Exceptional art at major Joburg sales

Tapestry based on a Picasso drawing and worked by weaver Marie Cuttoli is expected to fetch up to R80 000

TWO OF Joburg’s leading art, antique and collectable auction houses are staging their first major sales of the year this weekend.

Tomorrow, Russell Kaplan Auctioneers will wield the hammer, while on Sunday it will be 5th Avenue Auctioneers’ turn.

The highlights of the Russell Kaplan sale in Randburg tomorrow from 10am include a wool tapestry, Petit Bois, based on a 1965 drawing by Pablo Picasso, and woven by renowned French weaver and art collector Marie Cuttoli.

Cuttoli is credited with pioneering tapestry as an artistic medium in 20th century Europe. The weaver first collaborated with French artist Jean Lurcat, who had already experimented with tapestry.

This led to a productive career for Cuttoli, who was later commissioned by artists such as Matisse and Le Corbusier.

She first met Picasso after buying one of his works in 1914 and the two artists then developed a collaboration that would last almost 40 years. She lived to 94 and died in 1973, the same year as Picasso.

Petit Bois (“Little Woods”) is expected to sell for between R50 000 and R80 000. It was purchased by the current owner from GalleryBASEL in Switzerland.

Other unusual artworks are on offer at Russell Kaplan tomorrow. Included are:

A Walter Battiss drawing with white ink on black paper, entitled Pollo and the Two

Slaves (expected to fetch up to R15 000); and Errors in School, a William Kentridge lithographed drawing on a printed book page (expected to fetch R35 000). Kentridge often drew on encyclopedia pages but for this work he used two pages of an old teaching manual bought in a second-hand bookshop.

Other items are two Edoardo Villa abstract works – one on painted steel, the other using copper on a wooden box (respective expected selling prices: R70 000 and R20 000).

Russell Kaplan’s auction at 12 Allan Road, Bordeaux, starts at 9.30am tomorrow and will include furniture.

More details: phone 011 789 7422 or visit rkauctioneers. co.za.

A similar mix of lots is available at 5th Avenue Auctioneers’ sale on Sunday at 10am at 404 Jan Smuts Avenue in Craighall Park.

Acclaimed artists represented at the auction will include Pierneef, Anton van Wouw, Adriaan Boshoff, Maud Sumner, Walter Battiss, Tinus de Jongh, Sidney Goldblatt as well as the Beatles’ John Lennon.

For more details, visit www.5thaveauctions.co.za or phone 011 781 2040.