Long-time friend and artistic collaborator with Robert Hodgins and William Kentridge on a number of print and film projects, Deborah Bell has developed her own distinctive style that explores the entanglements of histories and cultures by drawing on a diversity of imagery that includes African, Asian, Middle Eastern and European sources. Her approach is less academic than intuitive and imaginative

Strauss & Co, South Africa’s premier auction house with Stephan Welz, leading auctioneer and expert at its helm, announces yet another spectacular auction which takes place at the Johannesburg Country Club, Woodmead on 24 May 2010.

Johannesburg: Strauss & Co, South Africa’s leading fine art auctioneers, set a new world record for a still life by a South African artist, improving on their own record set last March. (R7 241 000 for Irma Stern’s, Magnolias in an Earthenware Pot ). Irma Stern’s Still Life with Gladioli and Fruit sold for R7 575 million in Johannesburg last night. This is also a record for a still life by Stern.

Auctioneer Stephan Welz, the head of art auctioneers Strauss & Co, owes his success largely to a visit to Cape Town, where it seemed as if the statue of Cecil John Rhodes in The Gardens, next to the National Gallery, had a message for him:

Strauss & Co is gearing up for yet another spectacular sale on 11 October 2010 at the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands. Managing Director Stephan Welz’s recent visit to Cape Town drew phenomenal responses from eager collectors seeking valuations and wanting to consign valuable items to the next auction. The turnout netted a cache of top works by Irma Stern, J H Pierneef, Maggie Laubser, Stanley Pinker, Cecil Skotnes, Lucky Sibiya, William Kentridge and many more.

The Wheel of Life, a key work by acclaimed South African painter, Stanley Pinker, displays all the signature elements of the artist’s vocabulary. Drawing on a profound understanding of art history and engaging with the contradictions of the South African political and environmental landscape, Pinker forges these elements into a witty and eloquent commentary on this country.

Stephen Welz, South Africa’s leading fine art auctioneer and expert, and Vanessa Phillips, senior furniture, silver and ceramics expert will be in Hermanus at the Marine Hotel on Friday, 30 July from 10:30 to 15:30 to provide confidentail valuations with a view to sell at Strauss & Co.

Following Strauss and Co’s extraordinary success in selling Irma Stern’s Still Life with Gladioli and Fruit for R7 575 200, another still life with Gladioli by Stern has come to the market. Painted in 1939, five years after Stern produced the painting that excited so much heated bidding at the Johannesburg auction on 24 May earlier this year, this painting with estimates of R5 000 000 to R7 000 000 is sure to rouse wide interest at Strauss & Co’s 11 October sale at the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands.

Inspirational women activists, Ruth First and Lilian Ngoyi, are immortalised in a fine lithograph by renowned artist Dumile Feni, which is coming up at Strauss & Co’s auction to be held at The Country Club Johannesburg in Woodmead on 1 November 2010.

The top lots coming up on Strauss & Co’s 11 October sale at the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands are attracting keen attention from prospective buyers. Amongst these, punters are keeping a close watch on Irma Stern’s Gladioli (lot 163, R5 000 000 to R7 000 000) after a still life painting by the artist fetched R7 575 200 on the company’s Johannesburg auction earlier this year, breaking the record for the highest price achieved at auction for a South African still life.