Preller’s Poseidon set to cause a stir
Work by top local artists and international contemporary greats on offer
A museum-quality artwork by William Kentridge, a 1950 selfportrait by Alexis Preller and an intimate post-impressionist painting by Edouard Vuillard are among the lots at Strauss & Co’s forthcoming live sale in Johannesburg at the Wanderers Club on June 4.
The auction’s top 10 lots include four works by Preller as well as important pieces by Walter Battiss, JH Pierneef and Vladimir Tretchikoff.
The top 10 lots carry a combined estimate of R33.6m.
Kentridge’s large charcoal and pastel drawing, Deep Pool (estimate between R3m and R4m), produced in 1996, forms part of a suite of polished drawings made in 1995 and 1996 titled Colonial Landscapes.
Great excitement surrounds Preller’s undated intaglio painting, Poseidon (estimate between R3m and R5m). The two Vuillard lots form part of an impressive selection of international works, including British painter Sir William Nicholson’s Alcázar Estrade, Sevilla from 1933 (estimate between R500,000 and R700,000).
There are a number of editions by leading contemporary artists on offer, notably by Peter Blake, Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons.
The evening session of the auction will mark the climax of this three-part sale. A number of important South African artists are represented in this session, among them Battiss, Peter Clarke, Robert Hodgins, Sydney Kumalo, Maggie Laubser, Erik Laubscher, Freida Lock, Pierneef, Gerard Sekoto, Irma Stern and Preller.
Alongside Poseidon, the Preller works on offer include Consider the Lizard (estimate between R3m and R4m), a symbolic study of a male figure painted in 1955 and shown at the 28th Venice Biennale the following year.
Contrapuntal Figures II (estimate between R2m and R3m) is a 1964 canvas in which Preller integrates figures into an abstract composition.
Charting a wholly different direction in painting, but no less sought after at auction, is Tretchikoff’s portrait of a traditional healer holding a green snake, which is expected to sell for between R2m and R3m.
A new survey exhibition dedicated to Sydney Kumalo at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town casts an invaluable spotlight on this important sculptor and may help push bidding for Figure on a Bull past the high estimate of R600,000.
The sale includes a striking abstract composition from Sam Nhlengethwa’s important Thupelo workshop period, Image IV (estimate between R200,000 and R300,000).
The Johannesburg sale includes a special focus on abstract art in SA. Abstraction was the dominant artistic thrust in the country’s post-war years up until the late 1970s.
Works on offer will be on preview from June 1 to June 3. There will be walkabouts and lectures on June 2 and June 3.