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Girl in sunglasses reveals herself!
31 Jan 2012
Stanley Pinkers Girl in Sunglasses, estimated at R300 000 500 000, on Strauss & Cos upcoming auction to be held at the Vineyard Hotel, Newlands, on 6 February 2012, has been revealed as Anna Starcke, prize-winning journalist, author, publisher and political risk and transformation consultant to business leaders over the past 30 years
She was easily identified by one of her contemporaries who noted that the Starckes and Pinkers were good friends in the late sixties and that Anna was instantly recognisable as the only young woman on Clifton Beach with those round sunglasses and an elegant kerchief tied around her hair.
She was clearly a striking beauty as, earlier in the 1960s, she also sat for Irma Stern who produced a very different portrait of her, with her hair dramatically pulled back to emphasise her aquiline nose.
In an email to Ann Palmer, Head of the Paintings Department at Strauss & Co, Starcke revealed:
“When Stanley returned to Cape Town in 1964 and was planning to hold his first local exhibition after a decade in Europe, I happily was the
custodian of the Association of Arts Gallery …
It’s nearly 50 years ago so memories are a little hazy but there’s one that is totally, utterly crisp in my mind. Here’s why: Whom, I asked, would he like
to open his exhibition? Stanley said he didn’t know anybody and in any case would be most happy if I would open it “seeing as you like my stuff
so much”. I was delighted but also most apprehensive – I had never made a public speech and told him so. But now Stanley insisted I should do it.
On the opening night, being the custodian, I had a bell in my hand to hush the crowd for the opening speech. And you guessed it: because I was nervous as hell, there was a steady tinkling right through the speech. The reason I remember it so clearly – and have thanked Stanley in my mind many times over – was that the experience made me determined to perfect the skill of speaking confidently in public, something I henceforth pursued relentlessly. So yes: thank you again Stanley for having contributed decisively to my career development.
The Pinkers lived in Hout Bay in a glorious barn they had built on the beach. It probably wasn’t, but that’s how I remember it. Sun-drenched golden sand, lots of colour in a light-flooded house, lots of red wine and always Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin. With Bettie Pinker presiding over everything like a wonderfully wholesome, pink-cheeked Earth Mother in floor-length caftans. And Stanley laughing that distinct, rumbling laugh of his, often self-deprecating at some outrageous remark he’d made.
Most of us had small children and spent our Sundays picknicking together on that beach, spilling out from that bright house. And everybody – apart from Helmut and me and the Webbers – or so it seemed, was blond. The Pinkers, the Arnotts, the Atkins’, the Laubschers.
The idyll lasted to the late Sixties. … it produced some fabulous, invigoratingly new South African art … And for that we are surely grateful today.”
2012 Press Releases
December
November
- 12 Nov 2012 Rare Early Maggie Laubser Paintings found for Strauss Summer Auction
- 12 Nov 2012 Whether stealing or selling SA, Art spells out millions
October
- 6 Oct 2012 Art session proves no recession
- 9 Oct 2012 Keerweder - A Whale of a Sale by Patrick Chapman
- 11 Oct 2012 Museum quality artwork in Strauss & Co's November auction
- 24 Oct 2012 Lucas Sithole's 'Young Girl'
- 24 Oct 2012 Museum quality works for sale at Strauss & Co
- 24 Oct 2012 Pieter Hugo - A personal vision of the pioneering spirit of man
- 24 Oct 2012 Pricey Prellers prevail
- 24 Oct 2012 Robert Hodgins - People Watcher with a wicked sense of humour
- 24 Oct 2012 Rock Art and its lasting influence on JH Pierneef and Walter Battiss
- 24 Oct 2012 The allure of the landscape - Adolph Jentsch and the panoramas of Namibia
- 25 Oct 2012 Strauss & Co's Keerweder triumph
September
- 6 Sep 2012 Distinctive Kentridge Drawing
- 6 Sep 2012 Kentridge's Sleeper a unique working proof
- 6 Sep 2012 Parisian painting brings the fifties to life
- 6 Sep 2012 Sparkling Singer's jewellery to be auctioned
- 15 Sep 2012 Fusing British and South African Landscape Traditions
- 15 Sep 2012 House Sale in Franschhoek, The Contents of Keerweder:Own a piece of history
- 22 Sep 2012 Surprisingly good value at Strauss & Co Cape Town auction
August
- 5 Aug 2012 Seminal painting links African and Western traditions
- 6 Aug 2012 The Golden Age of Maria van Riebeeck
July
- 1 Jul 2012 Pick of the crop
June
- 11 Jun 2012 SA Art Rocks
May
- 22 May 2012 Strauss & Co, a force to be reckoned with
- 29 May 2012 Portrait reflects Sterns joy at discovering new worlds
April
- 20 Apr 2012 'Stern's Arab Spring' at Strauss & Co Continues
March
- 9 Mar 2012 Strauss & Co's distinguished Zanzibari Arab
- 22 Mar 2012 The most distinguished Arab at Strauss & Co's June auction
February
- 9 Feb 2012 Heart surgeon's collection steals collectors' hearts
- 22 Feb 2012 Free valuations at Strauss & Co, Johannesburg
- 22 Feb 2012 Suited for Power at Strauss & Co
January
- 31 Jan 2012 Girl in sunglasses reveals herself!