Choice Saturday Live offerings
ART: THE FOCUS IS ON WORKS BY ESTABLISHED ARTISTS OVER ALL KEY TIME PERIODS
Leading the lots is a wonderful selection of ceramic ware and tapestries.
An array of ceramics and tapestries from the iconic Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre as well as unusual abstract and compelling socio-political works are among the diverse offerings at Strauss & Co’s second Saturday Live sale.
Taking place on October 19th, Saturday Live is an important initiative that fills a strategic niche between Strauss & Co’s five premium live sales and eight online only auctions.
It focuses primarily on artworks by established artists over all key time periods – and is built around a highly accessible, boutique-style live sale at the auction house’s newly expanded Houghton offices.
As part of this new initiative, Strauss & Co’s Saturday Live auctions offer a longer preview period with the upcoming sale opening for viewing on Wednesday at 9am.
Buyers will be able to preview the works on sale on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday by visiting Strauss & Co’s offices in Johannesburg. Walkabouts by Strauss & Co’s highly-regarded art specialists will also be available to art buyers in the days leading up to the sale.
Leading the lots is a wonderful selection of ceramic ware and tapestries from the Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre.
Established in the early 1960s, this institution played a pivotal role in the education of many of South Africa’s most well-known black artists at a time when there was no tertiary art education available at apartheid-era white universities.
The Saturday Live sale also features works by an array of other prominent historical artists including a lithograph, Office Decoration, by Robert Hodgins; Judith Mason’s artist’s book Skoelapper Heuwel, Skoelapper Vrou, and Sipho Ndlovu’s fantastic portrait of the well-known sculptor of exquisite wooden animals, Julius Mfete.
Adding to the sale’s diversity is a selection of unusual abstract works by prominent artists that provides a superb starting point for emerging collectors.
These include Walter Battiss’ Marabaraba screen print, phenomenal abstract works by Gordon Vorster that are quite unlike his signature wild animals, and works drawn from Malcolm Payne’s very short abstract period during the 1970s.
Also on offer are works by Anna Vorster (a completely underrated abstract artist whose works seldom appear on the secondary market), Trevor Coleman (featuring proper abstract scenes that are a distinct departure from his usual island ones), and mid-1980s abstract works by Sam Nhlengethwa.
The sales boasts a number of highly collectable works with a socio-political slant – including Diane Victor’s 16 etchings: Disasters of Peace (based on the satirical Goya etchings), Paul Emmanuel’s Field of Flames (which evokes male initiation into the army), and Sam Nhlengethwa’s Miners, which focuses on the plight of workers.
Other highlights of this compelling aspect of the upcoming sale are Basil Jones’ beautiful print, War Horse, which references the phenomenal theatre production that’s based on the acclaimed novel about the World War I, as well as Irma Stern’s Man in Yellow Shroud.
Another area of focus for the upcoming Saturday Live sale is the human figure.
Buyers can choose from interesting interpretations by artists like Margaret McKean, Hanneke Benade (six lithographs of a woman climbing over a chair), and
Claudette Schreuders (works that often serve as inspiration for her wooden and bronze sculptures)..
Rounding off the October Saturday Live sale is a selection of international works including three circular, pink-infused prints by the massively popular, Takashi Murakami as well as works by underrated British pop artist Peter Phillips.