Records set at Strauss sale
• Intense bidding and fresh names at first auction of contemporary art
The hubbub of a harbour provided the backdrop for Strauss & Co’s inaugural contemporary art sale, the first such auction in SA to focus exclusively on a burgeoning art category.
Held in a stylishly transformed warehouse adjacent to Duncan Dock in the Port of Cape Town, the hour-long sale comprised 71 lots representing three generations of contemporary artists and generated total sales of R13.55m, with a sell-through rate of 80%.
The sale affirmed the reputation at auction of senior artists such as Robert Hodgins, William Kentridge, Karel Nel and Penny Siopis, but also uncovered collector appetite for works by younger artists.
This enthusiasm was registered when rival bidders vied for Lisa Brice’s gesso work depicting lovers kissing, Untitled (2006). It was knocked down for R250,096, more than double the high estimate.
Kiss, Kiss (2013), a striking oil work by Georgina Gratrix, was the subject of intense bidding and sold for R318,304, more than double the estimate.
Cape Town painter Jake Aikman’s Adrift II (2014), a mesmerising canvas with an oceanic theme, had seven telephone bidders competing but was eventually secured by a commission bidder for R250,096, trebling the high estimate.
Similarly, multiple telephone bidders chased after Mongezi Ncaphayi’s ink and mixedmedia diptych, Treasure Hunt (2017), which sold for R193,256, trebling the high estimate.
Bidding at the auction was robust from the outset, with works by Zander Blom and David Koloane selling for above their high estimates.
The top lot was a charcoal drawing from Kentridge’s stopanimation film, Felix in Exile (1994), which fetched R2.27m, within its estimate.
Robert Hodgins performed reliably well too. Drunk in the Docks (1996-97), an autobiographical painting evoking Hodgins’s arrival in Cape Town from London in 1938, sold for R1.25m, the evening sale’s second highest lot by value.
Hodgins, whose arresting Stones in a Pink Field (2000) sold for R852,600, is part of an influential generation of artistteachers associated with the art school at the University of the Witwatersrand. Strauss & Co’s sale also included important pieces by former Wits faculty members such as Nel, Walter Oltmann and Siopis. Nel posted the third biggest individual result when Schism I (1993), a pastel and pigment drawing of foliage and objects, sold for R1.02m, well above its high estimate.
Reflecting its status as a classic example of Siopis’s breakthrough “cake” series, Cake (1982) sold for R852,600, achieving the fifth biggest sale price. Oltmann’s brass wire sculpture, Locust (2004), sold for R193,256, also well above its high estimate.
While painting and drawing dominated the list for top individual works sold, photography – a medium associated with post-apartheid artistic expression – also performed well.
Befitting his reputation, David Goldblatt secured two extraordinary results.
On the very evening he was being honoured with a dinner to mark the opening of his survey exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Goldblatt’s landscape scene, The Road to Nqondwana, Transkei (2007), sold for R329,672.
An earlier lot titled Saturday Morning at the Hypermarket: Semi-final of the Miss Lovely Legs Competition, Boksburg (1980) sold for R295,568, above its high estimate.
Twin brothers Hasan and Husain Essop’s elegant architectural photograph from 2011 of the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem sold for R62,524, also above the high estimate.
The sale included a selection of art from the African continent. Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru is best known for his hand-made sculptural eyepieces, an example of which was on offer with a photographic portrait. The pairing of Kabiru’s sculpture and photo fetched R204,624, above the high estimate.
STUDENT BURSARY
Introduced with a view to expanding Strauss & Co’s offering in a maturing art market, the sale established new auction records and benchmark prices for artists Aikman, Patrick Bongoy, Jan-Henri Booyens, Wim Botha, Joni Brenner, Brice, Hasan & Husain Essop, Claire Gavronsky, Gratrix, Goldblatt, Kabiru, Ncaphayi, Nel, Oltman, Guy Tillim and Diane Victor.
Twenty percent of the net proceeds from the inaugural sale have been earmarked for the Strauss & Co Bursary Fund, an initiative aimed at providing bursaries for post-graduate art and art history study at major South African universities.