Works of SA art giants to go under hammer
RARE and priceless paintings and artefacts by legendary giants of the South African visual art world are to go on auction at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens next month.
The art, including the works of Irma Stern, Gerard Sekoto and Scottish artist and writer Lady Anne Barnard, who had lived for five years in the Cape, will be sold at the Stephan Welz and Company’s auction on July 1 and 2.
Historian Tracey Randle said one of Stern’s works, Arab Dhows, is estimated to fetch between R700 000 and R900 000 at the auction.
“This evocative Irma Stern painting is making its first appearance on the open market after being purchased 80 years ago by a famous actress Barbara Macleod for 12 guineas, which she paid to the artist scrupulously, according to Stern’s records, in four instalments.”
Randle said other works expected to attract strong interest from collectors were Barnard’s two 220-yearold watercolours, expected to fetch between R50 000 to R80 000.
She said two works by Sekoto, one titled Head of an African Woman, with an estimated value of R600 000 to R900 000, is also set to go under the hammer.
Sekoto had from 1963 to the mid1970s repeatedly painted what became known as his “blue heads”, a series of busts primarily of women, most frequently with the use of a blue palette.
Randle said Sekoto also produced a ballpoint-pen-on-paper sketch of Miriam Makeba, the universally acclaimed Queen of African song.
Fine arts specialist Carol Kaufmann, commenting on Barnard’s work, said: “The two, 220-year-old watercolours give us a rare glimpse into the lives of individual women from the under classes of the Cape Colony at the end of the 18th century.
“They have been brought to life through ground-breaking new research by historian Tracey Randle, who has managed to trace their origins and possible identities by digging deep into the archives.”
Randle said the watercolours represent not just rare works of art never seen on the market, but a potential archive of untapped, untold and unwritten marginalised stories.
Viewings for the auction are on June 28 to 30 at 10am to 5pm. A walkabout with Anton Welz takes place on June 29 at 11am.