5
The number of versions of The Scream by Edvard Munch. In two he used pastel, one is a lithograph print, and two were painted, one in 1893 and the other in 1910.
73 000
The age of the oldest known homo sapiens-made drawing, cross-hatched on a stone flake. It was found in Blombos Cave in the southern Cape.
2007
The year SA artist Mary Sibande introduced Sophie, a life-sized sculpted alter ego modelled in her own image.
32
The age at which renowned SA ceramic artist and sculptor Bonnie Ntshalintshali died.
A numbers game
Taking account
From the US dollar price of Ghanaian artist El Anatsui's artwork titled New Layout to the number of versions of The Scream by Edvard Munch
Image: Supplied
5
The number of versions of The Scream by Edvard Munch. In two he used pastel, one is a lithograph print, and two were painted, one in 1893 and the other in 1910.
73 000
The age of the oldest known homo sapiens-made drawing, cross-hatched on a stone flake. It was found in Blombos Cave in the southern Cape.
2007
The year SA artist Mary Sibande introduced Sophie, a life-sized sculpted alter ego modelled in her own image.
32
The age at which renowned SA ceramic artist and sculptor Bonnie Ntshalintshali died.
Image: Supplied
55.06
The height in millimetres of the beautifully detailed golden rhino found at Mapungubwe in 1934. It dates to 1250-1290 and was buried with a member of Mapungubwe’s ruling royal elite.
1906
The year in which Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint first began making abstract art — considered among the first such works in Western art.
Image: Supplied
2017
The year in which a miniature portrait by Margaret Gillies of a young Charles Dickens was discovered in a tray at an auction in Pietermaritzburg. Also in the tray was a metal lobster and a bronze plaque.
250 000
The number of beneficiaries of France’s special unemployment system for artists. To qualify, one has to have worked 507 hours a year on an artistic project.
1958
The Château Mouton Rothschild vintage that features a sheep drawn by Salvador Dalí.
1 950 000
The price in dollars for which an artwork by Ghanaian artist El Anatsui titled New Layout — from his “Cloth” series and made of bottle caps woven together with copper wire — sold at a Christie’s auction in 2021.
Image: Supplied
More Numbers Game:
Colour me pretty
From the amount paid for the Nike swoosh design to the number of litres going to waste from leaking taps
Luck of the draw
• From the September edition of Wanted, 2023.