Following the success of their Spring auction earlier this month, Strauss & Co’s Summer Auction is set to take place on 9 November 2015 at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg, boasting high-quality artworks by some of South Africa’s leading names. With works by Preller, Stern, Kentridge, Pierneef and Van Wouw, this auction is sure to be one for the charts!
LEFT TO RIGHT: Alexis Preller, The Creation of Adam and I (1968). Oil and gesso on canvas, 119 x 134cm; Lucas Sithole, Witchdoctor (LS8211), (1982). Swazi Msimbiti wood on a wooden base. Height, 76cm excluding base; Irma Stern, Meinkie (1948). Oil on canvas, 59.5 x 54cm.Given the Spring auction’s headlining sale — Irma Stern’s, Still Life of Fruit and Lilies in a Jug — which sold for R4 547 200, the prospect of some record sales this Summer is a very reasonable prediction, especially given the calibre of work on show. “The results of the Spring auction confirm the strength of the South African art market,” said Strauss & Co managing director, Stephan Welz. “There is an undeniable appetite for high-quality art that represents the best of an artist’s work.”
Among the important artworks on the Summer auction are Alexis Preller’s famous ‘intaglio’ works, Apollo Kouros II (R4 000 000 – 5 000 000) and The Creation of Adam I (R3 000 000 – 4 000 000); Irma Stern’s 1948 painting, Meinkie (R3 000 000 – 4 000 000); Anton van Wouw’s personal favourite, the Dagga Smoker (R350 000 – 400 000), which was donated by the artist and won as a raffle prize during World War II, remaining with the descendants of the winner ever since.
A number of works by William Kentridge, particularly from the late 1980s and early 90s have generated significant interest. Woman with Pink Knees (R1 500 000 – 2 500 000) is an example, most likely produced between 1991 – 94 when Kentridge was experimental, but growing in confidence as an artist. In this case he combines collage and charcoal, employing the technique of chine collé, a kind of collage developed in the nineteenth-century to bond thin Chinese and Japanese papers onto paper. The figure of this nude woman, partly inspired by Picasso’s figurative prints, appears frequently in Kentridge’s works, such as the well-known print series Little Morals (1991).
Circe (R1 000 000 – 1 500 000) belongs to a period in the mid-80s during which Kentridge’s work frequently commented on the decadence and privilege of the white middle classes, approached most often via literary or artistic references such as, in this case, Greek mythology. Circe is a minor goddess who featured in Homer’s Odyssey, and could turn men into pigs. Kentridge uses warthogs, here, one of his favourite motifs.
Other notable artworks that will go under the hammer include works by Hendrick Pierneef, Deborah Bell, Cecil Skotnes, Lucas Sithole, Karel Nel and Cecily Sash. Among the international pieces, there is a work by British landscape painter Ivon Hitchens, whose work Long Boat sold for R 1 079 960 last year at a Strauss & Co auction.
EVENT DETAILS:
Location: The Wanderers Club Ballroom, 21 North Street, Illovo, Johannesburg
Preview: Friday 6 November to Sunday 8 November from 10 am to 5 pm
Walkabout: Sunday 8 November at 11 am
Auction: Monday 9 November 2015; 16:00 (Day Sale) or 20:00 (Evening Sale)
Enquiries and catalogues:
Office: +27 (0) 11 728 8246
Fax: +27 (0) 11 728 8247
Contact numbers during viewing and auction:
Mobile +27 (0) 79 407 5140 and +27 (0) 79 367 0637
Fax: +27 (0) 11 728 8247
