Archived

The Late Peter and Regina Strack Collection

21 Sep 2018

Peter Burghard Strack was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1940. In 1950 he and his family immigrated to what was then South West Africa, now Namibia. As a burgeoning young artist, Strack met Adolph Jentsch, who took him on as a student. It was then that the young Peter began honing his skills as an artist¹ and collector.²

After completing his architecture studies in Berlin, Peter returned to Namibia in 1966 and joined the architecture fi rm Stauch & Partners where he worked as an architect until his retirement in 2001. During his career, he received recognition for both new building projects such as the Namibian Central bank in Windhoek as well as critical heritage projects undertaken in Lüderitz.

Strack retired in 2001 and undertook a major renovation of the family home which was completed in 2007. The renovation allowed him to create a living gallery for his collection: he focused on installing uninterrupted running walls and windows, which while providing light would not provide harsh UV exposure to their collection. He also focused during this time on researching, writing and publishing books about Adolph Jentsch (2003) and later Fritz
Krampe (2007).3

Peter and his wife Regina had jointly discussed the loan/donation of their extensive collection to the Swakopmund Community. However Regina passed away in 2008 and Peter continued to negotiate the funding of the project. He had put the proposal forward to the Swakopmund Arts Society but had included a number of stringent museum standards regarding lighting and
climate control.

“My gallery project seems not to materialise. There is a small hope still, as we started negotiations with a bank, but so far I received no final reply. If this also fails, I will select a few works from my collection for myself and will sell the rest.”4

The Late Peter and Regina Strack Collection in its entirety encompasses a fine accumulation of 20th century Namibian art including paintings, sculpture, drawings, works on paper and prints. The collection is dominated by Adolph Jentsch, Fritz Krampe and John Muafangejo – all of whom contributed to shaping the distinctly Namibian artistic vision that collectors recognize today.

The collection which follows is the realisation of the passion of Peter and Regina and their combined vision which saw them accumulate many of the best pieces of Namibian Art during a 50-plus year period.

Phillippa Duncan

A further nine lots from the Late Peter and Regina Strack Collection to be sold on
the StraussOnline auction, Wednesday 17 – Monday 22 October 2018.