Strauss & Co’s marquee live auction Perspectives on Africa features top modern and contemporary art

15 Feb 2025

Featuring 87 works made between 1926 and the earlier 2020s, this impressive presentation includes high-value paintings by blue-chip modernists Maggie Laubser, George Pemba, J.H. Pierneef, Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern and Vladimir Tretchikoff. The catalogue also features paintings by highly rated young artists Georgina Gratrix, Ayanda Mabulu, Nabeeha Mohamed and Brett Charles Seiler, as well as important photographs by Paul Alberts, David Goldblatt and Zanele Muholi.

There are mixed-media pieces by award-winning contemporary women artists Stephané Conradie, Bronwyn Katz, Bonolo Kavula, Turiya Magadlela, Asemahle Ntlonti and Nandipha Mntambo. Pioneer contemporaries represented in the sale include artist and theatre director William Kentridge, artist-potter Hylton Nel and multi-format artist Penny Siopis, whose first major museum retrospective in Europe has drawn rapturous reviews.

“Perspectives on Africa explores the complexity, beauty and fluidity of African art, with a strong focus on artists from Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe,” says Bina Genovese, Managing Executive, Strauss & Co. “The sale highlights artists who challenge the excessive dominance of singular interpretations and through texture, colour, scale and materiality, offer multiple ways of engaging the senses. This live auction is the flagship event for our vibrant February Sale of collectable art, ceramics, textiles and Rhone wines.”

Two colour-infused compositions, Irma Stern’s Pimento Pickers, 1962 (estimate R4-6m/ $216 457 – 324 686) and Vladimir Tretchikoff’s Post Office Flower Seller, 1948 (estimate R1.2-1.6m/ $64 937 – 86 583), are among the high-value modernists works for sale. George Pemba has three works in this sale, including Clean Up, 1960 (estimate R400 000 – 600 000/ $21 646 – 32 469), a historically important work made shortly after the Sharpeville Massacre. David Goldblatt’s 1985 portrait of 15-year-old Lawrence Matjee wearing casts on both arms (estimate R150 000 – 280 000/ $8 117 – 15 152) offers another critical perspective on South African history.

High-value contemporary works on offer include Athi-Patra Ruga 2013 wool embroidery Invitation…Presentation…Induction (estimate R800 000 – 850 000/ $43 291 – 45 997) and Brett Charles Seiler’s 2021 painting Timber (estimate R200 000 – 300 000/ $10 823 – 16 234). William Kentridge’s untitled 2001 drawing of a man reading a newspaper flanked (estimate R1.2 – 1.8/ $64 937 – 97 406) is inscribed with a dedication to his former dealer, Linda Givon of the Goodman Gallery. It is one of six works by Kentridge in the sale.

Strauss & Co is honoured to present four works from the Linda Givon Collection. They include the unique Kentridge drawing, Goldblatt’s widely published Matjee portrait, as well as a work apiece by Jared Ginsberg and Penny Siopis.

The lots in Perspectives on Africa will be offered to the public in Strauss & Co’s Cape Town salesroom on Monday, 17 February 2025, commencing at 7pm. This live auction coincides with the closing the single-artist timed-online auction Prelude to Podlashuc: A Glimpse into the Creative World of Alexander Podlashuc.

Also open for bidding and viewing is Woven Legacies: Tradition & Innovation, which highlights a diverse range of materials, techniques and processes from regions across Southern, Central and Western Africa, and Botterblom Collection: Tapestries from the Karoo by Frances VH Mohair Studio. Both sales will close on 24 February,