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Figuration and Landscape Triumph at Strauss & Co’s first grand marquee auction of the year.

12 Apr 2022

The star lot and top performer of the sale, Dakar Woman is one of only five known works from this important period in Stern’s career which heralded her Golden Age. This work was presented in a special focused session of Strauss & Co’s live virtual auction which took place in Cape Town on Tuesday 5 April. “This exceptional price is well-deserved for such a rare and important work from the artist’s time in Senegal in 1938.” commented joint MD Bina Genovese after taking the sale.  

The evening session, on Tuesday 5 April 2022, saw the debut of Strauss & Co’s much anticipated sale of Modern, Post-war and Contemporary art, with a specialist session titled Figuration: Past and Present that drew curatorial inspiration from Strauss & Co’s non-selling exhibition Giving Direction: Figuration, Past and Present, held over the Cape Town Art Fair in February. This session of the sale celebrated the innate power of the figure in Traditional, Modern, Post-war and Contemporary art, giving important historical context to the lots included in the auction.

One of the most anticipated lots of the evening was Maggie Laubser’s Portrait of a Woman wearing a Sari against a Floral Background, estimated to fetch between R800 000 and R1,2 million. Painted in 1936, this vibrant floral composition graced the cover of the auction catalogue. Bids flowed rapidly and the excitement in the room was palpable, with competing bids in the room and online bouncing back and forth. This rare and unique work was purchased by a telephone bidder for R 1 820 800. Ian Hunter, Senior Art Specialist at Strauss & Co, commented: “It’s not a usual portrait by Maggie Laubser and the result is fantastic because it illustrates the market’s desire for rare works of art.”

Strauss & Co’s intense four-day auction week concluded on Thursday night, achieving an overall total of R 48 957 406 and a sell-through rate of 77.38%. These encouraging results reaffirm Strauss & Co’s position as market leader for South African art, decorative arts and jewellery in South Africa.

Frank Kilbourn, Executive Chairperson of Strauss & Co commented after the sale: “We are very satisfied with the outcome of the sale. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world right now and there is a natural tendency for people is to be more conservative when it comes to purchasing items that don’t have immediate utilitarian value. Nevertheless, the sale proved that bellwethers like George Pemba, Irma Stern, JH Pierneef, Maggie Laubser and John Meyer, amongst others, transcend these situations, and excellent prices were instead achieved. The high quality of the works on offer shone through and people, regardless of the uncertain times, endeavoured to pursue what they love and what was presented to them in an informed and accessible way.”

A star of the show was undoubtedly George Pemba, with all three of his works achieving excellent results and reaffirming his place as an important South African modernist. “These results can be attributed to the strength of Pemba’s works on offer.” Hunter commented. The first of the works presented, Figure Reading beside a Street, was the earliest and sold for R 569 000, followed by Grandma and Child, an affectionate work achieving above the top estimate at R 147 940. Last but not least, bidders battled for In the Bus, a gentle yet poignantly political art piece by Pemba,eventually selling forR 569 000.

The last hour of the night was characterized by consistently good results. Marianne Podlashuc’s Five Children, South End, Port Elizabeth, a stylistic depiction of a mixed-race suburb in this coastal city that was demolished by the apartheid government, went to a bidder for R 73 970, exceeding its top estimate. Moses Kottler’s sensitive depiction, cast in bronze, of a young woman in a headscarf sold for R 102 420 against a top estimate of R35,000. Titled Mietjie, this fresh-to-market work is a perfect example of the artist’s fine workmanship. The Sorry Bunch by Michael Taylor continued the trend and sold for R 182 080 to an online bidder, doubling its high estimate of R90 000.,

The day session maintained the momentum from the previous night, with Georgina Gratrix’s Anthuriums, Palms and Parrots, which was exhibited as part of the artist’s solo show at SMAC Gallery in 2016, flying off the wall at a final sale price of R 136 560 and proving Gratrix’s popularity in the art market. Alexandra Karakashian’s Passing Through I sold for a solid price of R 73 970.

The day sale was characterised by a keen interest in South African modernist landscape paintings. Walter Meyer’s evocative Old House in a Landscape sold to a bidder in the room for R 147 940, and the pounding of the gavel was greeted with celebratory clapping from clients attending the session in person. Similarly, Meyer’s Summer Day, Camps Bay Beachfront did exceptionally well, finally selling at R 113 800. Following the pattern of landscape paintings by South African artists being well received by the market, a rare work by Tinus de Jongh, The Banks of the Zambesi River, sold for R 108 110, far outstripping its estimate of R 30,000 – R 40,000.

One of the heroes of the afternoon was undoubtedly Gregoire Boonzaier. His textured and colourful depictions of South African environments have remained popular, and his Table Mountain from Newlands, Cape, through Bare Oaks, exceeded its top estimate and sold for R 227 600.

The auction’s premier evening session drew over 480 online, telephone and in-person bidders.  It included The Coba Diederiks Collection, which represents the close friendship between Diedericks, her husband and celebrated artist Alexis Preller. The collection also included works that were gifted to the Diederiks over many years. Preller’s Gold Kouros, painted upon the artist’s return from Greece in 1969 and one of the highlights of the evening session, tussled between two bidders in the room and bidding online and finally sold for R 3 641 600. Other works in the collection did similarly well, with a small-scale work titled The Lobster, a wedding present from Preller to the Diederiks in 1968, selling for R 102 420.

Jacob Hendrik Pierneef’s iconic renderings of Umbrella Thorn trees and quintessentially South African vistas have always commanded a devoted following, and the evening sale confirmed that this hasn’t changed. All ten works on the sale sold above estimate. Three works in particular Bushveld with Camelthorn Trees, Landscape with Koppie and Thorn Trees recto, Mountain Landscape, verso, and Landscape with Mountains and Trees sold for R 1 081 100, R 910 400, and R 625 900 respectively.

Strauss & Co’s auction week closed on a confident note, with Dylan Lewis’ Sitting Cheetah II selling for over R2 million. The excellent performance of especially Preller and Pierneef in this sale bodes well for Strauss & Co’s forthcoming three-day live virtual sale in Johannesburg from 16 to 18 May.