedicated booth.

The Cathedral Size is one of a series of eight chapters called “Democratic Intuition.” The works refer to important historical figures from Angela Davis to Harriet Tubman, and show scenes of both work and leisure that speak to gender divisions and the work done. Mokgosi’s monumental 21-panel installation Bread, Butter, and Power (2018) was co-presented by Gagosian gallery and New York’s Jack Shainman Gallery in the fair’s unlimited section. This panel shows two women, one sitting on the other’s lap, surrounded by various iconographies related to Black empowerment, including a picture of Angela Davis and a poster reading “They will never kill us all.”