Archived: Record price for Irma Stern at Strauss & Co sale affirms South Africa’s status as the best marketplace to trade artworks by premium South African modernists

Posted on by Carla Spies

Strauss & Co confirmed its status as Africa’s leading auction house when it sold celebrated modernist painter Irma Stern’s devotional scene, Children Reading the Koran, from her 1939 artist trip to Zanzibar, for R22.3 million ($1.227 million) to a bidder in the room at its premier evening sale of modern and contemporary art last night in Cape Town.

Archived: Big gains and a sad loss for Strauss & Co in 2015

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A month before he passed away on 25 December 2015, distinguished art expert and auctioneer Stephan Welz presided over yet another successful sale at Strauss & Co when, on 9 November, he knocked down painter Alexis Preller’s oil and gesso work The Creation of Adam I (1968) for R8.5 million in Johannesburg. The extraordinary sale result established a new South African record for this enigmatic painter.

Archived: Charming Maggie Laubser Painting Tells Many a Tale at Strauss Auction

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Strauss & Co’s upcoming auction on Monday 14 March at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town offers many exceptional works by major South African artists from JH Pierneef, Hugo Naudé, Walter Battiss, Gerard Sekoto, Gregoire Boonzaier and Erik Laubscher to Robert Hodgins, William Kentridge, Sue Williamson, Athi-Patra Ruga and Ian Grose. Amongst these, Birds and Boats (R700 000 – 900 000) by Maggie Laubser is one of the most charming paintings by this much-loved artist to appear at auction in recent years, according to Senior Art Specialist Emma Bedford.

Archived: Strong results at Strauss & Co’s maiden auction of modern and contemporary art from Africa

Posted on by Carla Spies

Strong Showing for New and Established Artists Spirited bidding for excellent works by celebrated artists Ablade Glover, Nelson Makamo, Zanele Muholi, Cinga Samson, Gerard Sekoto and Prince Twins Seven-Seven was a hallmark of Strauss & Co’s inaugural two-part auction of modern and contemporary art from Africa. A dynamic collaboration between Strauss & Co and various

Archived: JH Pierneef – Master of the Medium

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Modestly scaled and less architectonic than his oils, JH Pierneef’s casein paintings are widely regarded as amongst his most lyrical works. The artist is said to have produced upwards of 50 landscape studies using casein, a milk-based binding agent that Pierneef obtained from a Dusseldorf-based supplier. Characterised by their notational brushstrokes and impressionistic use of colour, Pierneef’s casein works are a benchmark of his intuition and assuredness as a painter.