Perspectives on Africa
Live Virtual Auction, 17 February 2025
Perspectives on Africa
About the SessionStrauss & Co is pleased to present Perspectives on Africa, a sale that explores the complexity, beauty, and fluidity of perspectives through African art and works by artists with strong ties to the continent. The sale coalesces the rich and varied connections between Africa and its artistic expressions, presenting works that span figuration, landscape, and abstraction, inviting collectors to engage with powerful narratives emerging from Africa's evolving perspectives. The works reflect layered meanings, both as a method of representing depth and dimension as a way of framing our understanding of the world. Work by Contemporary artists reflects on the historical foundations of Modernist artists, exploring themes such as identity, belonging, urbanisation, and re-encounters with tradition, while the sale transitions to Modernist interpretations of Africa, exploring the complexity of colonial encounters, post-independence aspirations, and indigenous practices. Building on Strauss & Co’s commitment to developing a strong local photography market, the sale includes an artist focus on the work of social documentarian Paul Alberts, whose images captured poignant narratives of everyday life, particularly in Cape Town. These works sit alongside David Goldblatt and Zanele Muholi, whose visceral images explore themes of identity, social justice and the multifaceted realities of African life.
About this Item
signed, dated 20/9/03 and numbered 4/6 in pencil in the margin
Notes
Other examples from the edition can be found in the Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
“Anna Boois, goat farmer, with her birthday cake and vegetable garden, on her farm Klein Karoo, in the Kamiesberge of the Northern Cape. She was one of 14 people—all women—who had been given land in this area under a government scheme. About a year after this photograph was taken her source of water dried up and she abandoned her farm and went to live in Garies, the nearest village.”1
1 Stevenson (n.d.) David Goldblatt, online, https://archive.stevenson.info/exhibitions/goldblatt/intersections/item47.htm, accessed 1 August 2024.
Provenance
Stevenson, Cape Town, 20 August 2013.
The Gary Eisenberg Collection.
Literature
The Standard Bank of South Africa and The Goodman Gallery (2015) David Goldblatt: The Pursuit of Values, exhibition catalogue, Johannesburg: The Standard Bank of South Africa and The Goodman Gallery, another example illustrated in colour on page 144.
Exhibited
Norval Foundation, Cape Town, We, the people: 30 Years of Democracy in South Africa, 6 December 2024 to 22 November 2025, another example exhibited.