Irma Stern invigorates sale
TREASURE: FOUR OF ARTIST’S WORK A HIGHLIGHT OF FOUR-DAY ART AUCTION
Strauss & Co’s annual auction, an important event on the Cape Town art calendar, will be held over four consecutive days (3-6 April 2022) at Brickfield Canvas, a creative and tech campus in Woodstock.
Auction highlights include four outstanding paintings by the highly collectable artist Irma Stern, a trove of excellent works by leading artists Maggie Laubser, Sydney Khumalo, George Pemba, Alexis Preller and Thania Peterson, as well as three single-owner collections of English and Asian decorative arts.
The auction programme for this hybrid in-person and livestreamed auction will start on Sunday, 3 April, with a producer-focussed session hosted by Strauss & Co’s wine department.
On Monday, the decorative arts department will host a morning session devoted to Asian art, and an afternoon session featuring properties from two important collections of chiefly historical English furniture.
The live auction programme culminates with three sessions of modern, post-war and contemporary art, scheduled to go under the hammer on Tuesday and
Wednesday, 5 and 6 April.
A comprehensive e-catalogue is available online. Strauss & Co will also offer a printed catalogue featuring lots appearing in the two premier evening sessions of art. This catalogue, which features cover lots by painters Maggie Laubser and George Pemba, will be available to bidders at the start of the preview week, which runs from this Monday to Sunday, 3 April.
“The presentation and format for this auction is based on innovations and enhancements introduced over the past two years,” says Bina Genovese, Strauss & Co’s joint managing director. “There is a strong curatorial approach to the presentation of lots throughout the sessions. Our aim is to provide collectors with context and insight into the fabulous lots.”
The wine department will inaugurate Strauss & Co’s live auction with a session profiling a trio of prestigious producers from Hemel-en-Aarde (“Heaven and Earth”). This illustrious wine valley is home to Crystallum Wines, Newton Johnson Vineyards and Storm Wines. Strauss & Co will focus on their chardonnay and pinot noir wines.
A collection of 122 lots from China, Japan and South-East Asia, assembled by a Cape Town collector of oriental art, introduces the extensive decorative arts catalogue. Highlights from this private collection include a rare Chinese Yixing peach-form washer from the Kangxi period (estimate R10 000-15 000) and Japanese Imperial Satsuma koro from the Meiji period (R5 000-7 000).
Following the successful sale of Chinese pieces from a connoisseur in April 2021, Strauss & Co presents a further selection of furniture, ceramics and paintings from this discerning collection. Three of the English furniture pieces bear the plaque of reputable London dealer Norman Adams Ltd, notably a William and Mary walnut bureau dated circa 1690 (R70 000-R90 000).
Strauss & Co also offers a selection of English furniture, writing accessories and decorative items from the estate of respected Cape Town antique dealer David Porter (1938–2012).
Four of the five most valuable artworks in the catalogue for the April auction are by Irma Stern, whose colour-drenched work continues to attract new audiences. The Stern offering includes three flower studies made between 1940 and 1964.
The earliest, Still Life with Camellias (R3–R4 million), is a tantalising confection of reds.
Other notable still lifes include works by Walter Battiss, Freida Lock, Frans Oerder, Jody Paulsen, JH Pierneef, Cecil Skotnes and Jean Welz.
Stern’s portraits are her most prized works. Dakar Woman (R7– R9 million), made in 1938, depicts a Senegalese woman in evocative detail. This masterful work will be presented in a focussed session titled “Figuration: Past and Present”.
The session gathers a diverse selection of pieces by, among others, Deborah Bell, Norman Catherine, Robert Hodgins, Dorothy Kay, Sydney Kumalo, Nelson Makamo, Alexis Preller and Gerard Sekoto.
Highlights include Maggie Laubser’s Portrait of a Woman wearing a Sari against a Floral Background (estimate R800 000 –R1.2 million), which illustrates the cover of the print catalogue. This important session builds on themes from our non-selling exhibition Giving Direction: Figuration, Past and Present, held in February.
“Strauss & Co is handling ten works by Alexis Preller from the Coba Diederiks Collection, as well as a consignment of rare jewelry pieces inspired by Preller’s forms and owned by Diederiks,” says Genovese. “The paintings include a study of a lobster gifted by the artist to Diederiks when she married in 1968. The important torso study Gold Kouros was made in 1969 following a trip to Greece.” –